1. Barely even a concept

Twilight Sparkle breathed deeply as she approached the throne room of Canterlot. After all, it wasn't every day that you got summoned to assist with a top secret mission that not even her closest friends can know about. Guess that's the price of being a princess.

Calming herself, she reached up and knocked on the door, barely getting two knocks in before the door sprang open in the guards' magical grip. Closely avoiding falling over in surprise, she raised her head and entered the throne room, approaching where Celestia and Luna were gathered around a table with a map laid out upon it.

Twilight cleared her throat. "You wanted to see me?"

Luna was the first to respond. "Twilight, did anyone see you come here?"

Not the greeting she was expecting, Twilight frowned before she answered. "Only some palace servants and maybe fifty royal guards. Do they count?"

Celestia laughed lightly. "You'll have to forgive Luna, she takes secrets very seriously." Gesturing for Twilight to approach the table, Celestia pointed at the map and asked "Do you know where this is?"

Twilight peered closely at the map. She didn't recognise much of what was on the map but from a few of the locations and from the shape of the country depicted she could deduce that it was Mareitania, and said as much.

"You are right Twilight. Now, what do you know about Mareitania?"

"I...uh...um, well other than its west of Equestria and is ruled by a Duchy, not much. And I only know that because I had to... smile and... wave for them."

Luna nodded, looking grim. "And that, Twilight, is about as much as anypony knows about Maretania. The entire country is mired in secrecy. This map is the most recent map we possess of the place, and it's almost three hundred years old. Even Celestia and myself know very little of what goes on in there."

"Perhaps, Twilight, you might tell us what you know of the hearthswarming story." At Twilight's confused look Celestia smiled warmly. "Indulge us Twilight, we're old and our minds don't always get where they need to go without wandering a little."

"Hmmph. Speak for thine-self sister."

Twilight looked at the floor before she spoke. "Well, there were three tribes of ponies. The unicorns, which raised the sun and moon. The pegasi, who managed the skies; and the earth ponies, who tended the land and grew pretty much all the food. In exchange for doing their respective duties, both the unicorns and pegasi demanded food off of the earth ponies, who resented both the unicorns and pegasi. The unicorns and pegasi also mistrusted each other, although why they do isn't exactly explained very well."

"Eventually all this resentment came to a head when a blizzard overtook the land. The pegasi couldn't stop it, and the earth ponies couldn't grow food while the unicorns pretty much blamed everypony else. To cut a long story short, the three tribes fell out even more and, individually, decided to find a new land. When they got to this new land they found the other tribes already there, which I find odd since it implies they all arrived at the same time which just seems unlikely. Anyway they all started to squabble like well-armed children and caused another blizzard which was eventually stopped by the friendship explosion of Clover the clever, Smart Cookie and Private Pansy. The three tribes then united and named the new land Equestria, living happily ever after, although I do wonder where the crystal ponies were in all this."

Celestia looked at her sister. "Uh, that was a...interesting...rendition of the hearthswarming story. As for the crystal ponies, they were where they are now; totally uninvolved in events until they found several thousand neighbours had moved in south of them and were asking to borrow an awful lot of cups of sugar."

Luna spoke up. "The point is that ponies lived happily ever after in Equestria. But what of the kingdom they had left?"

"I-I don't know. It’s never mentioned in the story again after they leave."

"Then we'll tell you, although it is far from a happy story." Luna took a calming breath before continuing. "Not all ponies had left the old kingdom during the exodus. The vast majority of unicorns and pegasi had departed, but many of the far more numerous earth ponies had remained behind. When the windigoes were defeated these earth ponies took control of the land and of the remaining unicorns. The pegasi were beyond their reach for the time being, but in the interest of survival the pegasi maintained favourable weather so the earth ponies could grow food. Naturally the resentment between pegasi and earth pony festered as before."

"The unicorns on the other hoof," said Celestia, taking over the story, "were little more than slaves. Without their bargaining chip of raising the sun and moon, since that was now done in Equestria, they had nothing to offer in exchange for food and were reduced to giving what they could, including their capital of Unicornia. One day the earth ponies ordered the unicorns to use their magic to tear down the pegasi city of Pegasopolis, and literally clip their wings, effectively grounding the pegasi, leaving them unable to sustain long periods of flight. As a result they became unable to leave the country by flying over the ocean or mountains, trapping them and making them dependant on the earth ponies food, in exchange for manipulating the weather."

Twilight was shocked. To a native of Equestria, such cruelty seemed impossible. "But it got better right? Things can't still be like that?"

Luna snorted. "Oh no Twilight, things got worse. Much worse. Eventually the descendants of those earth ponies left behind formed their own government; a Duchy, since they distrusted the titles of royalty after their treatment by Princess Platinum. They also disliked the idea of having an elected leader like Chancellor Puddinghead, since they accused him of abandoning them. After that our knowledge grows limited. What we do know is that the country is still run by a Duke and Duchess, and that their iron hoof is still as sturdy as ever. Pegasi have mandatory wing clippings and are still forced to maintain the weather for food. The unicorns have it better, but barely, treated like second class citizens, doing what they must to survive. To make them easier to control there are no magic schools so the most magic they can achieve is telekinesis."

Celestia looked sadly at Twilight. "Apart from that we know little else. The Duchy keeps its occupants uneducated and ignorant, even the earth ponies. Technological progress is little more than what it was here a hundred years ago and nopony enters or leaves the country, officially anyway. Some have escaped but the knowledge they possess is lacking at best. I've tried for centuries to get the government there to change but I have had little success. The most I could do was start trading with them, but even then they would only allow us to the border."

"Um, begging your pardon, but what does this have to do with Mareitania?"

"Twilight, Mareitania is the old kingdom." Luna said sternly.

"You mean I had to smile and wave at the monsters that willingly oppress an entire country!?"

"I was hoping that meeting would lead to Equestria having greater access to the country. But it seems that the Duchy has gone back on its word. And that is where you come in."

"Me? What can I do?"

"What I- we, are about to ask of you is no small thing, and I regret that it has come to this. Twilight, I want you to go to Maretania and tear its government down."

"What!? How?"

"That is for you to decide."

"You mean you're just going to dump me in Mareitania with no plan? Sure! Great! I would pick up some souvenirs but apparently the place doesn't have much of a tourist trade!"

"Twilight, while I too am loathe to send you on this mission, I agree with Celestia that we are out of options. If the ponies of Mareitania are ever to taste freedom then you must succeed."

"Yeesh, no pressure. Are my friends coming with me?"

"I'm afraid not. You may be gone for some time and your friends all have responsibilities. Besides, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would receive far less than preferable treatment."

"And Spike?"

Celestia nuzzled Twilight. "I'm afraid having Spike with you would be worse than your friends. There are no dragons in Mareitania and Spike would be too obvious."

"More obvious than the purple alicorn princess?"

"Actually that won't be a problem. We shall teach you a simple glamour that will conceal your wings. You won't look like anything more than a slightly taller than average unicorn. Considering one of the ponies joining you that will hardly be noticed. And the vast majority of ponies in Mareitania don't know Princess Twilight even exists."

"Ponies joining me? What other ponies?"

Celestia held up a hoof. "You'll find out soon enough. Suffice to say, two of them are natives of Mareitania and should be adequate guides for you."

Twilight looked at the floor, deep in thought. The idea of doing this without her friends horrified her and left her feeling slightly sick, but she trusted Celestia and Luna to know what is best. "Ok then. How do I begin?"

"By returning to Ponyville and saying goodbye to your friends. Tell them you're going on a diplomatic mission to Mareitania if you must, but tell them nothing more other than you will be gone for some time. A pegasus chariot will arrive at dawn in two days’ time to take you to Vanhoover. In the mean time I suggest you spend as much time as possible reminding yourself what freedom is about."

Twilight nodded and was about to leave when she paused mid step. "Hang on. Didn't the Duke have a unicorn with him? Wasn't she his wife? Because that's a bit weird for a country where unicorns are treated as second class citizens.

Celestia shook her head. "That was the Duke and Duchess' son, regarded as a bit of a hedonist. The Duke and Duchess were the two elderly ponies you saw."

"Oh. So who was the unicorn?"

Luna cleared her throat and looked a little awkward as she answered. "We don't actually know her name, but she's... she's a... uh... concubine. Goes everywhere with him. No idea why he lets her be privy to such important meetings." Luna shrugged. "You'll probably find many examples of such things in Mareitania."

"Right. Can't wait."

Author's Notes:

And here we go...

2. Breaking in is easy

Those two days had gone by awfully quick and Twilight found herself waiting anxiously at the train station in Vanhoover, wishing at least one of her friends had been there to support her. After sitting there for a short eternity, enjoying the most persistent drizzle ever, her silent reverie was broken by the arrival of a pegasus chariot, bearing both princesses, another unicorn and a miserable looking earth pony.

"Apologies about our lateness Twilight," Celestia said as she nuzzled her. "I'm afraid Miss Octavia was rather reluctant to leave without her instrument." She indicated the earth pony, who looked up enough to catch Twilight's eye and give a weak smile.

"These ponies are the ones joining me on my mission?"

"Oh yes," Celestia pointed a wing at the tall white and pink maned unicorn. "This you may recognise as the model Fleur De Lis. She is a native of Mareitania, from the region of Prance."

Twilight quizzically looked at Fleur who smiled and said "Charmed."

"And this," Celestia continued, "is Miss Octavia Melody, although her friends call her Tavi."

"Begging your pardon Princess- Princesses, but only one of my friends calls me that. I prefer to be called Octavia."

Twilight smiled at Octavia before whispering out the side of her mouth "Could I have a word with you and Luna. In private." Disappearing around the corner of the station, Twilight checked they were out of hearing range of Fleur and Octavia before exploding. "A model and a musician!? What am I meant to do with them? Use them as a distraction while I tear the Duchy down from behind?"

Celestia looked sideways at her sister before answering Twilight’s concerns. "Twilight, Fleur is a native of Mareitania and has a lot of knowledge that may prove to be invaluable. She's the reason we know as much as we do. Octavia on the other hoof is an earth pony, which will prove helpful in a country dominated by them. Don't doubt them Twilight, they may well surprise you."

"Besides," Luna interrupted, "you have one more companion who may prove useful. She is a skilled magic user and hails from Neigh Orleans, herself having some knowledge of the country. I just wish she weren't so late."

"Another unicorn in a country where unicorns are second class citizens? You sure about that?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Do you not have faith in us to choose adequate companions for you?"

"That line might have worked if I weren't a princess myself. One of these 'companions' you have picked can't even keep time! How am I supp-"

"I'm here! I'm here! Trixie is here!"

"Oh no..." Twilight stood frozen as the pale blue unicorn ran up to them. She waited as Trixie fought to regain her breath and waited further as Trixie nearly fainted from light-headedness'.

"I apologize for being so late. I was in my hotel room trying to decide what was important to pack and I couldn't, so I ended up taking longer than I thought and when I found I had missed my carriage to the station I had to hoof it the entire way and Vanhoover is a lot bigger than I gave it credit for."

Celestia gave a kind look to Trixie, "It's quite alright Trixie. The others are waiting on the platform if you wouldn't mind waiting with them while we talk with Twilight."

"Oh, of course princesses." Trixie bowed and departed for the platform, but not before giving a big smile to Twilight, who just about managed to not grimace in return.

"Trixie. Why Trixie?" Twilight asked, giving Luna a flat look.

"We hath heard she is most skilled in many schools of magic. She will be a boon to your efforts."

"She's a braggart and a phoney. You have more magical talent in your plo- left hoof than she has in her entire body!"

"Oh."

"And she tried to take over Ponyville using a dark magic amulet!"

"Which one?"

"What?"

"Which amulet Twilight?"

"The... uh, the Alicorn amulet."

"Then I'm sure she learned her lesson."

"Well...yes, yes she did! But that's not the point." Twilight sighed, "A princess, a model, a musician and an egotist! Sounds like the start of a bad joke..."

Celestia wrapped a wing around Twilight. "Or the start of a great story."

"Hmmph, maybe. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with them? I should have my friends with me."

"Tell me Twilight, what would you do with an apple farmer, a freelance vetinarian, a party planner, a seamstress, a weather pony and a baby dragon, that you wouldn't do with these three in this situation?"

Twilight looked down, avoiding Celestia's gaze. "That's not fair."

"Just as I think you're not being fair to these ponies. Give them a chance Twilight."

"Fine."

Celestia gave Twilight another hug with her wing before heading back to the platform, her sister and a grouchy Twilight in tow. "I'd like to thank you all for agreeing to carry out this task. While I realise that you all have different reasons for doing it, some of them perhaps less altruistic than others-" Twilight looked at Trixie in shock. Trixie however, looked like she could explode from pride "-I just want you to know I am very proud of you for trying. Princess Twilight is leading this mission, so if you have any questions you should address them to her. Good luck my little ponies."

Twilight was about to head over to her new companions, when a dark wing stopped her. "A moment Twilight, if you would." Leading Twilight to one side, Luna turned to face Twilight before summoning a small, dark stone from the ether. Upon the stone was a glowing green rune in the shape of what sort of looked like a stylised tongue coming out of a mouth. "This is a speaker stone. It will allow you communicate with a partner stone over great distances. To make it work all you must do is apply a magical spark. If you need advice, help or even a rescue just give us a shout; me or my sister will have its partner on one of us at all times. Do not hesitate to use it." Slipping the stone into Twilight's saddle bag she led Twilight back to where the others were waiting.

Sitting a small distance from the others, Twilight looked to Celestia and asked "So, how are we to get to Mareitania?"

"By train of course."

"But I thought there was no train line there?"

"There is, but since it’s not a passenger line nopony really knows about it. I had it constructed some time ago to facilitate trade."

"If it’s not a passenger train, how are we to get in?"

Celestia pointed to a large box lying on its side, with the lid off. "In there. Since nopony is allowed into or out of the country, you must smuggle yourself in as cargo."

"Oh this plan gets better all the time."

"Once inside the country, you'll be taken off the train and transferred to carts before being taken to the city of Stalliongrad. Once there it’s up to you to break yourself out and begin your task."

Twilight got up and was about to head into the crate when Celestia stopped her. "You may want to drink this first." Celestia was holding up a bottle containing a milky blue liquid.

Twilight took it in her magic and gingerly sniffed it. "What is it?"

"Well the journey to Mareitania is quite long, and your crate doesn't exactly have plumbing. The potion suppresses your...uh, biological needs for roughly twenty four hours. Hopefully you'll be well within Mareitania by then."

"Right." Twilight downed her potion, as did the others, hugged the princesses farewell and got herself locked in a crate. All in the name of freedom.

"I'm probably being silly, but Trixie would like to know, did they put air holes in this box?"

"Um."

The four ponies now sat in a circle in the crate as it carried out its journey to Maretania. The only sound was the click-clack of the rails since none of the ponies seemed willing to talk to the others. To Twilight's left was Fleur, who seemed to have an unwarranted interest in looking at the floor. Across from her was Octavia who looked miserable and kept making small motions with her hooves that looked like she was mimicking playing a tiny cello. Trixie on the other hoof looked far too excited and kept smiling at the others. She also kept looking at Twilights' wings every ten seconds as if checking they were still there.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight grabbed her biggest imaginary hammer and prepared to break some ice.

"So, I guess we should make some introductions since we're going to be working together for some time. Why don't we start with who we are, why we're doing this and what skills we can bring to the mission."

She gestured at Fleur who sighed quietly before speaking; "Well I am Fleur de Lis, although you can call me Fleur since my full name is a bit of a mouthful. I agreed to come on this mission since Maretania is my home country, and when I left I promised myself I would come back some day, and the chance to come back and help liberate Maretania was too great a chance to pass up. That's also why Celestia asked me to come. I probably know more about Maretania than most since I was already fairly old when I left, and she felt my knowledge would be valuable." She shrugged lightly. "As for practical skills I'm not sure what to say, I'm no great magic user or anything like that." She shrugged, "If looking pretty can be made into a practical skill though..." She shrugged again.

Trixie gave Fleur a critical look through most of that speech before triumphantly exclaiming "Aha! You can't be the real Fleur de Lis! She has a foreign...ish accent!"

The abnormally tall, beautiful and unique looking unicorn giggled into her hoof. "The accent’s just for show. I've lived in Equestria for almost fourteen years now and spoke the language perfectly well before I even got there." She tossed her mane and gave Trixie a smoldering look. "As a model it never hurts to be a little exotic," she said before winking and going back to normal. "I just didn't see the point of using it with you girls since you're bound to find out how phoney it is when you hear a proper Mareitanian accent."

Twilight clapped her hooves; "Excellent! Your turn." She said looking at the morose earth pony opposite her, while also ignoring Trixie's huff of disappointment.

Octavia traced a few circles with her hoof before speaking. "My name is Octavia Melody, which is even more of a mouthful than Fleurs' name. I prefer to be called Octavia though, and not Tavi or Octi or any other variant you can come up with. My talent lies in music and I can play most any stringed instrument, though my true love is the cello," Octavia sighed deeply, "Which I was forced to leave behind."
She lapsed into silence until Twilight encouraged her to go on. "The reason I'm coming is that Celestia asked me to, saying she needed an earth pony familiar with the ways of upper class society without being encumbered by them, which my friend Vinyl nicely translated as 'she needs a posh earth pony that isn't a stuck up noble.'"

"You told someone about the mission! It’s supposed to be a secret!"

"I know and I'm sorry, but trying to keep a secret from Vinyl is next to impossible. I told her I was going away for a few months to work and told her I would be out of touch the entire time. She just kept smirking at me and telling me I was lying to the point I either had to tell her, or kill her and hide the body! But she won't tell anypony, she's not like that." Twilight nodded gently, after her experiences with Pinkie she could appreciate that.

"Trixie can't believe you're coming just because Celestia asked you to."

"Well, there was some not insignificant remuneration involved. Musicians don't usually have a guaranteed income and the amount she offered was more than I could earn in quite some time playing the cello."

Twilight looked sideways at Trixie before looking back at Octavia. "So you're the one doing this for money?" Octavia nodded. "Oh."

"You thought Celestia meant Trixie didn't you?" Trixie asked with a pout.

"Sorry."

"Oh don't be," said Fleur to Twilights' surprise. "We're all getting paid something, lost earnings and all that. Trixie's just trying to wind you up."

Twilight gave Trixie a cool look before going back to Octavia and asking what helpful skills she possessed.

"Apart from playing music I'm also a bit of an actor, albeit an amateur one, and I am quite good at improvisation though which may have its uses. I'll try my best to not disappoint you princess."

Where did that come from? Twilight thought to herself. "You don't have to call me princess, or your majesty or anything like that. Just call me Twilight. In fact calling me anything but Twilight may jeopardise the mission, so definitely just call me Twilight." This raised a few smiles.

"Trixie's turn! Trixie's turn!" Trixie waited until she was sure she had their undivided attention before throwing her legs into the air, "I am the GREAT and POWERFUL Trix-ack!" Trixie yelped as a purple glow smacked the end of her horn. "What was that for?" she asked as rubbed her now aching horn.

"You were about to set off fireworks weren't you?"

Trixie suddenly looked coy. "Maaaybe..."

"In the small enclosed box?"

"It is quite small isn't it." agreed Trixie who suddenly felt it was too small by far.

"We're also trying to smuggle ourselves into a country where unicorn magic is practically non-existent. A country where magical firework displays are probably capable of getting a pony into an awful lot of trouble."

"You're talking awfully slow Twilight."

Twilight sighed. "Just don't do it again, ok?"

"Oh very well." She cleared her throat, "My name is Trixie Lulamoon, and I am a magician extraordinaire!" Ignoring Twilight's eyeroll Trixie continued, "The reason I am doing this is a tale of woe that goes back many years, to when I was but a young filly escaping Maretania." She looked at the others sceptical expressions. "Ok, dramatics aside, it is actually a tale of woe. My parents wanted to escape with my aunt, uncle and their children, but the guards caught wind of the escape attempt and caught most of us save me, my aunt and her two children. Those of us that did escape made it to Equestria, where I was raised by my aunt in Manehatten. I don't really remember much of the escape as I was very young, but I do remember my parents. My aunty said that if they were alive they'd probably be back in Neigh Orleans and I was hoping that during our mission we might be able to locate them. If it interferes with the mission, then it can wait...but, y'know."

Twilight placed a reassuring hoof on Trixie's shoulder. "I can't promise we'll find them, but I can promise we'll try," she said to the nodded agreement of the other two. Trixie gave them a shaky smile in return.

Things fell silent for a bit until Fleur smirked and gave Trixie a sly look. "Soooo...what does the great and powerful Trixie bring to the table?"

"What doesn't she bring! The Great and Powerful Trixie is a master magician, capable of defeating even the most deadly creatures with her amazing skills! I could tell you about the time I defeated an ursa major-" Trixie looked at Twilight who was clearing her throat very noisily. "You ok Twilight? I'll have to admit that first aid is an area my skill is perhaps...lacking...a bit."

Twilight stopped clearing her throat and instead asked what practical skills Trixie had. She then facehoofed as soon as Trixie looked away.

"Well the thing that The Great and Powerful Trixie is best at is illusions." To make her point she lit her horn and made a magical copy of herself that sat next to her and mimicked everything she did. "They can't talk and they aren't corporeal, which is something I've been working on but can't quite get right. Yet. But they are rather convincing to look at." Even Twilight had to admit to being impressed.

"So I guess that concludes introductions so I think we sh-"

Trixie waved a hoof in Twilight's face. "Ah ah! What about you princess? You don't get out of this."

"Oh, right. You all seemed to know who I am so I didn't really think it was necessary."

"It’s probably not, but you're still going to do it. Trixie demands it."

"Ugh, fine. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am a princess of Equestria, not that it’s some secret or something. Why I'm doing this is...well, because Celestia asked me to if I'm honest. But this mission is important and I'm glad to help. As for practical skills...well...I am pretty good at magic and I can fly which I'm sure is going to come in handy at some point." Twilight laughed nervously, she always was bad at saying how good she is.

Trixie just looked disappointed. "How about the fact you're a freaking alicorn! Stop being so modest Twilight."

"Speaking of," said Fleur, who seemed rather happy to be interrupting Trixie, "surely ponies are going to notice the wings in Mareitania?"

Twilight's horn glowed briefly as she cast a spell that made her wings fade out of sight, making her look like a regular unicorn. "Luna taught me a spell that makes my wings invisible. They’re still there Trixie," she said since Trixie had started to prod her in the side; "I just have to keep them folded all the time and hope no one catches on."

"So no inappropriate wing-boners?"

"Trixie!"

"What? It’s not like it’s a secret or something, everypony knows they happen."

Twilight growled and rubbed the bridge of her nose, as Fleur and Octavia failed to hide their amusement. "Right, ignoring that I guess we should talk about the mission, not that there should be much to discuss since we've all been briefed on this."

Trixie held up a hoof. "And what if certain ponies, naming no names, failed to turn up to the briefing in time?"

Twilight grit her teeth as she spoke. "Then I would hope that certain pony read the dossier they were given."

"Right, right. And if that certain pony got as far as reading the exciting sounding title of Operation: FreeMare, but got no further?"

Twilight looked to the other two who seemed to have a sudden yet engrossing interest in their hooves. Taking a calming breath she looked back to Trixie. "You're telling me you don't know what we're doing here?"

"With a name like FreeMare I assumed it was some kind of rescue mission."

Twilight groaned and buried her head in her legs, leaving one of the other two to sort this out. After a quick game of rock paper scissors, which they drew, Octavia swallowed and just got it over with. "Miss Lulamoon, operation freemare is a mission to tear down the government of Mareitania, thus freeing it."

"Oh." Trixie frowned in concentration for a bit. "Oh! Operation freemare! Free-mare, as in Mareitania. Now I get it. Good name."

Twilight peeked from between her forelegs. "That's it? That's your reaction? Wow. You're a lot calmer than I was when the princesses told me."

"Pfft, I tear down governments on a weekly basis. This should be nothing." Her eye twitched, but thankfully the others were too busy looking at her rictus grin to notice.

Taking another breath, Twilight explained the mission. It didn't take long.

"That's it?" Trixie exclaimed, "There's no master plan? No great scheme with possible shenanigans? Kinda underwhelming there."

"Yep. First step is the journey there which, by my count, is going to be at least another eight hours. And that's just the train."

"In that case, Trixie brought playing cards if it helps pass the time."

Twilight gave Trixie a stare so level you could have built things on it. "You were late because you couldn't decide what was important enough to pack. Yet you brought playing cards."

"What? I'm a magician! What'd you expect from me? So, everyone know go fish? I'll deal."

"Blackjack's far better..." Twilight grumbled to herself.

"Are we there yet?"

"For the hundredth time Trixie, NO!"

Twilight wished she had packed some headache pills.

The crate lurched as the train came to a shuddering halt.

"Does that mean we can get out of this fresh air forsaken crate now?"

"No, now we get transferred to carts and taken to Stalliongrad."

"Aww-eep!" Trixie yelped as the crate was lifted up and swung around, sending its occupants flying; before being put down with a heavy thud. "Clearly these ponies don't know the meaning of fragile." Trixie said from somewhere from beneath Fleur.

"Probably can't read." Fleur muttered as she tried to disentangle herself from the others.

"How much longer now?" Trixie asked once she shoved a stunned Octavia off her rear.

"About seven hours now to Stalliongrad according to what Celestia said."

"Oh for ponies sake, worst travel method ever!"

Author's Notes:

I think I should apologise now for the talky nature of some of these early chapters.

3. Breaking out is (slightly) harder

Twilight peeked out of the hole she had poked in the side of the crate. So far all she had seen was an awful lot of snow, which was unhelpful, especially since none of them had brought any winter clothes. Trixie, having had the foresight to leave her hat and cape behind in Equestria, regretted that decision, loudly and repetitively.

She sighed and looked back into the crate where the others were discussing the merits of alfalfa and how it would be great if it didn't taste so awful. That wasn't a particularly helpful topic, not least because she quite liked alfalfa, so she went back to looking through her peephole just in time to see them pass a wall and move into a street.

"Guys! I think we're here!"

"Ugh, finally! Trixie has the worst case of hoof cramp ever!"

"Quite," agreed Fleur. "I didn't think being trapped in a box for this long would make me miss stretching so much."

Twilight ignored their grumblings as she watched the world outside. The cart they were in seemed to be pulling into some kind of stockyard judging by the crane and piles of other crates. She waved the others into silence and tensed herself as she watched the crane turn to them and pick them up.

Her joy at the prospect of getting out of the crate was short lived as the crane placed the crate on the ground with the opening shoved up against a wall. Sitting down with a thud she uttered a curse word and rested her head gently against the side of the crate.

"What? What is it?" Trixie asked as Octavia nudged Twilight aside so she could look outside.

"They put the door against a wall. We can't get out." Twilight mumbled, dumbstruck at the thought of being defeated by a crate so soon into their mission.

"Wha- Aargh!" Fleur shouted as she looked up too quickly and jammed her horn into the top of the crate.

"This isn't fair! This sooo isn't fair!" groaned Trixie as she lay on the floor clutching her head in her hooves. "Can a pony develop claustrophobia? I only ask because I think I've suddenly got it."

There was a crack as Fleur yanked her horn free. "Surely there must be a way out of this box? We can't just stay stuck in here!"

"Maybe there is..." Octavia mumbled, before she was sent flying by Fleur and Trixie who fought each other to look out of the hole. Shaking her head she moved to Twilight, who was sat like a puppet with its strings cut. "Twilight? You can teleport can't you?"

"Well...yes, I can, but I don't want to get caught using that kind of magic."

"You won't. There's some kind of hut just across the yard that you could teleport us behind. That way hopefully we won't be seen teleporting."

Twilight got up and telekinetically lifted aside Trixie, who had been doing her best to claw her way through the hole, and focused on the hut across the yard. "Ok, I think I can make that, but I don't think I should send us all at once." She looked at Fleur who was lay down whimpering, and Trixie who was trotting on the spot declaring that the box, despite being a worthy adversary, could not defeat her. "Octavia, you're the most level headed right now, I'll teleport you across so you can check it’s clear for the rest of us."

"And if it’s not, run and hope for the best?"

"Yeah, something... like... that." Twilight closed her eyes and tried to visualise behind the hut. Thankfully it isn't that precise a science and a moment later Octavia vanished in a purple flash. Looking out of the hole, she watched as Octavia looked around the sides of the hut before waving back. "Ok guys, hold still so I can teleport us." Neither of them were listening so Twilight teleported them and clamped a telekinetic sheath over their mouths in case they freaked at the sudden change of surroundings.

"That was rude," Trixie said once Twilight had released them. Ignoring Twilight's groan of annoyance she looked around the side of the hut at the crate. "Told you I'd beat you some day you accursed conveyance!" she said while shaking a hoof at the offending crate.

At the other end of the hut Octavia was showing Twilight their next obstacle, namely the yard full of crates being pony-handled by a large number of burly looking earth pony and a few unicorn stallions. "Not exactly a place where you typically find ponies like us."

"Yeah, we do kind of stand out." Twilight muttered as she kept looking. She looked at the wall topped with barbed wire, clearly climbing up some crates and jumping over wasn't an option.

"Well ladies, if we stand out we may as well stand out." Fleur said with a smirk. "I say we just walk out like we own this place. Or rather Octavia walks out likes she owns this place, and we follow her looking like she owns us too."

"Trixie deems that plan so dumb it might just work."

Twilight didn't like the sound of the plan but turned to Octavia and gave a small smile. "Your choice Octavia." Taking a deep breath Octavia looked around the side of the hut before looking back and nodding. Raising her head, she trotted out with the others close behind. To give a bad idea credit they made it quite far before a big earth pony stallion with a bristling moustache stopped them.

"And what do you think you are doing here hmm? This is no place for such pretty mares." He loomed over them, making even the unusually tall Fleur feel small, except for Trixie, who was looking around and not really paying attention.

Twilight was about to plead for forgiveness when Octavia stepped forward and did her best to look the stallion in the eye. "And who do you think you are to stop us? I ought to speak to your supervisor."

"I am the supervisor. That's why I want to know what you are doing in my yard."

Thinking quickly Octavia answered. "If you must know this unicorn behind me is one of my hoof maids and she was trying to escape." She gestured to the pony behind her, who just so happened to be Twilight. "My husband spoke most harshly to the poor girl and demanded she leave before he had her thrown into prison. Apparently the daft girl translated that into leaving the country."

The stallion just looked sceptical. "Uh-huh. And who are you exactly?"

"I am Lady Belladonna Hoofage, and these are my hoof maidens Fleur, Twilight and Trixie." Fleur and Twilight both bowed subserviently. Trixie however, continued to look around like she was sightseeing. "You'll have to excuse the blue one, she's a bit dim."

"No I'm not!" Trixie protested before being crushed by the scornful looks of the other three. "I mean, yes, yes I am."

The stallion looked even less convinced than before. "Look, your 'ladyship,' I don't care why you're here. If you want to get out, go. Just leave the white one behind as payment and you can have her back in say...two or three days." He walked behind Fleur and gave her a light smack on her flank. Fleur for her part just looked queasy.

"I beg your pardon!?" shouted Octavia. "I shall do no such thing! Come along ladies, we are leaving!"

The stallion trotted in front of them to block their way. "You came into my yard and now you expect to just leave without paying the toll? Just do as I ask and nopony need get hurt.”

Octavia was about to protest further when a white hoof on her shoulder interrupted her. "It's ok mistress, if this gentlestallion will follow me I'll give him a little something to remember us by." Smiling at the stallion, she turned and headed to the hut with the stallion close behind her.

The others were shocked enough to not really know what to do, and stood unmoving until Trixie said "She's not really going to do that is she? I mean- I mean- That's just nasty!"

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see,"muttered Twilight, who was feeling ill just thinking about it.

Fortunately they didn't have to wait long until a muffled shout came from the hut right before a flustered looking Fleur trotted out at a brisk pace and carried on past them, slowing down enough to gesture for them to follow. Twilight was about to ask what happened when a roar of rage and pain emanated from behind them.

"Run!" shouted Twilight. "What did you do?" she panted after she had caught up to Fleur.

"Two hooves in the sweet spot, works every time. Told you I'd give him something to remember us by." She smiled weakly before returning her focus to running.

They dodged and weaved their way through the stockyard, doing their best to avoid being accidentally crushed or captured. They finally made it to exit where another stallion was trying to shut the gate, trapping them. Grabbing a small crate in her magic, Trixie launched it at the stallions head, smashing the crate and knocking him out cold. They flew through the gates and turned right, heading deeper into the city. Noticing another cart full of crates by the side of the road, Twilight wrenched it over with her magic, spilling its contents across the road behind them and hopefully deterring their pursuers.

Turning another corner and heading up an alleyway, they stopped when they could no longer hear anyone following them. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Twilight looked at Trixie for a moment before yelling in her face, "You threw a crate at his head!? You could have killed him!"

"I needed to stop him! You know what they would have done to us if they had caught us!"

"You could have done something else! Like blocked the gate or something!"

"Trixie wasn't taking any chances."

Twilight was about to yell at her further when Octavia interposed herself between them. "Princess, please stop. Trixie just reacted to the situation, and I agree with her that stopping him was more important than the ethicality of how she stopped him."

"Ugh, fine. And don’t call me princess" She instead turned her attention to Fleur, trying to come up with the best way of asking what she wanted to ask. Thankfully Fleur came to her rescue.

"If you want to know if that sort of thing happens a lot, then the answer is yes. He wouldn't have laid a hoof on Octavia just in case what she said was true, but us unicorns, we wouldn't have been so lucky."

"But- But that's horrible!"

"Welcome to Mareitania, population: not very nice. Besides, stopping that sort of thing is kind of part of why we're here." Fleur shrugged. "You're going to see some unpleasant things while you're here Twilight, that was just a taster."

All of them lapsed into silence. "Well," Octavia asked, "what now?"

Twilight was about to ask Fleur, hoping she would have an idea, when Trixie shivered and said "Trixie thinks we should find some way of not freezing to death."

Twilight nodded, "We need to get some clothes and probably some food before anything else."

"But how?" Octavia asked; "We don't have any money."

Trixie looked accusingly at Twilight, who looked to Fleur. Standing up, Fleur started to head up the alley. "I think we can fix that," she said as she walked.

Fleur had led them to a large square packed with market stalls, with ponies hawking their wares and even more ponies buying them. "Welcome to the completely not world famous Stalliongrad market," she said with a flourish.

The others looked around keenly before Trixie, in her usual form, started to complain. "How is this any use to us? We don't have any money, remember."

"Oh I know, and I intend to rectify that. You girls look around for a bit, and I'll meet you in half an hour or so." As Fleur trotted off Twilight couldn't help but notice she was looking at ponies rather than the stalls.

"I wonder what she's doing?" Twilight said to no one in particular.

Trixie snorted, "I know you must have led a sheltered life as the Princess' precious prized pupil, living out of the royal coffers, but some of us have had survive by doing what is necessary."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked, but Trixie ignored her, instead choosing to go ahead and look around the market.

Octavia smiled sympathetically at Twilight, "What Trixie means to say is that some ponies have to get by through dishonest means, largely through lack of choice. Fleur's gone pickpocketing Twilight."

"Oh. Great. Well I suppose it’s better than what I was thinking she was doing."

"Don't worry Twilight, Fleur's a good pony. She'll only steal off those who can easily afford it. She won't make anypony suffer for our benefit."

"I hope not. We didn't come here to make things worse." They walked together for a short while, taking in the sights, before Octavia spoke up again.

"You ought to apologise to Trixie."

"What? Why?"

"We were in a desperate situation and Trixie only did what she thought was right and necessary, to help and protect us."

"I know, but did she have to whack that poor colt around the head to do so? There were other ways."

"Yes, but that was the most guaranteed way. I don't know about you, but me and my backside are quite grateful she did it. She certainly didn't deserve you yelling at her for trying to help her friends."

Twilight said nothing for a bit, thinking about what Octavia said about friends. They barely knew each other, yet she considered them friends? "I guess you're right. I doubt she'll listen to me now, but yes, I'll apologise when I can."

"Good. Now how about we have a look around, see if we can find what we need."

Twilight gave a mock bow. "Lead on my lady Belladonna."

Half an hour had passed and a jubilant looking Fleur eventually re-joined the others brandishing a small collection of coin purses. Still got it!" she said with a wink. "It’s not a huge amount but it should be enough to get us some winter cloaks and a bite to eat."

Twilight arched an eyebrow. "So I guess being pretty isn't just your only skill?"

Fleur shrugged. "I'm also good at keeping secrets."

Twilight took one of the purses and lifted a coin out, giving it a critical look. It was hexagonal, with the old earth pony coat of arms stamped on one side, and a profile of a rather corpulent pony stamped on the other. "What are these even called anyway?"

"Those are called Mareitanian marcs, usually just called marcs. Don't ask me why they're called that, they just are."

Trixie stamped a hoof to get their attention. "As interesting as the currency is, how about we use some to get some clothes. I found a stall whose owner rates making money above us being unicorns and he had the cutest purple cloak there."

They followed Trixie to the stall, which was run by a cheerful pale blue earth pony stallion. Trixie picked her cloak out straight away, paying for it and quickly wrapping it around herself. The others took their time to pick what they wanted, although Twilight took less time since she was far less picky, choosing a burgundy cloak trimmed with white. Leaving Fleur and Octavia to try on the various cloaks they had picked out, Twilight went and sat next to Trixie, who raised her nose in the air at Twilights' approach.

"Look, Trixie. I... want to apologise for before."

"Trixie is listening," Trixie said, looking at Twilight out of the corner of her eye.

"Right, well... I know you were just trying to help and I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

"Go on."

"And I'm thankful that we got away because of what you did. I guess I'm just shocked that you did it. I could never react like that to a pony, even if they wanted to hurt me like they had wanted to. But... you were right, so I guess what I should say is that I'm sorry."

"Apology rejected, kiss my hoof and say it like you mean it." Trixie said, holding a mud covered hoof in front of Twilight's face.

"I- Uh- I... d-don't- Uh-" Twilight spluttered, unable to think of what to say.

Trixie's serious facade soon cracked and she grinned at the flustered unicorn beside her. "Relax Twilight, I'm just teasing you. I mean, you could kiss it if you want," she said, flicking some mud off her hoof, "but you'd probably catch something. And I'm sorry too, about what I said about you being the Princess’ spoilt pupil. That was unfair."

"Actually, you weren't far off. I have spent most of my life being sheltered from the everyday realities of life. This place just makes that more obvious. I get the feeling I'm going to learn some hard lessons before this is over."

Saying nothing, Trixie nudged her hip against Twilight's before looking back to where Fleur and Octavia were negotiating their purchases, Fleur looking elegant in a black cloak with white trim, and Octavia looking surprisingly adorable in a dark grey cloak with a black fur trim, especially since she had the hood up as well. "What?" she asked defensively when she noticed Trixie and Twilight staring at her.

Twilight was about to say she looked nice when Trixie launched herself towards Octavia, grabbed her around the neck and smushed their faces together. "You look soooo cute! Trixie could just gobble you up!"

"I would prefer you didn't," Octavia said as she tried to push Trixie off her, asking what they should do next once she had.

"Now," Fleur answered, "we get something to eat, and while we're doing that I have a little pop quiz for you." As she led the way to the food stalls she started asking questions. "What do you notice about the stalls?"

After looking around the nearest stalls Octavia hazarded a guess. "They're all run by earth ponies?"

"Correct, although unicorns can run their own businesses, that is mostly in the poorer, southern parts of the country. Any unicorn trying to set up here would probably be hounded out of the city."

"But surely these stall owners could employ unicorns?" Octavia asked as she weaved her way around a mare and a stallion having a full on argument over the price of something.

"They could, and many do behind the scenes, but to have a unicorn working the stall would be looked down upon. Now what do you notice about the customers around here?"

There was a moment of silence before Trixie said "They're mostly earth ponies too."

"Yep. Stalliongrad is almost exclusively earth ponies. There are some unicorns here, but most live in the south where there's a far smaller chance of freezing to death through poor housing and inadequate clothing."

"Inadequate clothing? But we got clothing just fine."

"Those marcs I acquired all came from wealthy earth pony merchants, and all together probably made us the richest unicorns here. Most of the unicorns here are probably wearing hoof-me-downs and rags they found in the garbage."

"That's disgusting!"

Fleur looked back at Trixie. "Given the choice between wearing that sort of thing and freezing to death, you can call me Fleur, the prettiest rag wearing hobo in Stalliongrad."

They walked on in silence to the food stalls, where they attempted to buy lunch. Eventually they found a stall selling greasy hayburgers that would serve them, and the food was prepared in front of them so there was a good chance the cook hadn't spat in the burgers. Sitting away from the other customers they ate their lunch and Fleur asked her final question.

"What haven't you seen here?"

"What? What kind of question is that? Trixie isn't exactly in the habit of noticing things that aren't there."

"At least try to answer the question," Fleur chided.

"Oh very well, there's a distinct lack of good manners around here, that's for certain."

"And decent cooking," Octavia added as she prodded her burger.

"Nice weather? I mean its freezing! How can anypony actually want to live here?"

"Friendly faces?" Octavia said as she noticed some of the looks she was getting for willingly sitting with unicorns.

"Pegasi," said Twilight quietly.

"Bingo," said Fleur. "Not a single pegasus anywhere. Not that that's unusual, for Mareitania at least."

"Where are they?"

"As soon as we finish lunch I'll show you," Fleur said with a pained look in her eyes.

Fleur had led them on a meandering path through the city, to let the others have a decent look at what the city is like. So far Twilight had decided she didn't like it. Sure many of the buildings were bright and colourful, and if she was ignorant of what the city was like then this would be an amazing place to look around. Instead all she could see was the misery that underlined everything. For every wealthy earth pony she saw, she knew there were dozens of poor earth ponies and unicorns. For every decadent home she saw, she saw a dozen ramshackle hovels where ponies struggled to survive. The whole city was one big lie.

All of that was nothing compared to what she saw next. Fleur had led them to an abandoned looking building overlooking a walled compound, and was taking them to the roof.

"I hope you're ready for this," Fleur said forlornly. "Even the well-off ponies in this city look at this place with shame. Or disgust. Honestly, it's hard to tell."

Twilight could see why. The compound wasn't just walled, but had iron bars running from wall to wall, creating a giant cage. Within that cage were several dilapidated huts, around which walked dozens of miserable looking pegasi wearing collars and wing binders.

Twilight stood there feeling an unusual, yet justified, rage boiling up within her. She looked away, trying to see how the others were reacting. Octavia was sat looking horrified, with her hooves over her mouth and tears in her eyes. Trixie stood still, her mouth opening and closing as words escaped her. Fleur sat behind them, her back to the compound and her head hanging low, and Twilight really couldn't blame her.

She tried to ask why anypony would do this, but the words caught in her throat. Swallowing hard, she tried again. "W-why would... Why would anypony do this? The pegasi did nothing to deserve this!"

Fleur raised her head, but didn't look round to answer. "The princesses told you about them needing the pegasi to control the weather? And about the wing clippings so they can't fly for long and can't escape." Fleur's voice cracked.

"Yes."

"Well it’s worse than that. This is where they keep the pegasi when they're not working, in these squalid labour camps. They bind their wings so they can't cause trouble and those collars they're wearing are designed to temporarily paralyze them if they move a certain distance way from a certain point. I don't know how it works though."

Twilight was so angry she could explode. She had been angry before but never like this. She wanted nothing more than to march down there and tear that place apart. What Octavia said next only made it worse.

"There are children in there," she squeaked.

Twilight's rage overflowed. "We are going down there and stopping this. Right now!" she said between gritted teeth, to the agreement of Trixie and Octavia.

Fleur jumped up and spun to face them. "You can't!" she hissed. "If you try to break them out they'll just be recaptured because the collar will activate! And where will you take them? There's no safe haven for them in this country where they won't be found. And if they are found they'll be killed or worse."

"Worse?" Trixie scoffed, "What could be worse than death?"

Fleur pushed her aside and scanned the compound for a moment before pointing at a teal mare that was rocking back and forth while hugging herself. "That's what."

"Why is an earth pony in there?"

"That's not an earth pony Trixie."

"What do you mean that's not an ea-" Trixie's eyes widened in horror as she realised the truth of what she was seeing. "Oh. Oh no. Oh Celestia no."

"Yep. Any pegasus that defies them gets their wings cut off. And a pegasus that can't fly is useless to them, so they stop giving them rations. If that pony wants to live they have to work to get food off the guards through... other means. Most choose to just starve to death. That mare down there probably refused a guard's advances, and now look at her."

Octavia looked sadly at Fleur, "How do you know all this?"

Fleur stared at the compound a while longer before turning away and answering. "I spent months in Stalliongrad before I made my escape to Equestria, and this building is where I holed up. Most days I would come up here just hoping to see a pegasus fight back and escape, like the pegasus warriors of old I had heard of in the stories, until one day, when I saw them cu- Cu- Do that thing to a stallion. I've never heard anypony scream like that and after, I couldn't bring myself to come back here." A tear ran down her cheek as the others moved in to hug her. "A week later I made my escape. I want to tear this place down too, but we can't, not yet. Someday though, we will. And when we do, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to watch those pegasus fly free."

4. The worst place ever

Twilight sat on the floor, staring at the speaker stone Luna had given her. They had been here two days now and she still hadn't contacted Celestia to let her know they were safe. Part of her didn't want to, partly because they hadn't achieved much apart from dwelling in the abandoned building by the pegasus compound, and mostly because Celestia hadn't told her the whole story with the pegasus and Twilight was a little bit ticked off about that.

There was a snort across the room causing Twilight to look round at the source which happened to be Octavia. The day before she'd had a bucket of freezing water dumped over her for being 'a filthy horn lover.' As they were in the city center and surrounded by ponies at the time, Twilight had been unable to cast a spell to dry her. Octavia herself had insisted Twilight not dry her until they were safe in their den. Unfortunately, in the cold weather, she had quickly caught a chill and was now doing her best to sleep it off.

Twilight sighed and went back to staring at the stone in front of her. Deciding to just get it over with she charged her horn and pressed its tip against the green rune adorning the stone. The rune absorbed the energy and changed to a bright vibrant white. Not knowing what to do next she continued to lie down, and waited.

Thankfully she didn't have to wait long until Celestia's voice emanated from the stone. "Twilight? Twilight, can you hear me?" Her voice had a strange echo like quality as it came from the stone.

"Yes I can hear you."

"Thank goodness. Are you all ok? I was beginning to get worried something had happened."

"We're all fine Celestia. Well... mostly. Octavia had a bucket of water thrown over her yesterday for being a 'filthy horn lover', and she's come down with something. I'm hoping she'll get better soon, because we can't really move on until she's well enough to travel."

"Oh dear," said Celestia with something approaching motherly concern. "I do hope she gets better soon. I'm guessing that since you can't travel that you're still in Stalliongrad?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. This place is horrible. Now there's something I wa-"

"I agree Twilight, I think you ought to head east towards Prance. You may find the weather to be more pleasing at least."

"Yeah, that's what Fleur said. I really need to ask you somet-"

"And how is Fleur? And Trixie for that matter?"

"They're fine, and Fleur is rather full of surprises. They're out gathering stuff for our trip when Octavia's better. Can you plea-"

"I'm glad they're okay then. I'd hate to imagine what would happen if you were all taken ill. I'd pro-"

"Celestia!" Twilight yelled, her patience wearing thin. "Why didn't you tell me about the pegasi living in that labour camp as well as how they're treated?"

There was a static rattle from the stone, which Twilight guessed was a sigh. "Fleur's shown you the camps then?"

"Why? Wasn't she meant to?" Twilight asked angrily. "And what do you mean camps?"

"Yes she was meant to. In fact, I asked her to. And I mean camps as in there are many more than just one. There's a camp in most population areas in Mauritania. After all, the weather needs managing all over the country."

"Ok, fine. But why didn't you tell me?"

There was another static rattle as Celestia sighed again. "Twilight. I wanted to tell you but I was worried that it would poison your view of the ponies in Mareitania. Most ponies there are fundamentally good, doing their best to get by in the situation they were given. I was afraid that telling you about the camps before you found that out would make it seem like the ponies of Maretania are all complicit in the treatment of pegasi, which simply isn't true."

Twilight went silent as she digested that bit of information. She couldn't deny that she could see Celestia's point, but it still irked her. "Ok, I can understand that, but if I'm to do this I'm going to need all the facts. From here on no more secrets."

"Of course Twilight, thank you. I'll be honest with you now though when I say that my knowledge of the country is limited by what ponies from there tell me, so if there's something you think I should have told you, it's possible I didn't know myself."

"Yeah, that's fair. I guess I'll... uh, hold on a mo." Twilight twitched an ear at the sound of hooves rapidly approaching. They were quickly followed by a yelp as Fleur ran into the room and tripped over Octavia's rear legs. Barely managing to catch herself, she took a moment to breath before yelling "Trixie's been arrested!"

Twilight jumped up. "What!? When?"

"About twenty minutes ago I think." Fleur replied between breaths. "I ran straight here soon as it happened."

Twilight stood still as she tried to think. "Right, Celestia, I gotta go."

"Yes, you do. Get Trixie back safe Twilight."

"Will do. I'll contact you soon." Twilight watched as the rune faded back to green before turning back to where Fleur was helping Octavia to rouse herself. "Fleur? Do you know where they would take her?"

"Well, yeah. They'd take her to the guard headquarters which is in the city center."

Twilight nodded. "Take us there."

The journey to the guard’s headquarters was rather more sedate that Fleur's journey to the hideout. Mostly this was because of Octavia not being able to keep up if they went too fast. Twilight figured that Trixie probably wasn't going anywhere so the speed of the journey didn't matter too much.

Since they had the time Twilight had Fleur explain to them just what has happened. Apparently Fleur and Trixie had gone back to the market in the hopes of getting more supplies for their trip. Fleur had asked Trixie to create a distraction while she relieved some of the merchants of their financial burden, a task the showmare had taken to with relish.

Trixie had started by wowing the crowd with some card tricks and had moved onto juggling fruit with her hooves, which Twilight had to admit was impressive, most unicorns didn't have the hoof-eye coordination for that sort of thing; when an earth pony mare had launched a tomato at Trixie. Trixie caught the tomato in her magic and threw it back at the mare, splattering it across her face, which the crowd found amusing but the mare less so.

Fleur was working her way through the crowd when the mare had returned five minutes later, with a guard in tow, demanding that he arrest Trixie for casting malicious magic on her. Naturally the bias against unicorns prevailed and she was arrested without any questions being asked. After that Fleur ran back to the hideout as fast as she could.

Fleur's explanation had taken most of the journey to tell and a couple minutes later the three ponies were in a street adjacent to the guard’s headquarters. Twilight studied the building as she thought. The building was quite low, roofed with a dome and had stairs leading up to a columned entrance which overlooked a square courtyard. All in all the building looked grey, boring and horribly secure. One piece of decoration Twilight was glad to see was the bored looking guard sat outside next to a noticeboard.

"Octavia, do you think you're up to talking to that guard, see if you find out what's going to happening with Trixie?"

Octavia sniffed and nodded. "He might just tell me to go away though. I wouldn't want to talk to somepony with this much snot dripping out of their face."

"Oh... right, hold still a moment please." Twilight closed her eyes and focused her magic, while trying to ignore the sensations she was receiving through her magic as she cleaned out the gunk from Octavia's nose. Flicking the ball of grossness she had in her magic down the street, she opened her eyes to a very freaked out expression on Octavia's face.

"You could've bloody told me what you were going to do!"

"Sorry. Do you feel better though?"

Octavia breathed deeply, sending her into a fit of coughs. "As long as I don't do that again, yes, thank you." she said once she recovered.

"Good. Go talk to the guard and see what you can find out."

Octavia plodded over to the guard, feeling like her legs were made of lead. "Excuse me sir," she said whilst trying to disguise how ill she felt, she couldn't help but notice the guard look a little grossed out. I really must look as bad as I feel she thought to herself. "I believe you had a unicorn brought here earlier, pale blue with a silver mane and tail, and likes to refer to herself in the third pony a lot?"

The guard cocked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, we did. What's it to you though?"

Clearly this guard hadn't read the Canterlot guide to good manners. "Well, you see, she's in my employ and I was hoping that you could see fit to release her if I promise to keep her out of trouble."

"No can do ma'am. She's been charged with casting malicious magic on a member of the public. There's no way she'll be released now before her sentence is carried out."

"Sentence? What sentence?"

The guard tapped the noticeboard next to him, where a number of scraps of paper had been pinned, including one about Trixie. "Since she's been caught using magic on a member of the public," Octavia could almost hear him mean to say earth pony, "she is to be publicly dehorned tomorrow morning."

Octavia managed to keep her cool as he said that, mostly because she was expecting him to say she was to be executed or something similar. At least dehorning was something she could walk away from. "What?" she said, doing her best to sound outraged rather that horrified. "You can't do that! She'll be useless to me after that! And how was that so fast? She's barely been here an hour!"

The guard shrugged. "Fixed penalties for unicorns. And it’s not my problem she can't work ma'am. There are plenty of other unicorns out there, you'll have no problem finding another."

"Ugh, fine. Could you at least arrange to have her effects returned to me, since they are my property."

The guard stretched his neck towards her, scrutinizing her. "Just where exactly you from miss?"

"Neigh Orleans." she replied, saying one of the other two place names she knew of in Mareitania that wasn't Stalliongrad. "Why?"

The guard leaned back into previous look of nonchalance. "No reason, I just don't hear a lot of ponies talk fancy like you do. Guess you ain't used to the weather up here either, seeing how ill you look. Go on in and talk to be pony at the desk, he'll see to you getting your stuff back."

Octavia thanked the guard for his assistance and headed in, wishing for all the world that she could be curled up in her nice soft bed back in Canterlot.

Twilight had watched all of that exchange from the street entrance, doing her best to look like she wasn't doing anything wrong. The only thing that took her attention away from Octavia was the occasional banging coming from the raised platform that was located on the opposite side of the square the guard headquarters was facing.

She couldn't tell exactly what the ponies on the platform were doing. They appeared to be erecting some kind of smaller structure on the platform. The fact that they were erecting it in front of a gallows just made the hollow feeling in her stomach ten times worse. She was still staring at the work ponies when Fleur poked her in the side, indicating that Octavia was coming back, laden with Trixie's cloak and saddlebags. "So? Where is she?" Twilight asked as she relieved Octavia of her burden.

"Locked up tight. She's... uh... she's to be…publicly dehorned tomorrow morning. She'll be released after that."

"What!? They can't do that? That's horrible!"

Fleur sighed wearily and nodded gently. "This is the fixed penalty thing isn't it? Damn I hate this country."

Twilight really didn't want to ask, but did anyway. "H-how will they dehorn her."

Fleur pointed to the platform across the square. "Do you know what a guillotine is?"

Twilight nodded. "I've read about them."

Fleur gestured at the platform. "If that's what I think it is, it’s like a guillotine, but designed to remove a pony’s horn rather than their entire head. Then they press a hot iron to the stump to stop the bleeding. I wouldn't be surprised if it’s actually a poor attempt to stop the horn growing back though."

Twilight now felt really sick. "We have to save her." Fleur snorted and looked away.

"Not that I'm saying we shouldn't rescue her, but that place is a fortress." Octavia said timorously.

"And the cells are magic proof," added Fleur. "Not to mention we're supposed to be keeping a low profile. Daring rescue missions aren't exactly low profile."

"Doesn't matter," Twilight said with an air of determination. "If they do that wrong they could kill her, and frankly I have no desire to see anypony die."

"Then how? How Twilight?" Fleur threw her forelegs into the air in exasperation. Twilight just looked at the floor.

"We could always interfere tomorrow morning." Octavia suggested. "If Twilight can use her magic to stop the guillotine and we fight off the guards, perhaps we could get her out?"

Twilight looked at Fleur, "It could work. If we do it quick we could grab her and run before they even know what hit them."

Fleur rolled her eyes dismissively. "This place will be full of ponies watching the dehorning, as well full of guards. Think we can fight them all off? Especially since Octavia would struggle to fight off a kitten right now."

Twilight stomped angrily. "Fleur, you came here to free this country right? Why does it seem like your giving up already? If you don't want to help us save Trixie, fine, but don't expect us to not try." Twilight turned and started to head off when a hoof on her shoulder stopped her.

"You're right, I am letting this place defeat me. Seems you can take the mare out of Mareitania, but you can't take Mareitania out of the mare. I'll help, but we'll need to come up with a solid plan."

Trixie shivered, but not from the cold. She didn't know what was happening and it wasn't very nice sitting here in her cell, waiting. Some guard ponies had already come in and put her in shackles and had placed a black, metallic cap over most of her horn, which inhibited her magic, and had then left without saying a word.

Points for Equestria, Trixie thought, there you can take over an entire town using a dark magic amulet and barely get a slap on the fetlock. Here I get arrested for throwing a tomato.

Trixie groaned and pressed her back to one of the corners of the cell. Trixie wasn't the most patient of ponies at the best of times, and she had been in here for what seemed like days. Finding a small piece of stone, she lifted a shackled hoof as high as she could and spent a minute or two scratching a mark into the wall, the first line of a tally. If the cell had been better lit she would have seen the cell was full of similar marks, very few of them going above one.

A few minutes later hoofsteps approached her cell door, followed by some jangling and a clank as her cell was unlocked and opened, allowing a couple of guards to enter. "Miss Lulamoon, come with us.

Trixie swallowed and got up, shuffling out of the cell as fast as her manacled limbs would allow. The guards, one in front and one behind, led her up through the guardhouse in complete silence. Trixie wanted them to say something but from the way the rear guard shoved her every time she slowed down she didn't think it'd be a friendly conversation. The only sound she got out of them was a laugh, when they took her to the front door and she asked if they were going to let her go.

She was not prepared for what she saw when they opened the doors and shoved her out hard enough that she fell to her knees. The entire square was full of ponies, all of them jeering and booing, with a few throwing tomatoes for good measure.

The guards hauled her back onto her hooves and led her on a path through the crowd which continued to boo and jeer and throw various food items at her. There were also one or two comments about her parentage that would have made her raise an eyebrow if she weren't too busy being concerned with other things. Mostly the gallows.

"You're going to hang me!?" she screamed in a panic. The guard in front of her chuckled.

"Oh no, you don't have to worry. We ain't gonna kill ya." Trixie sighed in relief. "We're gonna dehorn ya."

"What!?" Trixie turned and tried to run, but the guard behind her quickly grabbed her and set her on her previous path. "You can't do that!"

"Can and am, missy." the guard replied as he led her up the stairs onto the platform, where a big grey stallion wearing a black hood stood waiting next to some kind of contraption. There was also another pony, a skinny, ratty looking brown stallion that definitely had some kind of rodent in his heritage if Trixie was any judge. He was holding a scroll that he unfurled and read.

"Miss Trixie Lulamoon, you stand accused of using magic in a malicious manner against a citizen of Mareitania. The puni-"

He was interrupted by a pale green earth pony mare, which Trixie recognised as the pony she threw that tomato at. "She cursed me she did! Hexed me! I can feel meself withering away because of that witch's dark magic!" She stopped her tirade when a guard stepped forward and pushed her back into the crowd.

"Trixie only threw a tomato at you!"

The pony reading the scroll cleared his throat before continuing. " Miss Primberry, this is the third unicorn you've accused of cursing you, and you're still here. Now, as I was saying, the punishment for which is to have your horn removed, so that you might learn from this to never cast magic on another. Is there anything you might say in your defence?"

"Trixie was framed! It wasn't me! It was my evil twin!"

The ratty stallion rolled his eyes and nodded at his hooded companion, who grabbed Trixie and pushed her onto the bench of the contraption, Trixie screaming and struggling all the while, and stuck her horn through a board with a hole in attached to the upright part, her nose sticking through a gap between the upright and the bench. He then proceeded to strap her down before whispering his own peculiar brand of encouragement to her.

"Make sure you don't try and cast a spell when it 'appens, the magic feedback from the inhibitor will blow yer brains out the back of yer 'ead."

Had Trixie been in a calmer and more thoughtful frame of mind she might have said such a thing was nonsense. As it was all she think about was her imminent dehorning and all her focus was spent on screaming and crying, which was mostly blocked by the cheering of the crowd.

Out of the corner of her eye Trixie could see the ratty stallion raise his hoof, causing the crowd to fall silent. She closed her eyes, a few tears escaping as she did, and clenched her teeth and waited...

And waited...

Twilight rested against the chimney of the building whose roof she currently occupied. As a scientist and a scholar she had no issue with waiting usually, but the idea of sitting up here, waiting for a bunch of ponies to turn up to cut the horn off an innocent unicorn like it was a spectator sport just rubbed her in all the wrong ways.

She looked down at the square, and mentally went over what she was supposed to do when the dehorning happened. Having done that she went back to waiting.

"Ugh. Rainbow Dash must be wearing off on me."

Eventually ponies began to trickle into the square, amongst which Fleur should be lurking somewhere. Twilight spent a few minutes trying to track her down and eventually spotted her to her right, standing with her hood up by the leg of the platform. Confident that Fleur would perform her part of the plan Twilight looked over to the opposite side of the square where a weary looking Octavia caught her eye and gave a small wave, before picking up all their saddlebags and heading off. Because of her poor health Octavia wasn't taking part. Instead she was to take their belongings and wait by the eastern gate out of Stalliongrad, since the plan was to rapidly depart the city once they had saved Trixie.

Finally Twilight noticed a bit of commotion by the doors of the guardhouse to her left and was guiltily relieved that the guards were finally leading Trixie out for her sentence, although she was less pleased at the way the guards pushed the shackled Trixie around, and at the way the crowd jeered and booed. Not everyone joined in though, although most were jeering, there were many other ponies, earth ponies and unicorns alike, that wore expressions varying from malicious glee, to sadness and resignation.

Putting that out of her mind Twilight looked back to the proceedings. There was a small brown stallion reading something that she couldn't hear, not that she needed to hear it to know what it was probably about. She watched as a pale green mare came forward as he spoke, gesturing wildly, and continued to watch as a guard shoved her back into the crowd.

Finally the moment she had been waiting for arrived as Trixie was strapped into the guillotine. They had planned to stop the dehorning at the last possible moment to cause the most confusion for the guards and onlookers, hopefully giving them a better chance at getting away. "Remember Twilight," she said to herself, "telekinesis only."

As the small stallion raised his hoof, the hooded stallion prepared to pull a rope attached to the guillotine. A guard standing nearby pulled a glowing iron out of a brazier next to them, and Twilight hastily wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose before reaching out with her magical senses, hoping she didn't mess this up.

The stallion's hoof fell and there was a gasp from the crowd as the blade fell an inch or two before stopping. Twilight was able to make out the hooded stallion saying something about the blade being stuck, and smirked as her telekinetic glow spread over the blade and onto the upright. When it had covered the whole of the upright, she wrenched downward, breaking it in half before tearing the blade free and ramming it into the wood of the platform until only the ring the rope was attached to was visible.

As that was happening, Fleur was looking over the edge of the platform, with her horn aglow, as she tried to detach the key ring from one of the guards, and also his knife. She then waited for part two of the plan.

Once the guillotine was destroyed to her extreme satisfaction, Twilight jumped off the roof of the building she was on, into the street next to it, catching herself in her magic before she landed. Grabbing the pile of cobblestones she had spent the previous evening acquiring, she charged out into the square and towards the platform, largely unnoticed by the guards and the spectators who were all milling around in confusion.

Clambering onto the platform she launched her first stone at the nearest guard who yelped and staggered sideways until he fell off the platform with a thump. Just because Trixie had no issues with launching projectiles at ponies heads doesn’t mean she could. She launched more stones at the guards, keeping them distracted from Fleur, who jumped up onto the platform at the back and set about cutting Trixie off the bench using the knife she had acquired.

"You girls have no idea how glad I am to see you!" Trixie exclaimed once she was free, relief dripping off every syllable. She lit her horn and picked the small stallion up and threw him off the platform at the pale green mare. "It was only a bloody tomato!"

The three ponies gathered into a circle as Twilight fended off the guards with the stones, apparently alicorn level telekinesis could throw stones really hard judging by the pained and nervous looks the guards wore. "Twilight! I think it’s time we got out of here!" Fleur shouted once she had finished un-shackling Trixie.

Twilight nodded and launched the remainder of the stones at the guards before picking them up bodily and throwing them off the platform. She then started ripping boards off the platform itself, moving them so they created an arrowhead shaped wall in front of them, about as tall as she was. "Get ready to run Trixie!" she shouted before jumping forward off the platform and running into the crowd, Fleur and Trixie close on her heels.

Using all her not inconsiderable strength, she plowed through the crowd, using the wall to push anypony aside. She veered towards the right, to where Octavia had been earlier, and as soon they were through the crowd and into the street she dumped the wall, and put all her efforts into running for the east gate and to freedom.

Funnily enough, to Twilight's adrenaline addled brain, the escape through the city was remarkably easy, in complete contrast to the effort it had taken to get to escaping.

"I guess we must be going faster than the news of our attack is!" she panted between breaths.

"We'd have been caught long ago if they had pegasi on the force!" Fleur shouted back. "I guess they really didn't think that racial inequality thing through very well!"

"As good as it is their bigotry has helped, Trixie doesn't think they're that far behind!" Trixie flinched as a whistle sounded uncomfortably close to them. "See!"

"Right! This way!" Twilight shouted, running left into an alleyway, before pulling over the stack of boxes and debris she had spent some time stacking the night before. "Octavia's in an old storeroom near the east gate! Once we're there we'll grab our stuff and leave Stalliongrad." Twilight explained to Trixie as they ran. "We can't stay on the run in the city!"

"But what about my stuff? I'll freeze out there!"

"We have your stuff. Octavia got it back."

"Oh. Okay!"

It wasn't much longer until they came to the storeroom that Twilight mentioned, a groggy looking Octavia peering out of the doorway. "Wow Octavia, you look terrible."

"Good to see you too Trixie. I'd hug you but I doubt you want what I got." She passed Trixie her cloak. "I avoided using it as a hanky. You're welcome."

"Come to Trixie my sweet, sexy little cloak." Trixie said as she wrapped it around herself, placing her saddlebags on top.

Octavia hauled herself to her hooves. "I guess it's time to go then?"

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, you don't have to come though. You could always stay here until you're better. The guards aren't after you."

"Going with you sounds a lot better than hanging around in this awful city any longer. That and I'd have no money or anything." Octavia shrugged, "I'll be fine." she said, a blob of snot taking its opportunity to escape her nose.

Twilight looked like she was going to argue, but Fleur stopped her, saying "We need to go now. If the guards guess where we're going they might shut the gate. Then we'd be in real trouble."

"Ok, fine. Try to keep up Octavia. In fact..." Twilight lifted Octavia's bags and placed them over her own. "Right, let’s go."

Twilight peeked around the edge of the doorway and waved the others out once she saw it was clear. It only took a minute to run to the gate, and Twilight was worried to see Octavia looking out of breath already, but they were too late. The guards had closed the gate and were in process of barring it.

"Wait... that's it? They just bar it? Ooh... such a big scary lock Fleur, we’ll never get through that." Trixie teased.

"Oh shut up. It's not like I've been here in the last decade to remember this stuff."

Twilight shushed them and waited as the guards finished barring the gate, and waited further to see if any of them left. Most did, splitting into teams to go in three different directions, unfortunately one of which just happened to be towards them. Thinking quickly she cast a want it, need it spell on the first thing she found, which so happened to be a rusty tin can, and floated it in front of the two guards who quickly became enraptured by it. Waving it back and forth a couple times she then threw it down the street behind her and away from the gate, the two hapless guards eagerly chasing after it.

"Hey, why don't you do that to a giant bomb and stick it in the middle of wherever the Duke and Duchess live? That'd be cool, right?"

"No Trixie, that would not be cool, especially if you got affected by the spell as well. Besides, it’s a safe version I developed. Only works on a few ponies at a time and wears off after a few hours. I learnt my lesson about the full strength version, trust me."

Twilight and the others snuck closer to the gate, until they were about a stone’s throw away. Twilight went to find another object to cast the want it, need it spell on, when a pink glow appeared next to her. A moment later four illusions of themselves ran past the guards, drawing them off.

"Hey you! Get back here!"

They waited a few seconds for the guards to run off. "About time Trixie got to do that."

"Bravo," Fleur congratulated her. "Now I really think we ought to get out of here."

"Agreed." said Twilight as she lifted the bar out of its place and pushed the gates open. "Stalliongrad is the worst."

"Yep," the others agreed as they ran out of the gate and into countryside, not stopping until Stalliongrad was completely out of sight.

Author's Notes:

And that is the end of my already sort of ready chapters, so expect bigger gaps from now on.

5. The more you know

Octavia thought about walking. Not something she often thought about, but right now, putting one hoof in front of the other seemed to require most of her ability. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Can you do one step at a time when you have four hooves? She tried to find out but she couldn't really feel her hooves enough to make sure. Are my hooves still there? She looked down. Yep. Two hooves in front, four in back...wait a moment...nope, she had counted the front ones again. Silly thing to do.

Comforted that she had the right number of hooves, she went back to stepping and stepping and stepping and stepping and suddenly her chin hurt. Oh, she'd fallen over, that's why. She tried to get back up but her horribly confused hooves couldn't decide how. The others seem to be getting really far away now. She tried to call to them but her throat was too packed with sandpaper, all she could manage was a feeble squeak.

That's funny... now everything's going dark. She was pretty sure that everything was white a moment ago, because of all the snow falling. Ah, snow. Snow sure was comfortable. She felt like she could sleep and sleep and sleep. It'd be easier if she didn't feel so hot and if weird voices didn't keep shouting her name at her.

Stupid voices, couldn't they see she needed to sleep? She'd feel better if she slept.

"Octavia! Octavia!" Twilight yelled as she cradled Octavia, Fleur and Trixie standing next to her wearing equally worried faces. "Octavia!"

"Twilight!," Fleur yelled. "We need to get her to shelter!"

"Where? Where is there any shelter near here?"

Fleur rifled through Twilight's saddlebags until she pulled out a hoof drawn map of Mareitania that Twilight had made from the big map back in Canterlot. Studying it for a minute she floated it in front of Twilight, using her magic to highlight a spot. "There, Hoof-Ridge. It’s a small village if I remember, but we should be able to find shelter there."

Trixie took the map and traced a hoof over it, looking around for landmarks with which to compare. "This map… is rubbish. If we are where I think we are, we might not get there for two or three hours. I really don't think we should keep her out in this."

"We have no other choice." Fleur stamped a hoof. "I don't know about you but my wilderness survival skills aren't that great." Trixie huffed but said nothing.

Twilight stood up and took off her cloak, placing it over Octavia, before hoisting the pony up onto her back, using her still invisible wings to balance her. She then started walking.

"Twilight?" Trixie asked, "Where are you going? And won't you freeze?"

Twilight shook her head. "I'm part pegasus and pegasi are good with cold. Besides she'll keep me warm. As for where I'm going, I figured we could stay here and argue, or move and argue. I'm going for Hoof-Ridge. It's my fault she's here so I'm not going to stop until I get her help."

"Your fault?" Fleur asked with a frown, "How is this your fault? She insisted on coming."

"And I should have insisted she stay in Stalliongrad until she was better!" Twilight shouted.

"That was a terrible idea though. I wouldn't want to be left behind and neither would you!" Fleur shouted back.

"I don't care! I should hav-!"

"Girls!" Trixie shouted over both of them. "Walk and argue, remember! We'll go for Hoof-Ridge, but the first cottage, hovel or whatever we see, we're begging for help, okay?" Neither said anything, but started to walk in silence.

Twilight concentrated on walking, not least because Octavia might fall off if she wasn't careful, and mostly because it stopped her from thinking about her overwhelming sense of guilt and that she was pretty sure she could feel Octavia slipping away with every passing minute.

They must have been walking for at least an hour by her reckoning, and the sky was starting to darken. At least the snow stopped, she thought bitterly to herself. Twilight was seriously beginning to regret coming on this mission, within three days of being on it Trixie had almost gotten herself dehorned and Octavia was dying before her eyes.

She had never felt so helpless. She couldn't fly because she wasn't confident enough to fly in this kind of weather, especially with a passenger, and the wind chill might make Octavia worse. Add to that the fact that getting caught flying by a local would be the worst thing that could happen right now and flying became a complete non option. She couldn't use magic that freely either and her attempts at warming Octavia up with spells had resulted in Octavia trying to wriggle off her, moaning about being too hot.

So Twilight walked, and hoped it might take her to where she needed to go. They had left the open plains that surrounded Stalliongrad and the surroundings started to become hillier and forested, not particularly helpful but at least the trees cut the wind down. It was also because of the trees that within twenty minutes or so of entering the forest, Trixie cocked an ear and asked "Can you hear that?"

Both Twilight and Fleur looked around, trying to discern just what Trixie had heard. Eventually she heard it, a rhythmic thudding sound coming from up ahead, and said so. They trotted on, hoping they had found signs of civilization and after a couple of minutes Fleur pointed out into the forest to where she spotted a small yellow glow, as would come from a lantern or something similar.

Dashing off the path, the three ponies struggled through the chest deep snow drifts towards the glow. Having almost dropped Octavia twice because of hidden depths in the snow they eventually came to a small clearing where there were two earth ponies, a stallion that was chopping wood and a colt that was loading it into the cart they had with them.

Suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous, Twilight swallowed and approached the wood cutter. "Excuse me sir? Our friend is sick and we desperately need to get her help."

"Pfeh, unicorns," said the stallion in a deep, accented rumble, before taking his axe up in his forehooves and rearing back to take swing at a block of wood.

Twilight pulled back Octavia's hood so the stallion might get a better look at her. "She's not a unicorn! Please, I'm begging you!"

The stallion took another swing before resting on his axe and studying her coolly for a moment before groaning and looking over his shoulder to the colt. "Sprig, take the purple one and her friend to Grammaw."

The young brown and pine green colt bounded forward and waved to Twilight. "Ok pa. This way miss." Twilight started to follow him when the stallion shouted at them to stop.

"I said the purple one could go. You two stay here."

"What? Why?" Trixie asked indignantly.

"If the boy is going I'll need you two to stay here and load the cart."

"But-"

"No buts! I'm behind as it is."

"But-"

"Trixie," Twilight said as kindly as she could, "he's helping us, so I think it's only fair that we help him."

"Well it’s okay for you to say that, you're not the one loading the cart..." Trixie grumbled.

"Oh stop whining," Fleur said giving Trixie a nudge. "You'll take us to this 'Grammaw's' house after, right sir?" she asked the stallion, getting a single nod in reply. "See, no worries. You go on Twilight, we'll be fine."

Twilight gave Fleur a grateful smile and continued on after the colt, who seemed to take great pleasure in running on as far as he could then stopping and waiting for her to catch up. Once he got bored of that he started to run circles around her, making her feel very unbalanced. As a precaution she started to hold Octavia on with her wings and hoped the colt didn't notice the way the cloaks moved around the invisible appendages.

After a long while, lights came into view above the tree line, which was because Hoof-Ridge was built on a hoof shaped ridge that rose above the forest. It might have seemed an impractical design, but to someone from Canterlot, this was nothing. Twilight followed the colt up the path to the village and found that the ridge had a plateau on the top, allowing room for a row of wood and stone cabins to be built both sides of the road.

The colt led her through the village and stopped at what appeared to be an apothecary, judging by all the bundles of herbs and collections of vials she could see through the window. The colt banged on the door and yelled, "Grammaw! Got somepony needs yer 'elp!"

There was a moment or two of nothing, except some kind of low key grumbling coming from inside, before the door opened to a rotund and wizened grey mare. "Well come on then, get in 'ere and lets me 'ave a look."

Twilight entered and set Octavia gently on the floor where the old mare set about poking and prodding her, tutting all the while. "Looks like somepony's been out playing with the windigos when theys shoulda been in bed. Sprig, there's wood out the back if you could get a fire going in the spare room."

"Yes Grammaw!"

"And you girl, you picks yer friend up and gets her up stairs, firs' door on the left. Gets those cloaks off'f 'er and wrap her in some blankets from under the bed."

Twilight watched for a moment as the old mare bustled about, checking the various vials she had spread about, muttering a chorus of nopes, maybes and expletives. "What did you mean she's been 'out playing with the windigos?'"

The mare continued to bustle about looking for stuff as she answered. "It's an expression girl, means she's been out in the cold too long. Now di'nt I tell you to get her upstairs! Oh, and put her by the fireplace when you get there!"

Twilight picked up Octavia and took her to the room indicated to her, entering and placing her on a rug alongside the fireplace before taking the cloaks off her and wrapping her in the blankets she found under the bed. She was joined a minute later by Sprig, who was carrying a bundle of wood on his back. Twilight watched as he tried to get a fire going, and had to mentally slap herself when she almost cast a spell to light it. The colt was clearly struggling to get the fire going, so Twilight tapped him on the shoulder.

"Why don't you go and get some more firewood while I get the fire going." She took the flint off him with her magic and made a show of using it.

"Oh, uh... okay miss." the colt muttered before leaving. Twilight could hear him mumbling as he trotted down the stairs. "I'll light the fire she says. Bloody unicorn doesn't even know how to use a flint."

Rolling her eyes and listening out to make sure nopony was coming, she focused on the wood in the fireplace and cast a fire spell. Within minutes she had a decent fire roaring away, and couldn't help but smirk at Sprig's expression when he came back. As an afterthought she rummaged through her saddlebags and withdrew a couple of marcs, passing them to the colt.

"Thanks for your help Sprig. I don't know what we would have done if we hadn't found you or your father. I know it’s not much but, still, thank you."

Sprig took the coins and slipped them into a pocket in the jacket he was wearing. "Uh, thanks miss, 'appy to 'elp." Just then Grammaw entered the room, balancing on her rear a bowl of something that steamed and smelled vaguely herby.

"Nice work getting the fire going Sprig. Now how 'bout you get on home to your mother before she starts a-worrying about ya."

"Aww, okay Grammaw. Bye miss!" He gave Twilight a cheerful wave then left.

Grammaw chuckled. "Nice lad, but a bit of a soft spot for pretty faces. Might have to keep an eye on him when he gets older." She frowned, "Might have to have a word with his pa too, about that hatin' unicorns rubbish he tries to fill that boy's head with. Now you go wait downstairs while I see to your friend here."

"Is she going to be ok?"

"Dunno, but she ain't gonna be any better for you hanging around here twitterpating me when I'm trying ta work. Go on, git!"
Twilight was going to protest, but one look at Grammaw’s face was enough to let her know that hanging around might be bad for her health. Dragging her hooves the entire way she went downstairs and pulled herself onto the sofa, and waited.

Thud thud thud!

Twilight jolted awake at the sound of a heavy hoof banging on door.

"Get the door would ya deary?"

"Yeek!" Twilight squealed and leapt off the sofa at the voice that came from right next to her. She looked round to Grammaw who was sat in a scruffy looking armchair, smoking a pipe and was giving her a very pointed look.

"The door?"

"Right, sorry." Rubbing sleep out of eyes she went to the door and opened it, permitting her a close up view of the woodcutter’s face, a face that swiftly morphed into a frown. Behind him were a chilly looking Fleur and a very grim faced Trixie, who narrowed her eyes on seeing Twilight.

"Making yourself at home I see..." he muttered before clearing his throat and saying in a louder voice, "I've brought your friends as I said I would, now, where is Sprig?"

Twilight was about to answer when Grammaw's voices floated over from where she sat. "Sprig's gone home already Stump. Now quit dirtying my doorway and get yerself going too. And by going, I mean home, not the pub!"

Stump sighed heavily and moved off, quickly disappearing from Twilight's sight in the falling snow. Waving Fleur and Trixie in, Twilight shut the door and turned around to find Trixie's face shoved up against her own.

"Next time, you get to do the hard labour with the unicorn hating tribalist!" she hissed between her teeth.

Fleur on the other hoof, trotted over to Grammaw and curtsied. "I hope it’s okay that we've come here."

Grammaw waved a hoof at her languidly. "Naw, its fine. Sprig told me I should be expecting some more guests," she said before giving Twilight another look.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, feeling abashed. "Uh...right, sorry. This is Fleur,"

"Charmed." Fleur said as she curtsied again.

"And the angry blue one is Trixie."

Trixie paused in the middle of wrestling her cloak off to stick her tongue out at Twilight and to mutter a curt greeting to Grammaw.

"Fleur, Trixie, this is...um, I don't think you've actually told me your name."

"Just call me Grammaw, everypony else does, dunno why though, it’s not like I even has kids, let alone grandkids. If yer hungry there's a pot of soup on the stove in the kitchen, and bread rolls in the warmer, just help yerself."

"Yes yes yes yes yes yes!" Trixie shouted in glee, running for a few steps before turning back and asking "Where's the kitchen?" Grammaw nodded to a door across the room. "Thank you!" Trixie trotted off singing "Food food, food food food, warm warm yum yum food!" Fleur followed her, but quietly and at a more sedate pace.

"Bit of an odd one that one."

"Yeeaaaahhhh...you could say that," Twilight replied before joining Fleur and Trixie in the kitchen. "Are you guys ok? He didn't try anything... y'know... funny?"

"Oooohhhhh noooo, we're fiiine." Trixie replied sarcastically. "It was like the most fun Trixie has ever had, being forced to chop wood and load it onto a cart in the freezing snow while a petty little tribalist stands there criticising everything about us and calling us every name under the sun. Next time, to make it fair, I'll fall asleep in front of a fire, and you can have all the fun."

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I didn’t even know I had until somepony knocked on the door. It wasn’t that bad was it?”

Fleur nudged Twilight with her hip. "We were fine, really. He'd have had to chop our horns off before he was interested so we were probably pretty safe with him. I mean, I know he had an axe and all, but then the blood and the screaming might have put him off."

Trixie rubbed her horn with a hoof. "Too soon Fleur, waaayy too soon."

"Huh? Oh... right, the whole dehorning thing. Sorry. Anyway, how many miles did you carry Octavia? I think Twilight deserved a little break."

Trixie pouted in response but said nothing more, apparently dropping the issue. Taking a bite of the roll she was holding, she swallowed and said "Speaking of, how is Octavia? She didn't look so good last time I saw her, y'know."

"I uh... I don't know. Grammaw sent me downstairs and I must have fallen asleep soon after that." She poured herself a bowl of soup and grabbed a bread roll. "Come on back out the living room and we can ask Grammaw." Trixie did so, topping up her bowl and grabbing another roll before she went, all the while grumbling about various things. Twilight was pretty sure she heard her name mentioned a few times.

They reconvened in the living room where Trixie proceeded to eat her soup as noisily as possible, Fleur ate hers as daintily as possible, and Twilight asked the question that would be on their lips if they weren't busy eating. "How's Octa-"

"Ah ah!" Grammaw said, waving a hoof as if to shoo them off. She then pressed her hooves to her temples, "I predict you're gonna ask how yer friend upstairs is doing."

"Wow." Trixie deadpanned, "However did you know we were going to ask such a thing? I am genuinely shocked and surprised."

Grammaw tapped her head with a hoof. "With my amazingly mystical cosmic powers, that's how. That and I heard you talking in the kitchen, which incidentally also happens to be the way I found out the name of yer friend upstairs." She gave Twilight yet another pointed look.

"Sorry."

"Anyway, yer friend's gonna be just fine, soon as she rides out that fever of hers. Until then all we can do is keep her warm an' hydrated. I've given her something to boost her strength with a lil somethin' extra to help her sleep. All's that's left now is to wait an' hope. Oh, an' just so you know, I'd ignore anything she says 'til she's better, as feverish ponies tend to say the darndest things."

"Not that I want to sound ungrateful or anything," Trixie said as she crossed her hooves and gave Grammaw a sceptical look, "but how do you know anything about medicine?"

"Because I'm a little old lady, and it's the job of little old ladies to be smarter than the rest of ya, that's why. Besides I've been doing this since I was a lil one, and I've seen plenty of ponies with fevers worse than yer friend's."

"Well," Fleur said as she gave Trixie a dirty look, "I for one, am grateful you're helping us. I don't know what we'd do if you hadn't." Fleur frowned for a moment, "Speaking of, why are you helping us and giving us food and shelter? Unicorns aren't really all that popular around these parts."

"I could tell ya to go sleep in the basement if it makes ya feel better?"

"Well... uh, no it wouldn't. I just thought that Stump's attitude towards unicorns was the trend around here."

"Pfooey, Stump's just an ass. Pay him no mind, although I hav'ta admit his hatin' on unicorns ain't 'xactly uncommon in these parts."

"But not you?"

"Nope. I'm old an' crotchety and far too busy hatin' everypony to spend extra effort hatin' those with horns an' wings." She chuckled cheerfully, "Besides, who knows when a unicorn owin' you a favour might come in handy."

After that the conversation had changed into whatever they felt like talking about, and Twilight couldn't help but feel a lot better about things than she had in days. Even Trixie was pleasant enough company once she let her intellect do the talking, rather than her ego. They had talked for hours, with the only interruption being one of them occasionally disappearing upstairs to check on Octavia and throw more wood on the fire. Eventually though, the time of day and their exertions caught up with them, made obvious when Trixie had yawned so hard she almost fell over.

Rubbing an eye she asked, "Where are we sleeping tonight? If you don't mind me asking."

"You an' Fleur can sleep in the bed in Octavia's room. Might be a bit cozy," she said, giving Trixie a saucy wink, "but it’s a whole lot better than sleeping on the floor. Unless o' course, you actually want to sleep in the basement? Might be a mite chilly."

"Nope, bed is good. Dibs on the right hoof side."

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes. "Trixie, I cannot express how much I don't care. I just want sleep."

"While yer in there, keep an eye on Octavia an' keep the fire going. Or jus' heat the room some other way, I'm sure Octavia won't mind." She chuckled at Trixie's horrified expression. "Relax, I'm just teasing." She sniffed, "Mostly."

Rather than expose themselves to more comments, the two ponies muttered a 'goodnight' and trotted upstairs, with Trixie pushing Fleur aside to make sure she went first. This left Twilight in the company of Grammaw, who was giving Twilight a long, cool stare.

"So... uh, what was with the... uh, bedroom talk?"

Grammaw grinned dirtily, "Oh nothing much, I just reckon some fun in the bedroom would do wonders for the ego-stick Trixie has shoved up her plot."

"I see." Twilight fidgeted and nervously tapped the edges of her hooves together. "And where might I be sleeping?" She was answered by Grammaw nodding at the sofa. "Oh! Okay," Twilight said, sounding a lot more relieved than she intended.

"You could share with me, if ya want to, but I ain't exactly good company in the bedroom anymore since I tend to fart a lot an' snore really loud."

"Nope! Sofa's fine. Absolutely fine. No problems with the sofa at all." Twilight fidgeted some more. "Sooo... goodnight?"

"Not just yet. There's somethin' I want to talk to you about, and I didn't want to talk about it with others around in case it's a secret."

"Oh... uh, sure. What's up?"

"You're one of them ain't ya? One o' them winged unicorns?"

Twilight spluttered in surprise. "I-I don't- I... uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have wings." She subconsciously wiggled her wings in some effort to disprove their existence.

"Heh, you're an awful liar Twilight, an' just 'cause you made them invisible don't mean they ain't there. In fact, them being invisible just makes them more obvious to me since I ain't exactly lookin' with me eyes."

"What? How?"

Grammaw looked Twilight in the eye. "What I'm about to tell you is a secret, so don't you go blabbing your mouth off none." Grammaw raised a hoof to her forehead and brushed her hair aside, revealing a small vertical scar right where a unicorns horn would be. "That's right," she said as she took in Twilight's slack jawed expression, "I'm technically a unicorn."

"B-but... but how?"

"For that to make sense I'm gonna have to tell you the whole story, so sit down an' listen up. My ma an' pa were high-born ponies, nobles, an' in the court of Mareitania one of the biggest scandals possible was to have a unicorn as a child, which does tend to happen from time to time. So when I was born my folks were horrified, almost broke them apart since my pa accused my ma of cheating. Anyway they arranged to have my horn removed when I was just a few weeks old, root and all, so it never grew back. Naturally this kinda upset me when I found out years later, so I ran away and eventually ended up here."

"Don't you miss it? Your horn that is."

"Can't miss what I don't remember having, although I swear I can sometimes feel it, like ghost leg thingy or whatever it’s called."

"Phantom limb syndrome?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, the point is that a unicorns magic has to manifest somehow. If you has a horn then it manifests through that in the normal way. But if you don't, it can do some strange things. Apparently there was one pony I heard of that could levitate themself, an' another that could manifest magic through shoutin'. Me, well I can sense magic, and see it in others. I could see the spell that was hidin' yer wings, and see the magic inside you, which I can tell you is a sight to behold. Most unicorns have a bit of an aura around them, focused mostly on their horns, but you, you're the center of a swirling maelstrom of magic energy, both beautiful and terrifying. Yet there's somethin' about it... some kind of... harmony, I guess you'd call it. Absolutely amazing."

Twilight closed her eyes, debating whether she should trust this pony with her secret. She supposed that Grammaw could have done something about her having wings, but so far all she had done is help. Maybe Twilight owed her this. "I guess that explains why you don't hate unicorns."

"Nope, it'd be pretty silly to hate what I am. I mean ponies hating ponies is pretty silly anyway, but that'd be extra silly."

"I'm going to trust you with this since you could have told the guards and got me arrested at any time-"

"Actually we don't got any guards here. Instead I'd have rounded up a posse and had you lynched. Besides I trusted you with my secret."

"Right... so since you didn't... do that, I'm going to trust you." She focused and cancelled the invisibility spell on her wings before spreading them, eliciting a low whistle from Grammaw.

Grammaw sat back and puffed on her pipe a few times. "I'll be, a genuine pegacorn."

"Actually we're called alicorns."

"Alicorns huh? Y'know, it’s been almost four hundred years since one o' your kind has been seen in Mareitania."

"What, really? How is that possible?"

"It aint exactly like your kind is common y'know."

"What? No, I mean how has anypony seen one in Mareitania at all?"

"Oh, I get ya. Now ya have to understand that this is all word of mouth stuff so it may be subject to flavour. Now then, 'bout four hundred years ago there was this big rebellion or civil war or whatever you wanna call it. Equalists against the Duchy. The Equalists started out as a unicorn thing, which got bigger when they busted the pegasi outta their prisons. Lot of earth ponies joined 'em too, or at least the poor ones anyway. Word is that they were led by an alicorn. Now this is where things get a lil tricky since nopony seems to agree on what she looked like or what her name was, all they can agree on is that she was kinda tall an' probably white. Me myself, I reckon it was the goddess Celestia-"

"But that's impossible! It couldn't have been her!"

"Don't see why not. The Goddess Celestia ain't ever been seen in Mareitania before the rebellion, an' hasn't been seen since."

"What happened to Celes- to the alicorn?"

"Ah, well. The Duke an' Duchess at the time weren't no thickies, but they were cruel. They started rounding up ponies from everywhere and started killing them, saying that the killing wouldn't stop until she surrendered. I don't know why this didn't just give more ponies a reason to fight even harder, but the stories say that she surrendered herself within the hour, unwilling to let so many die. They took her to High Rock keep and she ain't been seen ever since."

"High Rock keep? Where's that?"

Grammaw raised an eyebrow. "Y'know, asking questions like that might give a pony reason to think you're not from round here. High Rock keep is where the Duke and Duchess rule from. Used to be the unicorns capital of Unicornia, back in the old days 'til they gave it up."

Twilight fell into silence, her eyes twitching back and forth as she thought. Celestia couldn't have possibly been the pony leading that rebellion, otherwise she probably would have told her. Probably being the operative word. Celestia did have an over fondness for secrets. One thing was for certain though. She needed to talk to her, and soon.

"Is there somewhere I could find out more about this? Like a library or something?"

"A library? Hah! No such thing. The Duke an' Duchess don't like the common pony knowing too much in case it gives them ideas like 'why do we let these inbred bastards treat us like crap?' An' even if there were libraries in Mareitania, you wouldn't find anything about the rebellion in it. All talk and writings on the rebellion was banned, in case it incited more rebellion. It only survives as stories, passed down from generation to generation. If there was anything written down about it, it'd be in the keep, where nopony can get it."

"But surely there must be records of it somewhere besides High Rock keep?"

Grammaw hummed and hawed for a bit before speaking again. "There might be one place, but it’s as much a story as what you're trying to find out about. There's a legend that in the caverns there's some kind of dog like people. Now these dog people have something there called the long story, or somethin' like that, an' it's meant to be like the history of time or somewhat. Apparently these dogs are a studious bunch and take great pains to record everything that happens around them, which I find odd since they live underground and probably don't see much of what goes on aboveground. Anyway, if that place is real, what you want would probably be written down there."

Twilight sighed, chasing down a story with another story doesn't sound like a good method of research. But if push came to shove it might be all she had. "What caverns might those be if I happen be near them?"

"'What caverns?' she says. The caverns! Famously explored by some feller with a beard."

That got Twilight's attention, "Starswirl the Bearded! They must be the Caverns of Mareitania!"

"Or as we in Mareitania call them, the caverns. You know, if you're gonna travel around this country all incognito like, then you really had better learn some place names and stuff. Might make you a lot less obvious."

Twilight lowered her head in defeat. "I know, I know. All this sneaking and lying and- and... stuff, doesn't come naturally to me. Please don't tell anyone, I'm begging you."

"Ah don't worry about me, your ole Grammaw's as tight lipped as they get, which made me popular with the stallions back in the day I can tell you." she said, chuckling as Twilight shuddered. "Tell me, where do all you prudes come from and why you all here?"

"We've come from Equestria an-"

"Equestria!? Its real!?"

"What's that supposed to mean? Of course it’s real. You do trade with us, a little bit anyway."

"Well blow me down. An alicorn from Equestria... No pony would believe me even if I told 'em! So why you here? You here to cast the evil duchy down? To bring freedom and justice to all?"

"I don't know about that. We're just doing a little fact finding."

Grammaw slumped, making Twilight feel a little guilty about lying. "Well that's a crying shame. ’Bout time somepony came and set this place right."

"Someday maybe."

"Yeah..." Grammaw suddenly yawned and finished looking like she was a week past her bedtime. "You've certainly given a mare a lot to think about, that's for sure. I can assure you your secret's safe with me. Anyway I'm off to bed. G'night."

"Goodnight Grammaw." Twilight waited as Grammaw headed upstairs and didn't move until she heard her bedroom door shut. Soon as it did she deflated and rested her head on the arm of the sofa. "I am so stupid. I can fight armies of changelings and deal with chaos spirits but can't lie to an old lady. At least I didn't tell her I'm a princess too. Who knows what she might have thought of that." She looked over to where her saddlebags were stashed, thinking that she ought to talk to Celestia. Floating the speaker stone out of her bag, she held it between her hooves and was about to activate it when she remembered what time of day it was.

"Celestia's probably in bed and I bet Luna knows even less about it than I do. Figures." Sighing irritably she put the stone back in her bag, recast her wings' invisibility spell, and rolled over, trying to get comfy. "A country without libraries... I think I now officially hate this place."

Author's Notes:

Don't know if I'm developing memory problems or something but I'm having the hardest time remembering what I'm doing and what I've already done in this story and its only the fifth chapter. Get the horrible feeling I'm going to miss something really obvious and its going to be really embarrassing.

6. The waiting game

Twilight awoke with a snort, sending various items falling off her in all directions. Blinking a few times, she raised her head to see Trixie pouting at her.

"You just cost me twenty bits. I hope you're happy."

"What? How?"

Fleur giggled as she trotted towards Twilight, carrying a tray in her magic. "Trixie bet me she could stack more than ten items on you before you woke up. She only got to seven."

"Oh. I'm glad me sleeping is so amusing to you."

"We got to get our kicks somewhere," Fleur said cheerfully as she passed the tray to Twilight. "Nothing fancy, just bread and jam."

"Thanks." Twilight said before digging in. As she sat there Fleur started to tidy up around the house, which seemed to perplex Trixie.

"Why are you cleaning? This isn't your house."

"Clearly you have never lived on the good graces of others Trixie."

"And you have?"

"Sure. I may have spent most of my young life living on the streets, but once I got to Equestria that didn't really work. I ended up travelling around a lot before being taken in by a nice couple in Manehatten, where I was talent spotted to be a model by Prim Hemline. But until that happened I did my best to not abuse their generosity, just as I don't want to abuse the generosity of Grammaw who took us in, took care of Octavia, gave us somewhere to sleep and fed us for no benefit to herself at all."

"Okay, okay, sheesh."

Twilight swallowed hurriedly, almost choking as she did so. "Where is Grammaw?" she managed to say once she had recovered, helped by Trixie enthusiastically smacking her on the back.

"Out," Fleur replied. "Said something about 'confronting the rumours that pillock Stump has probably spread.'"

"Ooooo... I hope that means what she says it means."

"And what does that mean?" Trixie asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It means she knows I'm an alicorn."

"What!?" Trixie and Fleur shouted in unison.

"And she knows we're from Equestria."

"What!?"

"And that we're on some kind of mission. Thankfully I managed to hide what kind of mission from her."

"Twilight!" Fleur cried, exasperated. "Just what were you two talking about last night!?"

"I'm sorry okay! It started out that she knew I had wings. You'll have to ask her yourselves how, but she knew. She then went on to say that the last alicorn seen in Mareitania was four hundred years ago, leading some big rebellion."

"That can't be true," Fleur said with a frown. "When I heard the stories I was told it was Celestia that led the rebellion, but obviously that wasn't true. I thought the entire thing was just made up after I went to Equestria and found out Celestia is a princess there. That's why I never bothered to tell anypony."

Twilight nodded. "Grammaw thought it was Celestia too, and I didn't do anything to correct her."

"Trixie has no idea what you’re talking about..."

"Oh... right."

"Huh," was Trixie's reaction once they finished recounting the story to her. "Trixie is confused though. How could a white alicorn that looked suspiciously like Celestia have led this rebellion if the white alicorn that actually is Celestia has never set hoof in Mareitania."

"Exactly," Twilight agreed. "That's what I was trying to find out. I asked Grammaw if there was some kind of written history about it, but apparently the Duke at the time banned all writings on it. If it is written down it's in High Rock Keep, which is when Grammaw got suspicious of me because I had no idea what that was."

"It's where the rulers live, even Trixie knows that."

"Well I didn't, okay? Anyway, Grammaw said the only other place it might be recorded is in 'the caverns,'" she said with hoof quotes. "How was I supposed to know that by 'the caverns' she meant the caverns of Maretania?"

Fleur facehooved. "Twilight, places in countries are rarely named after the country they're in."

"I know. I'm no good at this secrets and lies thing, and acting like I know something when I don't is totally alien to me. I mean I'm trying, but this really isn't something I'm used to. Anyway, Grammaw said that in the caverns there's some kind of dog people, by which I guess she means diamond dogs, and that they keep a record of everything that they call the long story."

"Oh. That." Fleur shook her head. "I wouldn't pay any attention to something like that. The long story is just that, a story. Our time would be better spent on things that definitely exist."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not saying we should rush off to the caverns, but should we happen to be near them it might be worth having a look."

"Okay, I suppose so. But what are we going to do in the meantime?"

"Wait until Octavia's better mostly. Right now though I'm going to go check on her, then have a little talk with Celestia."

-0-0-0-

Twilight cracked open the door to Octavia's room and looked down at where Octavia lay sprawled in front of the fire, and was faintly surprised to see Octavia looking back at her.

"You're pretty. A big pretty princess," Octavia said, looking like she was proud of herself for saying so.

"That's... well... thank you Octavia, but you know you're not meant to talk about that."

"A pretty pretty princess, with wings! Pretty pretty wings..."

"Are you ok? Do you need anything?"

"Thirsty."

"Okey dokey..." Twilight spotted a pitcher of water and a glass on the bedside table and set about filling the glass before she spent a few moments thinking about how she was going to do this. In the end she picked Octavia up so that she was leaning back in the crook of her leg, doing her best to not squirm at the fact that Octavia was dripping with sweat.

Holding the glass to Octavia's mouth with her magic she let her drink until the glass was empty, and was about to put her down when Octavia mumbled "More." So she repeated the process just for Octavia to ask for more again. Repeating the process a third time, she was relieved when Octavia didn't say more, and that she was able to put her down.

"Twilight?"

"Yes Octavia?" Twilight said, fully expecting to get a thank you or another comment about being a pretty princess.

"I need to pee."

"For crying out loud..." She looked under the bed where a chamber pot was waiting for just such an occasion, and pulled it out, giving it a cursory glance because she'd rather not think about what she was about to do.

"This is so wrong."

Twilight pushed the chamber pot back under the bed, where she hoped she could never have to see it again. She sat down next to Octavia and was about to ask if there was anything else she needed when she noticed Octavia had fallen asleep again. A strange feeling came over her then, a feeling that she could only describe as parental concern, and she felt oddly compelled to stroke Octavia's mane. "Is this how Celestia feels all the time?"

Shaking the feeling off she clambered onto the bed and teleported the speaker stone up from her bags downstairs before pressing her horn to it and activating it.

"Hello? Twilight? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Princ- Celestia."

"And Trixie?"

"Trixie's fine too."

"Oh thank goodness, I've been worrying since we last talked."

"Sorry, I would have got in contact sooner but we've been a little busy, what with the breakout and escaping Stalliongrad and Octavia falling ill and all that."

"Falling ill? You mean she got worse?"

"Yeah, we had to leave Stalliongrad in a hurry as you probably know, and she insisted on coming with us. She collapsed and we had to get her somewhere safe. Long story short we carried her to the village of Hoof-Ridge where we've taken shelter with an elderly mare who's taking care of her."

"I see. This mission doesn't seem to be getting off to a good start. I hope she gets better soon."

Twilight sighed and shook her head, forgetting that Celestia couldn't see her. "I know what you mean, but we're not giving up. Actually there's something I want to ask you."

"Of course Twilight, anything."

"Did you happen to lead a rebellion here in Mareitania about four hundred years ago?"

"I- what?"

"Did you lead a rebel-"

"No no, I understood you Twilight. It's just that question was a bit surprising. I can assure you I have never led a rebellion anywhere, let alone somewhere I have’t even been. Where did you even get that ridiculous notion?"

"Grammaw, the mare we're staying with, said that there was a rebellion led by a big white alicorn about four hundred years ago. She thought it was you but I thought it best to ask you and make sure it wasn't you before I put my hoof in my mouth even more than I already have."

"Put your hoof in your- Twilight, is there something you should tell me?"

"Grammaw knows I'm an alicorn."

"What? How? Did you tell her?"

"No, she guessed. She can sense magic in others and apparently alicorns make a bit more of an impression than unicorns. She confronted me about it, and she is a hard lady to keep secrets from."

"Oh Twilight... Did you tell her anything else?"

"She figured out we're not from around here since she kept talking about places that a proper Mareitanian would know about. But she has promised to keep it a secret and shared a secret of her own with me so I do believe she's being genuine."

"You need to be more careful Twilight. You can't risk exposing your secret in case the wrong ponies find out."

"I know, and I will be, but you know how bad I am at lying."

"I always thought it was one of your more endearing qualities." Twilight could hear the affection in Celestial's voice as she said that. "Do you have anything else you wish to ask me? If so make it quick since I'm in court with a large collection of ponies watching me talk to a rock."

"Do you know of anything or anyone that could fit Grammaw's description of the pony that led the rebellion."

"Only one, but she's from stories that were old when I was just a child. The Lady of the North."

"Who's that?"

"I'm not sure, she has many descriptions and all of them are different, except for being a big white alicorn. Some of them call her a goddess, others call her the first alicorn. There are others that say she birthed the sun and the moon. I'm not sure whether they meant me and my sister, or the actual sun and moon when they say that, since one of those is preposterous and the other simply untrue; Princess Platinum was our mother."

"She was? Really?"

"Yes, and I know you'll have questions about that, but I'm afraid they're going to have to wait because I really must be going. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help Twilight."

"You've told me all I needed to know for now Celestia. I'll be in touch soon. Bye." There was a fizzle from the stone as the spell ended. "Princess Platinum was their mother..." she said quietly to herself. "How about that."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to know... do you have any fours?"

"Nope. Go fish."

When Twilight went back downstairs she found that Fleur and Trixie were playing go fish, a past-time that she had no wish to join in on. "Got any news?" Fleur asked her once she had robbed Trixie of all her queens.

"Other than Celestia didn't lead the rebellion, no, not really. She said the only other individual that matched that already vague description is someone called the Lady of the North. Do you know anything about her?"

"The Lady? She's like a religious icon to a lot of ponies around here. Like zebras and others from foreign countries treat Celestia like a goddess and the living avatar of the sun, ponies in Mareitania treat the Lady like that. Always thought it was a bit silly myself."

"Is that all you know?"

"Pretty much. The stories used to say she was our protector, and that she kept eternal vigil from the horrors in the north. That is until she disappeared. Shortly after that, apparently the windigos came and the exodus happened."

"Trixie is getting pretty sick of vague and unhelpful stories. All I want is somepony to say 'go there and it'll all make sense.' All this stuff about rebellions, ladies and long stories doesn't help us do what we came to do."

Twilight wanted to argue, but Trixie couldn't have been more right, which irked her for some reason. "You're right. Once Octavia's better we'll pack up and head to Prance like we planned, and get to doing what we're supposed to be doing. Anything else is just a distraction."

"Nothing wrong with the occasional distraction Twilight." Fleur said without taking her eyes off her cards. "If we happen to be near something that one of us wants to look at, I see nothing wrong with doing so."

"I know, I just feel like all we've done so far is get into trouble and run away a lot. It'd be nice to feel like we're making progress."

"It’s not even been a week yet. Give it time."

Twilight took a cleansing breath and was about to say something when there was a muffled thump and some cursing from the front door. She got up and opened the door to see Grammaw lying spread-eagle on the ground. "Well don't just stand there gawking, help me up!"

Twilight picked her up in her magic and floated her inside. "Are you hurt?"

"Naw I'm fine, just some dang fool hooligans chucked some water outside my door. Happens everytime I helps a unicorn, and yet, when they come to my door needing help its always 'oooh Grammaw, I don't feel well,' or 'help me Grammaw, I was careless at work and chopped me leg off with an axe.' Ungrateful bastards."

The three ponies shared a look. "And what about those rumours?" Fleur asked.

"Just the usual stuff; Grammaw's a filthy unicorn lover and she's been bewitched to do their bidding, while at the same time demanding payment in blood for helping you, 'cause I'm a witch and witches apparently do that sort of thing." She spat into the fireplace, "A pox on the lot of them, 'cept they'd probably expect me to fix 'em up after."

"And Stump?"

"Him? He went to the pub, got pissed, fell on some ice, broke his leg and got frost bite on his privates 'cause he lay down in the snow too long. What'd ya think took me so long this morning?"

"Really?" they all asked in unison.

"Naw, but it'd be nice if it did, the bastard. Di'nt spread no nasty rumours, which is a pleasant change. Guess you girls musta made a good impression. Anyhoo, one of you go get me something hot to drink." Fleur did so, being the most courteous of them, as Grammaw made herself comfy in her armchair.

Twilight pulled herself up onto the sofa near Grammaw while Trixie looked through Fleur's cards and groaned. "Grammaw, what do you know about the Lady of the North?"

"That old story? Nothin' but a load of old hokum. You pay no nevermind to what anypony says about her. She disappeared centuries upon centuries ago, and she ain't coming back."

"Oh, so you're not one of those who pray to her?"

"Pray to her? What for? I could pray for deliverance like some folk, but they're never very specific 'bout where they're being delivered from and too. "B'sides, open worship of her is against the law, since prayin' t' somethin' with wings an' a horn don't work well with the idea of earth pony superiority. Thanks," she said to Fleur, who passed her and the rest of them a mug of something hot and steaming. "Now I don't want to hear no more talk about this. It's my 'ouse an' I don't need no Lady to deliver me from it."

"But you called Celestia a goddess last night."

"That's 'cause she's real. I can believe in things that are real."

Trixie clasped her hooves under her chin. "It’s talk like this that makes me understand why Princess Luna did what she did a thousand years ago. Where's the love for Luna?"

"Who's Luna?"

The rest of the day passed largely without incident. It had taken them a while to explain who Luna was, although they may have omitted that Luna was Celestia's sister, and may have left Grammaw with the impression that Luna was the sole ruler of Equestria. And that she definitely wasn't the reason the sun disappeared for a while a couple of years ago, despite her being in charge of the moon. Overall they might as well have said that she was Celestia's immortal pet cat for all the difference it made to Grammaw. Twilight had threatened to throw Trixie off the roof if she mentioned Princess Cadence as well.

After that they spent most of the day doing very little, apart from the hour they spent hiding upstairs while Grammaw had tea with an elderly stallion, which had left the three ponies wishing they could bleach their brains because of the amount of smutty jokes and rampant flirting that was going on.

After that they sat around some more, with Grammaw offering to teach them strip poker. A game where everypony wins as far as she was concerned. They declined her offer to teach them, the least reason of which being that they weren’t wearing clothes.

Finally the evening came around, with a whole day spent doing nothing which made Twilight feel restless for some reason. Normally she solved most of her problems in a day or two, and sitting around here was making her feel like a bit of a failure. She also missed her friends.

Just as she was about to start wallowing in abject misery, there was a creak from the door to Octavia's room followed by steady hoof steps on the stairs. All of them watched the stairs with rapt attention, rather than get up and help, which means they were unable to do anything as Octavia got to the fifth step from the bottom and tripped on the blanket she had wrapped around herself.

"Ow," she said once she had gracelessly slid to the floor, her rear still resting on the stairs.

Jumping into action, by means of not moving a muscle but rather using her magic, Twilight picked Octavia up and floated her over to the sofa and sat her next to herself. "Are you okay?"

"By dose herds a bid now," Octavia said before rubbing her nose with a hoof, causing it to create a rather disconcerting crunching sound. "Just ab I was darting to feel bedder."

"Better? Already? That was quick."

"That's earth pony constitution for ya, nothing like it," said Grammaw before she bustled over and placed the front of a hoof on Octavia's forehead. "Temperature's still a lil high, but give it another twenty four hours an' you'll be right as rain."

Twilight lit her horn and a glow encompassed Octavia's nose, making her yelp in pain. When the glow faded Octavia sniffed and said in a more normal sounding voice, "You really need to tell ponies when you're going to do stuff like that Twilight."

"Sorry, did it help though?"

"My nose no longer hurts and I no longer sound quite so ridiculous, so yes, it did. Thank you. Also, I'm sorry about this morning, I-"

"Don't mention it."

"But I-"

"Really. Don't mention it."

"Oookay then. So... who's the nice mare? And what's happened while I've been out of it?"

"So you've sat here doing nothing, while at the same time have managed to give away most of our secrets. Wow. Bravo ladies."

Trixie harrumphed indignantly. "That's some cheek coming from somepony who spent a day and a half just lying on a floor. Do you even remember getting here? Because I do, and I had to spend four hours in the snow, loading firewood into a cart for it to happen."

Fleur shushed Trixie, who proceeded to fold her legs and go into a sulk. "Ignore her Octavia. Yes we haven't done much because our options were very limited until you got better. Frankly dragging a feverish and delirious pony around in the snow isn't a very good idea."

"Granted, but you could've... I don't know... done some fact finding or something?"

"Not a lot of facts to find in a tiny village in the middle of a forest."

"Village in the middle of a forest? You mean we're not in Prance? Huh, I must have been truly out of it to miss that."

Twilight glanced at Trixie who had gone from sulking to pouting at the wall before pulling the map out of her bag and passing it to Octavia, taking care to highlight where they were. "We're about quarter of the way to Prance, we think, and it’s going to take us a couple of days walking to get there. Add to that the time it's going to take 'til you're one hundred percent and... well... we're in no rush, let’s put it that way."

"Actually," Grammaw chimed in, "ya might not have to walk it. The traders caravan comes in tomorrow and ya might be able t' barter passage on it. Least until Octavia's well enough to walk."

"But what about the whole 'almost everypony hates unicorns' thing," huffed Trixie. "He might take one look at us and decide to... I don't know. Something bad anyway."

"Not everypony hates unicorns," Grammaw chided. "Besides you're only bartering passage fer Octavia so she don't have to walk, an' she's an earth pony so no problem there. The rest of ya will have to hoof it, but lots o' travellers walk with the trade caravans fer the protection."

"Protection?" Trixie piped up, alarmed. "As in guards? Because that might not be such a good idea."

"Why? You not in trouble are ya?"

"Not significantly no," said Fleur. "We might have run into a little... inconvenience... in Stalingrad, and they might be interested in asking us a few questions."

"Yeah," muttered Trixie, "like where we would like them to shove our horns once they cut them off."

Twilight and Fleur looked to their own horns, which were considerably bigger than Trixie's. "I think we have more reason to worry about that than you," said Fleur.

"Are you saying my horn's small?" No one answered but they all gave small, almost imperceptible nods.

"A little dehorning never hurt nopony," Grammaw said with a sniff. "At least nopony who had to do it anyway."

"What is that supposed to mean!?" Trixie cried before Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof and shook her head very meaningfully.

"I wouldn't worry about it anyway," Grammaw continued, as if Trixie hadn't said anything. "Law enforcement is pretty lazy and doesn't really move outside its jurisdiction, not less you've murdered a buncha earth ponies. Murder a dozen unicorns and they're liable to shake you by the hoof. Anyway what I'm saying is that news of you being wanted prob'ly ain't left Stalliongrad, so as long as ya don't go back there, yer fine."

"You mean I'm not going to be grabbed and dehorned soon as I enter Prance?" Trixie said as she wore a relieved looking grin.

"They might, but not fer the reason ya think. They might just not like the look of ya."

"What!?"

"Heh heh! Don't worry yerself none, I'm just teasing!"

"What kind of sick country is this where the inhabitants make jokes about mutilation and dismemberment?"

"The kind of country where it’s been going on fer centuries and its either laugh or cry. In any case, Prance is pretty laid back compared to Stalliongrad, so you'll be fine. Now I'm going to bed, I wanna get up early fer the traders and t' make sure they ain't going to just rob ya fer the fun of it."

"Goodnight," the others chimed.

"I'm going to bed too." Trixie said once Grammaw had departed. "This could be my last chance to sleep in an actual bed for a while and Trixie doesn’t intend to waste it."

"Ok, but you're sharing it with Octavia tonight. I think she should get at least one night in a bed." said Fleur.

"Eww, she's all ill and roasty. And sweaty. Most definitely sweaty."

"Aww, I didn't know you liked cuddling up with me so much Trixie," Fleur teased. "We can do it again some other time."

"Octavia's fine. Come on Octavia, we're going to bed."

"Oh... okay. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Octavia, goodnight snugglebunny."

"Shut up Fleur."

There was silence as Trixie and Octavia headed upstairs. "I like Trixie. She's so much fun to tease," Fleur said once they were gone.

"But you don't like her that much right... I mean you weren't being serious?" Twilight asked, demonstrating her obliviousness to emotion.

"Why? You jealous?" Fleur said with a wink, before giggling at Twilights' flustered look. "You girls are too easy. No I don't like you, Trixie or Octavia in that way, so you don't need to worry."

"Saving yourself for Fancypants?"

"Actually Fancypants and I aren't dating. It's all a publicity stunt."

"A publicity stunt? Really? Why would you pretend to go out then?"

"Because from a business point of view we look good together. Canterlot's richest philanthropist, and me, its hottest model. It'd be a match made in heaven if he wasn't a closet homosexual and if I had any interest in him in that way. Don't get me wrong, we've been friends for several years and I do care for him a lot, but it’s not love, not even close."

"Oh, I see. So are you allowed to see other ponies or are you..?"

"Celibate? Oh no, he has his lover that he sees in secret and as for me, I'm currently between stallions. Unofficial stallions anyway."

"Oh, okay. Well I guess we should... uh, go to bed or something..." Twilight said, not feeling particularly comfortable with where this conversation might go.

"Wow Twilight, you really know how to give a girl an invitation. Too bad I'm not that type of girl."

"What!? No! I mean we should go to bed. To sleep! We should go to bed to... uh... sleep. Yes, sleep." Fleur leaned toward Twilight and looked her straight in the eye, her own eyes half lidded.

"Twilight..." she said in a voice that would make anyone go weak at the knees and stand to attention at the same time.

"Yes Fleur?" Twilight said in a voice that had more cracks in than a broken mirror.

Fleur said nothing but leaned in a little closer, before suddenly darting in the rest of the way and licking Twilight on the end of her nose. "Goodnight Twilight!" she said gleefully before extinguishing the lamps with her magic and making herself comfortable on the sofa.

Twilight pressed a hoof to her nose, stunned by the sudden change of pace. "G-goodnight Fleur," she squeaked before trying to make herself comfy.

"Twilight?"

"Y-yes Fleur?"

"If you tell anypony Fancypants’ is gay, I'll kill you."

"Right."

"And if you tell anypony it was me that told you, I'll make it slow and painful."

"Gotcha."

"Oh, and Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"No touching yourself in the night. I don't want to hear it and you might accidentally kick me."

"...!"

"Goodnight Twilight."

Author's Notes:

I'm not using Celly's and Luna's backstory from journal of the two sisters. Not because I have anything against established lore, but because it was boring as sin.

Also, go play the horse-game demo on equidev.net, never before has a pony had a choice of so many socks to fight in.

7. Moving on slowly

Twilight stretched and fluttered her eyelids open, promptly panicking at the giant yellowy white blob that consumed most of her vision. Quickly pulling it off and inspecting it, it turned out to be a piece of paper that had been stabbed onto her horn. She pulled it off and read what it said.

Must been having good dreams because you kicked me a lot. Breakfast is at 8 - Fleur X.

"Urrrgh... I really don't know how to deal with this." She crumpled the paper up and threw it in the fire before turning her attention to the sound of singing coming from the kitchen.

"Winter wrap up, winter wrap up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer! Winter wrap up, winter wrap up! For tomorrow spring is here, tomorrow spring is here!"

Twilight looked out of the window where a light sprinkling of snow was falling. Clearly somepony's feeling ironic today, she thought as she dragged herself off the sofa and headed into the kitchen where Fleur was making pancakes, singing, and dancing, all at the same time. "You seem awfully cheerful for somepony who was up half the night being kicked."

Fleur didn't even stop dancing as she answered Twilight. "I know right? It's weird but I just can't help it. I think I'm just happy to be getting back on the road at last. I don't suppose you could go wake the others up? I don't want them to miss breakfast. Oh, and Grammaw's already gone, so no need to wake her up."

Twilight nodded and exited the kitchen, heading upstairs to the room Octavia and Trixie were sharing. She knocked gently and waited a few seconds for a response off one of them before entering, just in case. When she entered she was met by the patient look of Octavia, who lay there as unmoving as a stone as Trixie draped herself over her, snoring like the friendship express.

"Turns out Fleur wasn't joking, she is a snuggler. Please help me," she pleaded, giving Twilight her best puppy eyes.

Twilight couldn't help but grin as she used her magic to prise Trixie's legs from around Octavia, making sure to be careful so as to not wake her. She kept grinning as she and Octavia headed back down to the kitchen where she rummaged around looking for two reasonably sized pans. The grin she wore as she headed back upstairs would have been worthy of several notable villains.

She leaned on the side of the bed and positioned the pans over Trixie's head, in the position for the most optimal of rude wake up calls, and bashed them together, repeatedly and vigorously.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!

"WAAH!" Trixie screamed as she thrashed about in panic, doing her best to cover her ears.

"GOOD MORNING TRIXIE!" Twilight shouted just to add to the confusion.

"Stop stop stop!" Trixie cried, thrashing one leg at the pans as the other moved from covering one ear to wrapping over her head and covering both ears. Twilight stopped and stood there waiting as Trixie recovered from her ordeal. "Twilight! Why would you do that?"

"That? That was because I thought you needed to wake up.”

“Because I needed to wa- Twilight! You could have just poked me or spoke to me or something!”

“Oh I know that, but you got to factor in what you did to me yesterday morning.”

"Oh yeah... that."

"A third and additional idea is that it's time to get up since Fleur's made breakfast and we have stuff to do, and I’ve practiced on waking sleepy baby dragons so my methods might be a bit much for waking the average pony."

Trixie pulled the cover over her head, “Can’t you just bring breakfast up to me?” she whined.

“No. Get up.”

Trixie grumbled as she rolled out of bed and followed Twilight down to the kitchen, although her tone quickly changed when Fleur danced over to her and dropped a plate covered in pancakes in front of her. She took a deep breath and dived in, gorging until she had to come up for air. "When did you become such a good cook Fleur? I really don't think it’s a skill you'd pick up living rough."

"Wow Trixie, that was so nicely phrased I might just have to ignore you out of sheer amazement despite the fact it was technically a compliment." Fleur gave Trixie a dirty look whilst Trixie had the decency to look somewhat ashamed. "If you must know, I learnt while I was living in Manehatten and pancakes happen to be something I excel at."

Octavia cleared her throat, hoping to give the impression that Trixie should shut up before Trixie got the snot kicked out of her. "I know this is probably obvious to everypony else, but what exactly are we going to do when we get to Prance? I'm only asking because we seem to have this overarching goal of getting to Prance without having mentioned our goals once we get there." She looked expectantly at Twilight, who looked hopefully at Fleur, who ignored Trixie and looked back at the other two with something approaching incredulity.

"I don't... I don't know." Twilight admitted, taking care to dodge the small spray of pancake that came from Trixie as she said that. "Celestia and Fleur have said we should all go to Prance, but haven't said what we'll do once we get there. I was hoping you'd have an idea Fleur."

"Me? I was just saying that we ought to go to Prance because it’s the nearest city to Stalliongrad. Stalliongrad of course being a Luna damned hell hole."

Silence descended on the table, except for Trixie who was masticating furiously. She swallowed and was about to yell at somepony when they heard the front door open.

"You lot in here?" yelled Grammaw.

"We're in the kitchen Grammaw." Fleur replied at a more reasonable volume. Grammaw came into the kitchen looking like she had caught a foal with their hoof in the cookie jar.

"You know how you said you might have been in a spot of bother with the guards back in Stalliongrad?" she asked, giving them all a beady eye. "Would ya mind elaboratin' on that a lil bit?"

"What!? Why!?" shouted Trixie in a panic, "Don't tell me the guards are here! They're gonna dehorn me aren't they!? I don't wanna be dehor-hor-hor-horned!"

"Aww quit yer bellyaching girl, the guards ain't here and you ain't getting dehorned. I only asked 'cause some of the traders were telling a rather fantastical tale about how a blue unicorn was saved from dehornin' by the valiant actions of two other heroic unicorns that swooped in, fought off fifty guards and made off with the mare. At least I'm assuming it was made off with the mare, 'cause making out with the mare just don't make a lick of sense."

There was an awkward silence in the room that was broken when Trixie muttered something that sounded a lot like "Oh fuck me with a wire brush," which earned her some funny and disgusted looks which she either missed or ignored. "I have to say though, fifty guards? That's a bit over the top, there were seven or eight at the most."

"So yer not denyin' it?"

"Why should we?"

"Because we're trying to remain incognito?" said Fleur, who had to restrain herself from smacking Trixie around the back of the head. "Or maybe because Twilight might have incurred their displeasure by tearing their guillotine into itty bitty chunks? Or perhaps because we actually might be in legitimate trouble for pulling such a stunt?"

"Oh, right. Grammaw? What are the odds now on us getting into Prance and not instantly being arrested?"

"Accordin' to the traders the guards seem to think you're still in Stalliongrad, so I'm willing to bet news ain't gone that far. Besides you're the only one with a description, that of you being a blue unicorn, and those ain't 'xactly uncommon. Your mysterious rescuers are just that, and as for Octavia I'd give good odds they wouldn't even look at her twice."

"See Fleur, we'll be fine."

"You know Trixie, I used to think pairs of short planks were pretty thick. Then I met you and now they look positively scholarly." Fleur emitted a short, irritable sigh, "There goes my good mood."

Trixie was about to protest when Twilight shoved an entire pancake in her mouth. "Enough Trixie. Grammaw, I'm sorry we lied to you about that, but we really didn't think ponies should know. I bet those traders are already calling for a witch hunt on unicorns."

"Not at all," Grammaw said, taking in their expressions of surprise. "Folks around here might not have the greatest of love fer unicorns, but they do like it when folk stand up fer the little ponies;"

Trixie folded her legs with a huff, "Trixie's not little. She's just... petit."

"You ain't wanted criminals, you're folk heroes!" This didn't get the reaction she was expecting. It didn't get much reaction at all. At first anyway.

"Trixie?"

"Yes Fleur?"

"Room on that brush for two?"

"You're joking right? This is great! We should totally do more stuff like this, and I totally volunteer Twilight to be the damsel in distress. Maybe somepony might even write a folk ballad about us! Think about it, the Great and Powerful Trixie and her Boon Companions taking on the bad guys wherever we go. Ooh, Octavia should definitely get in on writing the ballad. Just make sure it’s folksy, with lots of banjos and stuff.

"I'm a classically trained cellist, not some rustic fiddler with more teeth than brain cells and more jugs of moonshine than either. If you want that sort of thing you should talk to my cousin Fiddly Faddle. That would very much be her thing.”

Fleur arched an eyebrow. "Wow Octavia, even for a Canterlot pony that was pretty offensive," she said.

"What's being a Canterlot pony got to do with it Fleur? I don't like country music and composing a ‘folk ballad’ is completely out of the question."

Twilight shook her head as the other three fell into a petty argument. It was only when Grammaw nudged her in the side that she was able to tear herself away.

"Do ponies from Equestria argue about silly things a lot?"

"In Equestria some ponies take their music very, very seriously. I mean, as a nation we are prone to spontaneously burst into synchronized musical numbers at any time.” She sighed and looked Grammaw squarely in the eye, “Do you really think we can get away with travelling freely?"

Grammaw scratched her chin as she thought, dislodging a few loose hairs. "Hmmm... you, Fleur an' Octavia can probably get away with it. Until you're in Prance and you know a bit more, Trixie is the risky one, especially since she wouldn't know subtlety if it snuck up behind her and lovingly whispered 'surprise' in her ear. However, I may have a solution, an' it warms my old heart to know that Trixie is probably gonna hate it with a passion."

"No! Absolutely not! I refuse and you can't make me!" An half hour had passed since Grammaw had explained her plan to Twilight, and had gone down to the basement to begin preparations for it, leaving Twilight with the unenviable task of joining in with the petty argument whilst not trying to snigger.

When Grammaw had reemerged from the basement it hadn't taken much convincing to get the others to all go down there if it meant Trixie had a chance to not get them all arrested. Of course it had backfired soon enough because Trixie had indeed hated the idea.

"Come on Trixie, it’s not permanent and severely reduces the chances of you being shortened by three inches."

"Trixie's horn is bigger than that! And there is no way I am letting you dye Trixie's coat black, I'd rather be dehorned!"

"It won't dye yer coat black, more like a dark grey like Octavia's. In fact you could pass fer sisters since yer eyes are practically the same colour," said Grammaw as she stirred an old tin bath filled with a smelly black substance.

"Well that's just as ba-" Trixie managed to catch herself, giving a guilty look to Octavia, who gave a cool look back. "Well it’s not that bad, but my mane and tail will get dyed too, and my cutie mark. I'll look like an all grey, blank flank weirdo!"

"Actually Trixie, no you won’t. I'm going to use my magic so your mane, tail and cutie mark won't get dyed. It’s just the blue we're changing."

“Oh well, that’s great! Hey, since we all have purple eyes why don’t we all dye our coats and look like a big family of sisters!”

"What do you think Octavia?" said Fleur, who was sat next to Octavia in front of the stairs that led back upstairs, surreptitiously blocking Trixie's exit. She was also sporting a rather malicious grin. "Do you think she'll look better grey, or without a horn?"

"I don't know Fleur," replied Octavia, who quickly caught on to what Fleur was doing, and who also was now grinning maliciously. "Personally I'd be horrified to share a coat colour with a unicorn that has such a stumpy little horn. Maybe she would be better off without it..."

"My horn is not stumpy! And I am not dying my coat! Let’s just go back upstairs and think of a new plan." She made to leave but was stopped when a purple glow stuck her hooves to the floor.

"Trixie," said Twilight, who was suddenly a lot more serious, "if you get arrested, we all get arrested with me and Fleur getting dehorned right alongside you. I'm sorry to do this but I'm not giving you a choice." Suddenly she picked Trixie up in her magic and held over the tin bath. "You might want to close your eyes and hold your breath."

"Twilig-!" Twilight dunked her into the bath with a splash, sending a wave of charcoal coloured liquid slopping over the edge. She held her under for a few seconds before letting her back up for a breath and pushing her under again, trying to get an even dye. This went on for many minutes, to the accompaniment of a stream of swear words and threats of violence from Trixie. Eventually she lifted Trixie out and set her of the floor where she stood dripping and shivering, though if it was from cold or sheer rage Twilight couldn't tell.

Once enough liquid had dripped off Twilight used a spell to dry her, figuring that Grammaw couldn't give a damn about her using magic at this point. Once she was done she was left looking at a very convincing dark grey unicorn, with a silvery mane and tail, and a blue magic wand cutie mark.

"Trixie, I'm sorry I had to do that," said Twilight, unable to look Trixie in the eye. "It was for your own good."

Trixie lowered her head dangerously. "Go to hell. All of you," she spat before pushing past Octavia and Fleur and going upstairs, leaving the others in a very awkward silence which made it easier to hear the occasional sob from Trixie.

Fleur scuffed a hoof on the floor. "That suddenly got a lot less fun very quickly," she said before nudging Octavia. "Let’s go pack our things. I think it’s time we went."

Twilight watched them go before sitting down with a thump and hanging her head. "I shouldn't have done that. I should have convinced her that it was the best and only way to avoid being caught."

Twilight felt a hoof press on her shoulder. "She'll forgive you in time, hopefully once you give her this," Grammaw said before passing Twilight a pouch of white powder.

"What is it?"

"It’s a little something I cooked up to wash dye out of me fur when I've got some on me. A few minutes of scrubbing in a tub with that stuff and she'll be back to her mostly blue self. It should start to wear off in a couple of weeks anyway, 'specially if she gets rained on a lot. Now get yerself upstairs and packed, I think it’s long past time you three were on the move."

The four ponies had packed their things and were now heading, with a miserable Trixie trailing several meters behind them, through Hoof-Ridge to where the traders were set up outside the village in a clearing in forest, opposite to the way they had arrived. It also gave them the first opportunity to look around the village, which was odd since they had been there the best part of three days.

Twilight was surprised, the village was wider than she had first thought. Her hasty trudge through the snow in the dark with a desperately ill Octavia on her back hadn't been the best time for sightseeing. Rather than one row of houses on either side of a road, there were two or three rows running parallel, the plateau being wider than she had first suspected.

There was also life happening, with ponies going to and fro from shops and houses, laughing and joking and just appearing to be happy with their lot. The only downside was what Fleur had first pointed out to her in Stalliongrad; the villages inhabitants was exclusively earth ponies, several of which were giving her and her companions the stink-eye.

"Weird isn't it," Fleur whispered to her. "It’s like they've never seen a unicorn before, and yet instantly decided they're not to be trusted." Twilight couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"I find it weird that they're looking at me like that too," Octavia whispered in her other ear. "An earth pony willingly associating with unicorns? How awful!" she said mockingly.

Thankfully they soon descended into where the traders had set up, and were led by Grammaw to a cart that appeared to be selling all sorts of miscellaneous junk, from spice racks to slightly used horseshoes. It was run by a peachy-orangey coloured earth pony stallion with brown hair and a rusty spoon cutie mark who was introduced to them as Bric. Shortly afterwards they were introduced to his brother Brac, identical in every way except the rusty spoon faced the other way around, there was a goatee on his chin and a horn on his forehead.

"How do folks! Grammaw tells us you're looking for a means of transportation to the wonderful paradise that is Prance!" said Bric.

"And that you're willing to pay good money to get it!" added Brac.

Twilight looked at the others, hoping to gauge their feelings on the matter. Fleur nodded towards the brothers and Octavia smiled hopelessly at her. Trixie scowled at her and pawed the ground, which showed her feelings on matters quite adequately. She swallowed and looked back to the brothers who were wearing their best money making grins. "Actually it’s only the one pony," she said, stepping aside so they could see Octavia. "She's been ill lately and isn't really fit enough yet to walk the entire distance."

"And yet what a lovely vision of a pony she is!" said Bric, lifting Octavia's hoof and kissing it. "For the pleasure of transporting such a mare we will do it for the modest price of one hundred marcs."

"You're joking right?" said Trixie with a dangerous tone of voice. "You're going to charge one hundred marcs just so she can sit on your cart while you're pulling it to a place you were going to go anyway? That's daylight robbery!"

Twilight tried to place a hoof on Trixie's shoulder to reassure her, but Trixie shied away, giving Twilight a menacing look. "Trixie, I'm sure these ponies aren't going to rob anypony."

"Indeed not!" said Brac, "That's why it’s a hundred marcs. Protection for your possessions from bandits,"

"Thieves," added Bric.

"And overzealous traders who might get a funny idea about the legitimacy of ponies owning things which they could sell to other ponies,"

"For a very reasonable price."

Trixie gave the two ponies a flat look, "You're talking about yourselves aren't you. You're charging us a hundred marcs so you don't rob us yourselves. I'm pretty sure if we could afford that then we'd be an even more tempting target for you."

Twilight was about to say something in agreement with Trixie about the price when a small sack of coins flew over her head and landed in the snow with a thump, spilling a few coins. "One hundred and twenty marcs if we get to share your fire at night." said Fleur from behind her.

Bric and Brac's eyes lit up at the sight of the coins, "Sold to the beautiful white unicorn standing in the back!" said Bric, as Brac magically swept the loose coins into the sack before floating it out of sight behind his back. "We'll be packed up and ready to go within the hour, and if you're not here then we're going without you."

"No refunds," added Brac.

Twilight and the others left the brothers, who had taken to harassing another pony who had been browsing their wares. "Grammaw, why those two?" she hissed between her teeth.

"’Cause those two are delightfully unbiased when it comes to the whole unicorn thing seeing as how one of them is a unicorn an' all. Besides I've known them a while. Heck, since they were born seeing as I'm the pony that delivered them, and fer all their bluster they ain't bad ponies."

"And what about you Fleur? You could have at least tried to haggle them down, not given them extra!" Trixie hissed.

Fleur shrugged and bent down to whisper into Trixie's ear. "Half of those marcs were theirs anyway, and it’s not like we earned the rest. And yes I am that quick," she said quietly so only Trixie could hear. Trixie's grin was suitably malicious as Fleur spoke louder so the others could hear, "I'm sure we'll have no problems with those two and the price was probably worth it for the lack of questions asked."

"Maybe..." Twilight said noncommittally, giving Fleur a look that Fleur couldn’t quite decifer. "I don't know, they just reminded me of another pair of twins with a less than salubrious reputation."

"Will you quit worryin', if I says they ain't gonna rob ya then they ain't gonna rob ya! Now there's something else you four are gonna need if you're gonna be traipsing around in the countryside in this weather." Grammaw led them to a stall run by a short, stout cherry coloured mare, whose stall appeared to hold a collection of coats, ropes and other outdoor survival type items. "You still have those things I asked you about this mornin'?" She asked the pony.

The trader eyed Twilight and the others suspiciously before answering. "Yes I do. Four waterproof and insulated sleeping rolls. Those'll be fourty marcs each."

"Fourty?" said Grammaw "This mornin' you said they were twenty marcs each. Would you care to explain to me how they've doubled in price since then, and say it plenty loud 'cause I'm old and therefore senile and hard of hearing."

The trader swallowed nervously, "Well.. .you see, the thing is... a pony has to make ends meet, and I haven't sold much today and I-uh... well, I'm sure you know how it is..." The pony cowered down behind her wares, wilting under the intensity of Grammaw's glare. "But since you seem like such a nice mare I'll sell them for the old price of twenty marcs each!" she squeaked quickly.

"And it has nothing to do with three of them being unicorns?"

"Nope! Not a thing! I honestly hadn't even noticed!" the trader lied.

"Well that's good!" Grammaw exclaimed, suddenly full of cheer again. "I always thought to myself that here was a genuinely nice pony, willing to help their fellow pony out by not robbing them blind! You heard her girls, twenty marcs each."

Twilight, Trixie and Octavia started to rummage through their saddlebags, looking for the money, when Fleur pulled out another coin purse and counted out eighty marcs, giving them to the trader. "What?" she said defensively when she noticed the worried looks Twilight and Octavia were giving her. "I did a lot of... work in Stalliongrad before Trix- before we left."

"Uh-huh." Twilight murmured, although silently she was worried and the look Octavia gave her confirmed she wasn't the only one.

After that the five of them went about the various stalls picking up whatever supplies they thought they might need, Grammaw using her steely gaze to help traders suddenly overcome their bias against unicorns, not that they ever had one, no-siree.

Twilight and Octavia were also worried about the amount of marcs Fleur had appropriated, and about how she was spending them like they were going out of fashion, but Twilight thought it best to not confront her over it right now, figuring she was in enough trouble with Trixie to not need to get into more trouble with Fleur.

Slowly they wound their way back to Bric and Brac's cart, where the twins were adjusting a tarpaulin over a frame on their cart to protect their wares.

"Well now, I guess this is the part where we go our separate ways." Grammaw said, giving them a kindly smile. "Ah, stop right there." She held up a hoof to ward off Twilight, "I ain't the hugging type."

"Still though, if it hadn't been for you I have no idea what would have happened to us."

"Especially myself," added Octavia. "I don't want to dwell on it but without you taking us in and taking care of me I might well be dead right now."

"Aww phooey, you'd have found some way of taking care o' things, but still, you ain't better yet so you better be careful out there and take care of yerselves, all of ya." Trixie snorted scornfully. "And you Trixie, the dye will wash out soon enough, so quit making out like we've permanently damaged you or something. As for you Fleur, stop stealing stuff. It ain't big and it ain't clever and don't act like you ain't been doing it 'cause I've been watching ya do it."

"Is there anything we can do to repay you? Twilight asked. "Anything at all?"

"Oh I think you'll pay me back some day, with interest. However there is one small thing you could do..." Grammaw's eyes twinkled and she grinned mercilessly before she leant over towards Twilight to whisper in her ear. "If, and I meant if, you happen to see the Duke, tell him his lil sis Felicia says hi." With that she turned around and sauntered off, leaving a stunned Twilight in her wake.

She stood there watching as Grammaw walked up the hill back into the village, and it wasn't until Fleur came up to her and shouted in her ear that she got her wits together to get moving. They headed over to where Bric was helping his brother to get hitched up to a wooden caravan. "Are we heading out already?"

"Yes indeedy!" Brac confirmed, "All sorts of nasty critters tend to roam these woods at night.

"And we don't want to be here when they come a-looking," his brother continued. "They might have the brains to not head into the village-"

"But we're not in the village are we. That's why we're going now, to get out of the woods before nightfall."

Bric walked around to the back of the cart and held a hoof out to Octavia to help her up. "M'lady," he said before showing off his most suave smile. He went to the front of the cart where Brac used his magic to hitch him up. "Off we go ladies, do try to keep up." They started off, the two brothers walking side by side down the surprisingly wide track, Bric on the left and Brac on the right, with Fleur between them and Trixie and Twilight to either side.

"Soooo..." Bric said, obviously trying to strike up a conversation. "Have you ladies heard the news?"

Twilight laughed nervously, and mentally beat herself up for doing so. "News? What news? Don't tell me something interesting has happened around here?"

"Indeed it has little lady!" Brac said from the other side of Fleur. "Word is there was a most heroic rescue of a unicorn from dehorning in the fair city of Stalliongrad."

"Ooohhh," Fleur said in altogether too saucy a tone, "sounds exciting! Please, do tell."

"Word is," Bric began, "is that a unicorn was due to be publicly dehorned a few days ago, a mare of pale blue, but a soul black as night for cursing a pony."

"That's ridiculous! I nev- I bet that unicorn never cursed anypony!" Trixie burst out.

"It’s not!" Brac said back. "Rosebud, who runs the seed stall said she was there and saw it all! She said that as the dehorning blade was about to fall two mysterious cloaked unicorns appeared and smashed the guillotine to splinters!"

"If that pony's evil, with a soul as black as night, then why is it a heroic rescue? Surely she would deserve such a thing?" Trixie asked sweetly.

"I-I... uh... we... uh..." the brothers spluttered. ”Well she might not have had a soul as black as night per se, but I bet she must have done something wrong," Brac conceded.

There was a clang and a grunt from the cart Bric was pulling and after a second Octavia poked her head out of a flap. "She could've done anything. A unicorn around here can get dehorned just for throwing a piece of fruit at the wrong pony..."

"That is true..." Brac said slowly. "You have no idea how careful I have to be travelling with the caravan. Say the wrong thing to the wrong customer and minutes later I can have a mob after me screaming for my blood."

"Really?" Twilight asked, shocked.

"Yes indeedy." said Bric. "Let’s just say that we no longer go to the town of Furlong for a very good reason."

The ponies travelled in silence for a minute until Octavia asked, "So what happened in Stalliongrad? Did the unicorns get away?"

"Oh yes!" Bric answered her. "Rosebud said they fought off dozens of guards and fled into the city, where apparently they're still hiding."

"I doubt they fought off dozens of guards," said Trixie scornfully. "I mean, Brac, could you fight off say... ten guards on your own?"

"No ma'am, but I reckon that means they must all be powerful sorceress's to fight that many off."

"They must be," Bric added, "if they can hide in the city under the guards' very noses."

Fleur looked at the two brothers as if trying to decide something. "Surely they'd be mad to remain in the city if they're being hunted?"

"Maybe that's their cunning plan," Bric answered, "to hide in the place where they're least expected to be."

"So why are the guards only looking in the city if it’s the place they least expect to find their quarry?"

Trixie was the pony who answered her. "Because they're embarrassed, obviously. All those guards getting trounced by three little unicorns? I wouldn't want news of that getting around."

Bric and Brac nodded their agreement. "Quite true," said Bric. "That kind of incompetence would get noticed if news spread around. Would make them look awfully silly. I bet they just want to forget all about it."

"So naturally you're going to tell as many ponies about it as possible?" Octavia asked.

"Naturally," the brothers replied simultaneously.

"You're being awfully quiet Twilight," Fleur said. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothings' wrong, I'm just happy to listen." Twilight smiled at Fleur as best she could, but inside her stomach was churning. The idea of this being spread around made her nervous, although she didn't really know why. It was already blown ridiculously out of proportion by rumour so ponies hopefully shouldn't take it seriously, at least Twilight really hoped so. Who knows what might happen if they did.

Author's Notes:

For those who think what Twilight did to Trixie was completely out of character then I wouldn't be totally inclined to disagree, but she is prone to doing stupid things when desperate e.g. Lesson zero.

8. Just over the horizon

Twilight lay looking at whatever stars she could see through the mist of her breath. It had been two days since they had departed Hoof-Ridge and another day or so until they got to Prance, and the closer they got to Prance the worse the squirming in her gut became. The smallest bit of relief she could claim is that the snow had almost disappeared the closer they got to Prance, making things just that little bit easier even if it was still absolutely freezing.

She was also plagued with mysteries. Who was the Lady of the North? And did she really lead a rebellion four hundred years ago? If it is true she led the rebellion, why not sooner? Mareitania in its current state of affairs had existed since the exodus nearly one thousand five hundred years ago. Did she really spend a thousand of those years just sitting on her hooves?

Grammaw's sudden confession to being the duke’s younger sister also had her thinking. What was she going to do when she met the Duke and Duchess? Kill them? Impossible. Imprison them? Maybe. Would other ponies in Maretania even let her choose? Of course that was getting ahead of herself, she had to get to them first and she hadn't the slightest notion of how.

Then there was Celestia's comment about Princess Platinum being her and Luna's mother. Not that she wanted to doubt her mentor, but something about it just struck her as being slightly off, and Twilight very much wanted to know more, except she was almost afraid to ask. Twilight had to admit that she had never thought to ask where Celestia and Luna came from. To her and probably most Equestrians, Celestia and Luna had always been and always will be. The idea of them having parents and being children was just... weird, and the idea of them just having a normal unicorn as their mother also seemed weird, although she didn't know why. She was an alicorn now and her parents were normal unicorns.

Suffice to say Twilight's head was a busy place. No wonder sleep wasn't happening. She put another log onto the campfire and snuggled down into her sleeping bag, pulling the drawstring closed over her head and making a mental note to find Grammaw again and thank her for finding these things.

"Twilight! Wake up Twilight!" Trixie shouted as she prodded the grey lump that was Twilight in her sleeping bag. "If you don't wake up I'm going to drink your coffee and eat your breakfast and I totally won't be sorry! For many reasons! Seriously, I won’t be, I've already eaten mine and I'm still hungry and yours smells really, really nice."

Slowly Twilight undid the drawstring and poked her dishevelled head out. "Whattimezit?" she asked groggily as she noticed it was barely even light yet. Trixie passed her coffee to her, which she eagerly sucked down.

"I don't know... Sevenish maybe? Bric and Brac want us to get up early so they can get to Prance and set up shop by this afternoon."

Twilight blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "And you're up already? You're normally the worst at getting up."

"I know right. Blame Fleur for cooking that delicious smelling hay bacon right next to Trixie," she said with a pout.

"Hay bacon? Since when do we have hay bac- Oh. Great." Twilight said quietly.

"Always happy to help, Trixie." Fleur said from across the campfire, where she was cooking something in a frying pan. "Yours’ll be ready in a minute or two, Twilight. So get up."

Reluctantly Twilight dragged herself out of her sleeping bag and quickly wrapped herself in her cloak. "Do you ever think we should have bought more than just cloaks?"

"Yes," answered Octavia who stepped out of the brothers caravan and shivered before practically sitting on the fire. "All the time. We really weren't prepared for this were we?"

"It was all we could afford at the time," Fleur said as she passed Twilight her breakfast. "If it wasn't for the trade caravan we'd be far worse off right now."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed, as she drooled over Twilight's food. "It was strangely convenient how they happened to be in Hoof-Ridge just as we needed them."

"Meh, stranger things have happened," Fleur said dismissively. "Anyway, you seem a bit more chipper today."

"Yeah, well... After what Bric and Brac were talking about when we left Hoof-Ridge and after having a bit of time to think it over I admit disguising me was probably a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm still mad that you forcibly dunked in me a tub of dye, but I can appreciate you were doing it for my own good. The dye will wash off faster than a horn would grow back."

"That's good," said Twilight, a small bit of guilt weighting her down a little less. "Speaking of, where are Bric and Brac?"

"Hmm? Oh they're off talking to some of the other traders." Fleur answered her.

"Good." Twilight got up and walked over to where they had stashed their saddlebags in the cart. She pulled out Fleur's and started rummaging through it.

"Twilight? What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done days ago." She pulled out Fleur's coin bag and emptied it, counting out what was there. "Thirty seven," she muttered to herself before pulling the coin bag out of her own saddlebag and adding her own money to the collection. "Fifty three, close enough."

"Twilight! What are you doing!?" Fleur demanded with a stomp of her hoof.

"Paying back what you took from Bric and Brac, and don't deny it, I heard what you whispered to Trixie. I'm not deaf."

"But I- we need that money! How else are we going to survive?"

"Surviving is one thing Fleur, but what you're doing is just plain greed! Bric and Brac are helping us and don't deserve to be half paid with their own money!"

Trixie and Octavia shared a nervous glance at each other as Fleur shoved her face into Twilight's. "You have no right to take that money out of my bag! If you want to pay them back use your own money. Oh wait, you can't. I'm the one who has to get all the money we need! You'd be penniless without me!"

"Perhaps, but we said to only take what we need. The amount you've been taking is far beyond that!"

"Then why didn't you bring this up sooner? Twilight suddenly feels guilty and now we have to give it all back?"

"The reason I'm doing this now is because they aren't here to hear it. I'm pretty sure that doing this in front of them wouldn't go down too well. I'm also bringing it up now because I'm pretty sure we never had any hay bacon yesterday, and it’s not like we passed any shops. Your stealing is getting out of control. Grammaw could see it, I can see it and Octavia and Trixie can probably see it!"

Fleur swung round to face a suddenly awkward Trixie and Octavia. "Well! Do you agree with her? Am I getting 'out of control?’”

"Trixie has no problem with it. I mean I wouldn't have stolen off Bric and Brac, not now anyway, because they're pretty cool. Otherwise, yeah, no problem."

"Thank you Trixie. How about you Octavia?"

Octavia rubbed a leg nervously. "I-I think that... maybe you could, perhaps, rein it in a little bit. I mean, you spent loads back at Hoof-Ridge and you still have quite a bit left. I know we need money Fleur, but not that much."

"I see. Fine." Fleur picked her saddlebags up and placed them over her back, before tying her sleeping bag on. "Clearly if my helping you makes you feel guilty, then perhaps I better remove the problem entirely. I'm going to go to Prance and I'm going to rob somepony and laugh about it."

"What? No! I don't want you to go Fleur!" Twilight pleaded, holding out a hoof to stop her.

Fleur roughly knocked it aside. "Too fucking late! Clearly my help doesn't mean shit to you Princess, so I'm going! Maybe I'll see you there, but I wouldn't count on it."

The three remaining ponies watched as she briskly trotted off down the road towards Prance. "Bravo Twilight, first the whole coat dyeing thing with me and now this. I can't wait to see what you're going to do to Octavia to piss her off."

"But- but I only meant to stop her stealing so much! I never... I never meant for her to do that!" Twilight shouted, pointing after Fleur. "Ooh what have I done..."

"You've lost Fleur, that's what."

"Oh hush Trixie." Octavia sat by Twilight to comfort her, "Even you have to admit that was a bit unexpected. What we did to you was far worse, and you didn't even mention leaving."

"I won't deny that Trixie thought about it, but yeah, I know what you mean."

Twilight sniffed and rubbed an eye, trying to compose herself. "I don't. I mean, I thought that maybe she would agree, or at least stop stealing so much for our sakes, because we're worried. Besides there are plenty of practical reasons for her to stop, like the more she steals the greater her chance at getting caught. The last thing we need is another one of us getting arrested."

"Exactly," Octavia said as she gave Twilight a hug. "There's something wrong with the way she reacted. I've met her a few times before this in Canterlot, and she was always really laid back and would laugh off even the worst insults. That... That was more like a child's reaction. 'You won't let me do what I want so I'm going to run away.'"

"Ok, yeah... Trixie can see where you're coming from, but that doesn't change the fact that she's gone. Shouldn't we be going after her?"

"I doubt she'd listen right now. Hopefully we'll find her in Prance once she's had a chance to cool down a little."

They had just finished dismantling the camp and packing their things away when Bric and Brac returned. "Is everything okay ladies?" Bric asked. "We could hear you arguing from over there."

"No, not really," Twilight said sullenly. "Fleur and I had a bit of a disagreement and she's decided to go to Prance ahead of us."

"Well that's unfortunate," said Brac. "We were just about to give you a warning about you going there. According to some travellers heading the other way, there's some government bigwig visiting, and the security in that place has been doubled-"

"If not tripled," Bric added.

"If you, as a unicorn, got caught doing something untoward in Prance right now...well..."

"Losing your horn would be the least of your worries because you wouldn't have a head to keep it on."

"You really couldn't make this stuff up," Trixie muttered to no one in particular as she stared up into the sky. "Can't we just catch a break, please?"

"Anyway..." Brac said slowly as he gave Trixie a funny look, "we've decided that we're not going to Prance, not yet anyway. We'll be stopping in Trotton, which is a little village a couple hours trot from Prance."

"If you ladies want to go on ahead, it’s your choice. We, on the other hoof, won't be setting a hoof in Prance until whoever it is, is gone."

Twilight, Trixie and Octavia huddled together in a circle. "We really should go after her," Trixie whispered. "If she gets caught pickpocketing in Prance now it'll be game over for her."

Octavia shook her head. "Normally I would agree, but the way Fleur was acting it'd probably just make her more determined to go there and do whatever she's going to do. What do you think Twilight?"

Twilight breathed out slowly as she thought. "I agree with Octavia, if we try to stop her going she'll probably think we're just trying to stop her from stealing. Besides she would probably get there before us, she has got a bit of a lead on us now, and I doubt Octavia can gallop that far without straining herself."

"You or me could do it Twilight," Trixie suggested. "We could catch up to her and at least warn her if we can't make her stop and wait for the rest of us."

Octavia and Twilight looked at each other and nodded lightly in agreement. "Yeah okay," Twilight said, "but it’s going to have to be you Trixie, I doubt she's going to want to see me."

"A mission only the Great and Powerful Trixie can complete? Now we're talking!" she said, making Twilight instantly roll her eyes.

"Leave your stuff with us so you can go faster. No point carrying that weight if you don't have to."

"And wrap a scarf around your muzzle," Octavia added. "Breathing in that much cold air when galloping really isn't very good for you." They broke from the circle and Trixie started trotting on the spot to warm up as Octavia went to her bags and pulled a scarf out.

"Trixie," Twilight said as Trixie wrapped the scarf around her muzzle, "if you get to Trotton and haven't found her don't go any further, and if you do and she refuses to stop, please wait for us. There's no point in you getting too far ahead and ending up in Prance too." Trixie nodded and set off, Twilight and Octavia watching her go.

"Where's she off to in such a hurry?" Bric asked casually.

"Chasing after Fleur. We figured that even if we can't stop her we can at least warn her."

"I see. Well come along ladies it’s still a long way to go."

Trixie flew along the road, her mane and cloak blowing out behind her in a way that would have looked very dramatic if she had been in a position to appreciate it. Unfortunately though, she may have rather overestimated her fitness when she volunteered to chase after Fleur. She'd only been galloping for ten minutes or so and she was already feeling the strain.

She slowed down to a trot and yanked the scarf down so she could gasp and wheeze for air a bit easier. "This is *gasp* totally the *gasp* thin air's fault! *gasp* Trixie is *gasp* better than *gasp* this." She attempted to start galloping again, which she managed for about thirty seconds before collapsing against a boulder at the side of the road and losing her breakfast.

"Yuck, hay bacon is not as nice on the way up as it is on the way down."

"Hey, you okay?" said a little voice from the top of boulder, causing Trixie to squeal and leap away before feebly blasting the top of the boulder with her magic. "Yeesh lady, a bit jumpy aren't we?" the voice said from its new position of behind the rock.

"Show yourself you cur!"

"Okay okay..." There was a scraping of hooves on rock as whoever it climbed back up the boulder. Slowly a tuft of pale purple mane came into view perched atop some pale purple eyes, followed by a small, grubby pale yellow body that was wrapped in a ratty brown cape that looked like it had been made from a sack. "Hi."

Trixie narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What exactly is a young filly like yourself doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Oh you know, sitting, waiting. Watching unicorns throw up by boulders."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. What's your name little filly that likes watching unicorns throw up?"

The filly shrugged lightly, "You can call me Petal if you want."

"What do you mean 'if I want?'"

"Well ponies call me a lot of names, none of them very nice, but I don't think a nice and pretty unicorn like yourself would want to call me things like that."

Trixie preened a little before remembering she was dealing with that most treacherous of creature known as a pre-teen. "I don't suppose you've happened to see another unicorn pass by here? Tall, white, pink mane and tail and wearing a black cape? Probably looked a bit angry?"

The filly nodded enthusiastically, "Sure! A unicorn like that passed here about an hour ago."

Trixie groaned in annoyance before frowning in thought, "How long have you been out here by this rock?"

"I dunno. A while anyway. Dad told me to wait here while he did something in the fields, but he should've been back by now... You don't think he left me do you?" Her face scrunched up and she started to cry. "He...h-he's abandoned me has-has-hasn't he-he-he!"

Trixie swallowed nervously as Petal started bawling; crying children was so not her thing. "Uh... there there Petal," she said, feeling a bit of an idiot for doing so. "I'm sure he's not far away." She looked at her tear stained face and felt a little of her resolve falter. "What if I helped you find him?" she offered weakly.

Petal rubbed her eyes and sniffed, "You'd really d-do that for me?" Trixie nodded unenthusiastically. "Oh thank you miss!" Petal jumped off the boulder and scurried over to Trixie before latching onto her front left leg in what was probably a hug, but felt more like a death grip. "Thank you-thank you-thank you!"

"You're, uh... welcome... I suppose. Do you know where your dad is? Or rather, where he should be?"

Petal shook her head sadly, "He went that way," she said, pointing down a dirt track that branched off the main road, "but I don't know how far."

Trixie stared down the length of the dirt track, but couldn't see anypony. Unfortunately she couldn't see the end of the track either, and she had feeling the filly was going to make her walk the whole thing looking. "I guess we better get started..." she said in a voice devoid of cheer.

"You're the best miss... um... miss..?"

"Trixie."

"You're the best miss Trixie!"

Trixie didn't know how long she had been walking down this track now, it hadn't been that long but the longer it took and the further she went the less sure she felt about things. Petal on the other hoof seemed quite pleased as she walked down this dirt track in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger, and chattered on about anything and everything like she hadn't a care in the world.

"Petal, are you sure we should keep going down here?"

"Uh-huh, he came this way and we haven't found him yet so we have to keep going, we just have to!"

"Okay okay. Please don't cry again!" You'd have thought that years of being a show mare would have meant that Trixie was perfectly at home with children. Such a thing couldn't be further from the truth.

After several more minutes of trotting, and listening to Petal's incessant chattering, they came upon a ramshackle wooden house that sat just in front of a small wood. "Where are we Petal?"

"This is where I live! I can't hear anypony here though so that probably means the doors locked."

"Where you live? I thought we were looking for your dad?"

"We are! If this is where we live then he's bound to turn up sooner or later right?" Trixie really couldn't deny the logic of that.

"Did you really need my help just to walk here though? I'm pretty sure you’re big enough to do this on your own. Anyway, are you going to be okay here until your dad gets back? I'm kinda in the middle of something which I really should get back to." Because at this rate Twilight and Octavia are going to get to Trotton before me.

Petal's lower lip trembled, "You mean you're just going to leave me out here in the cold? All on my own?"

Trixie sighed irritably, "I guess not... Would you be okay if I left you inside in the warm?" Petal nodded but still looked like she could cry. "Great! So how do we get in?"

Petal led them around the side of the house to a small window set level with the ground. She pushed it open and peered inside. "If you go in there you can go from the basement into the house and open the front door."

"Me? Why me? You're smaller than I am, you go."

"I would but there's a drop to the floor and its quite high for me, I might hurt myself." Trixie mumbled some curse words under her breath and was about to squeeze through the window when Petal stopped her. "You might want to take your cloak off. If you catch it on the window you could accidentally hang yourself."

Trixie took off her cloak and scarf and gave them to Petal. She then squeezed through the window and gracelessly fell to the floor with a thud. "Ow." She dusted herself off and looked around the basement, quickly finding the door into the house even in the poor light the window provided. She tried the door but it was locked. She was about to head back to the window and complain but it suddenly got a lot darker when something blotted out the light. She lit her horn and saw that some boxes had been pushed up against the window. "Petal? What's going on?"

"Y'know miss Trixie, your white unicorn friend is a lot sharper than you are. She didn't fall for it one bit. You though, you fell for it hook, line and sinker. This is a nice cloak, ought to be worth something back in Prance."

"What? No! Petal! Don't you dare run off with my things!" She waited for a reply, but got none. "Petal! You get back here right now you little rat!" Still no reply. "PETAL! I will find you, and when I do you have no idea how sorry you'll be!" The silence was deafening.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Trixie had no idea how long she spent sulking in the darkness of the basement, the dark robbing her of all sense of time. Slowly she became aware of hoofsteps on the floorboards above her. She swallowed nervously and spoke loudly in the hopes that whoever it was would hear her.

"H-hello? Can anypony hear me? I'm sorry to bother you but Trixie appears to be locked in your basement and can't get out." She waited as the hoofsteps headed towards where the door upstairs was, and cringed when it was opened, blinded by the sudden influx of light. She stepped out gingerly and was met by a small brown earth pony stallion with a bald head and a great big bushy beard, like his hair had migrated to his chin and decided to stay there.

He raised a cynical eyebrow at her, "Small yellow filly, 'bout this tall? He asked, raising a hoof to level with his chest.

"I-uh... well, yes actually. How did you know?"

"You're the third pony in six months. I really ought to put a lock on that basement window. Anyway, I don't want a dang unicorn here so you best be on your way."

He led her outside and was about go back in when she asked "What's the best way to Trotton that doesn't involve taking the road? I'd rather not go that way for... reasons."

The stallion pointed through the wood. "If you go in a straight line through the wood you'll come out at the bottom of a hill. If you go up the hill you'll be able to see Trotton in the distance. It’s pretty much a straight line through the fields. You'd be better off taking the road though, it’s much easier."

Trixie thanked the stallion and set off through the woods. "No way am I taking the road." she said to herself, "If I turn up in Trotton after them on the road they came in on, well...that's going to be embarrassing."

Twilight paced around the small fountain in the center of Trotton. "Ooh, where is she? If she's gone to Prance despite me asking her not to I might just scream."

"Relax Twilight," Octavia said as she sat by the fountain, watching Twilight go round and round. "If she's late I'm sure it’s for a good reason."

"Did you ever encounter Trixie before this mission?"

"No. Why?"

"Let’s just say that she's the sort of pony that thrives on fulfilling her whims." Twilight circled the fountain a few more times. "Ugh, let’s go back to the camp, maybe she's waiting there for some reason."

The few minutes’ walk back to where Bric and Brac were set up were walked in silence, Twilight seething quietly, and Octavia too nervous to say anything to her in case it was the wrong thing. When they got to the camp they were disappointed, but not surprised, by the lack of Trixie. There was also a lack of Bric and Brac.

Lifting the bag of coins out of her saddlebag that she had meant to put in the brothers' money box, or whatever they used, she paused a moment in thought. "Might as well have Fleur hate me for an actual reason," she said to herself. Louder she said "Octavia, keep an eye out for Trixie. I'm going to give Bric and Brac their money back."

She quietly stepped inside the brothers caravan and looked around. On the left were two bunk beds which weren't very helpful. On the right were two chests, each with the name of their owner embossed upon them. She opened the nearest one which belonged to Brac and started rummaging around hoping to find a money box or something.

She found nothing and was about to move onto Bric's when something under the bottom bunk caught her eye. She ducked down and using her magic, pulled out a small box that sounded like it had money inside. She opened it, but instead of finding money she found a collection of odds and ends, some papers, and most curiously a small orange feather that was the same colouration as Bric and Brac.

Her mind seemed to go blank as she studied the feather, and it wasn't until somepony right behind her cleared their throat that she was able to tear her mind away from the void it inhabited.

She looked round and was met by the stern face of Brac. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to pry, I only wanted to find somewhere to put this money because Fleur stole it and I wanted to give it back so I came in here and I was looking in the chest for a money box or something and I found this box under the bed and I thought that was what I was looking for but it wasn't and I'm really really sorry!" She had managed to say that in one breath and was about to start again when Brac held out a hoof.

"Give me the money." Twilight did so, and Brac made a show of counting it. "It’s not all here, so it’s a good job I don't want it."

"I k-know it’s not all- not all there, b-but it’s all we had left. I'm sorry." Twilight hung her head and a tear ran down her cheek before dripping onto the floor.

Brac reached over and raised Twilight's chin so he could look her in the eye. "I said its okay, we don't want the money," he said giving her a kind smile.

"Y-you don't?"

"No. We suspected one of you had taken it because frankly, our money didn't really add up at the end of the day. Personally I suspected it was Trixie so I'm a little surprised to hear it was Fleur. She always seemed like such a nice pony."

"If you suspected it was one of us why didn't you say anything?"

"Honestly, because we were expecting you to haggle. We would have happily done the job for fifty marcs, maybe even less, and we would have shared our fire with you for free as we're not totally soulless, money grubbing merchants. So when she gave us one hundred and twenty marcs, even though it was half ours it still left us in profit, so we never brought it up."

"Oh." Twilight sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "But why are you letting us keep it?"

"Because you were nice enough to try and put things right. Even falling out with one of your friends to do so. Guess I have a soft spot for ponies that would do that. Now I bet you're wondering about the feather?"

Twilight nodded, "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, its fine." Brac took the feather in his magic and stared at it for a few seconds as a frown spread across his face. "This feather is all we have left of our other brother."

"Other brother?" She looked at the feather again and sudden twigged. "He was a pegasus wasn't he? Oh I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what? That he's a pegasus, or that he was taken to the labour camps?"

"Sorry that he was taken of course! My friends and I aren't like that! None of us have a thing against pegasi!"

"That's good, and don't be sorry; you didn't take him away. Anyway I don't really remember him since we were still very young when they took him to the labour camps, so it's not like we feel his loss too heavily, but at the same time it just feels like something's missing. Its mine and Bric's hope that one day we'll find him and then we can be together again. That's why we travel around so much, hoping that someday we'll find something that'll lead to him. We also have some friends in the south looking."

"Hold on, Grammaw said she delivered you and Bric. She never said you had another brother."

"Of course she wouldn't mention it, it wasn't her secret to tell. If a family of non pegasi have a pegasus foal its seen as a mark of shame. The foal gets taken to be brought up to do the weather and in most cases is never spoken of again."

"Oh. In that case your secret is safe with me."

Brac snorted, "We're not ashamed and it’s not a secret. The more ponies that know, the better our chance at finding him."

Twilight was about to ask more but Octavia interrupted her by shouting her name quite loudly. "Thank you for sharing that with me," she said to Brac before heading back outside. "What is it? Is Trixie finally here?"

"Kind of yes, and mostly no. Not unless she has suddenly shrunk and turned yellow. See that filly there? The one with the purple cloak that's several sizes too big and the scarf that looks awfully similar to the one I gave Trixie?" She pointed to where said filly was lurking by a fruit stand. "Do you think that maybe we should ask where she acquired those?"

The two ponies walked over to the filly, who gave them a wary look as they approached. "Excuse me," Twilight said, "I don't suppose I could ask where you got that cloak and scarf from?"

The filly sniffed and spat on the ground. "Around," was her laconic reply.

"So you didn't happen to get them off a blueeerrrrr-dark grey unicorn?"

"I didn't see nopony. They were just there where anypony could take them. Recumbent like."

"That's a very big word for a filly."

"Oh yeah? Patronizing's a big word too, maybe you've 'eard of it? I also specialize in tall tales. Being tall rather than long makes them easier for me to say."

"Uh..." was all Twilight managed to say since she had the feeling she was being challenged in a way she couldn't cope with. "What if I offered to buy the cloak and scarf off of you?"

The filly's face suddenly split into a wide grin, "Sure! Twenty marcs!"

Twilight was about to agree when Octavia suddenly spoke over her. "Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten, and I'll throw in the hay bacon roll that Twilight never ate for breakfast."

"Sold!" The ponies made their exchange, the filly quickly taking a bite out of the roll. "Hey, there's no ketchup in this thing! What a rip off. Oh, and your blueeerrrr-dark grey unicorn friend will probably be here in the next hour or so, give or take," she said mysteriously before cramming the rest of the roll into her mouth and scurrying off.

"How did you do that?" Twilight asked Octavia in amazement.

"Practicing with big kids helps, and Vinyl is the biggest kid I've ever met. I wonder how she got the cloak and scarf off Trixie?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

They were waiting in the town center when a cold and mud covered Trixie squelched into town. Supressing a snigger Twilight held up Trixie's cloak, "Lose something?"

"Shut up?"

"Did you find Fleur?" Octavia asked.

"Shut up."

"How'd that shortcut work out for you?"

"Last warning," Trixie said as she walked up to the two ponies mocking her.

"How did a little filly rob you?" Trixie snorted and very suddenly yet deliberately raised her forehooves and rubbed one each over Twilight's and Octavia's faces, leaving a big muddy streak behind, before getting up, snatching her cloak off Twilight and quietly squelching off.

"So worth it," Twilight and Octavia said to each other with a grin.

Author's Notes:

I'm honestly going to have to start posting at where I'm writing. This whole 'writing three chapters ahead' thing I got going on is hella confusing for me. Leaves me wandering why I wrote most of this chapter. Oh well, too lazy for rewrites.

9. Casually seeking Fleur

Twilight, Octavia and a slightly paler grey, post bath Trixie, were stood around the fire at Bric and Brac's camp, preparing to set off for Prance. Yesterday had not been anywhere near as productive as they had hoped and had cost them money in the end just to buy Trixie's stuff back, so they were feeling generally optimistic that things probably couldn't get worse.
First though, they had to say their farewells to Bric and Brac.

"Are you all ready to set off?" Bric asked casually, although Twilight thought she could detect a hitch in his voice.

"I think so, it's not like we have an awful lot of stuff to pack." Twilight sighed and smiled at the brothers, "I guess this is goodbye then. I honestly cannot thank you enough for helping us get to Prance. we'd have found it a lot harder otherwise."

Brac snorted in amusement, "All we did was walk, not exactly a huge challenge. We do wish we could talk you out of going to Prance though, although I feel that would actually be a challenge. From what we've been hearing Prance is not a nice place to be right now."

"Trixie is willing to excuse many things about Prance if there's a bed she can sleep in," Trixie said with a grimace. "I didn't know sleeping on the ground could leave one feeling so sore."

Twilight rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored her. "We need to get to Prance to find Fleur. If it’s as bad there as you think it is we may need to find her before she does something stupid."

"Like stealing off the wrong pony and ending up wearing a hemp collar as her last outfit?" Bric suggested with a sneer.

"Yeah..." Twilight dropped her gaze and pawed at the ground, "I'm still really sorry about the whole stealing off you thing. I wish I had brought it up with her sooner, maybe things would have turned out differently."

Brac waved her off dismissively, "Maybe, maybe not. No point dwelling on what ifs. Anyway, you're not going to find her hanging around here."

"Right, of course. Goodbye then, Bric, Brac. I hope we'll see each other again at some point in the future."

The two brothers looked sideways at each other. "Quite possible," they said. "So long and farewell. May the Lady protect you in your travels." The others said their goodbyes and they were about to set off when an orange hoof tapped Octavia on the shoulder. She turned around and was surprised when she was swept off her hooves and firmly kissed on the lips by Bric.

"No chance was I going to let you leave without doing that. Farewell my lady Octavia." He kissed her on the hoof and practically danced back to where his brother was smirking at him. Brac gave them one last wave and the two brothers trotted off leaving a slightly bemused Twilight, a highly amused Trixie, and Octavia, who appeared to be going cross-eyed looking at the end of her nose.

"Ooohhh!" Trixie teased, "Octavia and Bric, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Trixie frowned when Octavia didn't rise to her bait, and didn't in fact do anything except stare blankly. "Hey," she gave Octavia a nudge, "you okay?"

"He kissed me..."

"We noticed. It was rather hard to miss, what with the sweeping off the hooves thing and the full on, overblown kissing sounds."

"Well I don't remember giving him permission to do so."

"It’s supposed to be romantic Octavia. Sometimes a pony just has to be brave and spontaneous and go for what they want."

"Have I given any hint over the last few days that I was even slightly interested in him?"

"No but he's given you more than a few."

Octavia shuddered and took a swig from her canteen before spitting it back out. "Ugh, his breath is a taste I won't be forgetting in a hurry. Sweet Celestia I wish we had some mouthwash! Let's get going, I really don't want to think about this more than I already have."

"Trixie is not impressed. I thought this place would be bigger."

"We're still a few miles away Trixie." Twilight shook her head and went back to studying the city. Despite Trixie's misgivings, she was impressed. The city was built on a hill, its highest point being some kind of castle, while the rest of the city was spread out around the castle in a circle which was bordered by a tall wall. "How about we get closer before making our final impressions."

As they got closer even Trixie seemed to lose her dismissive attitude in the shadow of the city. The wall which surrounded the city turned out to be the height of at least fifteen ponies by Twilight's estimation. Following the road they were approaching a wide arch that was guarded on the outside by no less than four guards, two on the road and two on the top of the arch which were wielding crossbows that had been mounted on the wall.

They eyed the guards nervously as they entered, the guards doing nothing but staring ahead at the road, although Twilight was sure she could hearing one tutting after they passed.

"Okay, now Trixie is impressed, if slightly sickened." She was staring at the inside of the arch, upon which was carved murals depicting the earth ponies takeover of Mareitania after the exodus. On the right side were images of the earth ponies bringing the unicorns into line and the battle to take Unicornia, which Twilight thought very odd seeing as how the unicorns had apparently just given it to them.

The left side was worse though, depicting the earth ponies forcing the unicorns to tear down the city of Pegasopolis and the brutal subjugation of the pegasi that turned them into what they are today. At the end of both sides were images of earth ponies dressed in riches while on the ground between them, so that you were forced to walk over them, was a large image of unicorns and pegasi bowing in supplication, although it was heavily scored and pitted by years of being trod on.

"Whoever made this was twisted. A genius perhaps, but still horribly twisted." Trixie said as she walked over the frieze on the ground. "I'm no stranger to megalomania, but this? This is a bit much."

"You locked our mayor in a bird cage in the town square all through the perma-storm you conjured..."

"Exactly! Not a stranger to megalomania." Noticing Octavia's slightly alarmed look she explained, "I got hold of something called the Alicorn Amulet. Twilight beat me at magic some months before and I wanted revenge. I beat her in a magic duel and took over Ponyville where I literally went mad with power, as in completely cuckoo. Twilight tricked me into taking the amulet off, forgave me for my bizarre power trip and we've been firm friends ever since, right Twilight?"

"Right."

After they had passed through the arch Twilight looked back, noticing that at the top of the arch was carved a single word, 'TRIUMPH.' The squirmy feeling in her gut went into overtime, although she might just have been genuinely sickened by that twisted tableau. "Well, we're here..."

"Seems so."

"Indeed."

They looked around and really weren't expecting what they saw. There were guards everywhere, and heavily armed guards at that. Everywhere else ponies went about their business, many wearing guarded and nervous expressions. The tension around them was almost palpable.

"Why are there two types of guards?" Trixie asked as she pointed over to where a more plainly dressed guard was conversing with a well-armed and armoured guard. "I think I suddenly get what Bric and Brac were talking about."

Twilight studied the scene before her, but couldn't make heads or tails of what she was seeing. Stalliongrad had guards, but nothing even close to this level. "Octavia, could you ask one of these guards what's going on here?"

Octavia swallowed nervously, "S-sure..." She trotted over to the nearest guard, which happened to be one of the heavily armoured variety, and cleared her throat before giving him her most genuine smile. He in turn just looked at her disdainfully. "Excuse me sir, I've only just arrived in town and I was hoping you could tell me what's happening here? Why are there so many guards?"

The guard grunted and looked like he wasn't going to answer her at first. "This city has been placed under martial law."

"Martial law? Why? And why would you let us in during martial law?”

"Prance has become a hotbed of insurrectionism and is to remain under martial law until the General says so, and we may have let you in but we we've said nothing about letting you out. Now I suggest you get moving."

"So you've just decided to trap us in here?"

The guard growled, "Seems that way. Now get moving before I have you arrested for wasting my time."

Octavia hurried over to where Twilight and Trixie were waiting. "The city's under martial law! These aren't guards, they're soldiers!"

"Soldiers? I guess that explains the weapons and armour, but why is this place under martial law, and why let us into the city?"

"And why did it have to be while we're here?" Trixie added.

"He said that Prance has become a 'hotbed of insurrectionism' and that the city is to remain under martial until some General feels it’s been dealt with. He also said that the guards let us in but they probably wouldn't let us leave."

"Great, so we're stuck here. Fan-bloody-tabulous." Trixie muttered. "The bit about insurrectionists sounds promising. Sounds exactly like what we're looking for."

"What are you talking about Trixie? We're here to find Fleur, not get involved in this."

"Really? Isn't the whole point of us being in Mareitania to overthrow the government? An insurrection sounds like the perfect place to start if you ask me."

Twilight was about to argue but stopped, realising that perhaps Trixie wasn't talking total rubbish. "Maybe, but finding Fleur has to be our first priority. The punishments for breaking the law during martial law tend to be somewhat severe according to some books I've read. I'm hoping she's smart enough to not do something so risky but we can't count on that." She looked around quickly before making a decision, "We need to split up and find Fleur quickly." She pointed towards the city center, at the castle, "Octavia, you go that way. You're less likely to attract negative attention being an earth pony and all. Trixie, you go that way," she said, pointing to the left, "and I'll go this way," she finished, pointing to the right. “Meet back here at sunset."

Twilight trotted through the streets, noticing more and more how dilapidated they became the further she went. She also noticed that the ponies around her were more commonly unicorns. A fact that was possibly behind why she was seeing a higher number of guards around here. It was only natural, in backward Mareitanian thinking, that they would hold the unicorns responsible for the insurrectionists.

She trotted on, keeping an eye out for guards as much as she was for Fleur, when she noticed a commotion further up the street in front of a tall multistory building. Two guards had backed four ponies into a corner; a pale green earth pony stallion, a white unicorn mare and two children, a light brown earth pony colt and a white unicorn filly.

"We know you're involved with them!" one of the soldiers shouted. "If you tell us where we can find them maybe your kids here will sleep in their beds tonight instead of a cell!"

"I don't know anything about any insurrection! Please!" the stallion pleaded as the mare held the children close. "If you have to arrest anypony, arrest me! Just leave my wife and children alone!"

The soldiers looked like they were going to do so, as one of them was pulling a set of manacles out. Without really thinking Twilight ran up to the guards, "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Piss off horn head!" one of the guards snarled at her. "This has nothing to do with you! Piss off before I arrest you too."

"But you can't do that! You haven't got any proof that he's a rebel! You're just arresting him because he married a unicorn!" She looked around at the other bystanders, many of whom now seemed to be taking an interest in events and started to gather around. "And you were going to arrest the foals too? That's just sick!" A murmur ran through the small crowd.

The guards noticed it too, and in a voice that tried to at least sound like it could be reasoned with, one of them said "We're not going to arrest the foals, just him. We're just going to take him in and question him a bit."

"About what? He's already denied being involved in any insurrection. Are you going to torture him? Force him to confess to something he hasn't even done?" An even angrier murmur rippled through the crowd, which due to Twilight's raised voice had grown even larger.

The guards looked fearful now, and were looking up and down the street looking for support off their fellows. Unfortunately for them, no such support was forthcoming. "I guess we were jumping to conclusions," one of them said from between gritted teeth. "If he's done nothing wrong then I guess they're free to go." On that, the two guards hastily retreated leaving a relieved Twilight and a grateful family of ponies.

"Thank you, thank you!" the stallion burst out. "I thought they were going to arrest us all!"

"It’s no problem, really. I'm just happy to help."

"We should get off the streets though, before the guards return in greater numbers. You should come with us since you've probably made yourself a target now."

The stallion opened the door to the building they were in front of and ushered his family inside, followed reluctantly by Twilight. He led them upstairs to a small, damp smelling apartment, furnished only by two beds, a dressing table, a chest of drawers and a small, black iron stove.

Looking both ways down the hallway before closing the door, the stallion went to his wife and held her and the children for a while before doing anything else. "Thank you stranger, for what you did, but it was very foolish of you to do that."

"Foolish? But I was trying to help you!"

"I know, I know, and I am eternally grateful. It is rare that somepony will speak out against the guards as you did, but now you have made yourself a target. You're a traveller from the looks of things; you should leave Prance as soon as you are able."

"No. I can't, the guards aren't letting ponies leave. Besides, I'm looking for somepony and I won't be leaving until I've found her."

"I am sorry to hear that, and I truly wish you luck in finding your friend, but I fear that remaining in this city will be your undoing. Since I doubt I can sway your mind into leaving, would you at least do me the honour of being our guest for dinner? It’s the least I could do to repay you."

Twilight was about to decline, taking note of their already meagre possessions, when the two foals came and sat down in front of her, the colt looking bright eyed and curious, and the filly hiding shyly behind a battered looking ragdoll. "What's your name?" the colt asked.

"Oh, uh, I'm Twilight, pleased to meet you. What's yours?"

"I'm Butterscotch and this is Lacy." The filly timidly waved a hoof at her. "What you did to those guards was awesome! I totally thought you were going to have to fight them off!"

"Goodness, I hope not."

"But they totally backed off! Which is kinda lame but the guards around here outnumber you and you probably can't fight them all."

"Uh, probably not no. I'm glad you think I'm awesome, but I was only doing what anypony down there should have done."

The colt snorted angrily. "Yeah, except they don't. They're all scared of the guards, but not you! Hey are you one of those insussectionids they were talking about?"

"Butterscotch!" his father yelled, "We don't ask ponies that sort of thing."

The colts ears drooped, "Sorry miss Twilight."

"No-no, it’s okay. No I'm not an insurrectionist, but if I were I bet I'd be an awesome one." She gave the colt a wink, the colt grinning in return.

"Are you gonna stay for dinner?" the filly asked, lifting her doll up for Twilight to see. "Miss Tilly wants you to stay."

"Uh..." Truthfully Twilight didn't want to stay. It didn't look like they had a lot to begin with and Twilight didn't want them to waste it on her. She should also be looking for Fleur and she was pretty sure Trixie was going to moan at her if she found out Twilight was having dinner in the warm somewhere. On the other hoof, Miss Tilly didn't look like somepony you could reason with. "Of course I will, I'd be delighted to," she said to the cheering of Butterscotch.

Twilight's stomach growled, now that she was sat in this apartment with little else to do except wait and smell dinner cooking, she had to admit she was pretty hungry.

In the time she had she did her best to get some answers about the city and what was happening here out of the stallion, whom she had learned was called Green Roots, shortened to Roots. So far all she had learned was that the guard had increased in number over a month ago, but it wasn't until roughly two weeks ago that martial law had been declared, and it got worse when the General arrived a few days ago. As for why this had happened he hadn't the slightest idea. Life in Prance had been peaceful until the guards numbers had increased, and had remained fairly peaceful until the soldiers had arrived.

After that it became clear that the soldiers had no intention of allowing the city's inhabitants to enjoy that peace. Even some ponies who had little reason to fear the soldier’s presence had quickly begun to chafe under the soldiers heavy hoofed methods. Now he feared that the city was becoming what the soldiers claimed it to be, because of the soldiers themselves.

Twilight had taken that information with a pinch of salt. Sure things might seem bad, but surely there was no way things could be as bad as Roots' seemed to think. Then she asked what precisely the soldiers were doing and immediately changed her mind.

"Like what you saw them doing to us outside, they intimidate ponies for no reason and they arrest anypony who shows even the slightest bit of resistance. And those they do arrest, not all come back. Those that do come back have terrible injuries, speaking of being beaten and tortured by the soldiers who want them to confess their crimes."

"But why though? This makes no sense! How does arresting random ponies and forcing them to admit to being an insurrectionist help them achieve anything? And what do you mean by those who come back? What happens to those that don't?"

The stallion shook his head slowly, "It doesn't make sense, but they do it anyway. Those that don't come back are executed. There's only been a few hangings yet, but I fear that number will only grow and grow the longer this goes on. Assuming something worse doesn't happen first..."

Twilight was about to ask him what he meant when she was interrupted by a bowl of vegetable soup suddenly floating in front of her face, carried by his wife Cross Stitch, "I know you only wish to answer her questions my love, but perhaps you could not talk about such dreadful things." She glanced back at where Butterscotch was playing with Lacy, “Especially not in front of the children."

"I know, I'm sorry. I only wish to convince her to leave as soon as she has found her friend."

"I'm sorry too," said Twilight. "I was only curious. I won't mention it again." She sniffed the bowl and smiled, "This smells great by the way, thank you," she said before digging in.

For a scant few minutes the only sounds were ponies slurping their soup as Twilight and the family ate, but the peace was soon shattered by a loud clattering from outside. Roots got up and looked out of the one window they had that overlooked the street; and quickly reeled back, a look of horror on his face. "The soldiers! They're back!"

Twilight shot up and peered through the window. The soldiers were indeed back, with greater numbers and had with them three carts with cages built into their backs, their purpose very clear. "We've got to do something! We've got to hide!"

"No, you've got to hide. They know we're here, if we're all hiding they will tear this place apart looking for us, which means they'll find you as well. If it's just you hiding you have a chance to get out of this." Roots pushed aside the drawers revealing a cubby hole, "Quick! Get in!"

"But shouldn't Butterscotch and Lacy hide in here?"

Roots' shook his head sadly, "If the kids are missing they'll search this place and find you anyway. I'm afraid it's just you that gets to hide."

Downstairs there was a crunch of a door being forced open and the sound of a mare screaming that was suddenly cut off. "No! You can't just expect me to hide while you're all taken by the soldiers!"

"It’s too late Twilight. There's no escape for us but there might well be an escape for you. Now get in there before the soldiers come!"

Twilight scrambled backward into the hole, which was just big enough to accommodate her. Roots' shoved her bags in after her and was about to push the drawers back into place when Twilight quietly asked "Why are you saving me?"

"I'm just returning the favour, now shush." He pushed the drawers back into place and went to where his wife and children were sitting, Lacy whimpering in fear and Cross Stitch weeping quietly.

Twilight could hear him trying his best to comfort them as the minutes passed, the only other sounds being the shouts and screams of the buildings other inhabitants as the soldiers went about their grisly business. All too soon there was the sound of armoured hooves outside the door, followed by a crunch as it was battered open. "You're all under arrest!" a soldier shouted.

"Please," Twilight could hear Roots' say, "we'll come quietly."

"You better," the soldier growled. There was a clinking sound from what Twilight suspected were shackles, and slowly the ponies left, leaving Twilight in the most damning silence ever. She waited for a few minutes in case the soldiers returned, feeling cold and hollow as she lay there in the dark.

Slowly she lifted the drawers aside, keeping an ear out for any other sounds from within the building. Hearing nothing she exited the room and crept down to the door into the building, peeking out to see where the soldiers were loading ponies into the cages.

"Miss Tilly!" Twilight's ears perked at the sound of Lacy shouting for the doll she had dropped when the soldier practically threw her into the cage. She watched as Cross Stitch's horn glowed softly, picking Miss Tilly up and floating it towards Lacy's outstretched legs. But instead the soldier intercepted it and batted it aside, towards Twilight, before laughing.

Lacy's scream when he did that is a sound Twilight wouldn't forget in a good long time. Gently, she picked Miss Tilly up in her magic and stared into her recriminating button eyes as tears escaped her own. Twilight fell to her knees, weighed down by guilt and grief, Lacy's scream and the soldiers laugh echoing around her head. "This is my fault. This is all my fault."

She squeezed her eyes shut, a few more tears escaped before those tears that remained evaporated into wisps of steam. When she opened her eyes again they were bright white, glowing with a cold, hard fury. "No." She tore off her bags and cloak, her still invisible wings instinctively flaring in her aggression. "No!"

She ran out to where the soldiers had finished filling the wagons and screamed at them, "Let them go you bastards!" The soldiers reacted swiftly, bringing various arms to bear, but none of them attacked her, with many backing away from her almost demonic visage. A lone soldier stepped up and charged her, bringing a halberd swinging down towards her in an arc that would have cleaved her head in two had she let it.

She erected a shield, the oscillating energy of it designed to return and magnify any force that strikes it. The halberd struck the shield and instantly the shaft shattered into splinters as the head went flying into the air where it was quickly grabbed by Twilight's magic and buried in the street. She might have been enraged beyond belief but she wasn't about to let the weapon land on somepony.

The soldier backed away fearfully, dots of blood bubbling up on his face where the splinters had struck him. "What the fuck are you?" he demanded as Twilight slowly advanced towards him.

"Angry," was her curt reply. She stalked forward a few paces, the soldiers backing off a few paces in return. Clearly all their experience at fighting unicorns without spells had left them woefully unprepared for fighting an angry alicorn who could, and it showed.

A soldier at the back raised a whistle to his lips, seeking to secure backup, but Twilight snatched it from his lips before he even had the chance to draw a breath. He was clearly in two minds about events because afterward he stammered a "Charge!" in a voice that very much sounded like it wanted to scream 'Retreat!'

The soldiers surrounded Twilight with their weapons raised, all of them except the one who had already lost his, and attempted to strike her in unison. The simultaneous attack proved enough to break through her shield, but not before shattering most of their weapons. The one that did get through left her with nothing more than a deep scratch on her flank.

"My turn." Her horn suddenly flared brighter as she hefted all the soldiers into the air and held them there as she ripped the padlocks off the cages. Giving time for the cages current inhabitants to leave, she crammed the soldiers into them and proceeded to wrap any bits of metal around the bars where the cage doors opened, trapping the soldiers inside.

As a final touch she cast a spell on the soldiers that would eradicate the last two days from their memories. Not the spells' original purpose, but as a non-lethal means of stopping the soldiers from returning here it served her purposes quite adequately. The soldiers all yelled in fear before slumping over unconscious as she finished casting it.

She paused and tried to take some cleansing breaths as the glow slowly faded from her eyes and reality slowly reasserted itself. She floated Miss Tilly in front of her. She hadn't even realised she had been holding the doll throughout that, and looked around hoping to find Lacy. She spotted her cowering behind her mothers and fathers legs, and when she tried to approach them the entire family backed off fearfully.

"What are you?" Roots' asked her, a tremor of fear in his voice. "What did you do to those soldiers?"

"I-I-I'm just a- just a unicorn. I was only trying to help!" Twilight felt like crying again as the anger drained out of her and as they all stared at her fearfully, including the other ponies the soldiers had tried to take. "The soldiers are fine, I removed their memories from the last two days so they hopefully won't remember this and won't come back. Please, I only wanted to help..."

"B-but how?"

"The spell was designed by psychiatrists to help ponies by removing traumatic events from their past, but it fell out of use when the cure was worse... than... the..." At the ponies confused expressions she figured out that wasn't quite what he meant. "It’s just magic. A spell, that's all."

"But no unicorn knows that kind of magic!"

"Well... I do." She tried to approach them once more but again they backed away. Instead she levitated Miss Tilly towards them and placed her on the ground, where they stared at the toy like they expected it to explode. "I haven't done anything to her, she's still the same old Miss Tilly." She smiled at Lacy who was peeking at her from between her mother’s legs.

"Thank you for helping us again Twilight, but I think you should go."

Twilight was about to protest but didn't when she saw the expressions of fear on the faces of the other ponies around her. She nodded with her head hanging low, crushed by their fear and rejection of magic. She retrieved her belongings and was about to go when she had a thought and paused. "I really think you should try to leave Prance, it’s not safe here." Roots' gave her a stiff nod in return. She continued on her way, not even trying to hide her tears.

Standing on a street corner, very classy. Octavia looked around at the ponies passing her by as she tried to think about what to do. The direction Twilight had given her had led her straight to the castle, but the castle itself was closed off and guarded by soldiers and if Fleur was in the castle then quite frankly there was very little they could do about it right now.

Instead she had gone all around the castle in what she had come to think of as Little Canterlot. The houses were big and well appointed, while the ponies living in them were almost all earth ponies, and well-dressed ones at that, even if the styles were very much antiquated compared to Canterlot.

It hadn't taken her long to explore the district though and she was fairly sure that if Fleur had set hoof in here she had decided to set it back out again soon after. She was tempted to leave as well; the snobbery displayed by the ponies around here outdid Canterlot's nobility by a whole extra level, and some of the snippets of conversation she could overhear left her feeling sick.

A pony and her young filly passed by her, "Mother, can I take this bonnet off? It itches."

"Absolutely not! Do you want everypony to see your horn?"

"I don't mind if they do..."

"Maybe you don't, but I do. Now stop asking about it and come along."

They carried on and walked past a trio of stallions coming the other way. "I do so wish this silly little insurrection would end so that this martial law can be over and done with. This whole business has hurt my profits terribly!"

"Indeed, indeed! If this keeps going I'll have to lay some staff off somewhere."

"You mean you actually pay those scruffy ponies you employ? Hah! What a lark."

The stallions chortles tapered off, allowing Octavia to overhear the conversation between two mares at a café. "I warned her that if anything should happen to his grandmother's vase that there would be hell to pay. Of course the clumsy thing went and broke it this morning,"

"I really don't understand on why you would even think of employing a unicorn as a maid!"

"Times are hard and unicorns are cheap. Anyway when my husband found out he was absolutely livid and thrashed her severely! Cracked her horn too so now she's even more useless than she was before. Naturally I fired her, but that means I have to hire a new maid-"

Octavia ground her teeth and pointedly ignored that conversation just in time to overhear two other mares, an earth pony and a unicorn, both in matching uniforms. "I still can't believe the mistress could do such a thing! From what the butler told me the master's thinking of leaving her."

"And I wouldn't blame him at all. To think of such a fine lady as the mistress conceiving such a thing!"

"I know! If I gave birth to a... to a...-" The earth pony held a hoof up to her mouth and whispered barely loud enough for Octavia to hear, "-pegasus, I would just die."

"I know, it'd be horrible! Hopefully the foal will be taken away soon and this whole nasty business can be forgotten about."

Octavia snarled inwardly and grit her teeth. The idea that even the downtrodden unicorns of Prance could hate pegasi really was depressing. She snorted and was about to leave to continue her search elsewhere when she was accosted by two earth pony mares dressed in fancy looking clothing, one a beige colour with a golden mane, the other pale blue with a dark brown mane that reminded her of her fellow quartet member Beauty Brass.

"Are you alright dear?" the beige pony asked her. "You've been sat here for an awfully long time and I was beginning to worry that something was wrong."

The blue one sniffed and wrinkled her nose, "I think something is wrong. When was the last time you took a bath? You smell awful!"

The beige pony gasped and batted at her companion, "Sapphire! Mind your manners! Terribly sorry about her," she said to Octavia, "she's a bit rude, although she does have a point. I wasn't going to say anything but you smell a little... odious."

Octavia sniffed herself gingerly and had to admit that perhaps she smelled a little. "I've been travelling and there isn't really much chance for bathing out in the wilds. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to find somepony and I really must get back to it." She tried to walk off but the two ponies cut her off.

"Nonsense. There is no way I am going to let a lady like yourself walk around here smelling like a vagabonds armpit. I insist that you come with us back to our abode where we can see to getting you a bath, and perhaps your clothing cleaned too."

A vagabonds armpit? "While that is a very generous offer I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline." And why am I speaking like this? This is posh even for me! "It’s imperative I find my companion as soon as possible." She tried to walk off again but was cut off again by the blue pony.

"When Velvet offers you something, you don't decline. She's just trying to do you a favour." Octavia's eyes twitched from Sapphire to Velvet, a sinking sensation growing within her.

"While I do appreciate the offer I am rather busy. If I had the time I would gladly take you up on that bath, but not right now."

Velvet pushed Sapphire aside so that she stood almost nose to nose with Octavia, "If you don't come, I'll scream."

"What? Why would you do that? What would doing that even achieve?"

"The guards will come and I'll tell them you attacked me, and then you'll get arrested and go to jail."

Octavia backed off a few steps, "What reason would the guards have to believe I attacked you? You wouldn't be injured!" Octavia looked to Sapphire who wore a hard look similar to Velvet's , although Octavia was sure she could detect a hint of something else there as well.

"Wouldn't matter. Daddy's a judge and the guards all know him and his daughter. Daughters, I mean. They'll arrest you for anything if I ask them to."

By now the two ponies had backed Octavia into a corner. "Let me get this straight. If I don't come with you, you'll scream and summon the guards who will arrest me for whatever reason you invent. Because you think I need a bath."

"That's right. If you do come with us you'll get washed, your clothes will get washed and you'll be free to continue your search in a couple of hours. Sounds like a good deal right? It would be awfully hard to search for somepony from inside a prison cell."

Octavia looked around the street hoping that somepony was paying attention to this, but nopony was. Feeling that she didn't have a lot of options she relented. "Fine. I'll come."

Velvet clapped excitedly and Sapphire seemed strangely relieved. "Excellent! Now follow us and don't even think about running off because I'll have the guards hunt you down."

Octavia nodded reluctantly and followed after the two ponies, who had started whispering to each other, taking turns to look back at her. Octavia couldn't make out what they were saying, but there was the occasional mention of 'Daddy.' Next year I'm vacationing somewhere far from here.

The two ponies had led her to a large, terraced house not far from where they had found her, and had ordered her in, where she was relieved of her belongings by a nervous looking, peach coloured unicorn mare that was then ordered to run a bath for Octavia and clean her cloak up as much as she could.

As they waited she was left alone with Sapphire as Velvet disappeared on some mysterious errand. They sat there in silence, the only sound being a faint rustling as the saddened looking Sapphire rubbed one foreleg with the other over the sleeve of her dress. "Are you okay?" Octavia asked, feeling genuinely concerned for the miserable pony.

Sapphire's head shot up in surprise, like she hadn't been prepared for the idea that Octavia might have talked to her. "Uh...yes. Yes I'm fine, thank you." She lapsed back into silence for a moment, "I'm really sorry about this."

Octavia tried to ask what she meant but the blue pony remained silent, doing nothing more than rubbing her leg. The silence was broken when Velvet returned and announced that the bath was ready and that Octavia should follow her. She led them to a fancy looking bathroom decorated in white marble, complete with steaming bath and the unicorn maid from earlier wielding a scrubbing brush. "Peach Blossom, see that she is well scrubbed. When you're done bring her to the master bedroom."

"Yes mistress." Velvet and Sapphire departed, leaving Octavia with Peach Blossom, who waited patiently as Octavia climbed into the bath, before beginning the task of getting her clean.

"Peach Blossom, can I ask you a question?"

"Certainly miss. I can't say if I'll be able to answer it though."

"Do you have any idea why those two would threaten me with arrest just so they can bring me here for a bath?"

Peach Blossom suddenly looked awkward, "I couldn't say miss."

"Is that because you don't know, or because you aren't allowed to say?"

Peach Blossom visibly winced that time. "Please miss, it’s not my place to say." The maid looked like she wanted to cry, so Octavia stopped asking and let the unicorn work, leaving her to wonder just what the hay was going on.

Apparently ponies in Mareitania hadn't yet heard of hairdryers, and unicorns were limited to telekinesis, so drying Octavia's mane and tail, both quite long, had taken a really long time to dry with just a towel. Eventually though, the washed, dried, and rather more fragrant Octavia was led through a double door into the master bedroom where Velvet and Sapphire were waiting for her.

"Ah! There we are! Much better, don't you think Sapphire?"

"Yes Velvet. I still think she needs a little something though."

"Look, I've played your games long enough. I've had my bath and now I would appreciate it if you would return my belongings and let me go."

Velvet gave a pointed look at Peach Blossom, who lowered her eyes. "Is miss Octavia's cloak ready yet?"

"No mistress."

"No? Well that's too bad. If you could go and see to that, Peach." The maid curtsied and departed, but not before glancing at Octavia who could see the apology in her expression. "In the meantime, how about we do your mane up and do your makeup. You do want to look your best don't you?"

Look my best for what? "No, I don't. I want my belongings and I want to leave, please."

"But you can't, they aren't ready yet. Now stop being silly and lay down on the bed so we can pretty you up, not that it should take much, you're already very pretty."

Octavia did so, albeit warily. She was starting to think she would be better off taking a chance on the guards, and probably would have if they weren't holding her belongings hostage. She lay down between the two ponies, Sapphire picking up a hairbrush and starting on her tail, and Velvet opening a makeup kit she had with her. I wish Vinyl were here, she'd know what to do. Who am I kidding, I know what to do. I just can't quite bring myself to do it.

Since she had little else to do she looked around the room when she could and quickly deduced that this was definitely a stallions bedroom, judging by the colour scheme, the furnishings and the distinctly male clothing dotted around. The only thing that looked out of place was an instrument that made her heart ache when she saw it. Unfortunately that fact might have distracted her a little too much from important details, like being in a stallions bedroom.

"That cello, does it belong to one of you?"

Velvet shook her head, "No, it belonged to my mother."

"Your mother? Not Sapphires' as well?"

"No, we have different mothers, and different fathers as well. We don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough. Sooo... does either of you play?"

"No, Daddy doesn't let anypony touch it. He says the only pony allowed to play it is mother, and she's no longer with us. Why do you ask?"

"I'm a professional cello player myself, and it’s been weeks since I've been able to play. Seeing a beautiful antique cello sitting there unused is horribly tempting. Seems a waste if nopony is allowed to use it; instruments are meant to be played."

"Right! I think you're all done!" Velvet shouted out suddenly, sounding slightly panicked. Octavia looked at herself in the mirror across the room. What on earth? She's made me up like some sort of harlot! Octavia thought as she looked herself over in the mirror. There was way too much purple eye shadow and a veritable explosion of blusher on her cheeks. No need to even mention the ruby red lipstick.

"Now how about a little dress up? Personally I think you would look absolutely stunning in these." Velvet said before picking up some white, silky objects. "I've always found the right hosiery can do wonders for a mares' confidence."

"Hosiery?" Octavia studied what Velvet was holding. "Stockings? Why the hay do you want me to put those on? What is going on here!? Do you think I'm some kind of prostitute or something? Because you're vastly mistaken!"

Velvet's expression hardened but she still managed to smile sweetly as she said "Put them on or I'll have Peach Blossom burn your belongings."

"Why are you doing this?” Octavia pleaded, hoping that the miserable looking Sapphire would step up and end this. She didn't though, instead she just sat there hanging her head. "Sapphire, please. Make her stop..."

Sapphire looked up, allowing Octavia to see her tears; "I can't, I'm sorry." She got up and practically fled the room.

"Now look what you've done!" Velvet screeched, throwing the stockings at Octavia. "Put these on right now! And don't cry or you'll ruin your makeup." Octavia sniffed and nodded, pulling on the stockings with hooves that were shaking as her mind flooded with dark thoughts. "Now wait here and don't leave this room, and don't take those off!"

Velvet stormed out, leaving Octavia alone, shaking as fear took hold of her mind. They're going to rape me. I'm going to be raped by two mares and then they're probably going to kill me. Those thoughts ran through her mind, blocking out everything else so that she didn't notice when somepony entered and closed the doors, locking them as they did.

"My my, don't you look lovely." Octavia jumped in surprise and raised her head to see who had just addressed her. It was a stallion. A grey and obscenely fat one, wearing a black dinner jacket that barely contained his girth.

"Wh-who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Who I am isn't important, at least not to you, but for all intents and purposes you can call me... mmm... daddy. As for what I'm doing here, let’s just say that I'm here so that you and I can get to know each other a little more intimately." He reached under the bed and pulled out a box, taking from the box some hoof cuffs, a gag and a string of beads.

Octavia almost gagged in disgust when she saw what he was holding, "Y-you mean those two brought me here and did all this for you!?"

"Mmhmm, they are such good little girls aren't they, and they have such a fine a taste in mares to find me a beauty like you." The stallion climbed onto the bed and Octavia slowly backed off, climbing down the opposite side, keeping a wary eye on the stallion as he lay on his side and revealed his... stringbean? It’s tiny! "Now how about you come back on up here and give daddy a kiss."

Octavia's stomach lurched, "I'd rather not. In fact, if anypony is going to be kissing anything it’s going to be you kissing my flank goodbye because I am leaving." She trotted to the door and tried to open it, but failed since it was locked.

"Looking for something?" the stallion said smarmily, as he held the key flat on his hoof, before tucking it in his jacket pocket. "I get the feeling you don't know the rules here. Let me enlighten you. I don't open that door and you don't get to leave until you have performed your... services and I am satisfied. Now cease this silliness and come here." The stallion dragged himself off the bed and approached Octavia, who in turn backed away from him, going around the room until her rear brushed up against something that twanged lightly as she did so.

She waited as the stallion got nearer to her, "I really am sorry about this."

"It’s quite alright my dear, now how about you-" He was cut off, when in a sudden smooth motion, Octavia span around, grabbed the cello by its neck and continued her spin, bringing the cello in a sideways arc until it met the side of his head, knocking him out cold with a crunch and sproing as some of the strings snapped.

"I wasn't talking to you..." She brushed the side of the cello that had made contact, inspecting the large splintered dent it now bore, a strange calm coming over her. "Such a pity, it really is a beautiful instrument." She placed it back in its stand with gentle reverence, before checking the stallion for a pulse, which fortunately, or unfortunately, he still had.

She dug the key out of his pocket, unlocked the doors and stumbled out, feeling a bit numb and starting to shake as the adrenaline started to wear off. She closed the doors behind her and locked them before stepping sideways and giving a solid buck side on to the key so it snapped off in the lock. Then for good measure she located a chair, tipped it over and snapped a leg off, which she then jammed through the door handles.

"Daddy? Is everything ok? I heard banging. I mean actual banging, not the... other kind... Oh." She went quiet as she observed a heavily panting Octavia staring at the door like it had offended her. Velvet didn't move as Octavia slowly turned to face her.

"You! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat the living hell out of you!" Octavia stomped over to Velvet and roughly shoved her over onto her back before pinning her down.

"You'll ruin your outfit?" Velvet suggested with a weak grin. She cringed as Octavia pulled a hoof back, only opening her eyes again as the expected punch failed to land, because Sapphire was there holding back Octavia's leg.

"Please! It’s not her fault."

"Is that so?" Octavia said with frightening coolness. "Frankly when ponies abduct me to be raped I at least expect somepony to be at fault."

"Please, she was only doing it to protect me!"

"Protect you? From what?"

"Him."

Octavia's eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "You mean, your father does that to you?"

"He is not my father!" Sapphire snarled back. "My father died years ago and that bastard doesn't deserve to take that title from him!"

"But he's your step father, and he... I mean h-how could he... I don't..." Octavia fell silent, unable to think of what to say as her anger suddenly drained out of her. She backed off, her legs shaking again, and sat down, allowing Sapphire to pull Velvet to her hooves, Velvet giving her a kiss on the cheek in return. "Wait... are you two an item? Isn't that, well, incest?"

Sapphire shook her head, "Not with step siblings." Octavia rubbed her head. As explanations went, she'd rather have got one that didn't confuse her as much as it horrified her.

"It still is with step fathers isn't it? I mean I'm pretty sure it is."

Sapphire nodded in confirmation and hugged herself, "That's kind of a moot point compared to what he does to me though."

"Oh, yes. Right. Is that why you brought me here? So he'd attack me and not you?" The two ponies nodded. "Is forcing ponies into your home really the best solution you could come up with? Why didn't you just leave?"

"We want to," Velvet answered her, "but he won't let us and we don't really know how to survive out there. We've always been taken care of. So to stop him hurting Sapphire we started encouraging ponies to come here after all the earth pony maids refused to work here. Daddy won't touch unicorns for some reason and after that he started attacking Sapphire. We found that if we could get other earth ponies here, he'd leave Sapphire alone. That's why we targeted you, as you're clearly a traveller with no ties here. If he attacked you, nopony around here would really care.

I care! "Wait, you mean he used to attack the maids too? Or at least the earth pony ones? Why isn't he in prison?"

"Because he's a judge. Nopony would dare accuse him."

Octavia felt sick to her stomach, stuff like this was unheard-of in Equestria. "What about your mother, Sapphire? Can't you go to her?"

Sapphire shook her head and hugged herself a little tighter. "She died a couple years ago. He said it was consumption, but personally I think he poisoned her because he wanted me all along. The bastard. Besides, even if she were still alive she'd be living here too."

How can one pony handle this much pain? Even Octavia wanted to give her a hug at this point. "I honestly don't know how to deal with this. This is... beyond anything I've ever come across. I really think you ought to leave; nothing is worth you staying here with that monster."

Sapphire nodded, "Yeah, I think so too. After whatever you've done to him he's only going to get worse. Now I really think you should be going, we've wasted enough of your time." She got up and left, leaving Octavia alone with Velvet.

"I really am sorry Octavia," Velvet burst out. "I just didn't know what else to do. I love her, and knowing what he was doing to her... it just makes me so... angry! I had to do something to stop him."

"How is she so calm about this? If I were in her shoes I'd probably be a nervous wreck."

"She's not always this calm. Its- I-" Velvet sighed heavily. "She's not the pony she was before this started, before daddy... did those things. What did you do to him by the way?"

"I committed an act of blasphemy." At Velvet's puzzled expression she elaborated, "I hit him around the head with your mothers cello. He's unconscious, but he should be fine. I have to ask though, why do you call him daddy? It's pretty obvious you really don't like him."

Velvet shrugged noncommittally, "I don't know, I've always called him that, and he is still my daddy despite everything he's done."

Octavia nodded listlessly, unable to say anything further. In Equestria, she would be able to think of a dozen different ways to help, but here? Here she had nothing. She looked up when Sapphire returned with Peach Blossom, who was carrying Octavia's belongings.

"Peach Blossom, once you've shown miss Octavia out, could you come up here and help Velvet and I pack some things? We're leaving."

The maid grinned widely, "Begging your pardon mistress, but it’s about damn time." She helped Octavia put her cloak on and placed her saddle bags over it. "Follow me miss," she said before leading Octavia to the way out. "I do hope you're not angry with them miss, they're good ponies, just hurt and... confused."

"No, I can't be now, not after hearing all that.” She rubbed her head. The sudden change in the situation as well as Sapphires revelations had left her feeling like she had emotional whiplash. “You'll make sure they get out okay right? I can stay if you need me to?"

"No need miss, I've been waiting for this day for months, and I really think you ought to be elsewhere when the master recovers." She opened the door for Octavia who was about to exit when Peach stopped her. "You might want to take those off," Peach Blossom said, pointing at the stockings Octavia was still wearing.

"Oh, right." She blushed lightly and pulled the stockings off, quietly tucking them into a bag. "What?" she said defensively when she noticed Peach Blossom's bemused expression. "They might come in useful for bandages."

"Of course miss, I didn't wish to imply otherwise. Goodbye," she said, finishing with a curtsey. Octavia returned the farewell and departed, looking back after a few meters to see Sapphire and Velvet looking down at her from a window. She paused, wanting to turn around and go help them but didn’t. Swallowing, she waved and continued on her way. good luck girls, you deserve it. And Bric? Consider that kiss forgiven.

Trixie breathed in deeply, sampling the many aromas the marketplace offered her, from spices, to perfumes, to freshly baked bread. The market in Prance made the market in Stalliongrad look like a slightly overblown swap-meet and there was something about it that called to her.

She wandered around, quite forgetting that she was meant to be looking for Fleur, and took in the sights. There were tumblers, a freak show featuring a bearded mare that she was sure was just a highly effeminate stallion, and a pretty yet scantily clad pink unicorn standing on the corner.

"Hey there cute, grey and sexy," she said with a wink, "you looking for a good time?"

"No thank you, I don't want to buy any drugs." Trixie replied without even stopping.

"But I wasn't trying to sell you... oh whatever."

"Honestly, what kind of pony wears fishnets like that during the day?" Trixie said to herself as she continued her meanderings. "So tacky." She carried on through the food section, swiping an orange as she went and stopped when she spotted a small yellow filly dressed in a scruffy brown cape lurking by an apple vendor. She narrowed her eyes and charged over, snatching the filly up by the scruff of her neck using her magic. "You!"

"Oh hey miss Trixie! I see you got your stuff back. Good for you! I'd give you a high hoof, but it’s kinda awkward when you’re hanging by your neck."

"You! Why would you do that to me!?"

"Well y'see, the thing is that I am but a poor lonely orphan out here in the big wide world, and I have to do what I can to survive." Her eyes went big and dewy, "You do want me to survive don't you?"

"If you try it with those crocodile tears again I'm finding a water barrel and giving you an impromptu bath. That'll wash those tears right off."

"Wow Miss Trixie, you're learning! I'd totally try that high hoof again but it's still awkward, what with the whole hanging by the neck thing. Which really kinda hurts I feel I should mention."

"You are going to give me those ten marcs back right now!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh." The filly reached into her cloak, "There's just one problem."

"And what might that be?"

"Apple."

"Apple?"

"Apple." The brought her hoof out of her cloak and expertly launched an apple at Trixie that impaled itself on Trixie's horn, disrupting her magic and making her drop the filly who ran off as fast as she could.

"Get back here!" Trixie yelled as she scrambled after the filly, pulling the apple off with her magic as she ran and throwing it at the filly, although she didn't even come close to hitting her. She was at a disadvantage here, in that Petal knew where she was going, was small enough to nimbly dodge round ponies legs and could run under stalls, whereas all Trixie had going for her was longer legs, and a burning need to catch the little shit.

"Come on Trixie! Are you even trying?" Petal yelled back at her as she dodged round a pony carrying a stack of large empty baskets. Trixie wasn't so lucky, ramming into the pony and sending her and her wares flying. Whether through skill or by being powered by sheer indignation, Trixie pushed through without stopping and grabbed a basket as she went.

Petal clambered up a stack of crates and jumped onto the roof of a stall, skilfully running along the narrow beam that supported the canvas down the middle, jumping from one stall to the next. "Run run fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the pony that stole your stuff! Har har!"

"That doesn't even rhyme!" Trixie yelled after her as she kept pace on the ground. She looked ahead to where the row of stalls ended, seeing an opportunity to catch Petal. She put on a burst of speed and floated the basket out ahead of her, hoping to catch Petal in it when she jumped down. She almost succeeded but Petal jumped off the edge of the basket without even disturbing it, using it as a step down.

"Thanks Trixie!" she shouted as Trixie snarled behind her. Petal took a hard right, which led to a passageway out of the market. Feeling like she was losing her chance to catch the filly, Trixie threw the basket, and beyond anypony's, and even her own expectations, the basket landed perfectly on the filly, causing her to trip up, sending both her and the basket flying. Trixie grabbed the basket and slammed it down over the filly before she could recover, and jumped up and stood on it.

"Got you, you little beast!"

There was a small grunt of pain from inside the basket. "Agh, nice one Trixie. I'll bet you twenty marcs you couldn't do that again."

"Quiet you!" Trixie shouted, pretty sure that she couldn't repeat that throw even with time to practice. "You’re going to slide the ten marcs out from under the basket, then, and only then, will I let you go."

"No."

"No? What do you mean no? The Great and Powerful Trixie has you at her mercy! You will do as I command!"

"Great and Powerful Trixie? Really? Anyway I can't do it because I don't have the money, at least not all of it."

"Then give me what you got! Right now!"

"Trixie, what are you doing with that filly?" said a voice from the shadows.

"Not now Fleur, I'm busy." Trixie was about to demand the money again when her brain caught up with her. "Oh hey Fleur! We've been looking for you. You done throwing your epic tantrum?"

"It wasn't an epic tantrum!"

"It soooo was! I mean they only wanted you to not steal so much because we don't need it and because all this theft might draw unwanted attention, and you were all like 'fuck y'all, I do what I want' before storming off in a big strop. Epic. Tantrum."

"Knock it off Trixie. You didn’t have a problem with it back at the camp. Besides, your last epic tantrum resulted in you taking over a town using dark magic."

"Hmm, okay... touché, I suppose."

"Taking over a town using dark magic?" said a small voice from under the basket.

"Now what are you doing with that filly?"

"This filly," Trixie pulled Petal out from under the basket and floated her in front of Fleur, "is evil incarnate! Just look at her."

"Flower? What are you doing with her? Wait..." Fleur snorted a laugh and grinned. "She totally got you didn't she? Hah! I'd expect Twilight or Octavia to fall for it, but you? I'm almost embarrassed for you."

"Shut up! It’s not my fault I have a soft spot for helping fillies. Besides, her name's Petal."

"Oh that's just one of many names I use. Last week I was Chrysanthemum. You'd be surprised how many ponies have trouble saying that, I mean chry-san-the-mum, it’s not hard."

"I think you better tell us your real name, right now!" Trixie demanded, giving the pony in her grasp a shake.

"Dalia."

"Oh ha ha. Tell us your real name, fiend."

"Ooh, so Trixie can be a clever pony, colour me impressed. If you must know I don't really have a name, other ponies call me things like 'Oi you!' 'Hey!' and my personal favourite, 'Get back here!' Before you ask I do the flower thing because it’s such a delightfully earth ponyish thing to do."

"Let her go Trixie."

"Let her go? Do you have any idea what this filly has put me through?"

"No, but unless you're going to beat up a filly for whatever money she has then you're not really going to get very far are you." Trixie growled but dropped the filly, who backed off to stand by Fleur before sticking her tongue out at Trixie.

"Don't s'pose I can ask what you meant by taking over a town with dark magic? Pretty sure I would have heard of something like that." Fleur and Trixie both suddenly felt very awkward.

"It was a, uh... You tell her Fleur."

"Right. Okay, it... it was a game, a uh..."

"Roleplaying game, where you play different ponies in a story, and... um."

"That's what we were referring to. The game. That we were playing. The other night."

"Yep."

"Oh, okay. Sounds lame. Well, it’s been great seeing you again Trixie but I think it's time I went, sooo... see ya!" She ran off and Trixie checked her bags as she went, just to make sure. "Hey! I had an orange!"

"Forget it Trixie. So what's the news? Other than you got robbed by a filly."

Trixie stared after the filly as she ran off before turning back to Fleur and mockingly scratching her head. "Hmm, let's see... There's martial law in Prance, the price of tomatoes is down and, uh... oh yes! We're all here looking for our companion who threw a wobbly and ran away."

"All right! All right! I admit it! I over reacted! For some reason that just got to me. I'm sure you wouldn't have been any different if they said something like that to you."

"Fleur," Trixie said sweetly, "what's my natural coat colour?"

"It’s blue-" She paused as if in thought. "Well don't I just feel like a bit of an idiot right now."

"Mmhmm. So does this mean you're going to stop acting like a foal and come back with me?"

"No, or at least, not yet. I realised pretty soon after leaving that there was no way I could abandon the mission, so while I've been here I've done a bit of snooping and found some things out that might be helpful."

Trixie paused before lowering her head and growling, "You're going to make me into a glorified messenger pony aren't you?"

"Yep." Fleur looked around surreptitiously for a moment before leaning down to whisper in Trixie's ear.

"But why would they be afraid of you because of magic? I mean, you helped them! They should be ecstatic!" Twilight and Octavia were sat near the arch they had come through to enter the city as they waited for Trixie to return. As they waited they were discussing their adventures through the day and neither of them was particularly cheerful as they did.

"I know. If it was just the earth ponies that were scared of it then I could probably accept it. Some earth ponies in Equestria seem surprised about what a skilled unicorn can do, but the unicorns here as well? That... hurt." She shook her head rapidly as if trying to dispel her sadness. "How about you? Do you think you should have stayed and helped those two?"

"Erm... yes and no. They made it clear that they didn't want me hanging around, and part of me still wanted to run a mile. I don't know. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"I know what you mean,” Twilight said with a nod. “I wanted to stay and help, but they wanted me to go and the way they were all looking at me... I don't think I could've stayed."

The two ponies hung their heads in silence, as if unsure how to comfort the other without ignoring their own problems. "Still better than Stalliongrad though," Octavia said with a grin. Twilight gave a short chuckle but said nothing back.

They were disturbed out of their reverie by the sound of approaching hooves. "Hey Twilight, hey Octavi-woah... What happened to you? Accident at a makeup factory or something?"

"Not quite. It’s a long story, I'll tell you later."

"Oookay... What about you Twilight? You look like a puppy that's been kicked."

Twilight snorted with mirth, "You could say that. It's a long story too, so it’s going to have to wait as well."

"Oh good, more secrets." Trixie said with a huff. "I'm almost disinclined to tell you what happened to me."

"Does it involve finding Fleur?" Twilight asked hopefully.

"As a matter of fact it does. I know, I know, aren't I marvellous."

Twilight looked around eagerly, "Well, where is she?"

"Hmm?" Trixie looked up from buffing a hoof on her chest. "Oh, she's not here. She's not going to rejoin us yet, but she did give me a few messages to pass on."

"She's still mad isn't she?" Twilight said as she scuffed a hoof on the ground.

"Maybe. I don't know. She was willing to concede that she may have overreacted a teensy bit when faced with the fact that I took a forced coat dyeing with better grace than she did. Anyway, do you want these messages or not." Twilight and Octavia nodded. "Okay then, first she wants me to say you Twilight, are a dingus."

"She really said that?"

"Well no, not entirely. I may have adlibbed a little bit, but I'm sure that's what she meant in essence."

"Of course she did," Twilight said flatly. "Anything else?"

"She also said that she's not seen any wanted posters or heard anything about me being a wanted mare so I'm probably safe."

"That's good." Twilight said, smiling. "I guess that means we can get rid of that coat dye now."

"But I thought it had to wash out?" Trixie watched as Twilight fished around in her bags until she found the pouch of powder Grammaw had given her, holding it up triumphantly in front of Trixie.

"Grammaw gave me this saying it would help wash the dye out. She also said to not tell you until we knew it was safe for you to be your true blue self." She tossed the pouch over to Trixie who caught it and looked inside. "Anything else Trixie?"

Trixie tucked the pouch into her own bags and pouted at Twilight, "I can't believe you've had this the entire time, and before you say it was necessary, yeah, I know. Anyway, Fleur said there's a curfew from nine in the evening 'til six in the morning so we need to either get good at avoiding guards or find somewhere to stay. She said there's somewhere in the lower city that's not too bad and affordable. Then there's the big news."

"Big news? Just how much has she been up to? She hasn't been here that long."

"I know right! The things a pony can do when we're not bickering like fillies. She said that she knows a pony who works in some high class bakery thing. There was also some stuff about her childhood but I'm not going to delve too deep into it. Now, she said that this bakery has received a special catering order for a big cake and some other stuff for a party for the Duke's son..." Trixie paused, looking between Twilight and Octavia.

"Okay, and you're saying that because?" Octavia asked.

There was a clop as Trixie facehoofed, "Oh for goodness sake. I would've thought that you of all ponies, Octavia, would appreciate dramatic tension. Now, as I was going to say, this order is for the Duke's son's birthday party which is taking place on a luxury river boat in less than a week so we have a couple of days to finish up whatever we're doing here before heading off-"

"Woah woah woah." Twilight held up a hoof to ward off Trixie's complaint about being interrupted. "How does this help us exactly?"

"Big party for the Duke's son? Lots of important ponies there, drinking an awful lot of champagne? Sounds like a great way to find out stuff that might help us with our mission. You know, that thing which so happens to be the reason we're in this miserable country in the first place?"

"Oh. Yeah. But what are we meant to do until then? And what about Fleur? We can't leave without her, especially now she's the only one of us with an actual plan!"

Trixie shrugged, "She didn't say. All she said was 'I'll find you.' I know right? Cryptic much?"

Twilight sighed with frustration and looked around, taking note of the dwindling number of ponies around. "First things first, let’s find some shelter. Last thing we need is to be caught out after curfew."

"Uh-huh, then you two can tell me what you've been up to and why Octavia's face looks like it’s been attacked by a drunk beautician. Once I've had a bath of course.

Twilight unlocked the door into the room they had rented for the night and was immediately pushed aside by Trixie who ran in and jumped on the bed. "Mine!"

"You don't get the whole bed Trixie. There's three of us and only one bed," Twilight said as she removed her bags and cloak.

"It’s not my fault we're too poor to afford two rooms. I mean the look the bar pony gave us we said we wanted one room. I thought he was going to ask if he could join us."

"Please don't say things like that," Octavia said with a shudder. She poked her head through a door in the room, "Oh hey! An en-suite, with actual plumbing! I wasn't expecting that. I call first dibs!" She said quickly before Trixie even had a chance to open her mouth.

"Oh come on! I need to wash this dye off! So unfair."

"Oh shush Trixie, I'm only going to wash my face. It'll only take a minute. I'll start a bath running for you, although I don't know how much you'll want it."

"You have no idea how much I want it but I'll humour you by asking what you mean."

"There's no hot water. I mean, at all. It's freezing."

Trixie groaned and kicked her rear legs out. "Worst hotel in the worst country ever!"

"Hardly," Twilight said as she opened the curtains, giving her a spectacular view of the neighbouring buildings side. "At least it does have an actual bath which is more than you expect from some cheap rooms above a bar. Besides I can heat the water for you."

"You can? Excellent! I knew there was a reason we brought you!"

"Yeah, about the only one so far..." Twilight muttered under her breath. She looked down on the windowsill and noticed a small figurine. It was carved out of wood, depicting a tall alicorn like Celestia, rearing up with its wings spread, but with its forelegs held close to its body and its head lowered as if in sadness. It also had a straight cut mane and tail not dissimilar to her own. She had a look to see if there was a cutie mark but the pony who made it had neglected to include one. "Hey, look at this," she said, holding it up in her magic so the others could see. "Do you think this is meant to be the Lady?"

Trixie took the figurine in her own magic and inspected it closely. "Huh, it’s kind of like a cross between you and Celestia. Weird."

"I wonder what it’s doing here?" Octavia asked as she studied it herself. "If worshipping her is banned then surely leaving this in a public place is a bit inflammatory."

“Maybe somepony left it here by accident?” Trixie suggested. “You’d be surprised at the amount of stuff I’ve left in hotels over the years. Admittedly not as much stuff as I’ve taken from hotels, but still.”

Twilight shook her head and shrugged, “It doesn’t matter.” She tucked the figurine into her saddlebags, figuring that since it probably wasn’t meant to be there then she might as well keep it, although she wasn’t sure why she thought that. Rummaging through her bags she located the speaker stone and lifted it out. “I’m going to find somewhere private to have a talk with Celestia.”

“Wait!” Trixie shouted. “Bath water first!” Twilight rolled her eyes but went into the en-suite. She turned the faucet off and dipped the tip of her horn into the water where she cast a spell for a few seconds which was enough to make the water steam. “There, enjoy.”

She tucked the stone under a wing where it thankfully became invisible as well and walked out of the room, smiling slightly as there was a splash and yelp from Trixie. “Hot hot hot!” She walked down the hall, gingerly testing every door she passed until she found one that opened and gently pushed it open. Finding the room empty she entered and moved the bed against the door ensuring nopony came in while she was there. She lay on the bed, activated the stone and waited for a reply.

“Hello? Twilight? Is that you?” There was a brief pause, where Twilight was sure she could hear a sound like a coconut hitting a rock. “My apologies Twilight, Of course it’s you.”

“Hi Luna. Guess I forgot the time when I did this.”

“Quite alright Twilight. Would you like me to get my sister? She is only bathing right now.”

“No, no need,” Twilight said, not wanting Luna to feel slightly rejected for wanting Celestia over her. “You might be the better pony to speak to about this.”

“Of course Twilight, how may I assist?” Twilight breathed out slowly through her nose, unsure of what she wanted to say. Luna must have picked up on it, asking “Twilight? Is something amiss?”

“I guess I better give you the news first. We’re in Prance. Not without some problems along the way but we are all here. We might have a new problem though. The city is under martial law and has been since before we arrived.”

“Martial law? Why would the city be under martial law? Did something happen there?”

“We don’t really know. Octavia asked one of the guards and he said they were looking for insurrectionists, but the thing is we haven’t seen the slightest evidence of such a thing.”

“There is rarely smoke without fire Twilight. There must be a reason of some sort?”

“If there is we don’t know it. All we know is that there’s a general here of some description and he’s not leaving until he’s decided that the insurrectionists have been pacified.” Twilight’s chest grew tight as her emotions threatened to escape her control. “It’s awful here Luna. In just the last six or so hours we’ve been here I’ve seen how bad it is, and how the general intends to stop them.”

“Twilight? You sound upset. If something is the matter you can tell me.”

“I was looking around the lower city and saw some soldiers harassing a family, a mare, stallion and two foals. They were going to arrest them all if the stallion didn’t come quietly and I couldn’t just stand there and let it happen. I managed to get enough attention on the soldiers so that they became worried and left but they came back later with reinforcements.”

“What did they do?”

“They arrested everypony Luna! Even the children! The stallion told me to hide since the soldiers didn’t know I was there, so when they cleared the building I snuck out to where they were loading the ponies into cages. The filly from the family dropped her stuffed toy when a soldier threw her into the cage and when her mother tried to retrieve it the soldier kicked it away.”

“The fiend!” Luna said, sounding shocked.

“It landed by me and when I picked it up I- I- I just lost it! I was so angry and I wanted to hurt them like they were hurting these ponies!”

“Did you… kill somepony? Is that why you are upset?”

Twilight shook her head before remembering that Luna couldn’t see her. “No, I didn’t kill anypony Luna! I could never do that! No, they attacked me first and I defended myself. Then once I had unarmed them I locked them in their own cages and wiped their memories of the last two days, hoping they might never come back.”

“You would know such a spell? Isn’t such a thing outlawed?”

“No, psychiatrists used to use them but only in the most extreme of cases, but no, they’re not illegal. Anyway after I did that I went to give the filly back her toy but nopony would come near me! They were terrified of me because of the magic I did! I was only trying to help them!” Her voice cracked and she gave a little sob, “I don’t get why they were afraid of me Luna. I helped them!”

“Oh Twilight, I understand what you’re going through all too well.”

“You do?” Twilight said, rubbing her eyes after her outburst.

“Of course I do, you remember how ponies treated me after I returned and was cleansed by the elements. Even though I was no longer evil I was still treated as a threat, ponies would look at me and all they would see was another Nightmare Moon waiting to happen. The ponies of Mareitania haven’t seen magic like yours since before the exodus and have been told for centuries that magic users are evil. You may have helped them Twilight, but I’m afraid all they saw was you attacking ponies with something they think is evil, which by an unfair extension makes you evil as well.”

“I know that,” Twilight said quietly. “I just never thought that being rejected in such a way would hurt so much.”

“It does,” Luna said, equally quiet, “but it doesn’t stop them from doing it. Find strength in your companions Twilight, with them at your side it won’t seem so hard. Work towards a future in Mareitania where such displays of magic would only garner you praise rather than fear.”

Twilight snorted slightly and smiled. Luna was speaking the truth but to hear said in such a way was strange. “Thanks Luna.”

“You are welcome Twilight. I realise that perhaps Celestia might have been more comforting for you, but I hope you realise I am always here for you as well. After all, you were my first friend after my return and I would do anything to help you.”

“Don’t worry Luna, you did.”

“I’m glad, now, is there anything else you wish to tell me?”

“Uh, not much. We might have a lead on where we should go from here, but Fleur knows a lot more about it than I do and she isn’t… here right now.” Twilight thought maybe Luna and Celestia didn’t need to know about the Princess of Friendship’s failure at friendship. “I’ll tell you more once I know more.”

“I see. I hope it’s something good then. If there is nothing more I shall have to take my leave. Night court begins soon and I do not wish to be tardy, unless of course there is something else you wish to discuss?”

“No, that’s it. Thanks for this Luna, I should probably get back to the others. Bye.”

“Farewell Twilight, and remember not to let the fears of these ponies bring you down.”

“I will.” Twilight cut the spell and froze when she realised that in her blubbering she had neglected to tell Luna more important things like what was happening with the martial law, like the random arrests and the brutal treatment ponies were receiving. She was about to make contact again when she remembered that Luna was about to go to night court. “Ugh, I am such an idiot.”

She roughly shoved the bed back into its former position and teleported to her room, rather than walking. She emerged in a flash in the centre of the room and was immediately set upon by Trixie who was still in the bath. “Twilight! Is that you? You said this stuff would wash the dye out! It’s just powdered soap!” Twilight frowned for a moment before snorting into a giggle. “What? What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry Trixie, I didn't mean to laugh. it’s just that Grammaw said that it would wash the dye out and technically she wasn’t wrong even though it’s just soap powder. I guess she made it sound like a miracle fix for the dye to stop me from moping around so much, feeling guilty for what I did to you.”

“Twilight, you are going to come in here and help me because if I come out a blotchy, half blue, half grey freak there will be hell to pay and I won’t be leaving this room until its fixed! Surely you must know a spell of some sort that can remove the dye?”

Twilight rubbed her chin as she thought and couldn’t help but grin as a solution formed in her mind. “No, I’m afraid I don’t know any dye removal spells, but I do know hair growth spells. We could shave you and then use the spell to grow your coat back in is proper colour.” Twilight and Octavia grinned at each other as they cocked an ear towards the bathroom, waiting for a reply.

“No chance. Instead I have a better idea; you are going to come in here and help me scrub until Trixie is either blue or bleeding! Preferably blue.” Twilight walked into the bathroom where Trixie immediately flicked water into her face, “You got that?”

Twilight giggled and picked up a scrubbing brush, “Fair enough, but I’m telling you now that washing your flank is your own business.”

“As if I would even let you.”

Author's Notes:

I'm not sure how this turned out to be such a monster of a chapter but there you go. I'm sure its really badly edited since I have work in 3 hours and I'm something something... *yawn*

Slight edit to the last few paragraphs based on what HaoKyruss said (assuming that's the bit he/she meant).

10. Unexpected Consequences pt 1

Twilight's eyes fluttered open as she slowly awoke, a strange buzzing sound making her ears twitch and in her sleep addled state she couldn't make heads nor tails of what it might be. She carefully removed Trixie's legs from around her and got out of bed to search for the source of the sound, the small amount of early dawn light coming through the curtains being enough to do so by.

She traced the sound to her saddlebags and facehoofed in the gloomy light as she realised what it was. She opened a bag and looked at the offending item; the book that was bonded to Sunset Shimmer's in Canterlot High. I really need to find out the name of their world, I can't name their entire world after a high school and I refuse to call the city she's in alternate Canterlot, Canterlot two or even bizarro Canterlot like Spike suggested. She opened the book quickly so that its flashing wouldn't disturb the others and read it in the glow of her horn.

Dear Twilight

Just checking in with you to make sure everything is okay. I haven't really written to you since the Anon-a-miss incident and I just want you to know that everything is going better now (although I'm getting tired of apologies).

I do have one small issue though that's been bugging me for a while. Why did my friends turn against me so easily? Why couldn't they see through what was, in hindsight, an obvious attempt to frame me? I'm not proud when I say this but back in the 'bad' old days I managed to tear their friendship apart without them suspecting me in the slightest. Do they really think I would do the Anon-a-miss blog in my own colours and use a silhouette of myself? Do they think so little of me to think I could be that obvious? And that's before I even get to the rest of the people at school, as not one of them was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Is this what it’s going to be like forever? Someone points a finger at me as a suspect and suddenly everyone jumps on the bandwagon because I'm Sunset Shimmer and therefore I must be behind everything bad that happens?

Sorry Twilight, I guess it’s not that small an issue for me. I didn't mean for that to become a rant even if it is in writing. I also can't thank you enough for backing my corner during that, really, it means so much that I can count on you.

Anyway, what have you been up to? I can't help but feel like the problems of a high schooler probably don't compare to the problems of being a princess. Can't wait to hear back from you.

Your friend

Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight frowned, saddened that Sunset felt like that, although she truly couldn't blame her for being angry. Even Twilight had to admit she was disappointed by the way Sunset's friends had not only refused to believe her, but had turned their backs on her as well. She got a quill and a small ink bottle out of her bags and thought for a moment before writing back.

Dear Sunset Shimmer

Don't undersell yourself like that. You're my friend and your problems are as important to me as anything I would have to do as a princess. That said, you wouldn't believe what I've been up to lately. I'll tell you at the end.

Have you approached the others about how you're feeling? I know they apologised for their mistake, but if that mistake is still hurting you then it’s not fixed yet. I can't suggest what to do about the rest of the pupils at the school, but these are your friends, you shouldn't be afraid to tell them how you feel.

I would suggest using nicer words though since you are bringing this up quite some time after it happened so they probably think nothing's wrong. Having a confrontation about this after this long would probably be counterproductive even if justified.

And now for the news. I don't know what you know of Mareitania so I'll give you the abridged version and say it’s the kingdom that ponies left after the exodus to Equestria. After the windigoes were defeated the country was taken over by earth ponies, who formed an oppressive government that treats unicorns as second class citizens and have enslaved the pegasi to be weather ponies. They also cut themselves off from the world which is why nopony really knows much about it.

There's more to it than that but it would take a long time to tell you in a letter. If you're curious I'll tell you in person when I next see you. Unfortunately that may not be for a while because Celestia has tasked me with effecting a change of government in Mareitania by any means possible and it could take months, especially considering that I have no idea what I'm doing. I've also been forced to leave my friends in Ponyville since they have responsibilities that they can't really leave behind, and also because Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would be horribly mistreated while here. Thanks to magic I can hide my wings but they wouldn't be so lucky. I also can't tell them about what I'm doing either since its highly top secret.

Instead I've been given different companions to come with me, an earth pony musician called Octavia, who I'm sure has a counterpart in your school, a unicorn model called Fleur who is older than us so I don't think you might have encountered her counterpart at the school. And there's the pony equivalent of Trixie, who happens to be a unicorn. I know you can imagine what that would be like but fortunately she's a bit nicer than your Trixie. Different life experiences are probably to thank for that.

So far all I can say is things are not going great.

I did say that this is top secret so don't tell anypony anybody, not even your friends. The only reason I'm telling you is because you're in a different dimension so it probably doesn't matter too much, and I trust you. I need to go now but please write back soon.

Your friend

Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight sat back, watching as the letters flashed and crossed the divide into an entirely different world, unsure whether she should have told Sunset anything different to what she told her friends in Ponyville, not that it really mattered since it was too late now.

She was about to get back into bed but saw that Trixie had rolled into her spot and decided that it wasn't worth the effort trying to get her to roll back, especially if she risked waking both Trixie and Octavia in the process. Instead she unrolled her sleeping bag and lay on top of it and settled down to try and get more sleep.

An hour later and Twilight hadn't got to sleep and had instead spent the time reading back through Sunset Shimmer's old letters to Celestia. It had felt intrusive at first, like reading someone's diary but Twilight wanted to know what had shaped Sunset to be the pony she used to be. She was surprised to find that despite their identical roles as Celestia's personal students, they were very different.

Sunset had sought power through her knowledge and considered herself to be heir to whatever legacy Celestia was going to bestow upon her and thought making friends to be beneath her. Twilight hadn't thought herself heir to anything and considered herself blessed to be taught by Celestia. She had never once thought that Celestia owed her anything and was a good deal more humble. Her own approach to friends was also different. She didn't think it was beneath her but that it was less important than being the princess's student.

How wrong she was. Would things have turned out differently if Sunset had reached out to others? Twilight might never have become Celestia's student and she might have been one of the ponies witnessing the coronation of Princess Sunset Shimmer. A small shiver went down her spine at the thought of never being Celestia's student.

She put the book back into her bags and thought that perhaps it was time that she woke the others. Not that it mattered much; their current plan was in the hooves of a pony that wasn't even there. They could have spent the entire day in bed for all it mattered right now.

She glanced over to the bed and had to fight back a laugh at what she saw. Trixie had rolled over and had wrapped herself around Octavia and was very gently chewing on Octavia's ear while drooling down her face. Octavia, for her part, hadn't appeared to notice and was slowly moving her legs like she was dreaming. Never before had Twilight wished so much to have a camera.

Twilight gave Octavia a gentle nudge with her magic, before giving her a harder nudge when the last one didn't do anything. She watched as Octavia slowly came about and took extra care to watch as Octavia discovered what Trixie was doing to her.

"Wazzit? Huh? Stop touchin' m' ear..." Octavia blinked a few times as her awareness grew and suddenly froze, eyes wide open as Trixie chewed a bit more. Suddenly she lept out of bed; "Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew! Trixie!" She rubbed her cheek with a hoof, a sticky string of saliva forming when she pulled her hoof away. "Eeewwww! Trixie!"

Her shouts woke Trixie who thrashed about wild eyed in her half asleep delirium. "What? Wha's happening? We bein' 'tacked?"

"Yes! I'm being attacked by you Trixie!"

Trixie stopped thrashing and rubbed her eyes a few times before blinking owlishly at Octavia. "What d' y' mean I'm attacking you? That's stupid."

"You were chewing on my ear in your sleep! And you've drooled all over my face!" Octavia grabbed a corner of the blanket and did her best to wipe it off.

"There is no way Trixie would do something like that! Maybe Twilight was doing it?"

Twilight cleared her throat noisily and tried to keep a straight face, but failed miserably and burst out laughing. "I've been down here for the last hour so it wasn't me. Besides, even if I were still in the bed you'd be between me and Octavia." she said once she had calmed down.

"Trixie would never perform such a lewd act. Perhaps it was you, Octavia, who put your ear in my mouth! Or maybe Twilight set up the whole thing!" Octavia shook her head and growled slightly before going into the bathroom to wash. "What are you doing down there anyway?" Trixie asked Twilight.

"I thought I heard something and woke up. I thought I'd leave you two to it rather than wake you up getting back into bed."

"Fine, fine. Did you have to do that to me and Octavia though? Couldn't you have entertained yourself with something else?"

"I swear I didn't do anything to either of you!"

"Hmmph, likely story." Trixie got out of bed and stretched like a cat would, a series of clicks emanating from her joints. "Is there a plan for today? Hanging around doing nothing doesn't sound like a lot of fun."

Twilight sighed and shook her head, "I wish I had a plan. Ideally we would find Fleur and have her explain what exactly she's up to, but I get the feeling you only found her because she wanted you to."

"She does seem to have quite a large skill set for somepony who's 'just a model,'" Octavia said as she emerged from the bathroom. "You'd be forgiven for thinking she was some kind of spy or secret agent."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed. "I mean Trixie knew she could be stealthy but this is full on ninja skills here, sneaking around, gathering Intel and stuff like that."

"Or," Twilight suggested, "it could be that this is the city she grew up in, living on the streets. She would know her way around and she would know the right ponies to ask. I'm not trying to put her down but I think you're getting a little caught up in thinking she's something she is not." Both Trixie and Octavia nodded vaguely.

"What are we going to do today then?" Octavia asked. "Could I also suggest that we do it together? I don't think any of us want a repeat of yesterday’s misfortunes."

"How about we start with breakfast?" suggested Trixie.

Twilight shrugged in return, "Sounds like a plan."

The three ponies headed downstairs to the bar and paid a small pittance for what the bar pony called 'you get what you're given.' Apparently that was a bowl of lukewarm and stodgy porridge, which they ate with little complaint, their palate's being somewhat altered by the weeks of subsisting on whatever food they could get.

As they ate Twilight kept glancing out of the window, concerned by the number of soldiers she could see patrolling up and down the street. "Excuse me," she said to the bar pony, "has something happened? There seems to be more soldiers than usual out there."

The mustard coloured earth pony spat on a glass and polished it with a grubby rag, which made Twilight's stomach turn, before answering. "Some unicorn attacked a bunch of soldiers yesterday, trapped them in their own cages and stole their memories. Soldiers are going nuts trying to track down something that they have no idea how to find."

Twilight swallowed and tried to keep the fear she now felt from entering her voice. Octavia and Trixie also had the wits to not give their shock away. "Do they know who they're looking for? I mean, male, female, hair colour?"

The bar pony put the glass away and picked up another which he again spat on and polished. "Don't know. It's not like they like to share their information freely, not 'less they beat it out of somepony else first. What I do know is that they already arrested one pony who they think might be the pony they're looking for."

Twilight nervously glanced at the others, reading in their expressions the same thing that she was thinking, please don't be Fleur. "Do you know who that might be?"

"Not a sodding clue. I reckon the whole thing was done by those mares what I heard of in Stalliongrad what did that rescue. If the soldiers captured one of them then it must have been intentional on the mare’s part. Truth is they probably just arrested the shiftiest looking unicorn mare they could find, an' now that poor girl is going to face the noose for something she didn't even do."

"Hold on," said Trixie, "if they've already arrested somepony then why are they still looking? You said they were going nuts looking for somepony they didn't know how to find?"

The bar pony started rubbing the bar down with the same cloth that he used on the glasses, both Twilight and Octavia squirming as they watched him do it "Beats me," he said. "Maybe they're trying to find their accomplices or something."

"By marching up and down the streets? Hah! Good luck."

"Standard search pattern for the grand army, least it was back when I was in it. Basically just walk round in circles until you find somepony who looks suspicious or guilty."

"You were in the army?" Twilight asked, surprised that the stallion would be so dismissive of the army's methods after he was in it.

"Sure was, and I'll tell you now that there's two things the leaders of this so called 'grand army' lack; subtlety, and guile. Why try to do things sensibly when you can send a bunch of boys in screaming 'n' hollering and making a mess of things? Couldn't have been happier when I finally got out. Being around that much stupidity on a daily basis can leave a pony feeling pretty stupid themselves."

"Wait wait wait," Trixie interrupted. "If you were in the army, does this mean you know why they put this place under martial law?"

The bar pony stopped cleaning the bar and rested on it instead, giving the three ponies a long, cool stare. "Fear. The Duke's a paranoid old bastard who thinks everypony around him is one step from starting an open rebellion. He's put this place under martial law to cow anypony who might think unpatriotic thoughts, and to set an example to the inhabitants of other cities. Likes making examples does the Duke. Made one in Neigh Orleans about twenty years ago where he got some ponies who tried to escape out of the country and... 'executed' them, just to set an example to anypony else thinking of escaping." The stallion visibly shuddered, "Even kept me and the others in the dark about what they was going to make us do until we had no choice but to do it. Told us we were just escorting them back to the city at first."

Twilight put a comforting hoof on Trixie's shoulder, Trixie having gone still and quiet with her mouth slightly agape. "Do you know what's going to happen here?" she asked the stallion.

He sighed wearily and pulled a bottle out from behind the bar and took a pull before putting it back. "Same thing that happens every time they try something like this; randomly arrest some ponies, torture some, and make others disappear before finally making a big show of executing the leaders of some rebellion they made up. Probably just some ponies they found breaking curfew the night before. Happened in Bitmark 'bout ten years ago, almost exactly the same, all so he can keep ponies afraid of him and his army. Someday he'll go too far and start something that he can't finish and between you an' me, I'll laugh when it happens." A mare suddenly shouted from somewhere behind the bar, "Yeah yeah, I'm coming!" the stallion shouted back. "Excuse me ladies, if you need me just holler," he said before disappearing.

Trixie squeaked and started hyperventilating, "That was my parents he was talking about! It had to be!"

"You don't know that," Twilight said as Trixie started to rock back and forward. "I'm sure other ponies from there have tried to escape and... failed." She hugged Trixie, unable to think of what else to say.

"I don't mean to sound cruel," Octavia interjected, "but I fear we may have more pressing concerns, like finding out the identity of the pony they arrested. More specifically, making sure it’s not Fleur."

Twilight was about to tell Octavia off for being so insensitive when Trixie pushed her off. "Yeah, I know. I'm fine honestly, it was just a bit of a shock." She stood up, her legs shaking slightly, "Come on, we need to find Fleur. Again."

"This is pointless." Trixie exclaimed as she collapsed onto her rear at the foot of a statue depicting some deceased military pony and massaged her hooves. "It's going to be impossible to find her if we stick together and let's be honest here, if she's been arrested then we're not going to find her at all are we? We've been at this for hours and haven't seen a trace of her."

"We're not splitting up Trixie. Do you even remember what happened to me and Octavia yesterday?"

"Of course I remember, I'm not stupid. It seems to me though that we're slowing ourselves down just to make you two feel better."

"Says the pony sat on her flank, whingeing," Octavia said snarkily. "I do agree that this is pointless though. Fleur isn't liable to suddenly just cross our path. Nothing's ever that simple."

"Actually, statistically speaking, that is quite possible," Twilight said as she tapped her hooves together nervously. "If we keep at it it's bound to happen."

"Oh good!" Trixie said sarcastically. "It might happen today, tomorrow or next month but we can rest assured it will happen. Eventually."

"I never said it would happen quickly, although technically we could turn the next corner and find her."

"'Statistically speaking,'" Trixie added with hoof quotes.

Twilight threw her hooves out in exasperation, "Do you have any better ideas then Trixie? Besides splitting up. If so I would love to hear them."

"No, admittedly I do not, but not having a better plan is no excuse for sticking with a bad one. Give Trixie a minute and I'll come up with something." Trixie folded her legs and looked out across the square at the other ponies, leaving Twilight looking like she wanted to explode. She was about to when Trixie suddenly gasped and charged off into the crowd.

She came back a minute later carrying in her magic a small yellow filly who was complaining about her treatment. "I mean seriously, why is it always by the neck? Do ponies not realise that it hurts? The best part is I didn't even do anything wrong this time!" She was dumped in front of Twilight and Octavia and rubbed her neck with a hoof. "Oh hey, I recognise you two! You’re the ponies that don’t put sauce in their hay bacon rolls," she said once she bothered to look at them. "Does this mean your idiot friend is around here too?"

Trixie's magic glowed around the filly as she spun her round in a half circle. "Hi," Trixie said in a low growl.

"Hi yourself. Now seriously, where's Trixie?" There was moment of quiet as the filly studied the blue pony in front of her. The moment ended when the filly lifted up the side of Trixie's cloak to see her cutie mark. "Huh, didn't know ponies could change colour. Guess that's what blueerr-grey meant. Anyway, how you been Trixie? What's up?"

"Don't get friendly, you don't like us and we don't like you. We need information and you are going to give it to us."

"Are you kidding? I like you, you guys are great! Especially you Trixie. Anyway, I don't know what you expect me to know because despite my mature, outward appearance I am in fact but a mere filly. Knowing stuff is adults business."

"We'll give you money," Twilight said slipping some coins out of her bag.

"Now you're speaking my language! So what can I do you for miss, miss and miss?"

"We want to know who the unicorn was that the soldiers arrested last night," Twilight said, "and if they've arrested anypony else involved in that... attack on the soldiers yesterday."

"I have no idea!" the filly said cheerfully. "I do know that two other ponies were arrested last night, but I don't think it had anything to do with that attack."

"You mean you have no idea who that unicorn mare might have been?"

The filly shrugged lightly, "There's only one kind of mare that would risk being out after curfew if it meant making a few coin for the trouble."

"Drug dealers!" Trixie shouted out loud, causing a few passers-by to look in their direction.

"Ooookaay, make that two kinds of mare who would stay out after curfew like that," the filly said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"That doesn't tell us if Fleur's been arrested though," said Octavia. "All that means is she could be one of three possible ponies."

"Fleur ain't been arrested, I saw her this morning. Bought me breakfast in fact. By which I mean she stole something and gave it to me and I ate it because it’s easier than stealing it myself. I'm telling you, you unicorns have a real advantage when it comes to sleight of hoof seeing as how you don't need hooves to do it. Hey, are you guys even listening?"

They weren't listening in the slightest, all of them distracted with relief that Fleur was safe. The distraction ended when Trixie grabbed the filly in her magic again when she noticed she was going through Octavia's bags. "Why do you have stockings in your bag? Seems a bit weird."

"They're for bandages okay! Quit asking! And don't go through my bags!" She glared at Trixie who didn't even try to disguise her snigger.

"Yeesh, defensive much? And it’s not my fault you all started ignoring me. I get antsy when that happens and I have to do something to distract myself."

"Nevermind that," Twilight said, hoping to direct the conversation somewhere helpful and not into an argument about Octavia's possessions. "Where did you see Fleur? Is she nearby?"

"Nah, this was ages ago. She could be anywhere by now."

Twilight stomped a hoof in frustration. There was no way that one pony should be this hard to find. She tossed the coins to the filly, "Here. Thanks for helping."

"Don't give her money!" Trixie whined. "Now we'll never get rid of her!" she said, making Twilight roll her eyes.

"If you should happen to see Fleur," Twilight said to the filly as she directed a glare at Trixie, "could you ask her to find us? We really need to talk to her."

"Sure! Although if you want to find her you could try your luck tonight."

"Tonight? What do you mean tonight?"

"The executions in castle square! Loadsa ponies go to that sort of thing, maybe you'll find Fleur there!"

Twilight licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry; "Oh, exe- executions? Really? I didn't know they were treated like a- a... spectator sport around here. Are you going?"

"Yeah, but only because it’s good pickings at a thing like that. I don't actually care about the... killing bit." She scuffed her hoof in the dirt, her eyes averted. "I think you've had your two marcs worth of my time so I'm going to go now. If I see Fleur before tonight I'll pass on the message." She started to trot off when Twilight shouted after her.

"Wait! What time are the ex- what time is it happening tonight?"

"Just after sundown, around sevenish. It's always after sundown for some reason. Guess they think the dark makes it more dramatic."

Twilight watched as the filly vanished into the distance, her mind blank. She was shaken out of her reverie by Octavia, "Seems we got a date to keep. May as well get some lunch or something first, because if I see somepony selling hay-dogs at this thing then I might have to scream and I certainly wouldn't be buying one." Twilight nodded slightly and followed after Octavia.

"Pretty shitty date." Trixie muttered darkly. "And it’s definitely going to have to be 'or something' because I'm really not hungry now."

The three ponies had ended up back in the bar where they had stayed the previous night. They had tried a bar in the upper city near the castle but the bar tender had taken one look at them and immediately told them to leave. They hadn't bothered to get an explanation why. They didn't need one.

Twilight swirled her glass of wine around as she stared into it, as if looking for portents in the ruby liquid. Truth was that the wine actually tasted a little worse than vinegar and could probably be used to etch glass. She wasn't much of a drinker either so the initial taste was actually as far as she had gotten.

"This is so messed up," Trixie moaned for the hundredth time. "Sitting around drinking as we wait to go see a bunch of ponies get brutally murdered by other ponies for no good reason at all." Twilight winced at her words, like she had done so every other time Trixie had said them.

"I don't think we have to wait much longer," Octavia said, taking another tentative sip of her own glass of wine. "It’s almost time."

Twilight swirled her wine a few more times before putting it down. "I guess we should head up to the castle then." None of them moved a muscle.

"Do we, in theory, actually need to go?" Trixie asked. "There's no guarantee that Fleur's going to be there anyway. We could end up seeing this whole vile business for absolutely no reason if she's not."

Twilight got out of her chair and donned her cloak before hauling her bags over it, securing them in place before checking her sleeping bag was securely tied on. "Yes we need to go."

"But why?"

Twilight rounded on Trixie with her teeth bared, "You don't get it do you? I attacked those soldiers! Me! Now that poor mare is going to hang because of what I did!" She stopped, her breathing ragged as she let that sink into Trixie's head. "It's my fault, that's why we're going! If there's a way to stop this then I have to try!"

"Oh."

Twilight waited as the other two gathered their own belongings, ignoring the muttered protests from Trixie, and led the way out of the bar. She would have said goodbye to the bar pony but he seemed to have disappeared somewhere a while ago and hadn't come back since. The rest of the bar was empty so there was probably no need for him to be there anyway.

She led the way out onto the street and headed towards the castle, each step feeling like there were lead weights attached to her hooves. If this was the sort of thing Celestia had expected her to do when she gave her this mission then she might have considered giving her resignation as a princess right then and there.

As she led the trio up through the city she started to notice that other ponies were heading in the same direction, in twos and threes. She was also quietly relieved to note that none of them looked happy, every one of them wearing a sombre expression as they headed to the execution.

They soon came upon the entrance to castle square, the square itself being with the confines of the castle. Twilight was faintly surprised by how large it was. All the ponies she had seen so far had only just filled half of it and there was plenty more still coming.

She looked around, the torches lined around the walls providing just enough light to see by. At the far end of the square was the gallows, built adjacent to the main part of the castle. It was heavily guarded as though the soldiers were expecting trouble before things had even started. Gladly pulling her focus away from that she continued to search around, hoping to spot Fleur. "I can't see her," she said out loud to nopony in particular.

"Ponies are still arriving yet," Octavia responded. "Give it time." They waited, with more ponies entering into the square which added to the difficulty of trying to spot one pony amongst them. Twilight was sure she spotted her once, catching a glimpse of a white muzzle in a dark hood looking right at her. As soon as she had though her view was blocked by another pony and when she moved to try and find what she had seen again, the hooded pony was gone.

"This is hopeless, there's too many ponies here. Finding her in this crowd is going to be impossible."

"I wouldn't be so certain of that," Trixie said before nodding towards Twilight. Twilight turned around and saw the hooded pony coming towards her, because of their height they looked like a hooded shark moving through a sea of ponies. As it came closer it became obvious that the pony was in fact Fleur. Twilight smiled faintly but that smile was quickly faded when she saw Fleur's own expression of fury. Fleur closed the distance and shoved her face into Twilight's.

"Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

Dear Twilight

First things first, thanks for the advice. The others seemed a bit funny about me bringing it up this long after things had cooled down, but you were right, they did listen and I think we did sort things out although I did have to receive more apologies (yay).

When it comes down to it though I'm still a bit suspicious of why it happened. I thought we were past all of this. I guess the magic of friendship is something you have to keep working at. It doesn't just happen and stay happened.

Anyway, less about me and more about you little miss 'effect a change of government.' I mean, wow... That's a pretty big deal. I've heard some things about Maretania and none of them were very nice. I'm guessing the truth is even worse.

I wish I could be there to help you but obviously that's impossible now seeing as how the book is now hundreds of miles away from the mirror so there's no way I'm getting through it.

I guess all I can do then is wish you good luck. Celestia must have real faith is your abilities to ask you to do something as crazy as that.

Your friend

Sunset Shimmer

Author's Notes:

About time I got back to posting. Part 2 will be up next week because I'll be on holiday and more bothered to do things.

11. Unexpected consequences pt 2

"Do you have any idea what you've done!" Fleur growled in Twilight's face, from between gritted teeth, Twilight taking a step back defensively.

"Yes, I know what I've done," Twilight said quietly, her head drooping. "And now some poor mare is going to pay the price for it." She looked back up at Fleur with tears in her eyes, "And it's all my fault."

"Really? Really? You think that's all you've done? Are you really that fucking dense?"

"What are you talking about Fleur?" Octavia asked as she surreptitiously tried to edge her way in between Fleur and Twilight.

"This... purple fucking idiot has given the army every fucking excuse it needs to do whatever it wants here!" Fleur grabbed Twilight's bangs in her magic and dragged her, squealing and protesting, to a more secluded part of the courtyard where she roughly threw Twilight sideways against the wall.

She was roughly shoved aside by Octavia who fully interposed herself between Fleur and Twilight, who was now crouched down cowering. "I don't know what you think you're doing Fleur but you better explain yourself!" she demanded with her eyes narrowed.

"Fine. I'll try to keep it simple. Do you know why the army is here, doing what it's doing?"

"Of course, they're here to root out an imaginary insurrection."

"Right, an insurrection that didn't exist. All they were doing really was putting the fear of the Duke and the army into ponies. At least that's what they were doing until a certain purple 'unicorn' went and attacked a bunch of soldiers."

"I was only trying to help! They were arresting foals Fleur, foals! I couldn't just sit there and do nothing!"

"Well you should have done nothing!" Fleur snapped. "Now you've convinced the ponies in charge that there actually is an insurrection here! And you've made unicorns bigger targets for the soldiers than they were before! Before long there'll be even more soldiers brought in which means even less freedom for the ponies here and a lot more unicorns being arrested and beaten in small dark rooms before being kicked back out into the street with their horns snapped off their head all because some dumb ass purple unicorn doesn't know the meaning of the word consequences!"

Twilight sagged against the wall, a knot forming in her chest as the weight of Fleur's revelations dragged her down. "Bu- but I-I was... I was only trying to help... I-I-" She collapsed onto her stomach, her legs no longer able to support her, and lay there, unmoving.

"Why on earth would they snap unicorns horns off?" Octavia asked at the same that Trixie asked, "Why did you think it was Twilight that attacked the soldiers?"

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, firstly they've been arresting loads of unicorns since the attack and beating the crap out of them for information. They've also been doing it because a unicorn attacked their buddies and have been taking it into their own hooves to dehorn any unicorn as a result. And Trixie, no offence to you but there's only one unicorn in Mareitania with the skills to pull an attack like that off. Credit where credit is due and all that."

Twilight wasn't listening, the sound of their voices sounding like little more than droning as she lay there with her mind trapped in a never-ending loop of I've failed, I tried to help those ponies and now I've made things worse! Ponies are going to die because I helped and it's all my fault! It was like being trapped in a nightmare, the thoughts swirling through her head again and again. She snapped out of it when a bugle call suddenly sounded from somewhere, the shock of it cutting straight through the fog in her mind. She stood up and wiped her eyes free of tears before looking out over the crowd towards the gallows where a soldier was stood blowing said bugle. He stopped and hooked it on his armour before addressing the crowd. "Silence for General Sabre!"

Apparently that was all he was going to say. He stood there as a sandy coloured, middle aged stallion, dressed in an ornate uniform and complete with mutton chops coming from his silver mane; walked onto the platform and nodded to the horn blower. He stood there looking over the crowd in silence, the crowd murmuring more the longer he said nothing.

Eventually, in a high nasal voice that Twilight would have found amusing on any other day in any other situation, he addressed the crowd. "It has come to my attention that certain ponies from this fair city do not enjoy living under military protection. Why else would your noble guardians be attacked in broad daylight and horribly altered by dark magics? Perhaps it was a rogue element who performed this heinous act, but perhaps not. Anypony else that was there also seems to have conveniently developed memory loss as a result, despite not being attacked themselves."

"Need I remind you that withholding information from us during this time is a criminal act since it clearly makes you complicit with the fiends who assaulted our brave soldiers. As a result of this complicity you shall now be living under higher scrutiny. More soldiers will be arriving within the week and curfew is now reduced to seven o'clock."

The crowd erupted into booing and hissing and the General stopped talking as they did, his face growing as red as a beetroot as the crowd continued their protestations. "Silence!" he squealed. "I will have silence!"

"Go to hell!" a mare shouted from the crowd, with many others shouting their affirmation of that idea. The General didn't rise to their taunts but instead nodded to the horn blower who shouted "Bring out the prisoners!"

The crowd fell silent as the prisoners were brought out of the castle and escorted onto the gallows, the shackles on their hooves clinking as they walked. The first prisoner was a fat, grey earth pony stallion who had his head wrapped in bandages for some reason. The second was a dark purple unicorn stallion with a spiky, bright silver mane who scowled at the General before scanning the crowd as if searching for something. Thirdly came a pink unicorn mare with a two tone red mane, a red heart and arrow cutie mark visible under the tattered remains of a dress that somehow made her look more naked than if she wasn't wearing it. She was also sobbing openly, tears and mascara running down her face, and Twilight's heart ached with each sob, knowing that this must be the pony that got arrested for Twilight's crimes.

"Hey! That's the drug dealer I saw in the market!"

"Trixie, she's a prostitute you moron," Fleur said with a groan, lightly batting Trixie on the back of her head.

"Trixie totally knew that." Twilight was about to say something as well when she was distracted by shouts from nearby. When she looked to see what might be causing them she was surprised to see it was Octavia, charging through the crowd.

Octavia stood open mouthed as she saw the first prisoner step up onto the gallows, shocked that he of all ponies would be there. Snapping out of it she stood up on her rear legs, years of playing the cello making her well balanced, and whipped her head around as she searched for two other ponies she thought might be there in the crowd.

She spotted them about midway across the square and swiftly fell back onto all fours before pushing her way through the crowd to them, ignoring the shouts and complaints directed at her. After a minute or two she came upon the ponies she was looking for, Sapphire and Velvet.

Sapphire was watching the ponies on the gallows, her expression grim and her eyes hard as she did her best to comfort Velvet, who was facing away from the gallows as she wept. "Sapphire! Velvet! What's going on? Why's your fa- why is he up there?" Octavia asked hurriedly.

"Hello Octavia," Sapphire said, not taking her eyes off the gallows. "Isn't it obvious why he's up there?"

"Not really, they're hanging ponies suspected of being rebels! I'm pretty sure your father- sorry, he isn't a rebel." Octavia glanced at the gallows where a noose was being placed around his neck.

"We know that, but Peach Blossom accused him of being one when the soldiers took her in for questioning and they don't seem particularly concerned with obtaining proof. That or he has enough of a reputation that they don't care. I hope it’s that one. About time he was brought to justice."

"Peach Blossom did this?" Octavia looked around, hoping to find the peach coloured pony but couldn't see her. "Where is she?"

"Back at ours. The soldiers beat her pretty badly, snapped her horn off, broke her leg and purposely split one of her hooves. We're taking care of her until she's better since she's probably safer in the upper city." Octavia shuddered. Split hooves were one of the most painful things known to pony kind, possibly on a par with foal birth.

"Velvet?" Octavia asked quietly, placing a hoof on Velvet's shoulder. "Are you okay?" On a scale of one to ten for dumb questions Octavia had to admit that was probably an eleven. Velvet looked up at Octavia, her pale brown eyes brimming with tears before she squeezed them shut and shook her head.

"He hurt Sapphire," she said, her voice little more than a whisper, "and he hurt so many others. He's- he's getting what he dese- deserves. He's a monst-" Her voice cracked and she said nothing more as she choked up. Velvet suddenly tensed as the crowd cheered before falling to her haunches, being held up by Sapphire, whose expression remained unchanging even as it gazed upon the now dangling and twitching body of her abuser.

"I-I... I don't- I um..." Octavia wanted to say something comforting, to both of them, but her words failed her. Sapphire turned her view away from the gallows and towards Octavia, a fire burning in her eyes.

"It's fine, you don't have to say anything. We need to go, we have things to do since he's... well, yeah. She gestured towards the gallows, "But it was nice to see you again Octavia. Take care." Sapphire started to leave, Velvet leaning against her for support as she walked.

"I... don't..." Octavia sagged and watched as the two ponies made their way through the crowd. "Take of yourselves," she said quietly before turning and heading back to the others.

Twilight flinched as the first prisoner fell and averted her gaze, feeling sick with horror as the crowd cheered for the death of a probably innocent pony. She glanced over to Trixie who had similarly averted her eyes, meeting Twilight's glance in return. The only one of them able to watch was Fleur, who was carefully maintaining an impassive visage, although Twilight could hear her grinding her slightly bared teeth.

After a minute grey hooves entered her vision and she looked up as Octavia sat next to her, resting her forehead against the wall, facing away from the gallows. "Are you okay?" Twilight asked, unknowingly mirroring Octavia's question to Velvet a few minutes earlier.

Octavia shook her head, grinding her forehead against the stone of the wall. "Not really. We shouldn't be here. I'm also really starting to dislike that question."

"I know, I'm sorry Octavia. I don't think we should ha-" Twilight whipped her head around as scream pierced the night, a half hysterical begging from a unicorn mare pleading for the life of the purple stallion on the gallows, standing with a noose around his neck.

"Please! He's all I have! Please don't kill him!"

"Star! Don't!" the stallion shouted back. "It's not worth it! I'm not worth it! Get out of here befo-ack!" He was cut off when one of the soldiers punched him in the gut, choking himself with the noose as he doubled over in pain which only made the mares screams more frantic.

"Nightlight!"

Twilight folded her ears back and felt herself shake at hearing her father’s name mentioned even if it wasn't actually him. She whimpered slightly as the General stepped forward and spoke, "Cease your prattle woman! This stallion has been charged with committing insurrectionist activities and he will pay the price. Men, you have permission to use lethal force should she try to get in the way."

"But sir!" One of the soldiers exclaimed. "She's just one mare!"

"Don't you dare question my orders soldier! If she comes within ten paces of the gallows you will strike her down!"

"Sir yes sir!" As one of the soldiers stepped up to the lever that would open the trap door beneath the stallion the mare charged the gallows. "No! Don't!" she shouted before one of the soldiers swung round with a spear in his mouth, stabbing her through the neck. The mares eyes went wide and she staggered as a trickle of blood fell from the corner of her mouth and from the wound staining her white fur crimson."

"Star! No!" the stallion shouted as he struggled with his bonds, trying to escape and get to the mare.

"Good work soldier," the General said with a cruel grin on his face. "Now let’s hang that traitor and get on with this."

The soldier who had stabbed the mare pulled the spear back and dropped it, the mare falling over and pawing at her neck and coughing up blood as she choked on her own vital fluids. "I- I- I didn't- I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

"Pick up your weapon and get back into line before I have you court-martialed! I will not stand for insubordination!" The mare’s movements slowed as her life ebbed from her, the stallion still struggling to get to her. Two ponies rushed forward to try and help her, but there was nothing they could do as the mare struggled, drowning in her own blood. "You fucking killed her!" one of them shouted.

A single rock flew from somewhere in the crowd, narrowly missing the General followed by another that cracked one of the soldiers on the head, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Many in the crowd started to push towards the gallows and the soldiers backed off in return. "Get back you curs! I will have order! Soldiers, kill anypony who would dare attack!"

There crowd didn’t seem to care as they continued to push up against the gallows, but they relented and fell silent when somepony in the crowd started singing something in a language Twilight couldn't understand. The song was quickly taken up by others in the crowd, getting louder and louder until it drowned out the feeble shouts of the General who was starting to look worried. "What is that?" Twilight asked Fleur as she searched for the pony that started it. She spotted him and saw that it was the bar pony from before, singing with one hoof over his heart and a determined look on his face.

"It's the old Prench national anthem," she said vaguely. "Sung when patriots are about to do something pretty dumb." She started glancing about nervously.

The song rolled to a stop and silence reclaimed the square. "We need reinforcements right now!" the General screamed at no one in particular.

"Viva la Prance!" the bar pony shouted before charging the stage, others picking up the charge as he ran. The soldiers brought their weapons to bear but they might as well have been wielding toothpicks as the ponies pushed them aside before crushing them against the gallows, beating the soldiers who fought back into bloody messes and taking their weapons.

The ponies then swarmed onto the gallows with most going after the General and his remaining soldiers, apart from a few which helped to free the two remaining prisoners. The stallion leapt off the gallows to the fallen mare who lay cooling in a pool of blood. Twilight could barely hear his wails of grief over the sound of the other ponies as they subdued and strung up the General. "You will all die for this!" the General shouted before somepony pulled the lever and dropped the pony, leaving him to thrash as the noose choked the life from him.

Twilight, Trixie and Octavia stood slack jawed as they failed to comprehend just what exactly had happened. Fleur seemed a bit more controlled but did seem to be swearing under her breath a lot. The fact that they had all witnessed several ponies die in the space of a few minutes didn't even enter their minds as they watched the bar pony walk to the front of the gallows and address the crowd.

"I don't know about all you folk but I reckon these soldiers have had the run of our city for far too long. I think it's high time we made them consider their futures and how leaving would be good for them." He hefted a spear into the air, "Everypony who's with me grab a weapon if you can and let's show these bastards that we ain't gonna roll over and play nice for them!"

The ponies surrounding him cheered and raised their own weapons into the air before exiting the square and spreading out into the city in small groups. It didn't take long for the square to empty leaving a few stragglers, Nightlight, who was hugging the body of the mare, and Twilight and her companions. "What the fuck just happened?" Trixie half shouted, conveying the feelings of the others quite accurately.

"I think we just saw the birth of an actual insurrection," Octavia answered her. "Should we- Should we be helping them?" she asked after an awkward few seconds.

"What? No!" Twilight gestured around in a big sweeping arc. "This? This isn't an insurrection! This is barely controlled chaos! We shouldn't be helping them, we should be stopping them before this city tears itself apart!"

"You both wrong!" Fleur shouted at both of them before either could argue. "We need to get out of here."

"You can't be serious Fleur! This is your home, where you were born! Do you really want to see it torn apart by this madness?" Twilight pleaded. "We have to stop this."

Fleur shook her head sadly, "There's no stopping this Twilight. This is a choice between martial law and mob rule, and quite frankly I don't find either very appealing. We need to get out of here, and now is an ideal time while everypony is busy."

"But this is my fault! We have to stop this! I have to stop this!"

"For the record," Trixie interjected, "I agree with Fleur about the whole leaving thing. Mob rule sounds worse than martial law if you ask me. At least martial law has law, even if it is a bit one sided in this messed up country."

"Twilight. Once news of this reaches the Duke he's going to send an actual army here that will either lay siege on the city and starve it into submission, which isn't far off seeing as how they restricted trade, or they will enter the city and kill anypony who looks at them wrong. Maybe both. Starving ponies tend not to fight back much."

"But... I... I have to... I have to stop this..." Twilight muttered weakly before slumping against the wall in defeat. "This is my fault."

Fleur grabbed Twilight's head in her forehooves and looked her straight in the eyes. "Yes Twilight, you fucked up and I'm not going to lie to you and say you didn't. But what's going on out there right now isn't really your fault. At most you were the spark that lit the fuse to this mess, but right now we need to get out of here; pity parties can happen after."

"Yep... that's me, I'm good at sparks. And parties." Twilight pushed Fleur's hooves off and stood up, steadying her breathing as she adjusted her cloak and tried to smooth her fraying mane down. "How can you be so calm about this Fleur?" she asked once she seemed satisfied with her appearance.

"Something Fancy Pants once told me about politics. I didn't really get what he meant at first since it was kind of long winded, but it boiled down to sense first, blind rage after."

"A misquote of a non-quote," Trixie commented with a snort as she adjusted her own gear. "Loving it. Now how about we get out of here?"

"Right, we should head to the Arch. It’s the nearest and most straight forward way out." Fleur started to head to the exit out of the square when she paused mid step. "Of course we might have to kick the gate down or something when we get there but we can worry about that later. Let’s go."

"Hold on." Twilight said before trotting over to where Nightlight was still holding the body of the mare. "I- I'm really sorry, I... I wish I could change all of this, truly." She placed a hoof on his shoulder but the stallion didn't react in the slightest. She bit her lower lip nervously and was about to go when he spoke."

"We were going to be married in August. Just a small ceremony with a few friends. We didn't need a fancy wedding as long as we were together." He let out a choking sob, tears streaming down his face. "I was okay with dying here because I knew she was okay, I knew she was would survive even without me... It was always us just us when we were young, looking out for each other because nopony else would, but she was always the stronger of us..." He fell silent once more, gently rocking the body of the mare.

"I-I... I'm sorry!" Twilight turned and ran back to the others, tears staining her own cheeks. She did her best to wipe them off before nodding at Fleur who led them out the gate and down the street.

Even just outside the castle square there was a noticeable difference in atmosphere. They could hear the shouts and cries of ponies fighting in the streets. The fighting had already moved on from around the castle, leaving nothing more than bloodstains and broken bodies behind. A soldier was leaning against the base of a statue with half a spear protruding from his chest, yet somehow he clung to life. His gaze followed them as they went past, his eyes begging for help or mercy, but none of them were able to give either.

"You were right," Octavia whispered, "this is madness." A burning cart illuminated the worry in her eyes. "If we're headed this way, do you mind if we make a small detour? There are some ponies I wish to check on to see if they're okay." Fleur rolled her eyes and grimaced but nodded for Octavia to lead the way.

Thankfully it was only a small detour, and the first sign they had that they had arrived was the crossbow bolt that shattered on the cobblestones by Octavia's hooves. "One wrong move and you're dead!"

"Sapphire?" Sapphire was sat in the window above the front door, pointing a now unloaded crossbow at them.

"Octavia? Oh, uh... sorry about that. It seems the natives are a bit restless so I stole this crossbow from a dead soldier, you know, just in case."

Octavia bit back her first reply of 'are you crazy?' since Sapphire wasn't a mare she wanted to say that to. "So you and Velvet are okay then? I was worried," she asked instead.

"Yes, we're fine. Peach Blossom is too. Seems leaving the execution early was a prudent decision. I would let you in but we've barricaded the door quite severely and it would be difficult to move it all again. That and I doubt we have the provisions for four more ponies in here."

Octavia watched as Sapphire calmly reloaded the crossbow, looking the every inch like a practiced killer as she did it without fumbling. She also wondered about Sapphire's strangely posh speech. She was half expecting her to call this a 'jolly good riot.' "That's alright, we're leaving the city anyway. I just wanted to make sure that you and the others were fine."

"Oh yes, we're fine. Apart from the complete breakdown of law and order, you could almost call this a jolly good riot. Good luck out there Octavia! You may well need it." Sapphire rested the reloaded crossbow on the windowsill and aimed along it, apparently seeming to forget they were even there.

Fleur turned around and led the group back the way they came. "I'm pretty sure there's a name for what that mare is."

"Bat shit crazy?" Trixie suggested.

"Yeah, that could be it."

"She's not usually like that. At least, she wasn't like that the last few times I've met her."

"Oh yes," Trixie sneered sarcastically, "I bet she thinks of that time she and that other mare abducted you to be raped was just a 'jolly fun lark.' I've bet you've become the best of friends and know all of each other’s secrets."

"Pony was going to rape who now?"

"Oh right, you don't know about that do you Fleur? I guess we can tell you but only once we've gotten out of this place."

"Borderline personality disorder," Twilight said quietly from behind them.

"Excuse me?"

"Ponies can develop it as a result of traumatic experiences, like that pony has had plenty of. To simplify it, it can fracture a pony’s personality into several versions of the same pony, but with each version usually having some kind of emotional extreme. For example that one seemed to have an upper class Nightmare Moon may care attitude, another might be quite melancholy whilst a third might be rather childish. I'm quite probably wrong but from that and from what you said about her Octavia, it seems a likely possibility."

Octavia opened her mouth to say something but Fleur beat her to it. "As fascinating as this all is could we maybe think about getting the hay outta here?" Octavia and Twilight both spoke their assent to that idea but Trixie seemed to have something else on her mind.

"Trixie does tend to wonder sometimes about why they call it a Nightmare Moon may care attitude. I just think it gives the wrong impression about her."

Fleur tried to a few times to tell Trixie to shut up and hurry up but the result was her mouth flapping silently. "I'm almost afraid to ask but what are you talking about?" she said, relenting to the demands of her curiosity.

"It's just that in my opinion Nightmare Moon was at least passionate about what she wanted. Sure it would have been the end of all life on the planet which would have been, y'know, really bad, but you still have to admire a mare that’s willing to go to any lengths for what she really believes in."

"She tried to kill her sister and end all life on the planet just so ponies would be forced to admire her night sky for a bit before they all froze to death." Fleur scrunched up her face in a mock expression of thought, "Hmmmm... Nope, no admiration here."

Octavia tapped her chin with a hoof as she thought. "I always wanted to ask her that if it's eternal night here, does that mean its eternal day somewhere else? Doesn't seem like much of an eternal night if it’s also eternal day somewhere else."

"Great! A frigid wasteland on one side of the planet, and a scorching desert on the other. Maybe if we're lucky there's a nice temperate zone in-between where all the survivors can constantly fight over what few remaining scraps of society we have left."

"Okay okay! I never said Trixie agreed with what Nightmare Moon was doing! I just admire her drive! Sheesh. Can we get on with leaving the city now? Because this irreverent discussion doesn't help us and if we're going to argue could we at least walk while we do it?"

Twilight said nothing, but felt glad that Luna wasn't around to hear this. Less so because she might get offended but because she would probably be her biggest critic and it would be a bit weird to see Luna, one of four princesses of Equestria, whimsically discussing her evil alter ego in the midst of a city in chaos.

Fleur nodded at Trixie, gesturing for them all to follow her. She led them on an indirect route through the city, doing her best to avoid the fighting in case they got dragged into it. More than once they had to double back as soldiers and partisans battled it out in the streets. Even away from the fighting they could still hear it; mares and stallions shouting and screaming as they battled. More than once they had come across the remains of a skirmish, stepping around the bodies of the fallen whose lifeless eyes blankly surveyed the carnage around them. The wounded survivors were worse.

It also became clear as they took their meandering route through the city that this had gone far beyond a fight to liberate the city and had become a free for all, with looters and arsonists having a field day if all broken windows and fires were any indication. Judging by Fleur's heavy breathing it was effecting her heavily to see her home in flames, and not just because of the smoke.

They rounded a corner and Fleur let out a cry as she saw a building being gutted by fire. She sprinted off and skidded to halt just far enough away so it wasn't too hot. "Fuck... No..."

"What is it?" Octavia asked once she and the others had caught up.

"It’s the bakery I used to come to as a kid. Cookie Dough, who owns it, used to give me the leftovers and stuff 'cause he knew I was homeless. It's also the bakery making the order I told you about. I can't believe some fucker burnt it down."

"I can." They looked round to where a pale brown earth pony stallion was comforting a weeping pale yellow earth pony mare in the shade of a nearby tree. "The amount of times I've done orders for the Duke and his cronies, I'm not surprised ponies around here thought I was on their side."

"Doughy! You're ok!" Fleur ran over to the stallion but stopped short of hugging him when she noticed his burns and half missing mane.

"Heh, barely. Got a few burns making sure Buns got out, but it's nothing that won't heal in time. I see you've done your best to stay out of this."

"Yeah, we're trying to get out of the city but the fighting isn't making it easy. Fuck knows what we're going to do if the gates are locked. You should come too, especially if ponies around here think you're on the Dukes side."

The stallion chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Thanks but no thanks, I've got a bakery to rebuild. The money I got for that last order should be enough to cover most of the rebuilding. Say what you want about the Viscount but he isn't shy about paying for quality. Good job I put the money in the bank and not under my mattress even if only because coins are uncomfortable to sleep on." Fleur watched the fire shining in his eyes as a coy grin crossed his face. "Maybe I'll finally get around to extending the business into dairy products. I have the feeling that ice cream will be quite the popular dish someday."

Fleur grinned in return and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek. "Sounds like a great idea. We're going to go now but hopefully I'll see you again soon."

"Heh, last time you said that it took you nearly fifteen years to get back to me. Try and make it a bit shorter this time."

"Deal," Fleur said with a giggle. "Come on guys lets go." She started to trot off but paused to stare into the burning wreckage of the bakery, her smile slipping off her face. "I hope he's serious. He made the best cookies."

"C'mon! This way!" Fleur panted as she charged through the narrow alleyways, a pack of soldiers chasing after them. They had headed to the market which had a more direct route to the outer limits of the city, but were surprised to find it neither rife with fighting or aflame but full of soldiers who were attempting to rally. It seems that a trio unicorns weren't welcome company seeing as how a dozen of the soldiers had started chasing after them the moment they had set hoof in the market place.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Trixie panted between breaths. "It's just this city isn't that big yet we're still stuck in it!"

"Trixie!" Twilight said, forestalling Fleur's next comment. "When we turn the next corner can you make some illusions to keep running down the alley."

"I think so! Why? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get us out of here! All of you, when I shout stop, stop running!"

"Why?" Fleur asked.

"Because I mightn't be able to catch you in time if you don't!" They kept running, watching carefully as the next turning rushed to meet them. They skidded around it and as soon as they had Trixie's horn flared creating four illusions of them that kept running in a straight line down the alley. "Stop!" Twilight shouted as her own horn flared, teleporting them away. She skidded to a halt as they reappeared on the roof of the building they had been running next to.

They slid down the tiles but managed to stop before they fell off the roof, although it was a close call with Octavia who just managed to stop with her hooves in the guttering. She swallowed and cautiously backed off from the edge before joining the others in looking down at where the soldiers were still chasing the illusions.

"Wow those soldiers must be dense," Trixie said as they watched. "Those illusions aren't even trying to dodge the rubbish, they're just phasing right through it! Surely they can tell something's wrong?"

"They're probably just putting running through rubbish down as unicorn witchcraft and trickery," Fleur said back. "Always found it odd even when I lived here that despite unicorns having no magical training or skill, ponies will happily believe that unicorns are capable of all kinds of magic. You could actually live up to your self-imposed title here Trixie, y'know, if you didn't get brutally murdered for it." Trixie stuck her tongue out at Fleur.

"Thanks," Octavia said to Twilight, giving her a friendly nudge. Twilight nodded but didn't look like a pony would after having saved their skins. Instead she looked like a pony would after having their heart broken.

"Anypony would have done that if they knew how. It's nothing special.” She shook her head and turned to address Fleur, “Where's the gate we're trying to get to?"

Fleur looked around, holding a hoof up ready to point as she tried to get her bearings. Slowly though, her hoof lowered as she looked around before falling back to the tiles with a thud. "..." She couldn't even swear as their vantage point on the roof offered her an excellent view of Prance in chaos. "My home..."

Large parts of the city was in flames now, the small fires having spread eagerly from building to building until entire streets burned brightly in the night. Smoke poured into the sky, the light from the fires reflecting off it and giving the sky a hellish appearance, and coming from all directions was the sounds of fighting and screams, of ponies calling desperately for loved ones and the overwhelming cacophony of a city in chaos.

Trixie looked to Twilight and Octavia for some kind of input but Twilight was staring intently at her hooves and Octavia seemed transfixed on the scene before her, her mouth hanging open. Trixie went back to Fleur but she too was staring, transfixed with tears in her eyes. "For fuck sake... You know it’s bad when I have to be the responsible one." She grabbed Fleur's head in her magic and wrenched it around until she faced her, "Fleur, I know this is your home and I'm sorry, but unless you can tell us the way out we're probably going to die here."

Fleur blinked a few times and her eyes seemed to gain focus as she returned to her senses. "Right... I-uh, it's..." She looked around and found where they were meant to be going, "It's over there," she said, pointing a hoof off to the right.

"Good. Twilight?" Twilight raised her gaze from her hooves and turned it to Trixie who pointed a hoof to where Fleur had before. "Fleur says it’s over there so do whatever you're going to do." Twilight gave a single nod and focused on where the gate was, her eyes twitching as if searching for something.

"Octavia?"

"Y-yes?"

"I don't know, just hold on or something." There was a purple flash and the group appeared on the roof of a building a lot nearer the outer wall, a street away from the way out. "Why didn't we do that sooner?" Trixie asked.

"No magic remember," Twilight said in answer. "However I get the feeling most ponies around here don't care right now if they did see us." She glanced over the edge of the building and there was another flash as she teleported them down to the road below. "Lead on Fleur."

"Ok, the Arch should be on the other side of the square at the end of this street. Be prepared for anything." She crept forward, her head low as she headed to the end of the street and gasped at what she saw.

"What? What is it?" Trixie asked, moving up beside Fleur.

"The gates... They're open... They're just letting ponies out of the city." Trixie squinted as she studied the gate and the ponies exiting the city through it, some running with nothing more than what they had been wearing when this began whilst others were hauling carts and carrying whatever belongings they could strap onto their own backs.

Feeling slightly emboldened, the four ponies headed out of the street and over to the gate where some soldiers were nervously watching the ponies flood out the gate like rats out of a sinking ship. "Why are you just letting us all leave?" Fleur asked one of them.

His eyes twitched to her horn before he answered her, "Less ponies in the city means less ponies trying to kill us. Besides, we'd probably have been killed by now if we had refused and you'd all be getting out anyway, and I ain't the sort to die for nothing. Now get the fuck out of here if you're going."

Fleur nodded and was about to lead the way through the arch when a filly's voice behind them cried out, "Wait!" They all turned and saw a small yellow filly charging across the square towards them.

"No! It's MY stuff!" Trixie cried as she hugged her saddlebags to her sides.

"What? No! I'm not here to rob you. I want you to take me with you!"

"Uh-uh, no way. You’re probably just setting us up so you can rob us when we're asleep or something. Nope, you're staying here, away from my stuff!"

"Please Trixie! Do you have any idea what happens to small unwanted, homeless fillies that nopony would miss in a place like this?"

"And you do?" Trixie asked as she gave the filly a flat stare.

"No, but my imagination can provide a few ideas and not one of them involves a daily helping of cake and hugs. So please, I'm begging you! Take me with you!" The filly's eyes grew big and dewy and her bottom lip jutted out and quivered.

Trixie scratched her chin in mock thought, "After careful consideration of your request and in lieu of your attempted use of puppy eyes to sway me I have reached a conclusion. Piss off."

"Trixie!" Fleur yelled, making Trixie flinch.

"What?"

Fleur picked up the filly in her magic and put her on her back between her saddlebags. "Of course she can come with us. If you want to know what happens to fillies on their own in a place like this then you can stay here. No buts," she added before Trixie had a chance to complain.

"I really think we ought to be going now. Look," Octavia said, before pointing off across the square where a large group of armed citizens had charged in. The soldiers were preparing their own weapons and a lot of the ponies in between them started screaming and pushing towards the gate in their panic.

"Oh right, yeah. Let's go ponies." Fleur led the way, pushing through the crowds of ponies when she had to, the filly hanging on around her neck. Slowly they made their way through the arch, but progress was slow and they could feel the pressure building behind them more and more ponies crammed themselves into the tunnel with the occasional muffled scream as ponies fell and were trampled underhoof.

As soon as they were through they turned to the side along the wall as they took a moment to catch their breath, and Fleur put the filly back on the ground. Twilight watched the ponies exiting the arch and was surprised to see Green Roots pulling a wagon out, Cross Stitch, Butterscotch and Lacy riding inside it. Twilight was about to go up to them when she noticed that Cross Stitch was heavily bruised and only had half a horn. Roots must have seen Twilight because when she looked back to him he was scowling at her as he walked. Twilight met his glare for a moment before averting her eyes and turning back to the others. At the very least she could be glad they had made it out safely.

"Now what Fleur?" Octavia asked as she flexed her right forehoof gingerly. "Somepony trod on it in the tunnel but it’s fine." she explained when the others gave her a quizzical look. She gave them a weak grin, "I guess I'm just cursed to slow you all down."

"I don't know why you're asking me," Fleur said with a shrug. "I've got a lot on my mind right now, what with my home city suddenly kicking off in a civil war and half burning down. Maybe you should ask our intrepid leader." She glared at Twilight who raised her head for all of a second before lowering it again.

"You're the one with the big plan to sneak into that party thing," said Trixie, "so I guess that technically makes you the pony in charge since Twilight would have trouble leading a kid into a sweet shop right now."

"Oh yeah? Well maybe we should all consider a permanent change of leadership of this mission."

"Fleur!" Octavia gasped, "There's no need for that! Twilight's doing fine as a leader."

"You're kidding right? She has hardly done anything worthy of being called leadership. In fact her leadership has forcibly dyed Trixie against her will, severely pissed me off and resulted in the shit storm on the other side of that wall!"

"It also saved my life, saved Trixie's horn, and helped ponies who needed it which is more than you can say!" Octavia grit her teeth and squared up to Fleur as if preparing to fight. She only cut eye contact when Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Fleur's right," said Twilight, her voice dangerously close to breaking. "I shouldn't be leading this. I can't lead this, not now. I appreciate your faith in me but my mistakes have just gotten hundreds of ponies ki-" She choked up, unable to say the word. "Maybe somepony else should lead." Her eyes met Fleur's and watched as her expression softened.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Who says we even need a leader? How about for now we just get walking and give a chance for cooler heads to prevail."

"I had to pick the biggest bunch of weirdo's to hang out with didn't I? I mean we just escaped a city that's on the brink of falling to pieces and you all stop to have an argument." The filly looked between them, her face bearing a puzzled smirk, "Seriously though, what are you guys going on about?"

"Five marcs gets you the whole story." Trixie said to the filly. "If you want the deluxe version though that's ten marcs."

"And suddenly I'm fine not knowing. Now seriously, how about we get out of here?"

"I'm with the filly," Fleur said as she picked the filly up in her magic, placing her on her back once more. "It's a long way to Whiplash so we better get moving if we're going to make the party." Fleur frowned as she felt the filly tense up. "Something wrong... you? Seriously, we need to give you a name."

"I-uh... I just think that you could have picked literally anywhere else. Maybe going back in there would be a better choice," she said, gesturing towards Prance.

"Why?" Trixie asked, "What's wrong with Whiplash? Other than its stupid name?"

"You'll see," Fleur said as she started walking with the filly close behind her. A moment later Trixie started after them followed soon after by Octavia who limped slightly as she walked. Twilight sat watching them as the distance grew between her and the others, although it was easy enough to see them even with all the other ponies around, as the fires in the city provided a lot of light. It also illuminated the sight of Octavia coming back towards her.

“Twilight? Are you coming?” Twilight nodded and stood up slowly, taking her time as she walked because she was afraid she might fall over, considering how much her legs were shaking.

Author's Notes:

How will the ponies cope with this? Can they still press on with the mission despite everything that happened? Can they cope with having an extra pony tagging along? Will I get better at conveying the emotions of others? I mean seriously, I'm a bit emotionally stunted so trying to write emotions in others is like...really hard.

12. Guilt.

Dawn peeked over the hills and through the trees to shine down on the still forms of four sleeping bags and Twilight, who sat under a tree wallowing in abject misery as her heart ached. She had opted to give her sleeping bag to the filly, reasoning that she needed it more. Truth was that Twilight doubted she would be sleeping much for the next few days. The screams of the ponies in Prance were echoing around her head too loud.

"Can't sleep?" Fleur's voice whispered from behind her. Twilight's head whipped round to where Fleur was lay, propping herself up on one elbow. She shook her head in response before averting her eyes, unwilling to look Fleur in the face.

"Me neither." There was a gentle rustling as Fleur clambered out of her sleeping bag and donned her cloak before stretching. "Come on." She nodded her head towards an embankment which led down to a small stream.

"Where are we going?" Twilight asked quietly.

"Not far. I just think you and I need to have a little talk." Twilight rose to her hooves and followed Fleur down the embankment, over the stream and up the other side where Fleur sat down and wrapped her cloak around her to ward off the early morning chill. "You know I envy you being part pegasus and not feeling the cold so much." Twilight nodded gently causing Fleur to sigh irritably. "If I wanted to talk to myself I wouldn't have asked you to come."

"I-I'm sorry... I d-don't know what you want me to say. If this is about what I said to you the other day then I'm sorry about..." She trailed off as Fleur chuckled lightly. "What?"

"Sorry Twilight, it's just that our little disagreement seems so silly now compared to what happened yesterday. I'm surprised you're still worrying about it." Fleur shifted on her hooves as she made herself more comfortable. "Since we're on the topic though, yeah I was kind of pissed at what you said," she said, making Twilight wince. "But I guess you did have a point." Twilight looked up at Fleur, her eyes wide in surprise. "I'm still going to have to steal for our survival but only what we need. I guess I was letting my childhood get to me because that's what I wanted to be like back then, able to steal anything and everything I wanted. Thing is though, I wasn't too good with my magic back then so it was a lot harder. But now it’s better it all seemed so easy and I may have gotten greedy. Anyway, I'm willing to make this little concession to you if you do something in return."

"Of course! Anything!"

"Stop judging ponies for having to do unsavoury things to survive. No offence Twilight, but without intentionally undermining your achievements I have to say you've had a pretty easy life, where the biggest consequence for your mistakes was a stern talking to. You don't get to judge and look down on those who have to struggle to get by day to day, and you don't get to say what a pony shouldn't do just because you've never had to sink that low."

"That's fair," Twilight said, nodding, "and I'm sorry I was like that. Rules and regulations have kind of been a big part of my life and to see a pony just flagrantly break the law in front of me, well, I guess it's kind of a kneejerk reaction. 'You shouldn't do that, it's wrong.' I'll try to not do it again."

"Good." Fleur took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. "Now, onto the big stuff." Twilight cowered away from Fleur slightly, causing Fleur to ask why.

"Because you're probably going to hit me. Celestia knows I deserve it."

"Twilight, I'm not going to hit you. In fact, I'm not even angry at you."

"What? How? I mean you should be mad at me seeing how badly I screwed everything up!"

"Okay yeah, you messed up on the whole 'don't use magic' thing, but I don't blame you for what happened in Prance. That probably would've happened with or without you doing what you did. No, I blame the Duke and his stupid army. I blame that pompous General and that idiot soldier that killed that mare even if it was an accident. If I had been in the same situation as you I probably wouldn't have done anything different."

"No. If I hadn't attacked those soldiers then they wouldn't have arrested all those unicorns, they wouldn't have asked for more soldiers to come to the city, changed the curfew, and those executions wouldn't have been taking place at all. That mare wouldn't have died for nothing and that riot would never have happened!"

"Don't be stupid Twilight, if you hadn't acted against the soldiers then I'm sure somepony else would've eventually. You helping some ponies’ doesn't mean you're responsible for everything that happened after. You didn't tell those ponies to attack the soldiers and you didn't tell whoever it was to burn down half the city!"

"Why are you trying to tell me it's not my fault? You seemed so sure it was me that messed it all up at the execution yesterday, yet now you're trying to calmly say it's not my fault! What gives Fleur? Why are you so calm about this?"

Fleur stopped, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to think of what to say. "You know what? Yes. Yes I am angry okay? I was angry at you too because I thought the ponies of Prance were going to have an even shittier life than before with all those soldiers around. But then what happened happened, and being angry at you seems pointless now since there is no way that you could have been solely responsible for all that. So instead I'm just angry at everything."

"But you should be angry at me! It's my fault!"

"Believe or not Twilight, it's not all about you. You can mope around swimming in self-pity if you want, but personally I would prefer you didn't. We need you, and we can't do this without you, and your guilt complex doesn't help us. Besides Prance was a nasty place if you looked deep enough; some of it needed burning down just to get the stench out."

Twilight's head shot up, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open in shock, "Fleur! Ponies lived there, innocent ponies that didn't deserve that! And it was your home! How could you say such a thing?"

"Yeah, I know. It's also the city I saw my parents die in. It's the city I had to learn the hard lessons about survival in, and it's the city that one nasty winter I had to s-" She stopped and took a breath to calm herself. "Lets just say that some ponies in that city deserved to burn." She hugged herself gently.

"Fleur..."

"No, I'm done talking about this. I'm dealing with it in my way, you need to deal with it in whatever way suits you."

"But what about the others?"

"I don't know if you've noticed but Trixie tends to bury everything in humour and irreverence which I find odd for somepony who spent months diligently planning her revenge against you, while Octavia seems to take things in and cope with them almost ridiculously easy. I'm almost jealous of her for that. As for the filly, she seems delightfully unencumbered by notions of worry. Five minutes out of Prance and she was cracking jokes."

"You like her don't you?"

"Of course I do, she reminds me of myself." Fleur looked down and scuffed her hoof on the wet grass. "What are we going to do with her though? It's not like we can tell her what we're up to."

"I don't think we should worry about that too much right now. I'd be happy if we could give her a name rather than call her 'the filly.'"

"Yeah, I guess we don't need to worry about her for a couple days at least." Fleur got up and stretched, her joints clicking as she did. "Right now we should focus on getting to where we're going. I'm going to grab the canteens and find some water a bit cleaner than what this stream can offer,"

"I'll-"

"You, Twilight, should talk to the princesses on that stone thing you have. If anypony would know about making mistakes it would be the pony that tried to end the world or the sister that let it get that far and had to stop her." Fleur sauntered off back to where the others were before heading further up into the forest leaving Twilight alone with her suddenly frantic thoughts.

Twilight paced back and forward, planning in her mind what exactly she was going to say to whoever answered on the stone. Hi Celestia, it's me. Just wanted to call to let you know Prance is in ruins. Nope. Hey Princess, you know how you said I should do this mission through any means possible? Guess what! I accidentally blew up Prance! Ugh, don't be stupid Twilight.

Twilight growled at herself and paced a few more times before stopping by the rotting stump she had placed the speaker stone on. Biting her lip she decided to just get on with it and pressed her horn to the stone before she could over think it and chicken out again. She didn't have to wait long for an answer.

"Good morning Twilight," said Celestia's voice from the stone. "You're up early. Is everything alright?" Twilight tried to speak but the words caught in her throat and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't say them. "Twilight? Hello?"

Nope, it’s going to be tears. Hearing the warmth and concern in Celestia's voice broke all the resolve she had and she collapsed onto her knees as the tears came without hesitation. "H-h-hi Cele-Celestia-a-a..."

"Twilight? Are you crying? What's happened?"

Twilight wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself but it was as if she was trying to stop a flood with tissue paper. "D-did Luna tell you about what I did with the s-soldiers?"

"Yes, and I have to admit I was worried about you doing something like that, and not just because of you using magic so openly. Has something happened since?"

"You could s-say that." Twilight told Celestia about all that had transpired since her last conversation with Luna and she had to admit that telling somepony who didn't immediately yell back at her was extremely cathartic.

"Oh my." Twilight waited for Celestia to say more and the longer the silence grew the tighter her chest became as she awaited the tongue-lashing she was expecting. "You shouldn't blame yourself for that Twilight." Huh?

"But I messed up so badly Princess! I got all those ponies hurt and k-killed! Prance is in ruins because of me! How am I supposed to not blame myself?"

"Twilight, you're putting too much weight on your own actions. Considering all that was happening in Prance anyway your actions were but a drop in the ocean, a big drop that created a few waves admittedly but you must realise that all those ponies acted of their own accord. You aren't responsible for the actions of others."

"But as a princess you told me I'm responsible for the ponies around me. If the actions of a pony results in them getting hurt, does that not mean it's my fault for not stopping them?"

"Twisting my own words against me... We'll make a politician of you yet Twilight," Celestia said with a small chuckle. "But you are responsible for ponies as a whole, not individuals. You will have to make decisions that will hurt some but help others and you will have to deal with the consequences of those decisions. It's all part of being a princess Twilight, and sometimes you will have to make decisions that get ponies hurt whether by accident or by design. I chose to not act against Sombra until it was too late, and as a result hundreds died in the war that followed because I hesitated instead of stopping him before he took over the Crystal Empire by force. And that is just one example of many."

"But you shouldn't blame yourself because of what Sombra did, he was a monster! How were you to know what he would do?"

"Just as you shouldn't blame yourself for the actions of the ponies in Prance. You didn't know they were suddenly going to revolt, you were only trying to help ponies and you shouldn't make yourself suffer because it didn't end how you wanted."

"I... I understand."

"Do you? Truly? You must have realised by now that Mareitania is a brutal place. It's a slim hope if you think Mareitania can be freed without anypony getting hurt."

"No, I get it, I do. The greater good right?"

"Not really Twilight, in my experience there is no greater good. Just good and not good and not letting fear of consequences stop you from doing good. Now I have to ask, what are you going to do now that you're on the road again?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Fleur's in charge of the plan right now and she hasn't really explained it in detail. All I know is she has a plan involving the birthday of the Duke's son and a party on a riverboat. She has us walking to someplace called Whiplash to catch it."

"Whiplash? I really do hope she knows what she's doing."

"Why? What's wrong with Whiplash other that its awful name?"

"Whiplash is..." There was a rattle of static from the stone as Celestia sighed wearily. "You know I said that each region or city has a compound containing pegasi to control the weather." Twilight's stomach churned at the thought of the pegasi's treatment here but managed to stammer a yes. "Whiplash is the center of all that. Think of it as a distribution center but dealing in pegasus slaves and the equipment needed to control them. For your purposes though it’s also a major trade hub and a port for the Mareissippi river. Take care to keep your wings well hidden if you're going there."

"I will Celestia. Thanks for talking to me, I needed it."

"You're welcome Twilight, always. Take care of yourself." The was a burst of static as the connection was cut off and Twilight teleported the stone back to her bags before laying on her back and crossing her forelegs over her face.

"Why does everypony insist it's not my fault?"

"Did that help?" Fleur asked once Twilight rejoined her and the others.

"Slightly, maybe a little bit, perhaps." Twilight rubbed her face with a hoof and sighed, "Not really. But how I feel about what happened in Prance doesn't matter. It'll all have been for nothing if I just give up."

"That's the way, ignore your problems until they either go away or get replaced by a bigger problem." Fleur sat down and started rolling up her sleeping bag, humming as she did.

"How do you do it Fleur? How do you cope with what's happened?"

"I don't know if you've noticed Twilight but I'm not exactly the pony I was when we started this. This isn't Fleur de Lis the famous Canterlot model. This is Fleur, the hardened street rat who didn't give a whole lot of fucks about things."

"I wouldn't say that. You cared about the pegasi in Stalliongrad-"

"I pitied them Twilight, and thanked whatever deity might have been listening that I wasn't born with wings instead of a horn. Yes I felt for them and wished for their freedom but I didn't lift a hoof to help them, and I stopped going near them because it made me feel bad. I certainly didn't give much thought to how it made them feel." Fleur stopped rolling up her sleeping bag and rested on her haunches. "Okay, maybe Fleur the hardened street rat isn't the same pony she used to be either, or maybe she is... I don't know. I've been through a lot Twilight and learning to cope with things is part of that. Now please stop asking."

Twilight nodded and took a drink out of her canteen, watching the others for a moment. Octavia was sleeping peacefully, while the filly was snoring obnoxiously loud, and Trixie was peeking at her out the corner of her eye before squeezing it shut and pretending to snore when she saw Twilight notice her. "Good morning Trixie."

"Darn it! Now I have to get up," Trixie muttered under her breath. She stretched and sat up, making a show of having just woke up. "Good morning Twilight, Fleur, Octa- nope she's still asleep, and that little bast- no, still sleeping too. Please tell me there's something tasty for breakfast."

"Nope," said Fleur, "but there is all this green stuff called grass on the ground. It seems to grow quite freely so eat as much as you want."

"You'll never make head chef with that attitude," Trixie snarked, sticking her tongue out at Fleur who stuck her own out in return. "So what's the plan today? I bet it involves walking."

"We might be able to fit some trotting in if time allows."

"Marvellous." Trixie got up and performed her usual morning routine of stretching like a cat and sounding like all her joints had dislocated overnight. "At least tell me we have coffee."

"Nope, just good old fashioned water."

"Ugh, worst camping trip ever."

"What is wrong with you!" Twilight burst out, unintentionally waking Octavia and the filly. "Did yesterday not happen? Is it all a fever dream I had? Because I have no idea how you two can joke like it never happened!"

"Mmm... What's going on?" the filly asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh great Twilight," Trixie said as she gave Twilight an accusing stare, "you woke the baby. Now we'll never get her to settle."

"Hey!"

"Am I going completely insane!?" Twilight steadied herself as she started to hyperventilate, her chest heaving with each rapid breath she took. Octavia jumped out of her sleeping bag and grabbed Twilight by the shoulders.

"Easy Twilight, slow breaths. In, hold, out. In, hold, out." She repeated the exercise until Twilight's breathing returned to a more normal pace and she no longer looked in danger of collapsing. "Feeling better now?" Twilight nodded in answer.

"How did you know how to do that?" asked Trixie as she quirked an eyebrow at Octavia.

"Pre show nerves and anxiety attacks tend to go hoof in hoof. I don't get them myself but I know a good many musicians that do." She put a comforting leg around Twilight who looked strangely ashamed.

"Twilight's having difficulty dealing with yesterday," Fleur said as she passed Twilight a canteen in her magic. "She seems to think that what happened there was entirely her fault."

Octavia gave Fleur a dirty look, "So did you yesterday when you yelled at her. Besides, something like that isn't something you can get over with a good night's sleep. I end up shaking if I think about it too much."

"Yes I was angry at her, but that was for attacking those soldiers and making that dumb ass General think there was an actual insurrection in Prance. I was expecting more soldiers, more executions, less freedoms and a whole lot of unicorns being beat senseless for no other reason than for the soldiers petty revenge. I'm no longer angry at her because none of that happened. I've been thinking about it and if I'm honest I must admit I'm actually slightly pleased it happened."

"What!?" Twilight, Trixie and Octavia shouted in unison.

"It means ponies in this crap ass country are willing to fight back against the Duke and his cronies. If we're going to do this we need ponies to mmph mamph..." She stopped when Trixie suddenly shoved a hoof over her mouth and nodded at the filly who was wearing a sly grin. "Oh... Shit."

"Twilight's the pony that attacked those soldiers?" asked the filly as she leaned forward and with her eyes wide. The others looked between themselves and Twilight nodded weakly. "That is sooo cool! Next you'll be telling me that you're the ponies that did that rescue in Stalliongrad!" Most of the others nodded again, except Trixie who looked awkward instead and pleaded the others with her eyes to not tell the filly it was her they rescued. "That is awesome! You guys are heroes!"

"What!?"

"Oh man this is so awesome! I gotta tell my friends about this if... they're not, y'know, dead." The filly deflated and a couple of tears escaped as she lay down slowly.

"I'm sorry..." Twilight said, her voice cracking as she watched the filly dissolve into tears.

"It really happened didn't it? Prance really was destroyed."

"You don't know that," Fleur said as she gave the filly a comforting stroke on her mane. "Once the fighting was over hopefully they put the fires out."

"Yeah, but all those ponies still got hurt and killed."

"I really am sorry," Twilight said shakily. "I never expected that to happen. I was just helping ponies when I attacked those soldiers."

"Did you- Did you tell the ponies to start fighting the soldiers?"

"What? No! I wanted them to stop fighting."

"Then it's not your fault. You just inspired them is all, showed them that they can stand up for themselves. You became a hero to them." The filly gave Twilight brave smile.

Twilight however looked panicked. "I'm no hero! I never wanted to inspire anypony to do something like that!"

"Look at it this way Twilight," said Trixie who looked far too happy, "if you inspired those ponies to do that then it does make it sort of your fault. Now you can justifiably blame yourself." Twilight started hyperventilating again and Trixie backed away because Octavia's expression promised violence if she got too near.

"Not. Helping."

Twilight world spun as the excess oxygen rushed to her head. She was no hero, of that she was certain but at the same time a small part agreed with the filly because it allowed her to cling onto the hope that maybe what happened in Prance could in theory have been positive.

"I need- I need air!" She shrugged Octavia off and tore off her cloak before sprinting into the forest as fast as she could, ignoring the shouts of the others to stop. Soon as she was out of sight she spread her wings, invisible as they were, and teleported herself above the trees, her momentum from running easing the transition into flight. The wind swept through her mane and her heart leapt as she left her worries behind for a brief moment but they quickly returned when she saw the rising plume of smoke that could only be Prance.

She hovered for a few moments before searching out a nearby cloud and resting upon it, her breathing again becoming ragged as she viewed the smoking remains of the city. "I'm no hero," she told herself. She continued staring at Prance, letting time wash over her when suddenly she clicked; the smoke from Prance was white, which, if she remembered correctly, meant the fires had stopped burning which also hopefully meant the fighting was over.

Feeling relieved she smiled slightly and was about to return to the others and share the good news when a shadow flashed over her. She ducked down and searched about hoping to find what had caused it. Looking up she swiftly found the cause was none other than a pegasus, one that was doing a lot of flapping for the slow speed it was maintaining. She remembered what Celestia had told her about the wing clippings and surmised that must be the reason for the extra flapping.

She wrapped some of the cloud around herself for cover and watched as the pegasus flew down to a pool that the stream fed into. Around the pool were several other pegasi that appeared to be making clouds from the water, as well as some guards and a collection of caged wagons. There was also a device with an antenna on one of the wagons that Twilight couldn't fathom but figured it might have something to do with the collars the pegasi were forced to wear.

Twilight had never seen clouds made from scratch although she had heard of the process. The clouds in Equestria were all made by the weather factory in Cloudsdale, but there were no pegasus cities in Mareitania so it only made sense that all the weather here was made from scratch. As she watched a pair of pegasi formed a cloud, the flapping of their wings near the water seemed to generate a mist which they gathered in their hooves and pressed into clouds. Once it was big enough another pegasus would collect it and push it up into the sky.

All in all the process seemed very laborious and time consuming which is probably why the weather in Mareitania seemed to last for days at a time and why there seemed to be a lot of grey clouds around that didn't really do much. The pegasi were too busy making new weather to immediately clear out the remains of the old weather.

Fascinating as it was though, Twilight was very exposed here and if one of the pegasi spotted her they might have some awkward questions about what a unicorn was doing hiding in a cloud. She flapped her wings gently, slowly propelling the cloud down towards the forest but stopped when she heard a splash and shouting.

She looked back at the pool where one of the pegasi, a cream coloured mare, appeared to have fallen in and splashed one of the guards judging by what he was shouting. The mare dragged herself out of the pool and was instantly set upon by the guard who kicked and hit her. The mare didn't make a sound until the guard pushed her over and stretched her wing out over a rock and threatened to stomp on it. Only then did she tearfully plead and beg. The guard held her down a bit longer and seemed to be whispering something in her ear and Twilight could see her nodding to whatever he said.

He released her and slapped her on the flank before she resumed her work, her head hanging low and her expression ashamed. Twilight felt something build inside her, a righteous anger directed at that despicable guard and those who employed him. She didn't even notice that she had been shaking the entire time as she warred with herself over whether to intervene or not. This needed to stop, and Twilight would see to that. She still blamed herself for Prance but there was no way she was going to let that stop her now, not when there were ponies who needed her help.

She grit her teeth and continued her descent into the forest where she discarded the cloud and returned to her companions.

It didn't take long for her to find the others. All she had to do was follow the argument.

"I don't see why I even have to have a name. I've never needed one before."

"Yes, but I refuse to call you 'the filly,' or 'her,'" Twilight heard Octavia say. "You need something by which we can refer to you as."

"Alright, fine. But all your suggestions are rubbish! Trixie's is the best I've heard so far and she wasn't even being serious!"

"Excuse me? Trixie was being deadly serious thank you very much!"

"And what might that have been?" Twilight asked stepping out from between the trees.

"Shithead," Trixie told her with a smug grin. "It's both a name and a description."

"I won't even bother list all the practical reasons why that would be a bad idea. Besides we need to get moving, there's a pegasus weather team thing over there somewhere," she said, pointing behind her, "and I don't want them finding us."

"Why not?" the filly asked. "It's just a weather team, what are they going to do if they find us? Give us blank hopeless stares until we feel sorry for them?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the filly, who raised an eyebrow in return. "I really hope you're not saying that because you have an issue with pegasi."

"Unless you're hiding a pair of wings about yourself somewhere I don't see why you should care. But no, I don't have an issue with pegasi, it's just they aren't exactly known for their happy, smiley attitudes." The filly shrugged and turned away muttering something Twilight couldn't make out. It was a good job too because she was straining to hide her reaction to what the filly said about wings.

"Ladies," Fleur said as she pulled the straps tight on her saddlebags. "I don't know about you but we need to be in Whiplash in four days and personally I'd rather make it there in less than that. I think we've bickered enough for one morning so let’s get a move on shall we?"

Soon enough they had gathered their belongings and headed down to the road they had walked along the previous night. Fleur took the lead with Twilight just behind her, and Trixie, Octavia and the filly brought up the rear where they were arguing about names again.

Fleur slowed and drew level with Twilight so they could talk. "Feeling better?" she asked.

Twilight sighed and looked away before answering. "Yes and no. I'm not okay with what happened yesterday, and I doubt I ever will be." She turned back to Fleur, a determined expression on her face, "But those pegasi reminded me what this is all about. I'm not giving up."

"Good," Fleur said with a smile, "because if you're going to go off flying in full view it better be for a good reason."

"How did you know I was flying?"

Fleur smirked at Twilight, "I didn't until just now."

"Oh. Sorry."

Author's Notes:

Tldr; Twilight blames herself for Prance.

Saying this here because it isn't worth an entire blog but the lack of updates is because the next three-four chapters are one continuous bit and I'd rather get them all written before posting so if I was to change something I don't have to come on here and do it.

13. Whiplash blues

"Low and behold the town of Whiplash," Fleur said, gesturing towards the town in the distance behind her. "Try to curb your enthusiasm."

"Excuse me Fleur but we're not even there yet," Trixie said back, eyeing Fleur suspiciously. "Did you make us walk up this hill just so you could gesture dramatically? Because if so I wish you hadn't bothered."

"No, there is actually a point to us being up here." She sat down and motioned for the others to join her. "I wanted to take a moment to tell you what this town is about. Mostly so it isn't a shock when we get there." She waved a hoof, following the line of the vast river on the other side of the town. "That is the Mareissippi river, the biggest river in Mareitania that happens to run from not far below Stalliongrad and goes all the way down to Neigh Orleans and is the most significant method of moving cargo from north to south and vice versa."

The filly looked between the four others and raised a hoof, "Yeah, I have a question. Why are you telling us this?"

"Because the others aren't as well travelled as we are, now shush." She pointed at the expansive port just to the right of the town. "That is the cargo port where cargo is loaded onto and off ships to either go south or be delivered to wherever up north. I'll be honest and say we're not going to have a thing to do with that place."

She now pointed to the town. "In the town is the port for the passenger ships and privately owned ships which are basically playgrounds for the wealthy."

"I'm guessing that's where we're headed for this party we're supposed to be going to?" Octavia asked.

"Party!? We're going to a party?" the filly asked excitedly making Trixie snort.

"We are. You're not."

"Aww c'mon, pleeeease can I come? I'll be super extra good!"

"No."

"I wasn't asking you." The filly took a short breath, shut her eyes and turned to Fleur. Then she opened her eyes again to reveal the biggest puppy eyes imaginable. Fleur could have sworn that her eyes had grown in size to accommodate the extra cute.

Oh Celestia that's a lot of quivering lip. Fleur bit her own lip to stop it quivering in sympathy. "I, by which I mean we, will think about it." The puppy eyes abated and Fleur shook her head rapidly to dispel the feeling that the filly now owned her soul. "Now as I was trying to say, the port on the left is somewhere we will be avoiding like the plague. Its use is solely for that place there." She pointed over to a collection of four large walled compounds similar to the one they had seen in Stalliongrad only much, much bigger and were all connected to a central hub that for some reason possessed an unreasonably large chimney.

"Cel- ahem, somepony told me about this place." Twilight looked at Fleur with watery eyes. "It's the pegasi distribution center isn't it?"

"Yeah, although distribution, replenishment and incineration center would be more accurate."

"Replenishment and incineration?"

Fleur bit her lip as she thought about how to word this in front of the filly. Turns out she didn't have to bother because the filly answered the question for her.

"She means breeding. Lots of pegasi get killed either by tripping their collars accidentally and falling, or they get killed by the guards for some reason like they were bored or something, or they just get sick and die. They breed pegasi here to replace those. Incidentally that's what the chimney is for, incinerating the dead ones..." The filly stared at her hooves the entire time she was speaking and when she looked up again Fleur was surprised to see tears coming from the normally stoic filly. "That's why I didn't really want to come here."

The others all looked at her in varying degrees of horror although Trixie was the only one who could bring herself to speak. "That's sick! Those are ponies in there! Not livestock!" She stared accusingly at Fleur who met her stare with a cool one of her own. "Why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"Because I didn't know if I could get you here if I did."

"I guess the name of this place makes sense now," Octavia said quietly, "although I feel I'd rather have not found out."

"Actually," the filly said, "this place's real name is Brayside. It's just that somepony nicknamed it Whiplash and the name stuck to the point that if you said Brayside to somepony they probably wouldn't know where you meant."

"The more you know," Trixie muttered. "Just when you thought Mareitania couldn't get any worse. How'd you know so much about it anyway?" A shrug was all the answer the filly gave her.

"What should we be expecting in terms of soldiers and the like?" Twilight asked Fleur.

"Around the pegasus compound there's a lot of security but we're not going there are we. Around the town should be okay but with the party and after Prance and all that I guess we shouldn't be surprised if security's a bit tighter."

"Great. I guess we better get on and introduce ourselves."

"What's with everypony looking so happy?" Trixie asked as she suspiciously eyed a pony who vigorously waved his hoof at her in greeting. "It's creepy."

"I know," said Twilight in agreement. "It's giving me the willies. Know anything about it Fleur?"

"Unless they've drugged the water supply I honestly have no idea." She watched as two ponies had the most convivial, friendly and incredibly forced conversation you could watch two ponies have. "Certainly wasn't like this last time I was here."

"You've been here before?" Octavia asked her.

"Yep, for all of three hours before I found out what went on in that compound and left again, and let me tell you the ponies here were as miserable as you'd expect ponies to be in a town like this."

The filly walked up to a mare that was sitting on the side of the road wearing a shaky grin. She was also rocking back and forward slightly. "Hiya! Don't s'pose you could tell me why everypony looks so cheerful? Because honestly it's creepy as fuck."

The mare's eyes swivelled side to side as if looking for backup, and her grin grew a little tighter. "My aren't you a cute yet precocious little filly. Why don't you run along back to your friends over there and leave me to my... sitting."

"Not until you tell me what's going on here, or I'm gonna keep on pestering you. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell m-"

"But there's nothing to tell! We're all just really happy to be here in this wonderful town and we're all so happy that the Dukes' son is coming here with all his rich and influential friends, andnowIreallymustgobye!" The mare sprinted off as fast as she could, flicking mud all over the filly in her rush.

"Oh come on! You did that on purpose!" the filly shouted after her. She did her best to wipe off the mud and returned to the others who were waiting for her. "Yeah...I get the feeling that a ducal visit might have something to do with this."

"I don't see how there's any correlation between the Duke's son coming here and everypony grinning like loonies," said Trixie. "He's not even here yet."

The filly shrugged, "There's also no proof that the Lady kills a kitten every time a pony masturbates but that's what some ponies like to think."

"What!?" Twilight burst out as Fleur and Trixie snorted with suppressed laughter, even Octavia was grinning. "Why would anypony even think that? And aren't you a bit young to know about that sort of thing?"

"Which is another thing that ponies like to think." The filly looked Twilight up and down with an appraising eye, "You seem kinda sheltered for a unicorn, you grow up under a rock or something?"

"No! I just... had a different upbringing to most."

The filly took in a deep breath, "You were born to a poor miners family and was taken in by a wealthy land owner who looked after you and treated you nicely and educated you but it was all a ploy because all he was really doing was setting you up to be his live-in sex bunny but you didn't want that so with the help of some unlikely allies you escaped and you wandered the country looking for your long lost family and found them and had a big happy reunion but they wanted you to work in the mine which was dark and dirty and pretty unhygienic so you escaped again and have been exploring Mareitania looking for adventure ever since." The filly took another deep breath, "Am I right?"

"Not. Even. Close."

"Aww darn it, I thought I was onto something there..."

Fleur rubbed the bridge of her nose with a hoof, "Why is it we can barely go five minutes without flying off on some wild tangent?"

"Because we're craaaazy?" Trixie suggested. "You know, if we want to find out what's going on here we could ask the smile patrol over there."

"Oh ha-ha Trixie, very funny."

"I'm serious." Trixie pointed over to two stallions in barding with 'smile patrol' emblazoned on their flank amour under a big painted smile. "See."

Fleur squinted at the name badge on the breast of the left stallion, "Hello, my name is Rockard and I'm VERY happy to help," she said out loud before blinking in disbelief. "Is it wrong that I'm finding this a lot harder to deal with than everything else we've done so far?"

They watched as the two stallions walked up to a pony that had his head in a barrel, and tapped him on the shoulder. The pony pulled his head out of the barrel and scowled at the two stallions for a split second before his scowl morphed into a smile so fast you could almost hear his facial muscles snapping like elastic. The two stallions nodded their approval and continued on up the street.

"That's it! Trixie intends to get to the bottom of this! Octavia, go ask them what's going on."

"Huh? What? No! You ask them if you're so curious!"

"I would, but alas Trixie is but a lowly unicorn in a country of insane, earth pony supremacists. To do so would surely be a death sentence for me." She put the back of a hoof to her forehead and sighed as though her heart were breaking.

"I don't see how that would be a problem, after all it does say they're 'very happy to help.'"

"Ugh, fine. Here I go then. If I should die doing this put it in my epitaph that I blame Octavia for not doing her job." They all watched as Trixie approached the two stallions and had a very animated conversation with them. It lasted for less than a minute when a hugely grinning Trixie turned around and returned to the group.

"I suggest you start smiling or we're all going to be flogged."

"This is insane," Twilight muttered as she massaged her cheeks. "They actually expect everypony to be happy and smiley all the time? Even ponies in Equestria have the right to be miserable."

"Ix-nay on the Equestri-ay in front of the filly-at," Trixie hissed in Twilight's ear, the filly eyeing them suspiciously.

"Hopefully the smile patrol's... patrol doesn't include grubby back streets," Fleur said as she massaged her own cheeks. "I don't know how long this has been going on but I feel sorry for the town’s ponies; my cheeks are killing and it's only been an hour. Didn't they say why we all have to smile?"

"Trixie thought it was pretty obvious. Big smiles for the son of the Duke to show how much we love him and his rich friends. Honestly Fleur, show some imagination."

"I get that, I was just hoping for something a little more specific like, why?"

"Who cares why? Let’s do what we came here to do and get the hell out of here before my cheek muscles rupture from the strain!"

Twilight nodded in agreement. "I do think it's about time you explained the plan to us."

"Okay then, we're going to... uh..." She stopped talking when she noticed that the filly was listening intently. "This is awkward. I don't suppose you mind waiting somewhere else while we discuss this."

The filly frowned but got up and started walking away. "I'm going to figure out what you lot are doing eventually," she said over her shoulder.

"You know we ought to discuss what we're going to do with her," said Octavia before looking to where the filly was sat staring up into the air. "She's a risk to our mission while she's with us."

"I know, but what are we going to do with her? We can't dump her here and abandon her," said Fleur. "She doesn't have anywhere else to go since her home is... well... yeah..."

"I don't see how that's our problem," Trixie said haughtily. "Either she goes or we end up revealing what it is we're doing. I don't think it's a good idea to trust a filly like her to not blab."

"But it is our problem," Twilight implored. "We're involved in Prance being thrown into civil war and we took her with us when we didn't have to. That makes her our responsibility."

Trixie snorted derisively, "You mean you still feel guilty for Prance and you think helping her absolves you of some of that guilt." Twilight hung her head and stared at the floor between her hooves.

"Trixie!" Fleur growled. "That was uncalled for."

"Right, right. Sorry."

"Since we seem unable to decide what to do with her in a friendly manner let's just leave it for now. Anyway, the plan is to sneak onto the river boat the party is on and see if we can find something we can use against the Duke." The others blinked incredulously at her.

"That's it?" Trixie narrowed her eyes dangerously at Fleur and leaned forward until their noses almost touched. "That's the brilliant and masterful plan you dragged us here for? Un-be-lievable..."

"Excuse me if I didn't immediately discuss every single nuance of the plan straight away. First we are going to need some disguises."

Twilight sighed as she browsed through the dresses on display in the clothes shop they were currently in. The first shop had been better quality but the owner had taken one look at hers, Trixie's and Fleur's horns and told them with a big cheerful grin to get lost. As a compromise they had left Octavia with a decent sum of money to buy a dress for herself and a dress for Twilight since Twilight had picked up a number of spells from Rarity that could be used to adjust the fit of clothes. Not as good as a properly fit and made dress, but good enough in a pinch.

"Why couldn't Trixie have got a dress from that last shop? This place isn't exactly what I imagined when we said we were going shopping for dresses." The shop keeper deflated slightly but Twilight had to give her credit for not letting her smile move even the tiniest bit.

"Suck it up Trixie," Fleur said from within the changing room. "We couldn't all go as Octavia's hoof maids so we got to go as something else."

"Okay, fine, but why couldn't I have been the hoof maid?"

"Because you have to be demure, quiet, polite and... well, pleasant, to be a hoof maid. Basically the four things you aren't."

"If you could see me you'd know I'm sticking my tongue out at you."

"Duly noted."

Trixie huffed and folded her forelegs and watched the filly who was lounging on a padded bench by the changing room. "I guess I better ask what we're going as then."

There was a swish of the curtain as Fleur stepped out wearing the most scandalous outfit Twilight, and probably Trixie, had ever seen. It appeared to be mostly red velvet trimmed with black lace, it rode high on the flank and had a train that would have brushed the floor on a shorter pony. The best way Twilight could describe it was if a dress and some lingerie had a perverted love child, this dress would be how it would look.

Fleur had paired it with some long black gloves, black fishnet stockings, mane accessories involving feathers, a small black lace fan, and makeup that bordered on being too much. Twilight bit her lip as her normally heterosexual mind sent her some very confused messages.

Fleur flashed Trixie a saucy grin, "We my dear Trixie, are going as entertainment." A shocked silence enveloped the room, a silence that was broken only when the filly laughed so hard she fell off her bench.

"What's up with Trixie?" Octavia asked Twilight when she met her and the filly out the front of the shop. It had taken one look through the window to where Trixie was arguing with Fleur for her to reach the conclusion it was probably Trixie's fault.

"Trixie doesn't like her outfit," the filly answered her.

"Why? What are they going as?"

"Take a look through the window at Fleur and you'll find out."

Octavia turned and looked at Fleur, "Oh." Her eyes bulged as she took in what exactly Fleur was wearing. "Oooohhhh. Oh my, I suddenly appreciate Trixie's issue with this. I don't suppose Fleur said what they're meant to be?"

"Entertainment."

"I see." The three ponies sat outside the shop doing little more than shuffling hooves while the argument raged on behind them. The only variation in the time they spent there was when a smile patrol passed by which they smiled and waved at, getting some cheerful waves in return. "I must confess that I'm not entire comfortable with my own... outfit, for this party. I'm a cellist, not a socialite. I go to a party, I play, I get paid, then I leave. That's it. I don't typically socialise with the guests."

"We could try and get you in with the band somehow but Fleur never said if there was a band at this party," said Twilight. "And honestly, I don't see how she would know until we got there, though I would say it's a reasonable assumption that there would be one."

They jumped when Fleur suddenly slammed the door open and came out wearing a triumphant smile, a considerably less jubilant Trixie just behind her. "Good news everypony! Trixie has come to respect the fact that I don't expect her to have sex with anypony, unless she really wants to, so I can officially declare the shopping over and done with!"

"Awesome!" the filly shouted excitedly. "What's next?"

"You argued about that in front of the shopkeeper?" Octavia asked.

Of course, all she could do was grin and bear it." Fleur grinned disarmingly as the others reeled from her horrible attempt at humour. "Oh whatever, next thing is finding the boat and finding out when it's leaving."

"To the harbour!" The filly pointed dramatically towards the river and started trotting but stopped when she noticed she was trotting on her own. "You guys coming?" She looked back to where the others were frantically trying to shove clothing into their saddlebags, "Oh."

"You know what? I am getting so fucking fed up of this smiling shit! I'll be miserable if I fucking well want to be and I'll be happy when this little tit of a Viscount gets here and fucks off again."

Twilight and the others were casually admiring the scenery at the harbour in an attempt to surreptitiously ascertain the whereabouts of the boat they needed to get on. While they were there they had found two dock workers who seemed less than pleased about the harbours' future visitors.

"Viscount?" Trixie whispered questioningly.

"Hereditary title," Twilight whispered back. "The duke's son doesn't get the title of Duke until the last duke dies or gives it up. Until then the heir apparent uses one of the Dukes' lesser titles which in this case is viscount."

"Oh, okay. I only wanted to know if they were talking about the pony I thought they were talking about. I guess now I know how to address him."

"Keep it down would ya," the other dock worker implored his companion. "If one of those creepy smile patrols catch you talking like that it'll be worse than twenty lashes. Maybe they'll put you on corpse duty at the factory."

This time it was Twilight's to whisper a question. "Factory?"

"The pegasus compound," was Fleur's whispered reply making Twilight feel sick that such a duty existed and even needed to exist.

"Can't be no worse than smiling all the bloody time," the first worker said.

"Tell you what, we're almost done here. How about we sneak off early and go for a pint down the Bloody Siren? Ain't no smile patrol going to go in there if they know what's good for 'em." The two stallions dropped what they were doing and sauntered off leaving Twilight and the others to breathe a sigh of relief that they had gone.

"'The Bloody Siren' sounds like a charming place," commented Octavia.

"We're not actually near the ocean are we? Because Trixie was under the impression that sirens were supposed to live in the ocean."

"And you'd be forgiven for thinking that," Twilight muttered, frowning as she thought of something she should ask Sunset in her next letter.

"I gotta ask," the filly said, nudging Trixie in the side, "what's with all the referring to yourself in the third pony? It's a bit weird."

"It's a left over from my show pony days, the Great and Powerful Trixie! I used to talk in the third pony a lot during all that but now I'm trying to give it up. Turns out that old habits really do die hard though."

"You actually have to think about referring to yourself in the first pony? I think I'll just be adding another entry on my list of weird things Trixie does."

"And what about you hmm, you talk awfully fancy and know a lot of big words for a filly with no name, no education and no cutie mark."

"I dunno, I just seem to have a knack for stuff like that. You're looking at the only homeless filly in Prance that can read, which is more than a lot of non-homeless ponies around here can say. Not bad for somepony who's self-taught. Anyway, that's enough chitchat, how about we find that boat." The filly suddenly scrambled her way up a stack of crates before back flipping off and landing on another stack on only her rear legs. "What?" she asked defensively when she noticed the stares she was getting.

"You don't really see a lot of ponies do that," Trixie explained.

"Pinkie can," said Twilight, "but Pinkie tends to be the exception rather than the rule."

"Pinkie... Pinkie... I know I've heard that name before..." Trixie muttered, rubbing her chin.

"You stole her muzzle, remember?" Twilight whispered in her ear.

"Oh, uh... right. Enough said about that I think."

"I think I see the boat," the filly said, having got bored and chosen to ignore their insane ramblings and do the job she set out to do. "It's the big one over there."

They headed in the direction she pointed and soon came across a paddle boat that dwarfed the other boats. "I suppose we should have suspected that it would be the biggest one," Trixie commented with a smirk.

"How can we be sure though?" asked Octavia.

There was a pony with a clipboard standing next to a ramp that led into the rear of the boat. Fleur walked up to her and brazenly asked "Is this the boat the Viscount's party is on?"

The mare jumped as if startled but quickly recovered. "Yeah, are you the ponies I asked for two hours ago to get these crates loaded?" She pointed at four large cube shaped crates, each twice as tall as Fleur.

"Nope," Fleur said simply.

The mare shook her head and growled, "You know what, I don't even care. I need these on board soon as and I will pay you twenty marcs to get them in there. I don't even care how you do it." The mare pulled a small bag from her jacket pocket and counted out twenty coins. "Whaddya say?"

Fleur turned to the others and collected a unanimous vote of impartial shrugs. "Sure, we'll do it. Come on Trixie, help me with this crate." Trixie and Fleur stood on either side of the first crate and used their telekinesis to move the crate. Or at least they tried to.

"What... the hell... is in these... things?" Trixie hissed from between gritted teeth as sweat poured down her face.

"Booze I believe," the pony with the clipboard told her.

"Who in the hay needs this much booze?" Trixie leaned against the crate for a moment to catch her breath.

"Might I suggest that you and Fleur simply lift up the box and let Octavia and the filly push it," Twilight suggested. "It'll save you a bit of effort."

"I don't need your advice on how to lift things thank you... very... much..." Trixie's mouth hung open as she watched Twilight effortlessly lift the remaining three crates in her magic and guide them up the ramp into the hold. "That is so not fair! Stupid cheating alicorns and their stupid cheating... powers..." she mumbled to herself.

"What's an alicorn?" the filly asked her.

"A byword for a pony that cheats."

"Oh. Weird word." Between Fleur's and Trixie's efforts at lifting and Octavia's and the filly's efforts at pushing they eventually managed to get the crate on board. The fact that Twilight had offered to do it for them was irrelevant in the face of four ponies' stubborn pride.

"What time is the Viscount supposed to be getting here tomorrow?" Twilight asked the mare as she waited for the others to make their way back out of the boat.

"Sometime tomorrow, not sure when. Could be anytime between dawn and dusk depending on when he gets up. I’m sure somepony on board knows. Hope it's sooner rather than later though, I'm so sick of this 'be happy and smile for the Viscount's visit' crap."

"Yeah, about that. Why not do that on the day? We only just got into town so we don't know how long that's been going on but I suspect that it's been longer than just today."

The mare suddenly looked worried, "You're not here to monitor things for the Viscounts visit are you?" Twilight shook her head and the mare relaxed again. "That's good. It started the day before yesterday and it'll end the moment we wave him off on this tub. Not soon enough if you ask me and my aching face but whatever. No idea why they make us do it for days beforehoof though. Tends to creep a lot of visitors out." She picked up the twenty marcs in her hoof and held them out to Twilight who took them in her magic. "Here's your pay and boy do you deserve it. I've never seen lifting magic like yours before. If I didn't suspect you were leaving soon I'd offer you a job."

"Sometimes a unicorn gets lucky," Twilight lied. She watched as the others returned, Fleur and Trixie both looking exhausted enough to collapse. "I guess we'll be going then, we still need to find somewhere to stay. Thanks for the talk miss..?"

"Ship Shape, I know, it's not a flattering name. Thanks for the heavy lifting and all that. See ya." The mare trotted off leaving the five ponies on the harbour with no one around to see them.

"You know," the filly said, "if you're going to stow away on the river boat like I have a serious suspicion you are, now would be an excellent time to do it."

"We'll get right on that... as soon... as Trixie can walk again... without feeling like... she's going to fall... over..." She collapsed onto her knees and started panting. "I'm not even sure... that Fleur... was trying..."

Fleur tried a few times to say something in her defense but every time she opened her mouth it would close again without making a sound. She leaned against a post and gently slid down it until she lay on the floor. "Fuck... you..." she managed to say eventually.

Octavia grinned at Twilight and rolled her eyes, "Here I was thinking that the Great and Powerful Trixie could lift anything. Guess I was mistaken."

"I'm great and powerful, not overpowered and godlike." Trixie hauled herself back to her hooves and steadied herself for a moment before taking a few tentative steps. "I think Trixie is okay!"

"Fleur's not," Fleur said from her position on the floor.

Trixie studied the boat for a minute before addressing the others. "The filly who seriously needs a name is not wrong. We totally should sneak onboard now, while there's nopony around to see us. Too bad she can't come with us, as she does have the occasional decent idea."

"But- But... I-I... Why not? Why don't I get to come? I-I thought we were friends?" The filly looked between the four ponies. "Aren't we?"

Fleur tried to smile kindly at the filly but the sensation of her heart gently breaking made it come out more like a grimace. "Of course we are sweetie, but we have important things to do and we can't risk you coming with us in case you get hurt."

"But... but... Twilight?" she asked hopefully.

Twilight hung her head guiltily, marking another failure as the Princess of Friendship. "I'm sorry."

"Octavia?"

Octavia's reaction was similar to Twilights' but with extra tears. "I'm sorry too," she said quietly before heading up the ramp into the boat, Twilight and Trixie close behind her.

Fleur stood up and walked over to the filly who was now in floods of tears. "I'm sorry but this is way it has to be. I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt coming with us." She took a small coin bag out of her bags and placed it in front of the filly, "This should be enough to take care of you for a while-"

"I don't want your money! I want to come with you! Please? You really think I'm any safer living on the streets? Please, I'm begging you! Don't leave me on my own!"

"I'm sorry but I can't, we can't. Take care of yourself out there." She quickly turned and half ran up the ramp where the others were waiting. She wiped away her tears and nodded to them, waiting a moment as they headed further in.

"I thought you cared Fleur! I thought you cared!" The filly collapsed and sobbed, curling up on herself. "I thought you cared..."

"I do..." Fleur said quietly to herself. She stood, wrestling with herself before lighting her horn and gently picking the filly up when suddenly a pink flash across the end of her horn disrupted her magic and made her drop the filly.

"She's playing you Fleur," said Trixie from behind her. "Just ignore it."

"I can't." Fleur turned, allowing Trixie to see her own tears. "I had nothing when I was her age, and I know what it's like. I would have loved nothing more than for a pony to come along and offer something, anything, more than what I had." She turned to the filly who was looking at her confused. "We've given that to her and I'll be damned if I just take it away."
She lit her horn again and once more picked the filly up before Trixie's own magic disrupted hers. "So help me Trixie, I will throw you in the fucking river if you do that again!"

"She can't come with us Fleur. She can't find out about us and what we're doing. That and it's dangerous."

"She won't tell, I trust her. Do you honestly think she likes this place and its rulers and its shit? She could be useful to us." She tried to pick the filly up and kept a firm hold on her that Trixie couldn't break so easy. Instead Trixie also tried to grab the filly in her magic and put her back down. The two ponies became engaged in a battle of wills, the filly yelping as the turbulent magic started to hurt. Suddenly a purple aura overtook the two pink ones already on the filly and carried her up the ramp.

"If Fleur trusts her it's good enough for me," said Twilight.

"And me," said Octavia from beside her.

Fleur grabbed the filly from Twilight's magic and hugged her. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." She nuzzled the filly before standing up and placing her on her back where the tearful yet smiling filly hugged Fleur around her neck.

"This is a mistake," said Trixie. "I would say I can't wait to see how it's going to bite you in the flank, but it's also my flank on the line." Trixie jabbed a hoof at the filly who recoiled slightly, "You better know how to keep a secret."

Twilight smoothed out the page in the book she used to keep in contact with Sunset Shimmer. After the emotional occurrences of earlier and the time it had taken to find a secure hiding place on the boat and explain everything to the filly, well, almost everything, they were all pretty exhausted. They had decided to not tell her that it was Trixie being rescued in Stalliongrad or that Twilight was an alicorn and a princess in Equestria, since Trixie had begged them not to tell and it was decided that telling her about alicorn princesses could wait.

The entire time Fleur had hugged the filly between her forelegs, and for her part the filly seemed genuinely happy to be there. Maybe she does have a place with us, despite what Trixie might say.

She smoothed the page again and began to write.

Dear Sunset
I know you weren't expecting me to write back so soon but I was in a place called Brayside today and it had a bar called The Bloody Siren, not a nice name I know but that's not the point.

The point is that I was reminded of the sirens and I began to wonder; what happened to them after we stopped them? Are they okay after we stripped their power from them?

I'm not asking you to do a lengthy search for them, but if you do happen to see them could you let me know if they're okay? I feel a bit guilty for letting them just run off after the battle.

Your friend

Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight yawned and put the book away, figuring it was another thing the filly didn't need to know about. She crawled inside her sleeping bag, which was hers again since the filly was snuggled in with Fleur tonight, and very gently let sleep embrace her.

Author's Notes:

Contrary to what I just put in the footer of the last chapter I just posted a chapter. Mostly because I was bored and posting this one is probably harmless enough.

14. Party hard! pt 1

The filly blinked sleepily and stretched, but stopped short when she met resistance in the form of Fleur's large white body pressed against the back of her own. She looked up and followed the arc of Fleur's neck all the way to her chin before shaking her head experimentally to see if she had a hangover to deal with. Nothing.

"Huh, I thought I'd have to be seriously drunk to get in bed with a mare... or anypony for that matter." She glanced about her surroundings and saw the slumbering forms of Trixie, Twilight and Octavia before suddenly remembering that the events of last night had actually happened. She clamped her hooves over her eyes and groaned, "Was I really that emotional last night?"

"After all we told you last night, that's the bit that concerns you?" Trixie sniggered quietly before stretching where she lay. "By the way, you and Fleur looked absolutely adorable snuggled up together like that. Makes me I wish I had a camera."

The filly narrowed her eyes at Trixie, "What do you care about how we look? You don't even want me here."

"It's nothing personal." Trixie tapped a hoof on her chin as she thought, "Okay, maybe it is slightly. I mean you did rob me and leave me locked in the basement of some strangers house. What if he had been a murderer or a rapist or something?"

"If he was I wouldn't have done that. Yes I'm a cheeky bugger who will rob you for every marc in your possession but I do have limits. I try and make sure that if I'm going to con a pony that they're not going to get hurt in the process. If I knew that pony could hurt you then I would've thought of something else."

"Hmmph, very well, so you do have a conscience. All the same though I don't think dragging you along with us helps us in the slightest while at the same time puts us and you in danger."

"I don't care what you think Trixie. I have a chance for a better life here and if I can help in any way then I will. What are you here for Trixie? All you seem to do is whine and complain."

"Oh, Trixie has her uses. Far more than your infantile mind could ever fathom."

"And yet far less than her ego would ever let her admit," Fleur mumbled, cracking one eye open to enjoy the look of indignation on Trixie's face. "And never ask her for a witty comeback. Hers are awful."

Trixie huffed and puffed and blew a raspberry at Fleur, "Of course it’s going to be rubbish when I'm put on the spot like that. Besides, it's not like you're that useful yourself."

"Oh yeah? Well at least I never took over a town in a dark magic fueled, powe-"

"Oh will you fuck off with that!" Trixie snapped suddenly, waking Twilight and Octavia up. "Why is it that everytime I disagree with something, or have an opinion that you don't like, you have to say that like it's some giant trump card! It was stupid and I regret ever doing it! I don't need you and the others rubbing my face it all the fucking time, and it shouldn't be used to legitimize your own stupid fucking things! 'We can't do that, it's bad! But not as bad as Trixie using a dark magic amulet so we should be okay!' Or 'I shouldn't steal all this stuff. But then what's that compared to Trixie taking over a town in a fit of megalomania?' I've tried to be good humoured about it, but seriously, fuck off!"

The others lay in a shocked silence as Trixie glowered at them, panting slightly. "I... didn't realise you felt so strongly about it Trixie," Twilight said after a few seconds.

"Of course I feel strongly about it. I regret what I did, and I'm sorry it ever happened. But I'm not here to have my biggest mistake thrown in my face repeatedly and reminded about how badly I screwed up, and I'm certainly not here for ponies to compare their own actions to mine. Just because it's not as bad or evil or stupid as what I did doesn't mean it isn't still bad, evil or stupid!"

"I never did that, did I?" Octavia asked tremulously.

"Hmm," Trixie screwed up her face in thought. "No... I don't think you did." She shuffled her sleeping bag closer to Octavia, "I'm going to be over here, with the nice pony."

"I don't get it," said Fleur thoughtfully. "Why'd you do all those things just to regret it later?"

"I only wanted to get revenge on Twilight for besting me at magic when I started, which is dull enough as it is. I had no desire to hurt anypony or take over Ponyville, but that amulet... changed me, made me into a monster. I mean Trixie grew distrustful of wheels for pony's sake! What pony in their right mind doesn't trust wheels?"

"She's not kidding Fleur," Twilight said. "The amulet she was wearing corrupts the user. If it was you wearing it you wouldn't have been any better. And for what it's worth Trixie, I'm sorry if I upset you by bringing it up inappropriately."

"Yeah, sorry Trixie," muttered Fleur.

Trixie closed her eyes and breathed out slowly through her nose. "Very well, I shall forgive you. Celestia knows I probably deserve some teasing about it, but it shouldn't be used as a 'one argument beats Trixie' style of thing."

"Damn you guys must take your roleplaying games seriously," the filly said as she them all strange looks.

"What?" Twilight mouthed quietly, hoping for an explanation from the two awkward looking unicorns in the room.

"We... may have brought it up in the presence of the filly back when I found Trixie in Prance. To cover it up we pretended it was from a roleplaying game we were doing..."

"Wait... you mean it actually happened? It's real?" The filly looked up to Fleur who nodded in confirmation. "Ho-ly crap Trixie." She gave Trixie a look of mock horror, "You fucking psycho."

Twilight rattled the handle to the door that led from the cargo hold to the rest of the ship. Unfortunately somepony had the foresight to lock it, although Twilight couldn't think of any practical reason why they should when the ship was supposedly empty and the exterior entry to the hold was still wide open. "Probably to stop ponies sneaking on-board overnight," Fleur had suggested.

Trixie walked up beside Twilight and studied the lock for a second before enveloping the lock in her magic and unlocking it with a click a moment later. Trixie must have noticed the surprise in Twilight's expression, explaining that she learnt to pick locks with her magic for her escapism act.

"And you didn't think to add that to your résumé when we started this?"

"Trixie thought it was obvious that she could do that. After all, she is the most talented unicorn in Mareitania," Trixie exclaimed smugly.

"Surely that would be Twilight?" the filly said, sounding confused. "I'd say that picking locks doesn't compare to fighting soldiers."

"Twilight doesn't count." Trixie said, coughing awkwardly. "Anyway... how about we go see what's going on upstairs." She went to open the door when Fleur shouted, "Wait!"

"We should strip off before going upstairs," she said, explaining that this boat was going to be full of fancily dressed rich ponies. Five ponies dressed in grubby cloaks would look severely out of place. "We'd be less conspicuous going unclothed."

"Nuh-uh, no way," the filly said defensively. "There's no way I'm going anywhere in the nuddy."

"That's silly," said Trixie, "there's nothing wrong with going in the buff. Ponies in Equestria are pretty much naked all the time."

"I have my reasons..." the filly muttered, her expression dark. "I guess I'll have to stay here and watch your stuff. I promise not to steal it before you think that I would Trixie."

"Why would I trust the promise of a liar and a thief?"

"That... is a very good point. Touché. I guess you'll just have to have some faith in me instead."

"Come on Trixie," said Fleur with a hint of warning, "you're going to make us go over on this morning’s argument quota if you're not careful." She reached into one of her bags and pulled out a small toiletries bag, "First stop, hygiene. Be good... you," she said to the filly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. You go do whatever it is you're going to do," the filly said as she waved them off. "If you happen to find me some breakfast I'd appreciated it."

Fleur nudged the door open and poked her head through, looking around for a moment before carrying on through, followed by Twilight, then Octavia with Trixie bringing up the rear.

"Might I ask what the bag is for?" Octavia asked from behind Twilight, who seemed strangely mesmerized by the swaying of Fleur's uncovered flank.

"We're on a boat full of the rich and well to do, Octavia. A wash and some makeup is going to go a long way, believe me."

"Why is Twilight staring at Fleur's ass?" Trixie asked loudly.

"Huh? What!? N-no I'm not! I was just hoping nopony touches my sides in case they feel my wings."

"Would you feel better if Fleur touched your sides?"

"Shut up!"

"Stop being mean to Twilight about her confused sexuality-"

"I'm not confused!"

"Besides, I must be losing my touch if you're not staring either."

"Actually, Trixie would say your rear looks better than ever, all the walking and running over the last few weeks have really toned those cheeks up."

"Why thank you Trixie. And there I was thinking that getting a compliment out of you was like getting water out of a stone."

Trixie shrugged, "Thing is though is that I know where my preferences lie unlike Twilight."

"I like cock!" Twilight blushed as she realised what she had just blurted out and her ears folded back as they filled with Trixie's laughter. "I-uh, I mean I would... if I-uh... wasn't a... Oh shut up!"

"You heard it here first," Trixie choked between laughs, "Princess Twilight likes cock!"

"Where are we anyway?" Octavia asked in the hopes of steering the conversation towards something useful and away from Fleur's rear, Trixie's preferences and Twilight's... Twilightishness. "This doesn't look nice enough for the rich ponies to be staying in," she said as she observed the rough wooden walls.

Trixie snorted and nudged her, “Is that all you're going to contribute to this conversation?"

Octavia bit her lip, "Well... okay, there is something I have always wondered about. Is it true what they say about unicorn horns? About them being sensitive? I would've asked Vinyl but I was worried that she’d give me a demonstration if the answer was yes."

"Nah," said Fleur, "complete load of rubbish. Horns are made of bone and don't have sensations like that. Bloody hurt if you smack them though. It is, however, true what they say about pegasus wings being sensitive isn't it Twilight?"

"Not. Saying. Anything."

"Oh lighten up Twilight. Anyway to answer your first question Octavia, these are probably the servants quarters, or at least I hope they are otherwise this tub has some shitty accommodations. I'm hoping that there's some kind of communal bathroom or something where we can freshen up." She soon espied a door emblazoned with a small 'WC' and led them in.

"You know, Trixie has always wondered why it's called a water closet when it is neither a closet nor particularly watery."

"And I've always wondered what it is that goes on inside your head Trixie, but I fear only madness lies down that route." Fleur walked up to a sink and turned the tap before splashing herself with water, "Cold!"

"What time do you think the Viscount will be here? Twilight asked as she viewed herself in a mirror, before pulling at the bags under her eyes and sighing.

Fleur dried herself off with a towel before answering, "If he's the hedonistic little twit I've been led to believe he is then I doubt he'll be here any time before midday. Gives us plenty of time to wander around and work this out."

There was a grunt as Octavia pulled a brush through the knots in the end of her tail. "I really ought to have cut this thing before we came."

"I really never understood the thing with having your tail touching the ground," said Trixie. "Sure a long tail looks nice but it seems horribly impractical and wouldn't it turn into a-"

"Knotty, mud laden mess? Hence why I wish I'd had it cut. It's not so bad around Canterlot if I wash it and brush it often, but here? No chance of either of those happening much. I guess this is what my morning will consist of if I wish to be presentable by this afternoon." She sighed and grumbled, "This'd be so much easier if I was a unicorn."

"It does make you wonder how Celestia and Luna does it," Fleur commented as she applied eye shadow; "I mean Celestia's mane and tail are freaking huge!"

"Or how their manes seem to be blowing in the wind all the time," agreed Trixie. "Is that going to happen to you someday Twilight?"

"Goodness I hope not. I like having hairy… hair. Sure Celestia has said the hair is easy to handle since it never really gets dirty as it tends to float just above the ground and doesn't need styling because it tends to do as it pleases, but at the same time both princesses have confessed to having to rely on magical senses since it's ridiculously easy to sneak up on their right side."

"What does it feel like though?"

Twilight pursed her lips as she tried to think of an adequate answer. "Okay, it's like the lightest, softest piece of silk imaginable but in lots of little hair-like strands and seems to be constantly moving like it gets blown in even the slightest breeze, no matter how hard you try to stop it." Twilight stared into the distance and smiled wistfully, "I used to love cuddling up in Celestia's hair when I first started my apprenticeship with her, it was always so soft."

"I've changed my mind, she doesn't have the hots for Fleur, she has them for Celestia and her luxuriously soft hair. Sorry Fleur, you've been replaced."

"What? No! Me- Me and the P-Princess?" Twilight spluttered. "I could never do that, she's like a mother to me!"

"And not because you're 'apparently' straight Twilight? You didn't say you haven't thought of it," Trixie said as she smirked, making Twilight blush and stammer. "Ooh, maybe Twilight likes a bit of Princess Luna! Wanna explore the dark side of her moon, eh Twilight?"

"I'm not gay!" Twilight shouted as she blushed furiously. "I don't know why you would think I am!"

"You were staring at Fleur's ass."

"I couldn't care less about Fleur's rear end!"

"Fleur gasped mockingly, "But I have a fabulous tush! You've broken my heart Twilight," she said before starting to giggle. "Sorry," she said after the others asked what was so funny, "it just struck me as amusing that after the last few weeks and everything that's happened, here we are having girly talk in a bathroom. You could almost think we were getting ready for a night on the town, not working to overthrow a corrupt and evil government."

"Normal does seem a long way off doesn't it," agreed Octavia.

"Not that Trixie ever knew what normal was in the first place," Twilight snarked.

"Ooh meow, kitty got claws! Besides, you're not wrong," Trixie said haughtily. "Trixie would never be so plebeian as to have a 'normal' life. Perish the thought."

Octavia grunted as she pulled the brush through a particularly knotted part of her tail before putting the brush down with a thunk. "This is going to take me forever to sort out," she groaned. "Perhaps you ought to leave me here while you go scout around the ship."

"Trixie's ready to go whenever." Trixie shrugged and moved over to the door.

"Doesn't anypony else find it odd that the better the mood Trixie is in the more she refers to herself in the third pony," Fleur said, grinning at Trixie who stuck her tongue out at Fleur in return. "Anyway, I'm ready to go too, how about you Twilight?"

Twilight levelled a scowl at Trixie before answering. "I'll stay here and help Octavia with her tail. Perhaps some magic would speed things up."

"Oh come on, now you're making things too easy for me," Trixie cleared her throat, "Twilight and Octavia, sitting in a tree, f-u-c-k-i-n-g!" Trixie sang before running out the door laughing maniacally. She poked her head back through the door and grinned saucily at Twilight, "And Twilight, if you're going under Octavia's tail, make sure you get her consent first," she said before running off again.

"She does seem cheerful today doesn't she." Fleur patted Twilight on the back in a not very comforting manner as Twilight ground her teeth. "We'll meet you back in our hiding place, hopefully with good news."

"Fuck my life," Twilight muttered once Fleur departed.

"Damn you're going for everything today aren't you?" Trixie said from the doorway.

"Dammit Trixie! Get out of here!"

Trixie let out a low whistle as she perused the grand ballroom she and Fleur had stumbled upon. "So this is what Mareitanian taxes get spent on."

"Actually most of this country's taxes are spent on the whole pegasus... thing."

"Really?"

"Yep. Oppressing a race of highly mobile, winged ponies ain't easy and it ain't cheap." Fleur ran a critical eye over the decor and started to frown as she realised something. "Trixie, do you notice something odd about the stuff in this room."

"Other than it smells strangely of cookies in here, not really."

"Exactly, I mean wh- hold on, what?" Fleur sniffed the air experimentally, "I don't smell cookies."

"Yeah, neither do I, but you clearly wanted something out of me when you asked."

Fleur rubbed the bridge of her nose and groaned as she came to realise she was the sole focus of Trixie's ramblings now it was just the two of them. "Right, if you were paying attention you would have said something like 'gee Fleur, it sure does look like a lot of this stuff was made in Equestria,’"

"Trixie does not sound like that,"

"And then I'd be like, 'that's right Trixie. Doesn't that strike you as odd seeing as how Mareitania is mostly cut off from Equestria and has very limited trade with them.'"

"Why yes Fleur, that would strike me as odd if I had any credible reason to believe that you are in fact not talking out of your arse."

Fleur gave Trixie a long, cool stare. "I hope you're acting like this to get it out of your system before the party."

"You say that like Trixie has a limit to her obstinacy."

Fleur rubbed the bridge of her nose again and sighed heavily, "Anyway... this light," she said pointing at one of multiple wall mounted lights, "Fancy Pants has the exact same fittings in his mansion leading me to suspect they're from Equestria." She picked up an ornate china plate in her magic and flipped it over before pointing at its hallmark, "This plate was made by the esteemed Clay Brothers company in Fillydelphia." She picked up a few more plates, "as was this one, this one, and this one."

She trotted over to the bar which stretched along most of a wall and picked out a variety of bottles. "This rather expensive champagne was produced in the expansive vineyards of Las Pegasus, and this cherry liqueur was made in the cherry orchards of Dodge Junction. Not forgetting this lovely apple cider produced on Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville itself. Do I need to go on because there are plenty more things I could point out."

Trixie sat down and folded her forelegs, "Trixie has spent most of her life either being poor in Manehatten or travelling around Equestria in a little wooden caravan with minimal possessions. Excuse me if I can't immediately point out all these things a wealthy pony living in a mansion in Canterlot would know about. But, now you have said it, yes I see what you're getting at."

"I didn't mean it like that..." Fleur ran a hoof down the back of her head as she thought, and sighed through her nose. "Sorry Trixie, sometimes I forget you're not a Canterlot pony like the other two."

"Or you?"

"I guess there is more Canterlot in me than I like to admit." Fleur fell silent as a group of ponies entered the room the same way they had. Most of them bearing bulky instrument cases, and all of them, five mares and three stallions, were looking unhappy.

"About time we found this bloody ballroom. You'd think there'd be some kind of steward or something sorting this all out!" The stallion in the front, a glossy dark grey colour with a mahogany mane and tail, glanced about before spotting Fleur and Trixie. "You there! The," his nose wrinkled up in disgust, "unicorns... I don't suppose you know who's in charge here?"

"Don't you dare imply it's you," Fleur whispered to Trixie out the side of her mouth before replying to the stallion. "I'm afraid not, we seem to be in the same boat, excuse the pun, about finding where we're meant to be." She pointed across to the corner of the ballroom where a grand piano resided upon a raised stage, "Is that there what you're looking for?"

The stallion glanced at the stage and a look of relief crossed his face, "Ahah! Finally! Perhaps now we can get practicing before tonight." He trotted off to the stage followed closely by his bandmates.

"You're welcome!" Fleur said bitterly. "If only we could find out when this whole thing is kicking off we could stop wondering around like morons."

"Yes, that would be convenient. If only there was some kind of itinerary like this one Trixie found on the bar over there."

"And you were going to mention this when?" Fleur said in a low growl.

"I was hoping to hold out for when you were ready to give up in a fit of despair for maximum annoyance, but I don't think we have that long."

Fleur scowled at Trixie and snatched the itinerary off her with her magic before skimming through it, "Viscount's arrival at two in the afternoon followed by guests... Then setting off at three once guests are settled. Stallions are welcome to brandy and cigars in the smoking room while mares would be welcome to have tea in the drawing room- Ugh that would so not work in Equestria."

"Because there'd only be ten stallions here in total?"

"Well yeah, that and Equestrians don't really seem big on the drinking and smoking thing either so there would be plenty of competition over the tea." She skimmed further down the page, "Dinner at six then an opportunity for the guests to change into their outfits in preparation for the masked... ball..." Fleur placed the itinerary back down on the bar and pouted, "Shit."

"Does this mean we have to acquire some masks now?"

"It seems we do." Fleur lifted the barrier to behind the bar and rooted around in the hopes of finding something to eat. "Where's the bloody bar snacks in this place?"

"You do remember what kind of ship you're on right? There's probably going to be a buffet with hor d'oeuvres', and canapés, and whatever else it is that rich ponies live on."

"I know that, but I don't want to have to listen to that filly moaning because she skipped breakfast." Fleur tapped a hoof on the floor as she thought but nothing occurred to her. "Oh I don't know, I'm sure we can find something somewhere. Let's get back to our hidey hole. At the very least we can come back with news."

"And tell Octavia that there's a cello player here," Trixie said, nodding at the band where a mare was extracting a cello from its case.

"A cello player you say? Hmm..." Octavia rubbed her chin as a thoughtful and slightly evil expression spread across her features. "That might be worth investigating."

"You're already thinking of ways to get rid of her aren't you?" the filly said before starting on her second apple. Much to Fleur's chagrin the filly had decided that waiting was boring and had instead decided to find her own breakfast. Somehow she had managed to find the galley and steal a bowl of fruit almost as big as herself without being seen. Not that anypony minded since she was happy to share.

"Do you realise how long it's been since I've been able to play a cello? The last one I even held I was forced to smash around somepony's head to stop them from... uh... Ahem, anyway... yes I would like to get a chance to play if I can."

The filly nodded and folded her legs. "Okay then, how lethal do you want this to be?"

"Lethal? Are you suggesting we kill her because that's a bit much."

"Righty oh, non-lethal it is."

"Does anypony find it odd that Octavia and the filly are plotting like this just so Octavia can play a cello for the evening?" Trixie looked around hoping to find some agreement but failed to find any from Twilight or Fleur. "I guess Trixie's on her own then."

The filly thought in silence before breaking out into a sinister grin, "Does anypony know where we can get a laxative at this hour?"

Trixie gave the filly a flat look before rolling her eyes, "You mean this normal daytime hour where you could buy such things in a shop?"

"You just have to ruin everything don't you!"

"There must be an apothecary in town somewhere," said Fleur thoughtfully. "Guess there's only one way to find out. Come on Twilight, filly, let's go."

"Me?" Twilight asked, "Why do I have to go?"

"Maybe Fleur's looking to buy some lube in a flavour you like," said Trixie with a snigger.

Fleur smiled sweetly at Trixie while Twilight stammered incoherently, "If I was to buy any lube my dear Trixie, it would be to aid the passage of your head up your own ass which might be an event happening sooner rather than later if you don't knock it off."

"Okay, okay, sheesh."

"And you Twilight, are coming with me because you're the smart pony who probably knows what we need."

"What time is it?" the filly asked.

"About ten I think," Fleur told her, "why?"

"I'm just counting down the hours until these poor sods can go back to being normal." The smile patrol did seem to be out in force as time drew close to the Viscount's arrival and the ponies around them bore ever shakier smiles than before.

Fleur shrugged casually even as her own cheeks quivered with the effort to keep looking cheerful. "I wouldn't worry about it too much on the simple basis that it's not our problem."

"It does make you wonder though," Twilight pondered out loud. "Did the Viscount request this? Or is it happening without his knowledge? Or is it in fact a complete misinterpretation of something like 'tidy the town up and make it look cheerful.'"

"Pfft, like that matters," the filly said obnoxiously. "I just wish that it wasn't happening."

Rather get into a heated discussion concerning the filly's manners, Twilight instead went back to observing her surroundings which is probably why she was the first to spot the apothecary when they came across it. She led the way over to the shop and entered it first which unfortunately meant she was first to encounter the owner of the premises.

A bright yellow earth pony stallion with a near neon green mane jumped over the counter and shoved his face into Twilight's the moment she entered. "Hallooooooo, how I can haaaaalp you?" the stallion asked, spraying Twilight with spittle from his impossibly wide, and in Twilight's opinion, chemically induced, smile before sniffing around her quite vigorously. "My my, you smeeeeeell veeery halthy! Whaaaattt could yooouuuu neeeedddd my ser-vaces for?"

What the bloody hell kind of accent is that supposed to be? Twilight thought to herself before grinning nervously as the stallion continued to march his one pony army all over her personal space. "I-uh, I'm looking for extract of Senna Alexandrina actually, I don't suppose you have some in stock?"

"Seeeeenna Alexandriiiiina? Do yooouuuu have a toooouch of tha constipaaaation? Yooouuuu don't smeeell like you dooo..." Twilight's cheeks tinged red as Fleur and the filly giggled behind her.

"It's not for me, it's for a friend," Twilight said, hoping the stallion would take the hint and drop the issue. He sort of did when he shrugged and said, "It would seeeemmmm that a lot of pooooonies have sick friends in this toooowwwnnn."

He trotted back to the counter and addressed a small, all white unicorn mare that was sat behind it smiling bemusedly, "Liiiiiillydrop, see that this uuuuunicorn gets what she neeeeedddddsssss. I'm going out back tooooo... refreeeesh my smiiiiillle..." He walked around the counter and through a door behind it from where a moment later there was a loud sniffing noise.

"Called it," the filly said to Fleur quietly.

"And? I wasn't exactly arguing," Fleur whispered back.

The white unicorn stood up and grinned disarmingly, "My apologies for the master, he's a tad... eccentric."

"Isn't that a posh way of saying he's off his rocker?" the filly said, cocking an eyebrow for emphasis.

"Maybe..." Lilydrop admitted before sighing slightly. "Don't get me wrong, he's a master at his craft, but... let's just say he's also a cautionary tale against eating strange mushrooms you find in the forest. Anyway, you're looking for extract of Senna Alexandrina?"

"That's right," Twilight said with forced cheerfulness, causing the unicorn to start searching through one of the shelves, muttering to herself as she went.

"Aha!" she shouted suddenly, making the others jump. She returned to behind the counter brandishing a small vial in her magic which she deposited in front of Twilight. "Need any instructions on how to use it?" Twilight nodded in affirmation and the mare assumed what Twilight thought of as a lecturing stance.

"Right, depending on how bad your little problem is you should only take two or three drops at a time. More than that and you'll probably develop the opposite problem, and certainly don't take the entire bottle at once, because even if you don't shit yourself to death you may well wish that you could. Mix the drops with a glass of water and drink, preferably in the morning because nopony likes getting up in the night to go to the bathroom right?"

"Right..."

"Anyway, that'll be five marcs." Twilight fished the money out of her bags and hoofed it over before gently placing the vial in instead. "Thank you very much," the mare said. "Please come again?" Twilight could easily make out the tone of pleading in her voice that said 'please please please don't leave me alone with the madpony!'

Sorry, Twilight thought before heading out the door and back to the boat.

"Hold on," said Fleur, "I just remembered that we need to get some costume masks since apparently it's a masked ball."

"Okay, let's do that, then we can go back to the boat."

"Trixie looks like a moron," Trixie deadpanned as she tried on the dark purple mask that the others had bought for her.

"And that concerns you more than usual... why?" Fleur said jokingly as she tried her own red coloured mask on.

"Oh ha ha... Trixie just doesn't like wearing masks, that's all."

"I'm afraid that's something you're going to have to get used to," said Twilight as she tucked hers and Octavia's black masks into her bags with her dress for safekeeping. "If we're going to try and fit in then we're going to have to wear them."

"You don't need to explain it to Trixie like she's a foal. Besides, what about you Twilight? Now that Octavia's hell-bent on playing the cello in the band you don't have a cover story."

"Actually I've been thinking about that and I think I have a solution. I've been playing around with the spell Luna taught me to hide my-uh... appendages," she muttered as she remembered the filly's presence, "and I think I can alter it to disguise my horn as well." She lit her horn and a moment later the horn faded from view leaving behind a cone of purple magic. "As long as I don't use any magic, and I'm careful nopony touches my horn I think I can pass as an earth pony and therefore just another guest."

"I don't suppose that's something you could teach me and Fleur?" Trixie asked. "It would be useful."

"I don't think so, Luna said only... certain powerful ponies would be able to use the spell originally since pegasi can't do magic and unicorns don't have normally have to hide things so they wouldn't need to know it. It's kinda specialized like that."

"Oh boy, more weirdo cryptic talk," the filly muttered to herself as she tugged at the new cloak Fleur had bought her, reasoning that the ratty brown thing she had been wearing wouldn't do in this situation. "Why do I need this? It's not like I want to go to the party," she huffed.

"Too bad for you." Trixie rolled onto her back and stretched her legs out in all directions. "I never thought that sneaking onto a ship to gate-crash a party for the country's elite would be so... boring," she said wearily. "I hope Octavia's having more fun than us."

Octavia followed the directions Fleur had given her to the ballroom, the coin purse that hung around her neck jingling as she trotted. She hadn't wanted to bring anything with her but she had needed some way to inconspicuously transport the vial of extract, and actual money might come in use. She gently nudged the door open to the ballroom and immediately her ears were assaulted by a tune going wrong. Despite that though it somehow seemed... familiar...

"No no no!" a stallion shouted. "Have you forgotten how to read music or something!?"

"I can't help it," a mare whined. "I've never even heard these songs before, let alone played any of them!"

"Oh for goodness- Look, it's not hard." a Grey and mahogany stallion stomped over from his piano to a lilac mare who instinctively hid behind the treble bass she was wielding. The stallion loudly and animatedly explained something to the mare who flinched with every gesture he made, but Octavia stopped listening when behind the bassist she spotted a yellow mare holding a cello and giving the bassist a rather disdainful look.

Thwap! Octavia was brought back to the moment when the stallion smacked the bassist around the head with a roll of paper before returning to his piano. Octavia was about to express her disapproval but managed to curb herself. She frowned as the cellist sniggered at the bassist but ignored it as the band started up again, sitting quietly as she listened. The only motion she would make were her ears twitching every time she heard a mistimed or off-key note. Suffice to say her ears never stopped twitching.

The piece wound to an end and the stallion flopped onto his piano and gave a little groan. Out of sheer politeness Octavia applauded the band which quickly drew the ire of the lead stallion, just as she hoped it would.

"Are you kidding me? Are you actually applauding the abomination that last piece was?"

"I wasn't going suggest it was perfect but it was a good effort. Is it wrong for one musician to applaud the work of another?"

"When it's as bad as that was, yes, yes it is."

Octavia looked around the room, which had a lot more ponies in now compared to the amount Fleur said it had earlier. Fortunately that also included a pony working at the bar. "Perhaps I could offer to bring you some refreshments in exchange for letting me get a look at some of your sheet music, it does sound like an... unusual piece."

"Yes, fine, fine." The stallion waved her off languidly before berating another member of the band he was with. Octavia headed over to the bar where she was greeted by the friendly grin of the stallion behind it. "Bar's not open yet miss," he said.

"I'm only trying to organise some refreshments for the ponies playing over there," Octavia said, pointing over her back to the stage to where the lead stallion was screaming at one of the other stallions there.

"Doesn't matter miss, bar's closed until the ball tonight."

Octavia looked into her purse, "Would ten marcs change your mind?"

"Would you like ice with those?" the barpony asked with a broad grin. Octavia counted the money out of her purse and placed it on the bar.

"No, but I would like a tray."

Octavia waited patiently as the barpony prepared nine glasses of what appeared to be lemonade and placed them on a tray for her. She picked the tray up in her mouth and carried it over to one of the tables placed around the side of the room before turning her back to the stage. She took the vial out of her purse, opened it and put a couple of drops into one of the glasses before shrugging and tipping almost half the vial in. Then she waited.

The band came to the end of murdering another piece of music, prompting Octavia to pick up the tray and balance it on a hoof before heading up onto the stage. Being careful to keep rotating the tray so that the wrong pony didn't pick up the wrong glass she eventually came to the cellist who immediately went for the untainted glass.

Octavia shied back, "Ah-ah! That's mine. It's-uh... got a little something added to it, if you know what I mean." The yellow cellist shrugged and picked up the other glass in her mouth before sitting down, taking it in her hooves and drinking almost half in one go.

The cellist 'hmm'd' and squinted at the drink through one eye, "Tasted a bit funny, are you sure you didn't give me the wrong drink?"

Octavia shrugged, "Reasonably sure." The cellist shrugged in return and downed the rest of her drink.

Octavia waited on the stage with the tray as the rest of the musicians finished their drinks and returned the glasses to her. She returned the tray to the table and went back on stage before tapping the pianist on the shoulder, "May I?" she asked, pointing at the stack of sheet music he had next to him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," the stallion muttered, waving her off again. She went back to the table, took a sip of her drink and waited for the show to begin. A sliver of guilt poked the back of her mind but she shrugged it off, reasoning that it was too late to go back now. She decided to pass the time by looking through the sheets the pianist had let her take. It didn't take long for her to work out that something was wrong.

She skimmed through the sheets one more time, to be certain of what was plainly obvious to her. "All these songs are Equestrian... What in Celestia's name are they doing playing them here?" At least she had solved the mystery of why they had sounded so familiar. She glanced at the stage to see if anything was happening and wasn't disappointed to see the cellist looking uncomfortable as she gently rubbed her stomach.

She waited a bit longer, watching as the poor cellist grew increasingly pained, when suddenly, in the middle of a song, the cellist dropped her instrument, fell to her knees and clutched her stomach with both forelegs. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." she whimpered, "Bathroom! Where's the fucking bathroom!"

Octavia pointed to the nearby exit, "Through there, then first door on your right," she supplied helpfully, having the foresight to find out in the suspicion something like this might happen. The cellist whinnied and charged off, smashing through the doors.

"Well that's just fucking great!" the stallion roared. He looked around and pointed at the bassist, "Go check on her, see if she's still alive."

"M-me? W-w-why me?"

"Because I said so, that's why." Poor thing Octavia thought as the pony gently laid down her instrument before sprinting for the door. Octavia and the remainder of the band milled around until she returned a minute later. "Well?" the stallion demanded when she came back, looking a little sickly.

"Well-uh... she's alive, but she might be in there for a long time."

"Brilliant! That's just fucking brilliant! How the bloody hell are we supposed to practice without our cellist? She was the only one of you getting this right! This is the Viscount's birthday; we can't afford to get this wrong!"

Octavia watched as the vein on the pianist’s forehead bulged in a most disconcerting manner before gently clearing her throat. "Perhaps I could be of assistance?" she said, trying to keep her eagerness out of her voice.

"No thank you whoever the bloody hell you are!"

"But I can play the cello so at least you can keep practicing until your proper one... recovers." Hopefully not that she will any time soon...

The pianist huffed and puffed irritably before growling his response. "Fine, there's a small chance you'll be better than these other buffoons." Octavia couldn't help but smile joyfully as she headed on-stage and picked up the cello from where the yellow mare had dropped it before playing a few notes and tweaking the tuning a bit.

It wasn't as nice as the one she had held in Prance but that didn't matter. Here, a thousand miles from Canterlot and her own cello, she suddenly felt right at home. She studied the sheet music in front of her and nodded her readiness to the pianist, who started them off. Within seconds she was lost in the music as she finally put her art to good use and might have made the mistake of being too good as she played the familiar tune perfectly.

"How the fucking hell did you do that?" the pianist asked as the others around her gave her equally suspicious looks.

"Um... beginners luck?"

"Well... I don't care how you did it, just keep doing it!" Octavia smiled warmly as the band launched into another song, her heart floating with the melody despite the others' mistakes. Perhaps I ought to check on the real cellist and take her a drink just to make sure she doesn't recover too fast...

"You'd think more ponies would question why three unicorns and a filly are aimlessly plodding around their ship," Trixie commented as she and the others wandered the exterior parts of the ship looking for a good place to view the Viscounts arrival from.

"Ponies tend not to ask questions in this country," Fleur told her. "They might not like the answers or how they're told them."

"I'm meant to be an earth pony, remember," hissed Twilight through her teeth to remind Trixie to not call her a unicorn. She wriggled around trying to get the dress she was wearing comfortable but for some reason it pinched in the worst places despite her attempts to magically alter it.

"Will you stop squirming," Fleur whispered to her. "You look stupid when you do that."

"Sorry but this dress is trying to murder certain parts of me. Who puts straps in that kind of place anyway?"

Fleur regarded the midnight blue dress that Twilight was wearing and decided she didn't have an answer she could call sensible. "If you had disguised your cutie mark you wouldn't have to wear it. Since you can't do that with magic you'll just have to suck it up."

"Why'd she have to cover it up anyway?" the filly asked from her vantage point atop Fleur's back.

"Star bursts and star related cutie marks tend to belong to unicorns skilled in magic, or at least in Equestria they do. Might be a bit suspicious for an earth pony to have one."

"Oh, right." She squinted into the distance to a trail of small dots were moving towards the town and pointed them out to Fleur who nodded.

"I guess this is it ladies, show time."

Author's Notes:

Time for posting again, and I do so wish when you copy pasted stuff into fimfic that all the italics and stuff got copied too. Oh well.

Here's where I apologise for the quality of the editing and writing and stuff but I'm tieeeerrrrdddd. Leave me alooooonnnneeeee...

15. Party hard! pt 2

Trixie hooked her forelegs over the railing as she watched the carriages draw closer. Fleur watched impassively as the filly did her best to climb up her neck to get a better view, and Twilight tried not to do anything because it was less painful that way.

"Ah! There you are!" said a voice from off to their left. It belonged to Octavia who was rapidly approaching them, "I've been looking all over for you."

"I'm guessing everything went okay then?" Fleur asked once Octavia had positioned herself next to them.

"More than okay actually. You have no idea how nice it's been to play again. I've made sure the actual cello player is... incapacitated for the rest of the day so I should be safe to play with the band through the party and good gracious Twilight! Where's your horn?"

"Didn't you know? Twilight's a bona-fide earth pony now." Trixie snorted and went back to looking over the rail, muttering something about stupid alicorns and their stupid powers.

"I've disguised it with magic. Since you're playing with the band I had to come up with another cover story and now I'm going as an actual guest, so to speak."

"I see. Fair enough I suppose. I do have something I want to talk to you about actually," Octavia said, addressing them all. "It's about something I've noticed about the music I've been playing. The songs, they're all from Equestria."

"Really?" Twilight said with genuine surprise. "How are songs from Equestria here?"

"The same way the rest of the stuff from Equestria is getting here probably," Trixie said as she continued to stare out over the rail.

There was a quiet clonking sound as Fleur facehoofed, "I knew there was something I was meant to talk to you about. Loads of stuff in this ship was made in Equestria. Decor, cutlery, drinks! Loads of stuff!"

"But... that doesn't make sense," Twilight insisted. "How would all this stuff get here? And why?"

"Did you ask Celestia what it was she was exporting into Mareitania?" Fleur asked. "Because I'm guessing most of it has ended up in the hooves of the Duke, or at least his son."

"But why though? I've been working under the impression that the Duke had absolutely no respect for Equestria and certainly not for anything that came out of it." Twilight tried to sit down to ponder the mystery but yelped and changed her mind when the dress tried to get intimate with her.

"Are you okay?" Octavia asked cautiously.

"I'm fine, it's just that this dress wasn't made for a pony with my proportions. That or dressmakers in Mareitania really hate their clientele. I'll try and make some more adjustments later when we're out of sight."

"Do you think that the Duke knows about all this stuff from Equestria?" Fleur asked, "This could all be the work of the Viscount since I get the feeling he's a bit of a fan."

"What makes you think that?" Trixie asked, her head bobbing up and down as she spoke since her chin was resting on the rail.

"Well he was at the Equestria games. In fact he was sat barely ten meters away from you, Twilight."

"He was?" Twilight frowned in thought as she tried to remember. The pony with the stupid hat, silly beard, ridiculous blue cape and the white unicorn mare with the oversized headdress came up in her mind, compared with memories of meeting them at the summit just prior to Tirek's attack. "Omigosh! You're right! He was!"

"And this helps us how?" Trixie said questioningly, finally turning to look at the others.

"It could mean that he's open to Equestrian philosophy," Twilight told her. "If we can get to him perhaps we could encourage him to increase contact with Equestria. Perhaps we could even get him to make changes so that unicorns get treated better and pegasi could live free!"

"I doubt it. Need Trixie remind you that the Duke rules here, not the Viscount, and that if changes were to be made I'm sure the Viscount would be trying to make them. Since he isn't I guess he doesn't care much."

"But all the visits he's made to Equestria must mean something?" Twilight said, almost pleading in the hope that she could have a way to resolve this whole thing peacefully.

"Twilight," Fleur said as kindly as she could, "you've met Prince Blueblood right?"

"Yes, many times."

"Then I assume you know what he's like. The Viscount is Mareitania's equivalent; a ponce, a twit, a bit simple with no real power, and no desire to change the status quo if it keeps him in the lap of luxury. The only difference is that one day he will rule, unlike Blueblood. He probably treats all those visits to Equestria as holidays."

Twilight deflated as what Fleur said settled in her mind and grouched slightly that despite her being a princess, Fleur was probably more politically savvy than she would ever be. "He could at least be an ally though if we do start something here."

"Perhaps," Fleur conceded. The train of carriages was now on the outskirts of town and were starting to head down the road through the centre of town towards the docks. The townsponies were lined up along both sides of the road and were cheering madly as the carriages passed them, although they might have been cheering madly with relief that it would soon all be over.

As a token of gratitude for the crowds false devotion, the Viscount hung out the window of his carriage and waved. He kept waving until his carriage pulled up alongside the boat, which as far as Twilight could tell had moved to its current position without her ever noticing. She jumped when, from somewhere on the boat, there came a loud toot and searched about for the source and quickly became worried when she noticed the columns of black smoke pouring from the tall metal chimneys that sat side by side in the middle of the ship. "Fleur?"

"Yes Twilight?"

"I was informed that Mareitania wasn't very technologically developed and hadn't yet developed steam power. Was I misinformed?"

"No, there aren't any trains or anything and nothing was being developed that I knew about when I lived here, why?" Twilight pointed skyward to where the smoke was pouring from, "Ah... Well, fifteen years is a long time and it's not like I knew everything that was going on." She considered the smoke for a moment, "Is this going to be a problem?"

"Hopefully not. That depends what other applications they've used steam engines for."

"Such as?"

"In the hidden vaults of the Canterlot archives there are... designs... for weapons based around steam engines. Terrible machines that can go anywhere without rails, have thick protective armour and have weapons that can spew steam hot enough to cook a pony in seconds. Giant catapults that can hurl a two ton rock over a mile, and not to mention the perverse uses somepony came up with for firework powder." Twilight shuddered and turned back to the town and watched as the Viscount trotted on board. "There's a reason Celestia keeps certain things hidden from the public. A very good reason. I only found them by accident since I now have unfettered access to everything like that."

"And you think they could have stolen these designs?"

Twilight shook her head, "Nah, but that's not to say they couldn't come up with something like that anyway."

"You guys are the worst at reassuring ponies aren't you," the filly said from atop Fleur's back where she had been largely forgotten. "It's almost like you want me to freak out at what you're dragging me into."

"Hence why we really weren't sure about bringing you along for all this." Fleur nuzzled the filly affectionately, "Too late now, you're stuck with us."

"Oh don't worry, I ain't going nowhere. At the very least just to spite Trixie." Trixie just snorted scornfully as she watched the rest of the Viscount's guests trot into the ship. Once the last pony was onboard there was a shout prompting somepony to raise the gangway and untie the moorings. The boat started drifting in the current until suddenly, with a scream from the horn, the paddle wheels churned to life and started to slowly propel the boat to its destination.

"You hear that?" said Trixie, holding a hoof up to her ear. Twilight and the others did the same but heard nothing, "I'm pretty sure Trixie just heard an entire town sigh with relief."

"Weren't we meant to be departing at three?" Octavia mused out loud.

"Eh, who cares? It's more dramatic this way."

"Can't... get... it... loose!" There was a ripping sound and a cry of victory from Twilight who held up the offending piece of her clothing triumphantly in her magic. "Oh thank goodness!" she exclaimed as she wriggled her rump experimentally.

"Bravo!" Trixie cheered mockingly. "Maybe we can move you up from conquering dresses to entire countries."

"If you had any idea how painful that was you wouldn't be saying that." Twilight balled the offending cloth up and almost threw it away before reconsidering. It'd probably be better if she didn't start throwing stuff around where anypony could find it.

"I wonder how much longer Fleur's going to be?" Octavia asked as she finished buttoning up her pale lilac dress. "I was hoping she would be back before I had to return to band practice." She picked up her mask and placed it on her head, "How do I look?"

"Like Octavia with a mask and a dress on," Trixie said with an eye roll.

"You look nice," Twilight told her, giving Trixie a gentle kick. "Good luck tonight and don't worry about your belongings. We'll take care of them." Octavia smiled bravely before heading out the door.

"How come she's the only one who gets to do something they like tonight?" Trixie whined.

"Because it allows her to observe without being obtrusive, and it also lessens the chance of us being caught if somepony asks her something a noblepony should know the answer to."

"I think you're just being soft on her."

"If there was a way you could perform a magic show up there tonight, would you?"

"Well... yeah, in a heartbeat."

"And we would be happy to let you do it as long as you still did what we needed you to do."

"I guess..." Trixie groaned and flopped onto her back, "Sorry if I'm being a bitch. I guess I'm just nervous."

"You? The Great and Powerful Trixie? Nervous?"

"It happens, especially when I'm going to be acting as a prostitute in a room full of amorous rich arseholes. You're lucky it's me that got stuck with this job."

"Yeah... you're right. Thanks Trixie. You know, despite everything that's happened between us in the past, and despite all the teasing, I have to admit, I'm glad you came."

"Yeah, I suppose you guys are alright, even if Fleur is kinda bossy and that filly is a pain in the flank."

"That almost sounds like flattery coming from you Trixie," said a widely grinning Fleur from the doorway. "You know, you two are pretty cute when you're getting along."

"You're back! Did you find a room? Please say you found a room!"

"Yes Trixie, I did indeed find a room. It's in the servant’s lodgings but it should serve us well enough. Better than the cargo hold anyway."

"Don't care! I swear if we stayed in here and I woke up tomorrow with somepony staring at me I'd... I'd... I don't know what I would do..."

"I do. I'd be thankful that staring at me was all that they were doing. I doubt stowaways get treated very nicely on here. Anyway, I left the filly in the room so we best get back to it."

"Do you think we could sneak into dinner? I'm starving!" Trixie whined as she flailed her limbs like a child mid-tantrum. Twilight, who was sat on the bunk to the left of her, gave Trixie a dirty look when Trixie's thrashing smacked her right in wing.

"You're a unicorn," Fleur reminded her. "The only reason you would be in there is if you were serving the food. Even then, that's making a broad assumption that they would even allow unicorns on here to do so."

The filly jumped on the bed on the other side of Trixie and started bouncing up and down, "It's a party full of corpulent rich types. so there's bound to be a buffet going on. You can fill up at the party!"

"You know it amazes Trixie where you get these words from. Corpulent is at least a three bit word."

"Bits? Why the hell would I want one of those nasty things stuck in my mouth just for saying a word?"

"Bits is the name for the currency in Equestria," Twilight explained.

"Bits huh? That's a stupid name. Why name your currency after a torture thingy?"

"..." Twilight frowned at the thought the filly had given to her. Bits had indeed been used as a form of punishment in the dark days of pre-Equestria, so why had Celestia seen fit to name the currency after them? Knowing her mentor it was probably an ironic joke concerning the evils of money. "I don't know," she said at last. "I hadn't really thought of that. I'm guessing bits are still used around here since you know what they are."

"Yes and no," Fleur said slowly. "Being forced to wear a bit and bridle used to be the punishment for gossiping back in the really draconian days of Mareitania and is still a legit punishment for doing so. Thing is that nopony really seems to care about gossiping anymore so it doesn't really happen."

"Why not just use a gag?" Trixie asked.

"A bit allows a pony to eat and drink whereas a gag wouldn't," Twilight told her. "The main idea of a bit punishment is mostly in the discomfort and humiliation, while at the same time making talking really hard. It still allows the pony to function properly."

Fleur gave the others in the room a sly smirk, "You know, bits are still used in Equestria in some ways..."

"Oh no you don't!" Trixie burst out, giving Fleur a look of warning. "You keep your kinky fetishes to yourself!" Twilight's and the filly's eyes boggled at what they had just found out.

"Oh it's not my fetish Trixie," Fleur purred, "but I know there are some ponies out there that very much enjoy that sort of thing..."

"If you're trying to imply Trixie is into that sort of thing, good luck. I didn't even consider such things during my megalomaniacal days."

"Ponies would do that? For fun?" Twilight asked, flabbergasted.

Fleur looked smug for a moment and was about to answer when Trixie clamped her mouth shut with her magic, "Yes they do, and no, we aren't going to go into it as amusing as that would probably be." She glanced at the small clock on the wall, which showed it to be quarter to six. "It's high time we started to get ready anyway, so we have no time for a tangent right now."

"You're no fun," Fleur said with a pout once Trixie released her. "I hope you're not this prudish at the party."

"Now remember 'Lady Aramon,'" Fleur grabbed Twilight by the shoulders, "you are a high society lady so be sophisticated and charming. As much as I love your usual adorkable self it could get you into trouble here." Fleur turned to the filly and nuzzled her, "And you, 'Ancilla,' do what Twilight tells you to."

"Ugh, seriously? What kind of a name is Ancilla anyway?"

"It-uh... It means servant in old equestrian," Twilight told her, having the decency to look embarrassed as she did so.

"Servant!? You've decided my name should be servant!?"

"No, that is Lady Aramon's name for you," Fleur explained. "Since Twilight is of the bookish persuasion it would make sense that Lady Aramon is too. Sooo... giving you an old equestrian nickname would make sense for her." Fleur patted the filly on the head, "It's just for tonight, you'll live."

"That buffet better be good," the filly grumbled.

"What about us?" Trixie asked as she pulled a black satin glove onto one of her forelegs. "Are we just going as ourselves?"

"Yep, the only reason Twilight's going under a different moniker is because Twilight Sparkle is hardly an earth pony name-"

"And because the Viscount might recognise it and get suspicious of how an earth pony in Mareitania has exactly the same name," Twilight added.

"Quite, and while Twilight could get away with calling the filly, 'filly,' since that is an incredibly snooty thing to do-"

"Because calling me servant is better?"

"-I think it’s better she doesn't. So yes Trixie, we are going as ourselves since we are in fact, total noponys."

"Right, so Ancilla and I are to go to the party from the beginning-"

"And Trixie and I will join you in a bit. If you get in trouble ask Ancilla to get a message to us, and when we're all there let's try our best to keep an eye on each other."

"Okay." Twilight checked her makeup and prodded at her mane which Fleur had spent some time piling up onto a beehive on the top of her head. She gently placed her mask on her face and took a calming breath, "Okay, I'm ready."

"Good luck," Fleur said to her without looking as she was helping the filly with her mask. "Remember to head up to the guest rooms before heading to the ballroom so you don't look suspicious coming from the servants quarters," she added before ushering them out the door.

"Hang on," Twilight said, pausing in the doorway. A cone of purple magic floated in front of her forehead for a moment that spat a orb of purple light at their belongings. "Just putting a teleportation marker on our stuff in case we need to teleport back here in a hurry or vice versa, y'know, just in case."

"Hey Twilight? I meant to ask before why the Viscount would know your name?"

Twilight gave the filly a calm yet stern stare, "I hope that's not how you plan to address me amongst our peers," she said as haughtily as she could.

The filly rolled her eyes and bowed deeply before asking again in a far more refined, yet cheekily chipper voice. "Apologies m'lady Aramon, I merely wished to enquire about how the Viscount would recognise you?" she said before giving Twilight a cheeky smirk.

Twilight um'd and ah'd a few times while she tried to decide how to answer honestly while not giving away too much and staying in character. "Well, you see, back where I come from I'm recognised as a fairly important pony, and as such I have had reason to meet the Viscount on one of his visits, if only briefly. That's why I fear he might recognise me."

"An understandable concern m'lady, but I don't see how that would be an issue?"

Twilight almost giggled with joyful amusement at the filly's posh accent before getting serious again, "I'm not meant to be here. Ever. That's why it's an issue. By the way, might I commend you on your elocution."

"My what now?" The filly looked genuinely puzzled by what she said.

"That somewhat ruined it but I meant you talk very nicely."

"Oh, thanks!" The two ponies continued in silence, both of them interested in what they could see of the boat around them. Now they were away from the cargo hold and the servants quarters the décor was decidedly nicer. If Rarity were there she might have commented on the dark wooden panelling and the interestingly baroque styling's of the hallways other fixtures. Since Rarity wasn't there though all they could say was that it looked nice, although Twilight was reasonably sure the filly was looking around for small, expensive and easy to steal items, rather than actually admiring how it looked.

Soon enough they came upon the ballroom and Twilight finally got to see what the others had told her about. The filly, sensing her moment, scrambled ahead to open the double doors for her and Twilight had to take a moment to remember not do it herself with her magic. She stepped through onto the landing of a staircase that led down to the ballroom floor, while to either side of her were two smaller staircases that led to a single balcony that wrapped around the entire room.

Twilight stared slack-jawed as she wondered about how they managed to create this on a river boat. While the ballroom wasn't that big, it was larger than what she expected to find. Clearly the boat was bigger than she had thought it to be. She looked around hoping to see one of two ponies. Octavia she spotted easy enough on a stage at the opposite end of the room in the shade of the balcony. Her heart fluttered a little with relief that she was okay.

The other pony was proving harder to locate due to the small issue of the room being quite full of ponies, each of them wearing a mask including the servants that were winding their way through the crowd holding trays in either their magic in the case of unicorns, or upon their backs if they were earth ponies. She was also made aware of something else when the filly brought it to her attention.

"There. Buffet. Hungry. Can I? Please?" The filly was almost dancing on the spot in her desperation. Twilight had to admit the buffet along the wall to her left was an impressive sight, complete with edible flower arrangements and ice sculptures.

Twilight brought her head down to the level of the filly's and whispered in her ear, "Okay, but keep your eyes and ears open for anything of use to us, and if somepony asks why you're here you're to tell them you're here as a hoofmaid to Lady Aramon."

"Uh-huh." The filly zoomed off down the stairs towards the buffet leaving Twilight alone. Okay Viscount, where are you? She remained at the top of the stairs, doing her best to try and find some clue as to the whereabouts of the Viscount while at the same time doing her best to look casual and slightly aloof. It wasn't an easy look to maintain.

This isn't working... Deciding it was perhaps time to mingle, Twilight bit her lip and descended the stairs as regally as she could. Before she had even got to the bottom she was accosted by a tan coloured stallion wearing a navy military style jacket and matching mask. He gave a small bow and offered a hoof in assistance down the last few steps which Twilight graciously accepted even though it technically made things harder since it gave her one less hoof to work with. He then kissed her hoof and introduced himself.

"Good evening my lady, and must I say you look ravishing tonight."

"Why, uh... thank you good sir. You're... cutting quite the-uh, dashing figure yourself." Twilight grinned nervously and hoped the mask was hiding the fact that she was already sweating profusely.

"You're too kind," he said, giving her another bow. "Might I ask your name?"

"Oh, my apologies, my name is Twiaaa- Lady Aramon." Twilight mentally kicked herself for stumbling so soon. "And you might be?"

"Sir Perry, at your service. Are you alright my lady? You seem ill at ease."

"Sorry, sorry! I'm not exactly used to this sort of thing and I'm worried I'm making a complete fool of myself." Twilight hadn't intended to be so honest then but there was no going back now.

"First time to one of the Viscount's balls?" Twilight nodded and the stallion grinned easily, "Don't worry, they usually end a lot more informally than they begin. I don't suppose I could ask where you're from? I don't recognise your name."

Luckily Twilight had planned ahead for this bit, mostly by attempting to divert the question. "Are you trying to rob a lady of all her mystery Sir Perry?" Twilight tried to titter demurely but even to her it came across as a bit manic. "If you must know, my family struck it rich down south so we're new money, so to speak."

"I see, I see. Sorry if I seem a bit forward but was that filly your daughter? I only ask because this is hardly the place for a filly of her apparent age."

"She's not my daughter!" Twilight blurted out before catching herself and coughing to cover her embarrassment, "She's my hoofmaid."

"Hoofmaid? Rather young for a hoofmaid isn't she?"

"Well, that's... the way I like 'em." Sir Perry stared at her a little blankly before grinning and giving her a saucy wink. "I bet you do," he said while Twilight suddenly realised what she had inadvertently implied.

"No no no! That's not what I meant! I just meant that she's special! I mean she's different! No! Wait, she's-uh... she's... errrrgghhh..." Twilight fell silent and stared at the space between her hooves, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her. It was a much as she could do to not teleport away and spare herself the shame of being in public right now.

Perry patted her on the back consolingly, "It's alright my dear, we all have our own peculiar taste's."

"Eh-heh, eh-heh-heh-heh..." Kill me now... Twilight took a cleansing breath and did her best to compose herself, "I don't suppose you know where the Viscount is? It would be improper of me to not wish him a happy birthday at his own party."

"I don't think he's arrived yet. Knowing him he's probably off powdering his nose before arriving fashionably late at his own party."

"Powdering his nose? He's wearing a mask, why would he need makeup?"

"Hah! Good one your ladyship. Now if you'll excuse me I have other guests I must say my hellos to." He departed and left Twilight on her own which suited her fine because it gave her a chance to silently burn with shame and humiliation. Bravo Twilight, I can fight ancient magic stealing centaurs, demonic shadow kings, and other eldritch abominations, but can't hold a conversation with a pony without humiliating myself. Good thing we're wearing masks.

"Can we go to the ball now? I'm hungrrryyyyy!" Fleur rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time in ten minutes as she was reminded again of just how petulant Trixie could be. She looked at the clock and noted that it had been half an hour since Twilight and the filly had departed. She had thought to wait for an hour before Trixie and herself made her way there but Trixie didn't seem interested in waiting.

"Alright, fine. I'm sick of the sound of you whining so yeah, let's go." Trixie bounced off the bed and stood at the door dancing with giddy anticipation while Fleur took a moment to make some final checks on their outfits and to force a mask onto Trixie's head since she had almost forgotten it. "Okay, I think we're ready."

"We've been ready for ages Fleur. I have no idea why you made us wait so long!"

"Because it wouldn't be fit for a lady like Twilight's pretending to be, to arrive at the exact same moment as a couple of gaudily dressed prostitutes. Now come on." Fleur led the way out of the room and up towards the guest rooms, hoping to take the same route as the others to the ball since it would look odd even for them to arrive through the servants entrance.

As they walked neither of them couldn't help but notice they were drawing attention due to the way they were dressed. "I feel dirty," Trixie whispered out the corner of her mouth.

"And you look like you feel dirty," Fleur whispered back. "You're meant to be a prostitute so you could at least try to act a little shameless." As an example Fleur put on her most sultry expression and put a little more sway into her hips.

"You walk like you're drunk when you do that you know," Trixie informed her. Fleur ignored her and hurried on a few steps so she was ahead of Trixie. They made it to the guest quarters and mixed into the few ponies that were arriving late to the party. They kept a respectable distance behind a couple of ponies and were about to follow them into the ballroom when a grey stallion in a black suit stopped them.

"I really don't think you're meant to be going in there," he told them.

"Sure we are," said Fleur. "We're here as... entertainment for the guests so inclined to do such things."

The stallion almost growled at her, "The 'entertainment' as you call it, don't go in the ball for so many reasons I could almost laugh about why you would think that." The stallion gave the appearance of being completely humourless, "If you would follow me I will escort you to your workplace."

"But, but, but, buffet!" Trixie whined. "I was promised a buffet!" Fleur almost slapped her as her sense of control over the situation whirled away from her. Instead she stood behind her and poked Trixie on the rump with her horn until she reluctantly followed after the stallion.

The stallion led them past the ballroom to another room that was heavy on the red velvet. In the center of the room was a mass of cushions upon which lounged a collection of mares and a couple of stallions, earth ponies and unicorns alike, none of which were wearing masks. A corridor led to a series of doors, and the sounds coming from at least one of them left no room for doubt what those rooms were for.

They were greeted by a stone faced mare who did her best to look down her snout at them despite the fact that Fleur was a whole head taller than her. "And who might you be?" she asked, the sneer in her voice grating on Fleur's ears.

"They were trying to get into the ballroom," the stallion told her. "Try to make sure your charges don't go wandering off again."

The mare humphed indignantly and the stallion departed. "Take those masks off, you won't be needing them here," the mare said brusquely. "Since you're obviously new here I'll tell you what you need to know," she pointed at the cushions where one of the mares reclining on them waved in greeting, "You are to wait here until a stallion or mare comes to make his choice, should they pick you, you to take them to an empty room and provide your services. Once they are satisfied you are to clean yourselves up in the room then return here in preparation for you next customer, understood?" Trixie held up a hoof. "Yes?"

"How much are we getting paid for this?" Fleur looked sideways at Trixie since that wasn't a question she was expecting her to ask.

"You are to be paid a sum of one hundred marcs, with a bonus of ten marcs per customer serviced. The more you work, the more you earn. Is that all?" Trixie didn't have anything else to ask and Fleur certainly didn't. The mare nodded at them and departed to go sit at a desk at the entrance.

Fleur tossed her mask away and slumped onto one of the cushions followed by Trixie who dug into the bowl of fruit she found in the center of the cushions. "Fleur?"

Fleur sighed, "Yes Trixie?"

"When this is over I'm going to murder you. A lot."

"Fair enough."

"Hi," said one of the unicorn mares gathered around them, "First time doing this?"

Fleur studied the mare for a few seconds before answering. She was a pale aquamarine colour with a cream coloured mane and tail, and to Fleur's mind looked far too sweet and innocent to be doing something like this. "Yeah," Fleur told her. "I'm a bit nervous to be honest."

"It's okay, we all had our first time once, but honestly it's not too bad. Most of the ponies that come here are usually very respectful and nice. My name's Tulula. What's yours?"

"I'm Fleur and this is Trixie." Trixie nodded at Tulula with her mouth full of grapes.

"Well it's super nice to meet you both," Tulula said to the both of them. Fleur was going to say more when a finely dressed stallion fell into the room after tripping over his own hooves. Even so early into the evening it was clear he had drank quite a lot.

"'m 'ere to take 'is lordships' challenge," he slurred once he had got back onto all four hooves.

The mare at desk did her best to hide her grimace with a smile but didn't quite manage it. "Apologies my lord but the challenge isn't quite ready yet, but if you go and wait in the furthest room down there I will have it brought to you in a few minutes." The stallion nodded drunkenly and stumbled off to wait in the designated room.

"What's the challenge?" Fleur asked. Trixie leaned in closer to hear the answer.

"The challenge... is... well, it's a pegasus."

"A pegasus?"

"Mmhmm, every party like this the Viscount has a pegasus mare brought on board and the challenge is to have sex with it. Any noble pony that lowers themself to fuck her gets awarded one thousand marcs on the spot. Last party he held he gave away almost thirty thousand marcs!"

Fleur felt sick with horror, and Trixie looked the same. "That's disgusting!"

"I know. Having sex with a pegasus..." Tulula shuddered at the thought.

"Huh? No, I mean, does the pegasus get a choice?"

Tulula frowned as if she didn't understand the question before giving Fleur a funny look. "What does that matter?" Fleur said nothing since it was clear what Tulula's stance on the situation was. Trixie swallowed what she had been eating and lay still, looking a little green.

A few minutes later a stallion came in leading a sky blue pegasus on a collar and leash. Her wings had been bound in their middle so they could neither stretch out fully, or fold completely. Clearly the idea was to make her look like a pegasus while completely removing her ability to fly. Judging by what Fleur could see of the pegasus's expression from behind her pink curly mane it must have been quite uncomfortable. There were also tears staining her cheeks and Fleur felt her own tears welling up in sympathy.

Fleur looked at Trixie, and Trixie looked at Fleur, and it was obvious that neither of them had adequate words to describe how they felt about this. I hate this country. I hate this country so much...

To say Twilight felt lost was an understatement. Wanderers lost in the desert have felt more secure in the knowledge of where they were going, even if it's a one way trip. So far all she had done was reaffirm her knowledge that she was awful in these situations.

She had done her best to mingle and meet ponies and get involved in conversations where she might pick up some useful information, but so far all she had done was make a lot of unneeded apologies, and learn that the celery dips were proving popular.

She had been so busy doing nothing that she had missed the arrival of the Viscount and was now trying her best to edge her way into the group of ponies surrounding him and listen in to their conversation. So far this had been a pointless effort since all she had heard was more of the same empty chatter that she had gotten off everypony else. At least that was until some mare asked a question she could finally get into.

"My lord, I heard you went to something called the Equestrian games, what was it like?"

"It was quite the spectacle," the Viscount answered in his strangely deep voice. "I can assure you that you will never see anything else like it."

"Is it true what they say, that earth ponies, unicorns and even pegasi live as equals?" Now we're getting somewhere!

"That is indeed the truth, and I must say that Celestia does an admirable job of keeping the unicorns and pegasi in line." What!? It’s not like that at all!

One of the mares in the crowd gasped theatrically, "You met the goddess Celestia? What was she like?"

"She was tall, and white, regal, and majestic. But I can assure you she was no goddess. Just because she has a horn and wings doesn't make her better than us. Any one of us could do a better job of ruling Equestria." Twilight almost bit through her lip trying to suppress her anger. She knew Celestia wasn't a goddess, but the way the Viscount had said she wasn't made it sound like he thought of her as even less. It's not being an alicorn that makes her better, it's her love and compassion for those she rules.

"It also seems that Equestria has picked up a few more princesses in the last few years. Princess Luna, who claims to be Celestia's sister, Princess Cadence who's bright pink and looks like a joke, and Princess Twilight who... Y'know what, I'm not sure what she's for. I guess even Celestia needs a pet." Twilight could feel herself trembling with rage as the other ponies laughed at the Viscounts joke.

"It must be terribly confusing," said a stallion from next to the Viscount, "having a horn and wings. I wouldn't know if I were coming or going with all that!" Twilight glowered at the ponies around her and was about to leave when the Viscounts wife caught her eye since the tall white unicorn was staring right at her. The mare gestured with her eyes towards the corner of the room and Twilight got the impression she wanted to talk.

The mare whispered something to her husband and departed with Twilight following after her. They went to the corner opposite to where Octavia was playing, and the tall mare turned to look down on Twilight. "You shouldn't be here."

"Huh?"

"You shouldn't be here Princess Sparkle. Not here in this party, and not here in Mareitania. It's not safe for you."

"Wha- What do you mean, I'm not- I'm not a princess..."

"You're the right colour, have the right stripes in your hair and I can see part of your cutie mark where your dress has been damaged." Twilight's head whipped around and saw there was a tear in the dress which she must have made during her adjustments earlier. "I can also see the parting in the feathers of your mask where your invisible horn is poking through. I'm just going to assume the same magic is hiding your wings." Twilight's jaw hung open in amazement and the mare smiled at her. "One of the joys of quietly hiding in the background is that I tend to see a lot more than most others."

"I- me- I- huh?" Panic swiftly followed after the confusion, "Please don't tell anypony!" Twilight had to curse her luck that she had been recognised by one of the four ponies in the country capable of doing so.

The unicorn gestured for Twilight to calm down, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I only want to know why you're here and to warn you to be careful."

Should she trust this mare? Twilight didn't know and although she wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt since she hadn't summoned the guards as soon as she realised who Twilight was, there was far too much at risk. Unfortunately though, the time Twilight spent deliberating over this was long enough for the unicorn to develop her own suspicions.

"You're here to bring an end to Mareitania aren't you.”

Twilight hung her head and admitted the truth, "Yes, and then again, no. I'm here to put an end to the brutal regime here and make the ponies here free."

The mare gave Twilight an appraising look before smiling brightly, "Good."

"Good?"

"Yes, good. It needs to happen and seeing as how you're here it seems Celestia has finally lost patience. I knew she would grow tired of our lies soon enough but the Viscount never listens, and neither does his parents."

"I-I don't understand."

"Do you know what the Duke promised Celestia at that meeting at the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes, access to Mareitania."

"And did Celestia tell you what they wanted in return?"

"No, she never mentioned it."

"Dragons had been threatening our borders. No actual attacks but their presence was very much visible. The Duke asked Princess Celestia to approach the Dragonlord and force him to stop the incursions since there is only one individual the dragons fear and respect as much as the Dragonlord and that is Celestia, although I imagine now that there are three more alicorns around, that fear and respect will shift to you, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence as well."

"But why would you need to ask Celestia to do that? Don't you have an army?"

The mare looked around warily and waved Twilight a little closer. "Yes we have an army, but it's far more suited to oppressing the ponies of Mareitania than defending them. The thing about dragons, Princess, is that they fly, and without pegasi and magically trained unicorns our armies are helpless against them. Before the dragons we had to ask Celestia for help against griffons that were attacking our northern villages, again because griffons can fly and we were helpless then as well. If we were to move our armies against these threats we would lose and look weak, which is something the Duke absolutely refuses to appear as."

"So without unicorns and pegasi in your armies you're-"

"Almost completely helpless against outside threats, yes. So we ask Celestia for help and give her false promises for her aid. And now that has finally backfired because who can we ask for help against Celestia? Not that it matters to me, I'm glad she's coming."

"Um... well she's not exactly coming, per se. She's sent me to bring change to Mareitania from the inside. She's not marching an army in here."

The mare shrugged, "Either way, I see little difference."

"Aren't you concerned we might harm your husband?"

"Husband?" The mare smiled as if Twilight had told her something funny. "He's not my husband, I think a more appropriate term for what he is to me would be master."

Twilight was confused for a moment until she remembered what Luna had told her of this mare not being the Viscount's wife, but his concubine. "Sorry, Luna did tell me about your situation but I guess I forgot. So you don't care for him at all?"

"I used to," the mare smiled wistfully. "If he'd had gotten his way he'd have married me long ago, but his parents threatened to disown him if he did. About the only good thing they've ever done." The mare must have noticed the confusion on Twilight's face and felt further explanation was needed. "Just because he loves me doesn't mean I love him. I'm just a whore he picked up one night and got too attached to."

"Wait... I'm confused. Do you even like him?"

"Yeeesss... or, at least I used to. In the beginning he was a different pony and I have to admit I was quite fond of him. He used to be far more open to the idea of equality between the three tribes, but it seems the ideals of his parents have finally poisoned him, and he's barely the pony I used to know. Perhaps he might find the right path again with the right guidance, but I fear only Celestia herself could give him that. As it is I think he barely remembers that I'm a unicorn myself with some of the things he says about them."

"You sound like you admire Celestia."

"I do. She has done a marvellous job of bringing the three tribes together, and in doing so created something far better."

"But Celestia didn't bring the tribes together, that happened before she came to rule." Since the mare didn't seem to know the true story of what happened in Equestria after the ponies left Mareitania Twilight spent a few minutes telling her the hearthswarming tale.

"So in the end it wasn't Celestia that brought the three tribes together, but the ponies themselves realising their differences were only skin deep..." The mare smiled at the idea before a frown spread across her face, "Where did we go so wrong?"

"By letting old hatreds get in the way of progress. Only with tolerance and friendship can Mareitania hope to recover from the mistakes of the past. It also helps to not think of ponies as three tribes, but as one people."

The mare nodded thoughtfully. Clearly Twilight had broadened her horizons a bit today, as the mare had done for Twilight. "I thank you for this talk Princess Sparkle, you have given me much to think about."

"Please, call me Twilight. I don't suppose I could ask your name? I was never told it during your visit."

"Ivory Spire, but you may call me Ivy. Lady be with you Twilight Sparkle." Ivy gave Twilight a small nod and a smile before returning to side of the Viscount who was miming something that Twilight could already tell was offensive to unicorns. Seeing him acting like that reignited some of her former anger and she turned away in disgust.

Twilight wandered around for a little and happened to glance at the clock, noting it was past nine and therefore long past the time when Trixie and Fleur should have joined her. She headed to the buffet in the hope of finding the filly. "Ancilla?" she called out. "Ancilla, are you here?"

"I'm here," groaned a small voice from below her. She looked down to see the filly crawling from beneath the table cloth. She seemed to be a bit bloated and looked ill. "Don't eat the spinach puffs, they're poison!"

"How much did you eat?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her amusement from her expression, although she needn't have worried since she was wearing a mask.

"I dunno... A lot? I've never had free food before. Well, legitimately free food anyway." The filly rubbed her stomach which gurgled in protest. "If you want something my lady it better not involve any sudden movements."

"Actually I was hoping you could go find the others. They should have been here by now."

"Anything you want me to tell them?"

"Yeah, give them my apologies in advance in case I accidentally on purpose blow a hole in the bottom of this ship and sink it."

"Riiiiight..."

Author's Notes:

You can haz chapter.

Found out there's a little blip on the map kind of village about 40ish miles south of where I live called Fleur de Lys. For reasons I don't fully comprehend this makes me obscenely happy.

16. Party hard! pt 3

The filly knocked tentatively on the door to their room, although she wasn't sure why. "Hell-oo-oo? Anypony ho-ome?" she sang. There was no answer so she pushed the door open and went in just to find the room empty save for their belongings, part of which seemed to be making a weird rhythmic buzzing sound.

Maybe they got lost? the filly reasoned, although she knew that probably wasn't true. She left the room and headed back towards the ballroom, hoping to find somepony who wasn't a guest and might know what was what. Eventually she found a red stallion wearing a black suit that didn't look like a guest. "Excuse me? I don't suppose you've seen a couple of-uh... ladies of negotiable virtue around here?"

"Ladies of what?" the stallion said confusedly. The filly rolled her eyes. Clearly she was going to have to make this simple.

"Prostitutes, whores, ladies of the night, street walkers, escorts, hookers, harlots, strumpets. Your mother was probably one."

"Hey! You take that back! My mother was a saint and a proper lady!"

"Fine, your mother wasn't a total whore. Doesn't matter though, I'm looking for a couple of hookers that might have wandered by here."

"Why the hell would a filly need a prostitute, let alone two? Heck, I'm still trying to work out what you're doing here at all!"

"I had to find the idiot," the filly muttered to herself. Louder she said, "Because one isn't enough to satisfy if you must know." She smirked at the stallion as he squirmed with the thought she had put in his head.

"B-b-but you're a filly!"

"So? I still have needs." The stallion stammered a bit more and after a few seconds she took pity on him, "I'm a hoofmaid to Lady Aramon and the two prostitutes are her favourites. She was expecting them to join her at the ball but they haven't come so I was sent to find them."

He narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion, "You're not lying to me are you?"

"You're right, you caught me. We're actually here as part of a terrorist rebel cell and we're going to attempt to assassinate everypony on board by means of sinking the boat thus damaging the Dukes' hold over the country. What do you think?"

"Oh har har, if these ladies of negotiable virtue, as you call them, were trying to get into the ball chances are they were stopped and taken to the harem instead."

Uh oh. "And where is this 'harem?' Can you take me there?"

The stallion groaned and rolled his eyes, "Come on," he grunted.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked Fleur as she watched Fleur smudge her makeup and roughen her mane a bit. The end result was Fleur looked tired and haggard and more than a little used.

"I'm trying to make myself look unappealing, if you must know," Fleur said while she used her magic to rumple her dress in places and to roughen her tail up. "Believe it or not I have no desire to be used by anypony tonight. Perhaps you ought to try it as well?"

"I wouldn't need to if you had actually thought this through. I'm almost ready to beg Twilight's forgiveness for doubting her because she would never have proposed a stupid plan like dressing up as whores!"

"Keep it down would you, ponies can hear you! Besides, how was I meant to know th-" Fleur stopped talking as another 'caller,' as the matron called them, entered the harem and looked about with interest. So far Trixie and Fleur had gotten lucky in not being picked but that luck wasn't likely to last all night.

"Good evening my lord," the matron said in greeting from behind her desk. "Anypony in particular take your fancy?"

"You do seem to have some very attractive specimens here but I would like a closer look before I choose."

"Of course my lord, I'll be here if you require any assistance." The stallion approached the circle of cushions and went about inspecting the various mares on display, most of which did their best to catch his attention. He circled around them in a more literal description of a sexual predator, occasionally praising a pony for her appearance, or tutting in disapproval if he saw something he didn't like. He stopped at Fleur who did her best to look tired, and it must have worked as she noticed a flash of disgust cross his face. He quickly moved on to Trixie who defiantly looked him in the eyes.

"Hmm, you seem to have a bit of fire to you. What's your name girl?"

"Trixie. Trixie Lulamoon." Trixie glared at him and the stallion grinned nastily at her.

"Maybe a little too much fire, hmm? Perhaps I ought to smother it. Matron, I have made my choice."

"Very good my lord, room eight is available." The stallion waited until Trixie hauled herself to her hooves before leading the way to the room. As she passed Fleur, Trixie narrowed her eyes into a look that promised retribution for what she was about to go through. Unable to meet Trixie's glare, Fleur looked away guiltily.

Like a true gentlepony, the stallion held the door open for Trixie, giving her a chance to take in her surroundings. In the center of the room was a large bed, which Trixie was loathe to touch considering what exactly went on in these rooms. To the left of the bed was a well-stocked mini bar, and to the right was a cabinet stocked with every sex toy imaginable, including several that Trixie considered to be physically impossible to use.

"See anything you like?" the stallion asked before running his nose up the side of her neck, breathing in her scent. It was as much as she could do to not shudder.

"N-no my... uh, my lord. Nothing more than you." Her eyes twitched from side to side as she desperately sought a way out of her predicament. "Perhaps I could prepare you a drink while you strip off," she purred. "We wouldn't want to make a mess of your nice clothes would we?" The stallion winked at her and turned to the bed to undress while Trixie selected two glasses and picked up a bottle of whatever was nearest to fill them.

The bottle shook in her magic, betraying her nerves as her heart tried to fight its way out through her mouth. She managed to fill the first glass and was about to fill the second when she stopped and considered the bottle in her magic. She hefted it a few times and shrugged before turning around and clocking the stallion around the back of the head, the bottle making a pleasing 'poink' sound on contact. The stallion slumped over without making a sound, landing half on the bed. Trixie tossed the bottle up in the air and caught it again before inspecting the bottom of the bottle, noting with glee that it hadn't even cracked.

She took a mouthful out of the bottle and set it down before hauling the stallion the rest of the way onto the bed and rolling him onto his back. Humming a cheerful tune, mostly due to sheer relief as the adrenaline started to wear off, she went to the cabinet and picked out four hoof cuffs and used them to secure his hooves to the bed before picking up a gag with straps which she shoved in his mouth and tied around the back of his head. She also briefly considered inserting a little something up his tail hole but decided against it, mostly because she couldn't find any lube and to do it without was too much effort.

Once she was done she stole the pillows off the bed and put them on the floor and picked a bottle of bourbon up off the bar before laying down. She raised the bottle to stallion before taking a large gulp, savouring the warm sensation it made on the way down.

"Trixie has more fire than you could ever handle. Asshole." she said, the shaking of her hooves betraying her nerves.

Fleur felt sick. Trixie hadn't been lying when she said this was Fleur's stupid plan and now Trixie was suffering through Celestia knows what all because Fleur got a bit too caught up in her own ideas and thought it would be fun to disguise themselves as prostitutes.

"Are you okay?" Tulula asked her. "You look a little ill." Fleur considered pretending to be ill after Tulula had asked but decided not to. There was no way she was going to run away pretending to be ill while Trixie took one for the team.

"I'm fine," she lied since she did feel sick, even if from worry. "Don't worry about me." Tulula shrugged and went back to talking to one of the other ponies waiting there while Fleur focused her gaze on the harem entrance and was greatly surprised to see the filly approaching in the company of a stallion. She watched as the filly said something to the stallion who proceeded to turn around and leave while the filly entered the harem.

"What are you doing here?" the matron immediately snapped at her.

"Looking for a good time," was the filly's cheeky reply. "Actually I'm looking for a couple of unicorns, a big white one and a blue one. I was told they'd probably be in here."

"The white one's over there," the matron told her, pointing at Fleur. "The blue one's working so you won't be seeing her until she's done with her client."

The filly took a few cautious steps towards Fleur and since the matron didn't stop her she trotted over the rest of the way. Fleur gave her a weak smile before nuzzling her, "Hey."

"Hi, soooo... I'm guessing you done goofed." Fleur got up and led the filly to a corner of the room where they could have a little more privacy.

"You could say that. I can't believe I was so stupid to think this would work."

"Meh, nopony's perfect. Besides, maybe a little action will go a long way towards loosening Trixie up."

"Don't say that! The stallion that picked her up was a complete asshole. Said something about 'smothering her fire' or something."

"Let me guess, she was Trixie at him wasn't she?"

"Trixie's a verb now? Ugh, never mind. The point is she's in there having goodness knows what done to her and it's all my fault!"

"And you're sat out here whining about it instead of doing something... because?"

"Because I don't want to compromise the mission. Doing something rash could ruin all our efforts here. Trixie knew what was at stake when she agreed to this."

"Did she say she knows what's at stake? Did she say 'Fleur, if we get stuck being actual hookers I want you to know that if a stallion ties me down and shoves his cock so far up my ass I can taste it, that I won't hold it against you because it's for the mission.' It was your idea to do this. That, and how helpful do you think you're being to your mission when you're sat here moping?"

"What do you know about it! Nothing!" Fleur snarled before pinning her ears back in shame. "I- I... Sorry, I-I didn't mean to snap like that." Fleur sank onto the floor until her nose touched the carpet and a few tears escaped, running down her nose until they met the floor.

The filly regarded her coolly, as if trying to decide something. "Do you know what I like about you Fleur?" Fleur shook her head gently. "It's the fact that you seemed like nothing could stop you. Prance burning down? You took that in your stride. This? This is pathetic."

"That's different. Prance was about survival and I'm good at surviving. This? This is different because Trixie got hurt because of my stupid plan."

"And your response is to sit here and cry like a little filly?"

Fleur barked a single laugh, "Can't believe I'm being told that by a little filly."

"I'm not that much of a filly. I mean yeah I cried a bit when I thought of my friends dying in Prance, and when we got to Whiplash, and especially when you guys were just going to leave me because I thought I had something with you guys and suddenly having that torn away... hurt. Other than those few occasions I don't exactly cry much, and you crying over a mistake doesn't even compare in my books. Seriously, stop whining, get up, and do something about it."

"But they're watching me. I can't just wander off to her room."

The filly rolled her eyes and grinned at Fleur, "Fine, you get one distraction and one distraction only. Don't waste it. I'm gonna head back to Twilight after so don't worry about me. By the way, Twilight got in the ball and is doing her best to schmooze, Octavia's fine, and I got to eat myself sick at a buffet so, y'know, your plan ain't all bad." The filly gave Fleur a moment to compose herself before heading over to the desk where the matron eyed her suspiciously. "Say, what would it take for me to get all these fillies into a room for an orgy? I'd be willing to pay if it helps."

The matrons eyes boggled for a moment before she managed to find some words. "B-b-b-but you're just a filly!"

"You'd be surprised at how many times I've been reminded of that today." Fleur stared at the filly for several seconds before she realised her mouth was hanging open and that she had somewhere she needed to be. She headed up the corridor until she found the right room and was about to burst in when she hesitated. Instead she put her ear to the door and listened, but all she could hear was some indistinct humming.

She took a step back and prepared herself to fight the stallion before charging through the door. "Get your filthy hooves off her you... bastard?" She was met by the angry glare of a stallion that was gagged and tied spread-eagle on a bed while next to the bed, laying on her back on a couple of pillows, was Trixie, throwing an empty bottle in the air using her magic and catching it again before it hit her in the face. She was also humming the Equestrian national anthem. "Trixie?"

"Hey Fleur," Trixie said, slurring slightly.

"You're okay?"

"Mmhmm, was there ever any doubt?"

Fleur walked over to Trixie and stood looking down at her, eye to eye. "And you've spent the entire time in here drinking?"

"Yup."

Fleur jumped onto Trixie and wrestled her into a hug, "I fucking love you Trixie."

"Hey! You're in my space! Get outta my space!"

Twilight sat at the bar, staring at the drips of condensation running down the side of her glass of Sweet Apple cider. She was also somewhat incensed that they had Sweet Apple cider here at all, and had concluded to drink as much of it as she could because nopony else at the party deserved to. too bad it's not the hard stuff.

The cider was also a small reminder of home, and of how much she missed her friends. She wished so badly that they could be here right now. Rarity would outshine everypony else with a dress she had made, Rainbow Dash and Applejack would probably have invented some way to compete against each other while Pinkie egged them on, and Twilight had to admit that Fluttershy would probably be hiding in a corner somewhere, bless her.

Feeling nostalgic as she was, Twilight was woefully unprepared for when somepony tapped her on the back. "Ahh!" she cried before cramming her hooves over her mouth and wilting under the amused stares of several ponies nearby.

"Apologies Twilight, I didn't realise you were so engrossed in your drink."

"Octavia! You scared me!"

"Sorry, I was trying to get your attention but you seemed to be in a world of your own. Is something wrong?"

"No," she smiled in an attempt to assure Octavia who didn't look convinced at all. "Yes," she confessed, slumping slightly. "My friend Applejack makes this cider back home in Ponyville and I guess I got a bit homesick. I'm also annoyed that they have it here at all, and I know Applejack would hate the idea of these ponies drinking it."

Octavia gave her a small smile and hug before sitting on the next seat over on Twilight's right, "Do you mind if I have one? We've finally had a chance for a breather and I have to admit a glass of cider would go down nicely."

"Go ahead, you're one of the four other ponies on this ship that has any right to drink this stuff." Octavia ordered her drink and tasted it, nodding in approval.

"I can see why you like this stuff." She took another sip and sighed contentedly. "I guess we should talk business since we have a moment. For starters I feel I should mention that I haven't heard a single thing about Prance."

"Really? Not a single thing?" Twilight thought back to the conversations she'd had and overheard through the night and had to admit she hadn't heard anything either. "I wonder why though? It's not like that's something you can keep secret."

"Unless they can. I wouldn't put it past the Duke to try and suppress all knowledge of what happened in Prance. Personally I was thinking that Prance is very much on the list of topics that can't be talked about. How about you? Learnt anything?"

"I learnt what the relationship is between Mareitania and Equestria."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and I would talk about it but we're not in the best company right now and I'd rather discuss it with Trixie and Fleur as well."

Octavia looked around, "Speaking of, where are Trixie and Fleur?"

"Bit of a funny story actually," said a voice from the left of Twilight. Twilight yelped and span around to see the filly sitting beside her, looking at her intently.

"What is with ponies trying to give me a heart attack?" Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself, "What's this funny story then?"

"Hmm? Oh, well it turns out there's a harem on board. Can you imagine it? An entire section of this ship dedicated to extramarital relations! Anyway, rather than get in here, Trixie and Fleur were stopped and taken there instead."

"Are they okay?" Twilight asked while in her mind she started plotting ways to get them out of there.

"Trixie might not be. Or she might be, depends entirely on how it goes. But Fleur's kinda gone to pieces over it and it took me a while to convince her that sitting around moping was pretty pathetic."

Twilight shared a look with Octavia who looked just as worried as she felt. "What did she do?"

"Don't know. All I did was provide a small distraction so she could go help Trixie." The filly shrugged and slid Twilight's drink over to herself before taking a sip. "No pony's panicking so I’m guessing what she did was pretty benign."

Twilight didn't know whether to be relieved or to go help them, and one glance at Octavia was all it took to tell her she wasn't alone. "Are you sure they're okay?"

"As okay as they can be which means you don't need to go do anything stupid. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go collapse somewhere upstairs because somepony made me walk all around this effing boat and now my tummy hurts." The filly slid off the stool and trotted off.

"I hope she's right about them being okay," said Octavia.

"I should have said something about their disguise. I knew it was a bad idea but I didn't want to say anything because after Prance I- I just couldn't, I didn't have the right." Twilight went to grab her glass but was faintly surprised to find it was gone.

"Not to put too fine a point on it Twilight, but you're not allowed to blame yourself for not talking Fleur out of that patently stupid idea. Right now I'm more concerned about Trixie than anything else, but unfortunately we have a job to do. I'm also concerned about that weird stallion that's been walking around the edge of the ballroom for most of the night." She pointed to where a mottled brown stallion in a scruffy dinner jacket and what looked like an oversized pirates hat turned in to a mask was staring into space. "Anyway my set's starting again in a few minutes so I need to head off." Octavia downed the remainder of her drink, patted Twilight on the shoulder and headed back to the stage.

Twilight ordered another drink and remained at the bar, not feeling particularly enthused about getting up off her rump and doing her job. So far all she had learnt was something interesting but not useful. Octavia was the same. Trixie had been... Twilight didn't even want to think about it, and as cruel and selfish as she felt to think it, Fleur was getting a taste of her own medicine. Here's to another rousing success. She raised her glass in a silent toast and was about to take a sip when an incredibly drunk mare stumbled into her, making Twilight spill her drink down herself.

"Oh I'm so very, terribly sorry," the mare slurred at her. The mare grabbed a cloth off the bar in her hooves and started to pat Twilight down in completely the wrong place despite Twilight's best efforts to stop her.

"It's fine, really. You don't need to do that," insisted Twilight as she tried to gently push the mare off.

"No no no, it’s my fault entirely. I would offer to buy you another drink but all the drinks are freeeee!!" The mare went back to patting Twilight down when her hoof landed directly on Twilight's wing, and even in her drunken haze she could tell something wasn't right. She felt around Twilight's wing, "What are you hiding in there deary? It feels like a wing!"

Twilight tried to laugh it off but once again her nerves got the better of her and she ended up stammering a load of nonsense. "Th-th-that's stupid! W-what w-w-would I be d-doing with w-wings?"

The mare turned to her equally drunk friend who was propping herself up on the bar, "Tutti darling, I think this mare's a pegasus! Come feel this wing!"

The other mare pushed herself up and took a few steps towards Twilight before falling onto her and hugging her. "She's nice. She's a nice fluffy pegasus. A nice, pretty, purple pegasus..." The mare's grip slackened and she slid onto the floor in a heap at Twilight's hooves. Not that Twilight noticed as she locked up with panic as other ponies around her started to take notice.

"Hey everypony! Look at me!" Twilight immediately looked up to where the voice had come from and she was surprised to see the filly balancing on her rear legs on the rail of the balcony opposite. Twilight's immediate reaction was to want to yell at her to get down from there but her words froze in her throat when the filly began to spin around on one hoof and sing.

"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never take a pretty mare for a wife,
If you want my personal point of view,
Get an ugly mare to marry you!"

The filly repeated the verse a couple of times, the crowd cheering and booing her in equal measure. Some even started to throw things at her which she either dodged with ease, or got fancy and back flipped over. Twilight couldn't help but be amazed at the filly's skills.

"A pretty mare makes her husband look small,
And very often causes his downfall,
As soon as he married her and then she starts,
To do the things that will break his heart,

But if you make an ugly mare your wife,
A-you'll be happy for the rest of your life,
An ug-a-ly mare cooks meals on time,
And she'll always give you peace of mind,"

Suddenly the band started playing, led by a hugely grinning Octavia as the filly continued her silly dance. Slowly it occurred to Twilight that maybe she should take this opportunity to sneak off. She carefully stepped over the mare collapsed on the floor, who was humming along with the song, before sneaking off up the stairs to the balcony opposite the filly's performance.

"Don't let your friends say you have no taste,
Go ahead and marry anyway,
Though her face is ugly, her eyes don't match,
Take it from me she's a better catch,

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never take a pretty mare for a wife,
If you want my personal point of view,
Get an ugly mare to marry you!"

Suddenly the filly back flipped off the railing into the gloom out of sight, leaving the guests to stomp their approval. Twilight slowly headed along the balcony to where the filly had been dancing and searched around until she found the filly behind a chair, curled up in a fetal position and clutching her stomach.

"That hurt so much," the filly said without acknowledging Twilight's arrival. "You're welcome."

"That was amazing!" Twilight blurted.

"I could see those mares were bothering you. Honestly though, I hadn't expected that to be so... energetic, or painful."

"You did scare me though. What if you had fallen?"

"Then I hope somepony would have caught me." The filly crawled out from behind the chair, still clutching her stomach. "Seriously though, this hurts so bad."

"You're not used to eating so much so I'm not surprised it hurts. Hold on." Twilight surreptitiously looked around before lighting her still invisible horn and pressing it to the filly's stomach. "It's just a little something to help with the indigestion. Not sure it'll help if you've pulled something though."

"Before now I've been in pain from not eating. I'll take being in pain from eating too much as a big win for me." The filly climbed onto the chair and curled up on her side, "Yay victory..."

"Yeah, you can stay here if you want. I'll try to not get into any more trouble-" Twilight jolted as a scream rang through the ballroom, followed by many more.

"He's got a knife!" Twilight ran to the edge of the balcony and tried to find out what was happening. A white stallion was pushing through the crowd, a knife in his mouth, and was making a beeline straight for the Viscount and his cronies. From the corners of the room other ponies were trying to push through, although Twilight thought they were more likely guards than other assailants, and it looked like they weren't going to stop the attacker in time.

"Cly 'ou 'athted!" the stallion shouted from around the knife in his mouth. He leapt for the Viscount, who gave a very ladylike scream, at the exact same moment that Twilight, purely on instinct, formed a shield around the Viscount. The stallion smacked into the shield with a wet slap where he stuck for a few seconds before sliding down onto the floor, after which the guards swiftly piled on him.

Twilight cancelled the spell and took a step back from the edge of the balcony, hoping to hell that nopony had seen her do anything. The filly joined her in watching the guards' swiftly escort the Viscount and Ivory Spire away. "Pierre sends his regards!" the stallion shouted at the retreating ponies.

"As a matter of security I suggest that you all return to your rooms!" one of the guards shouted, and nopony seemed to want to argue as they started filing out of the room as fast as they could. Twilight crouched down, allowing the filly to clamber on her back, but waited as long as she could to watch the guards drag their new prisoner somewhere.

"I wonder who Pierre is?" Twilight mused as she started to head down stairs, although in her head she was quietly freaking out a bit.

"Who cares? I'm disappointed it wasn't that weirdo that was wandering around staring at everypony."

"That's your biggest concern? I'll admit he seemed a bit strange and I do wonder why he was doing that... Ooh..." Twilight had turned the corner of the stairs and came face to face with the stallion in question being escorted by another, older stallion.

"You thought Penfold would do something like that?" asked the older of the two, before chuckling heartily. "Penfold's harmless aren't you Penfold?"

"Smash the beetles! Smash 'em!"

"See? Wouldn't harm a fly!" The stallion re-evaluated what he had just said. "Okay... maybe he would hurt a fly, but not a pony, that's for sure."

"Smash the beetles! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk!" At that the two stallions headed off.

"We see the weirdest shit," the filly commented. "By the way... why does it feel like you have wings under this dress?"

"It's-uh... it's just part of the dress. You've seen me without the dress on, you know I don't have wings."

"You turned your horn invisible. Excus-ack!" The filly yelped when Twilight suddenly jigged and bounced her into the air. "Urgh..." she groaned as her landing on Twilight's back hurt her stomach, "What was that for?"

"You don't talk about a lady's business in front of strangers Ancilla."

"I'm telling you Trixie, one of these times you're going to fail to catch one of those and it's going to hurt. A lot."

"I don't- I don't- I don't-" Trixie belched loudly, and Fleur could smell the bourbon on her breath from six feet away. "Your face is stupid," Trixie concluded before throwing her two empty bottles in the air and catching them again. "Muh... my drunk is perfectly magic when I'm- when I'm good."

"Of course Trixie." Fleur sighed deeply and resumed her pacing. Once she had discovered that Trixie was okay, more than okay in fact, it had occurred to Fleur that they had nothing to do. They couldn't even discuss what to do since the stallion in the room probably didn't need to hear such things. Trixie had suggested joining her in the consumption of whiskey flavoured fun but Fleur had refused because two drunken ponies couldn't really carry each other home.

Fleur growled and set about completing another circuit of going back and forth when she overheard some excited talking coming from outside. A minute later a rose coloured mare poked her head through the door, shocking Trixie into missing one bottle that fell and landed on her horn disrupting her hold on the other bottle which proceeded to smack her on the chin.

"Aaahhh! Ah-ah-ha-ha-ow! Owie-owie-owie!"

The new comer stared at Trixie rolling around on the floor clutching her face and cursing. Then she stared at the stallion tied to the bed before turning her gaze to Fleur who scowled at her. "Can I help you?"

"What the hell have you been doing in here?" the mare asked before shaking her head. "Look, it doesn't matter. There's been an assassination attempt on the Viscount and we've all been ordered back to our rooms."

"You mean there's been a massinaton thingy on the Vi-*hic*-cunt and we missed it? This party sucks!"

Fleur bit her lip as she thought. Her initial worry was that Twilight had done something but quickly thought otherwise when she remembered there was no way Twilight would do something like that. or Octavia for that matter. She started nodding as another idea started to form in her mind. "Okay, let us finish up and we'll be out soon." The rose coloured mare gave them a nod and left.

After giving her thirty seconds Fleur cautiously looked out through the door and found that nopony was nearby. "Wait here," she told Trixie.

"Where you going? Trissie wanna come too!"

"No Trixie, you're drunk. Stay here and I'll be back real soon." Fleur left the room and headed towards the room at the end where the pegasus had been taken. She stopped outside to make sure no pony was looking before pressing her ear to the door to check if there was anypony else in there. All she could hear was the occasional whimper.

Fleur pushed the door open and entered the room, swiftly shutting the door behind her. The room was tiny with a bed on the right that the pegasus was lying on, her rear pointing towards the door. She was also chained to the wall via her collar and her wings were still bound as they were before. "Uh... hi?" Fleur said, not knowing what to say in this situation. She certainly didn't expect the response the pegasus gave her.

The pegasus, without moving her front, raised her rear into a standing position and flicked her tail aside, fully exposing herself to Fleur. Fleur gawked at the pegasus's rear for a moment, a part of her grimly noting the cum leaking out of both of her sore looking holes, before remembering that she should be doing something.

"No no no! I'm not here for that!" The pegasus lowered her rear back down and wrapped her tail around herself. Not expecting the pegasus to ignore her like she was Fleur thought desperately to find a way to make the pegasus engage with her. Her eyes settled on the ropes binding the pegasus's wings in their half open position.

"Uh, let me get those for you," she said, taking a step forward and noticing that the pegasus flinched when she did. Her magic deftly undid the ropes and dropped them on the floor but all the pegasus did was stretch her wings and fold them. Her head never moved the entire time.

Not wanting to lash out in frustration Fleur swallowed and tried to remain patient. "I know you must be scared but I'm honestly just trying to help you." Still, the pegasus remained silent. "Do you... Do you have a name?"

"Yes," the pegasus said, barely louder than a whisper. The pegasus said nothing more.

"Good, that's good. Could you-uh, possibly tell me your name?"

"Slut." The pegasus curled up a little tighter.

"Ooookay... I doubt that's your actual name-"

"It's what the guards and the others here call me, mistress."

"I wasn't asking what they call you, I was asking what you call you." The pegasus gave a small strangled cry and finally looked at Fleur, fear etched on her face.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry mistress, I didn't know what you meant! My name's Summer Skies." Summer held a hoof over her head and cowered away from Fleur, "Please don't hit me mistress, I'm sorry!"

"What? I'm not going to hit you!" Fleur held a hoof up to calm the pegasus but the gesture just made the pegasus scramble back and cower further. Fleur relented and backed up a few steps, giving the pegasus a bit of room to calm down. After a minute the pegasus peeked at Fleur who tried to smile reassuringly, "I'm not going to hit you. In fact I'm not going to hurt you in any way at all. Why do you think I would?"

"Because everypony does!" the pegasus wailed.

"Shh, keep it down!" Fleur hissed as she motioned with her hooves. Immediately the pegasus shut her mouth but started breathing rapidly to the point where Fleur thought she might pass out. "Look, Summer, I want you to stay still a moment, okay? I'm going to take your collar off and clean you up a bit. If you want me to stop, just say."

Fleur stepped closer to pegasus whose breathing somehow became even more rapid the closer she got. The pegasus looked like a cornered animal that was ready to bolt and if it weren't for the fact that she was chained to the wall she might well have. Fleur studied the collar, noticing it wasn't like the collars weather ponies wore but was more like something you would put on a pet, albeit with some important differences.

That didn't mean it was going to be easy though. The padlock holding it shut looked like it could resist every effort of Fleur's to open it, but the strap was made of hardened leather. A fact unbeknownst to most ponies that weren't unicorns, was that telekinesis had more utility than merely lifting things. It could be turned into an edge that due to the intangible nature of magic, could be almost infinitely sharp. Provided you were good at magic.

Unfortunately, Fleur wasn't that good at magic and the edge she could form was only marginally sharper than the average spoon. Bearing that in mind, she started the slow process of sawing through the leather. Why did Trixie have to get pissed? Fleur thought as sweat started to bead on her forehead, her lock picking magic would have been damn useful about now!

After a couple of minutes of exhaustive sawing she finally broke through and pulled the collar off before collapsing in a heap. She grinned at the pegasus whom she expected to be sharing in her elation, but found the pegasus to be staring wide eyed at her own hooves.

Fleur stood back up and tore a strip off the bed sheet and was about to try and clean the pegasus up a bit when the pegasus spoke to her. "There's a bowl of w-water and a cloth un-un-under the bed mistress," the pegasus stammered in a tiny voice. Fleur looked under the bed and found that the pegasus was right, and more disgustingly, that the cloth and water hadn't been used.

"Why didn't you use it yourself?"

"I couldn't reach it," Summer said, hanging her head in shame.

Fleur soaked the cloth in the water and ran it out, "If at any point you want me to stop, just say so. Unless you'd rather do this yourself of course?" The pegasus gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of her head. "Okay then, I promise I'll be gentle."

Fleur rubbed the cloth down the inside of the pegasus's thighs, doing her best to wipe off the remaining fluids and putting some effort into scrubbing off those bits that had dried on. She then gently lifted the pegasus's tail and wiped the underside of that but quickly found it impossible to clean off with only a rag and water. She did the best she could though and moved onto the more intimate parts of Summer's anatomy.

She had barely touched the wet cloth to Summer's privates when the pegasus squealed and jumped away, hugging her tail between her legs. Immediately Fleur backed off, "It’s okay, I won't do anything if you don't want me to." She rinsed the cloth out and put it on the bed, "If you want to do it yourself, go ahead. I won't even look." Fleur turned her back to the pegasus and studied the door intently until a minute later when the pegasus squeaked "I'm done."

Fleur turned back to see the pegasus curled up in the far corner of the bed, watching her warily. Fleur gave her a gentle smile and moved over to the window and wrenched it open. "You can go now Summer," she said. "You're free."

"Free?" Summer said as if the concept was entirely new to her, "I-I-I... I can't! I can't go out there!"

"What? Why not? Don't you want to be free?" Fleur was a bit lost as she had been counting on the idea that any pegasus would want to be free and would go without looking back. Summer's reaction complicated things a bit.

"N-no, I'll be p-p-punished if I go out there! The guards will find me a-and hurt me and break my wings or something! I should... I should stay here..."

Fleur's mouth hung open is disbelief. What had these ponies done to this poor pegasus that made her too afraid to run away? Were all pegasi like this? Fleur didn't know what to do. Logically she should have thought of her own safety and got out of there, leaving Summer to her fate. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Fleur didn't have much love for logic and there was no way she was giving up now.

"I'm getting you out of here whether you like it or not," she muttered, not particularly caring whether the pegasus heard her or not. She stripped her outfit off, dress, gloves, stockings and all, and put it on the bed in front of Summer. "Put this on," she told the pegasus. Summer glanced nervously between Fleur and the outfit until Fleur couldn't take it anymore. "Now," she grunted, not really wanting to give orders.

"Yes mistress," Summer squeaked.

"And stop calling me mistress."

"Yes mistress!" Summer squeaked slightly louder. Fleur rolled her eyes and went to the window to get a breath of fresh air. The room reeked of intimacy, but the horrifically shameful kind, not the fun, loving kind. As much as she hated to admit it, she was starting to regret doing this for no other reason than Summer's submissive behaviour was getting on her nerves. Fleur had spent her life standing up for herself and to see Summer too afraid to give herself a chance at freedom was too much.

She took a calming breath and turned away from the window to find that Summer was cowering next to the clothes she hadn't put on. "I'm sorry mistress," Summer said without offering any explanation as to why she hadn't put them on.

Fleur nearly yelled but managed to rein in her annoyance and took a moment to think, which was long enough for her to work something out. "You've never worn clothes before have you Summer?"

"No mistress, only collars and wing binders."

"I really don't think those count as clothing," Fleur said quietly as she tried to work out how to dress an adult. "Okay, sit down, forelegs up, and wings folded." Summer complied and using her magic Fleur slipped the dress over Summer's head and into place. She then set about putting the other items of clothing on Summer and eventually she ended up with a blue and pink prostitute that could hopefully pass for an earth pony under casual inspection.

Summer hunched up slightly and cast her gaze downward, reminding Fleur of the modelling shots that model called Fluttershy did a while back. I wonder what became of her, Fleur mused. "Right," she said, addressing Summer, "Come with me."

"Yes mistress."

"And stop calling me mistress!"

"Sorry mistress!"

Fleur poked her head out through the door and was gratified to find nopony around. She walked out, making sure that Summer followed her, and went back into the room she and Trixie had occupied before. "Trixie? Come on, we need to go." Trixie responded by snoring loudly from down the side of the bed. "Trixie?" Fleur moved to where she could see Trixie and groaned when she found Trixie curled up, using an empty bottle as a teddy bear.

"Dammit Trixie! Now is really not the time to do that!" She gave Trixie a sharp kick on the rump, followed by several more, until Trixie woke up.

"Why you kickin' m'?" Trixie mumbled.

"Because we need to get back to the room. Now."

"But we has a room. This's a room..." Trixie curled up a little tighter.

"For fuck sake..." Fleur lifted Trixie in her magic and draped the happily snoring unicorn over her back. Trixie was surprisingly heavy for a pony that wasn't all that big. Must be the ego. "Come on Summer, stay by me and don't keep staring at the floor."

"Why is he tied to the bed?" Summer asked in her tiny voice as she cautiously looked towards the stallion. "Was he a bad pony too?"

Fleur barked a single laugh but instantly felt ashamed, "Yeah, you could say that."

"You're... you're not going to do that to me are you? I promise I'll be good! I promise!"

Fleur shushed the panicking pegasus, "No we're not going to do that to you. We only did that to him because he wanted to... do bad things to Trixie, but Trixie didn't let him." Summer nodded emphatically, as clearly she knew what Fleur meant. "Come on, we need to go." Fleur led the way out and down the corridor and was faintly surprised, and relieved, to see that Tulula was the only pony left.

"There you are! I've been waiting ages, where've you been? And who's that?"

Fleur grinned slightly, thanking whatever deity was watching that it was Tulula here and not the Matron, because there was no way Tulula would have bothered to remember the pegasus from earlier. "I found her in one of the rooms. I think one of the callers were a bit rough with her and did some things that, well, shouldn't be done to a mare, so I gave her my dress to cover the marks. Why'd you wanna know anyway? Why are you still here?"

"The matron left and I had to stay to make sure you got this." She opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out two small bags of coins, "One hundred and ten for Trixie, and one hundred for you. There doesn't seem to be anything for you though you poor thing," she said to Summer. "And you Fleur, I can't believe you didn't get any callers all night..."

"Yeah... sure does suck to be me. We'll sort out her payment tomorrow or something." Fleur picked up the two bags and tucked them into Trixie's dress. "I'm surprised you didn't take the money and run though?"

Tulula gasped as though Fleur had insulted her, "I wouldn't do that to you! Us ladies have got to stick together.

"Uh-huh." Fleur made to leave but stopped when she remembered something, "By the way," Fleur waved Tulula closer so she could hear her whispering, "there's a stallion in room eight that's tied to the bed. If you could give us a ten minute head start I'd greatly appreciate it."

Dear Twilight

I have to admit that I hadn't really thought much about the sirens after the battle, and it certainly hadn't occurred to me that they might have been in trouble after losing their voices, so the girls and I did some snooping and you'll never guess what we learnt. The sirens are loaded! As in they're like millionaires! I guess a thousand years is plenty of time to make some smart investments.

That's not all though. Rather than just leave it we decided to approach the sirens and try to be friends with them. After what I did, you guys all stood by me so I figured I owed it to them to try and be friends with them.

Not my greatest plan. Aria gave me a split lip and Rainbow Dash has a bruise shaped like the bottom of a boot on her back, and I'm pretty sure Fluttershy broke Adagio's nose for that, but there might be a silver lining to all this. Sonata came to us after and apologized for what happened, and said she'd like to hang out some time because staying at home with the other two moping around was really bringing her down. She really wants to give being friends a go which is great because it means my face isn't hurting for nothing.

We haven't made any plans on what to do yet, but we swapped phone numbers so we can organise something. Hopefully it goes well. I'll keep you posted.

Your slightly pained friend

Sunset.

Twilight smiled grimly. While she was glad the sirens were okay she wasn't too happy that they had attacked her friends, and she was honestly surprised at Fluttershy. Sure she had her moments, but wow! At least it hadn't been for nothing. Maybe through Sonata they could make progress on befriending the others, and if not, at least Sonata was willing to try.

She returned the book to her bags and tried to get comfortable in the bunk she was occupying. They were pretty basic and lacked any kind of safety features meaning she was paranoid about falling out during the night. She had considered sleeping on the floor since there were only four bunks and five ponies, but had decided that maybe she could have a bed to herself for once.

She looked across to where Octavia and the filly were sleeping, with the filly claiming the other top bunk which Octavia was perfectly happy about. It hadn't taken long for either of them to fall asleep, leaving Twilight on her own to worry about Trixie and Fleur whom still hadn't returned.

Just as she was starting to think about going out and searching there was a timid knock at the door, "Twilight? You there? Please say you're there..."

"Fleur? Don't worry, I'm here."

"Thank goodness." Fleur opened the door and wobbled in, entering far enough to lean over and tip Trixie onto the floor; Trixie herself, not disturbed in the slightest, carried on snoring. Fleur stretched until her back popped, "Aaahhhh, that's better. Trixie is a surprisingly heavy pony."

"Is she okay?" Twilight asked, "You know, after what happened..."

"After what happened? Ooohh, you mean that. Yeah, she's fine. Clubbed the stallion over the head with a bottle and tied him to a bed. She then proceeded to drink best part of a litre of bourbon, so yeah, she's fine. Better than I would have been in that situation because I probably would have just grit my teeth and taken it."

"Well that's a relief. I was so worried after the filly told me what had happened. I wanted to come and get you guys but-"

"But the mission comes first, I know," Fleur said, interrupting Twilight. Fleur sat on the edge of the bunk when she suddenly remembered something. "Aww dammit..." She got up and went to the door, "Summer, get in here."

"Yes mistress." The blue and pink pegasus cautiously entered the room, her eyes never leaving the floor, and sat down in the center of the room.

"Uh... Fleur, who's this?"

"This is Summer Skies. She's a pegasus."

"A pegasus? Where the heck d' you find a pegasus!?" Summer shied away from Twilight, who instantly felt guilty for her outburst. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, and it's not because you're a pegasus. I just wasn't expecting one to be here."

Summer squeaked something barely audible and Fleur tried to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder, but the pegasus shied away from the contact. "She was being forced to work in the harem, although it’s definitely more of a brothel, and she was part of something called the Viscount's challenge where the Viscount awards a thousand marcs to any pony willing to use her."

Twilight covered her mouth with her hooves, "That's horrible! How could anypony do that to another pony?"

"I know right? I couldn't leave her there, so when everypony was told to go back to their rooms I took a chance and rescued her. I was hoping I could get her free enough so she could fly away but she wouldn't because she was afraid the guards would catch her and do the nasty things they tend to do to escaped pegasi. In the end I did the only thing I could and brought her here."

"That's okay, you did the right thing." Twilight teleported from the bunk down to the floor, appearing in front of Summer in a bright purple flash that made the nervous pegasus squeal and back off until her rear hit the door. "Sorry! Sorry... I really should remember to not do that. Anyway, I'm Twilight Sparkle, it's nice to meet you"

Summer fell into a very clumsy bow, "It's my pleasure to serve you mistress," she said, surprising Twilight and making Fleur facehoof.

"Um... excuse me? You're not here to serve me or anypony. Why would think that?" Summer said nothing, but cringed like she was expecting to be struck. "Um... Fleur?"

"Yeah, I don't know what the ponies did to her here, or if this is a thing all pegasi get made to do, but she is totally subservient to everypony. Either way it's messed up."

"What do you mean all pegasi or just her?"

"Pegasi are born and bred to be weather ponies, which is the Duchies one and only interest in them. What I'm trying to say is that Summer here might be a rare example of a pegasus trained purely to be a slave, which is why she's like this. That, or all pegasi are trained like her to be utterly subservient which is not a good thing."

"I guess not." Twilight sighed and tried to put it to the back of her mind since it wasn’t something she needed to worry about right now. She turned to Summer and gave her a comforting smile, "I'm guessing you must be tired. You can have the top bunk there if you want."

"Yes mistress, thank you mistress." Summer started to climb up the ladder when Twilight stopped her.

"Why are you climbing the ladder? Wouldn't it be easier to fly up there?" Summer crept back down the few steps of the ladder she had gotten up and sat down in silence. "Did... did I say something wrong?" Twilight asked, "Did they do something to your wings? Are they clipped?" Summer shook her head. "May I see them?"

Summer nodded and started to remove the dress before Fleur impatiently yanked it and the rest of her clothes off her. "She's never worn clothes before," Fleur explained before Twilight had a chance to ask.

"Spread your wings please," Twilight said to the now undressed pegasus. Summer did so and Twilight ran a hoof over them, noticing that Summer shivered fearfully as she did. "They're not even clipped," Twilight observed, "so why can't you fly?"

"The guards hit me if I tried to," Summer explained, "and they said they'd break my wings if I kept trying, so I stopped.

"She was also chained to the wall and had her wings bound half open when I found her," Fleur added. "She couldn't have done it if she tried. I guess if they discouraged her it means that she's probably a one off."

"I see, I guess we'll have to teach you to fly then." Twilight smiled warmly at Summer who completely failed to reciprocate the gesture. "Anyway, you can go to bed if you want." Twilight watched as Summer clambered up the ladder into the bunk before turning to Fleur, "So, apart from rescuing her, did you learn anything?"

"Yeah, I'm an idiot that shouldn't be allowed within ten paces of planning. Dressing up as prostitutes," she growled, "what was I thinking?" She climbed into the spare bunk and buried her face in the threadbare pillow.

"You made a plan based on what you knew at the time," Twilight told her while being slightly miffed at being volunteered for the floor without being asked. "It's not your fault it didn't work out."

"I could've suggested that we go as serving mares or something. But no, I had to have fun forcing Trixie to dress up like that. Stupid stupid stupid!" Fleur groaned and rolled onto her side so she could look at Twilight, "So yeah, apart from that I got nothing. I did hear however, that a certain Viscount was almost assassinated. Get anything from that?"

"It was only one pony and he's being held onboard somewhere-"

"How'd he fail anyway?"

Twilight cringed. Fleur had asked the one question that she hoped she wouldn't. "Oh...uh... Somepony pushed him out of the way and, uh... saved him."

"Lying really isn't one of your strong points is it?"

"It really isn't. I didn't plan on saving him, I just saw the pony charging towards the Viscount with the knife and reacted."

"You're such a goody-goody Twilight." Fleur grinned teasingly at Twilight who shrugged without argument. "It doesn't matter though, last thing we need is something like that making our life harder, so it's probably a good thing he failed. Learn anything else?"

"Yeah, when the assassin was captured he shouted something, 'Pierre sends his regards.'"

"Why would he do that? Surely the identity of whoever sent him should be kept a secret?"

"Unless he thought that the Viscount would already know who Pierre is. Maybe it’s part of something bigger that we don't know about yet? I'm also wondering about what kind of name Pierre is, as it sounds griffish."

"Actually it's prench. Maybe this was some kind of revenge attack for what happened in Prance?"

"Maybe, I don't know. What I do know is that I would very much like to have a talk with this would be assassin."

Author's Notes:

Past the 100k word count, never thought I'd see that happen even though I planned on it being longer than that. My heads funny like that.

17. The littlest jailbreak

The filly rolled over and stretched before cracking an eye open. She had expected to see Twilight slumbering in the bunk opposite. She hadn't expected to see a pegasus staring back at her with watery blue eyes.

"Fleur?"

"Yes?" was Fleur's mumbled reply, spoken from the bunk beneath the pegasus.

"There's a pegasus in here, and she keeps staring at me. It's kinda weird."

"Sorry mistress!"

"And she just called me mistress, which is also kinda weird."

"Sorry mistress!"

"She's also apologising a lot."

"Sorr-"

"Okay okay! I get it!" Fleur groaned and propped herself up. "The pegasus is called Summer Skies. We rescued her from the harem. Well, I say we, but I mean I saved her from the harem."

"Why? What was wrong with Trixie? Couldn't walk straight?"

"Yes. Well, no, but not for the reason you're implying. She was completely rat-arsed and was unconscious before we even got back here so I had to carry her. Anyway, Summer, this is what we have come to call 'the filly,' since she doesn't seem to have a name and we can't seem to think of one."

Summer gave a very small bow, "It's a pleasure to serve you mistress,"

"Why'd she say that?"

"It's a thing she does, just roll with it. The grey pony beneath the filly is Octavia." Octavia said nothing since she was still asleep and as a result of that Summer neglected her usual greeting. "Twilight and Trixie you've already met, sort of."

The filly nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, cool," she said before laying back in silence for a few seconds as she tried to work out which question was more prevalent to her; what's for breakfast? Or why was there a pegasus in the harem?

"What's for breakfast?" she asked.

"Why must you ponies insist on talking so loud? Trixie doesn't feel too-huerk! Oh no..."

"Trixie! Don't you dare! Don't you dare! Don'tyoudare!" Twilight shouted before a torrent of freshly blown chunks splashed her in the face. Twilight lay there, a look of horror frozen on her face as the former contents of Trixie's stomach slid down her chest and into her sleeping bag.

"Sorry..."

"Excuse me," said Octavia's sleepy voice, "but why is there a pegasus in here and why has Trixie thrown up on Twilight?"

The filly lay back again, crossed her legs behind her head and grinned at the ceiling. She had a feeling there was a good chance of today being totally awesome.

I can't believe you threw up on me," Twilight grouched for the hundredth time that morning. As soon as she was able she had galloped to the communal bathroom and run herself a bath, dragging Trixie with her. The filly had also joined them on the basis that hungover Trixie was the best Trixie. To annoy.

"I said I was sorry," Trixie said, her voice echoing slightly since her head was halfway down a toilet, "and could you please talk a little quieter, Trixie's feeling delicate..."

"You know what to do," Twilight whispered to the filly. The filly grinned and snuck up behind Trixie.

"Twilight says okay!" the filly shouted. "I however, make no such promises!" Trixie immediately jolted and banged her head on the inside of the toilet before extracting her head from said toilet and clutching it in her hooves.

"Ow... Why did you feel the need to do that?"

"Just 'cause!" was the filly's cheerful, and loud reply.

"I hate you so much. I hope you would've been nicer to me if I hadn't managed to stop that stallion from having his way with me."

"Of course we would have," Twilight told her, "but since you got absolutely stinking drunk instead and threw up on me, I'm not so inclined towards niceness right at this moment."

Trixie looked like she was going to say something but instead she burped weirdly and dry heaved into the toilet a few more times. "Why won't it stop!" she wailed. "Twilight... is there a spell to cure hangovers?"

"You're kidding right? You get pissed,-"

"Yeah."

"-throw up all over me,-"

"Uh-huh."

"-and now you want me to fix you."

"Please."

"All out of the goodness of my heart..."

"You do have a very good heart, if I do say so myself."

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes, "Fine, but only because I don't want to hear you whining all day, and because there are things we need to do." There was a splash as Twilight hauled herself out of the bath and she dried herself off with a spell. "I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

"Please just make it stop! I'll do anything!"

"You won't be saying that once I begin." Twilight walked over to the toilet and held Trixie's mane back with her magic. "Prepare for the worst ten minutes of your life," she said before casting a spell that enveloped Trixie in a purple aura.

"That wasn't too bad, I don't know what you were talking abo-ugh! Oh crap... Urrrgh... Bluergh..." Trixie suddenly stumbled like she had been hit by a litre of bourbon all at once, and started heaving into the toilet repeatedly. Twilight looked on grimly as Trixie kept heaving and coughing up the occasional glob of... something, and didn't stop even when Trixie hunched up in obvious pain, tears streaming down her face.

"You might want to go," Twilight said to the filly behind her. "This is going to take a while and it's not going to get any prettier."

"What are you doing to her?"

"Purging spell. It'll get rid of the alcohol in her system and she'll be right as rain after. But it takes time and none of that time is pleasant for anypony involved."

"I can see that... Yeah, I'm gonna go see what the others are up to." The filly dashed out of the bathroom and galloped back to the room, weaving around the few ponies that were about at the time. She barged into the room to find Fleur and Octavia having a discussion about Summer, while the pegasus in question quivered on the floor between them.

"How are we supposed to hide her then?" Octavia asked, barely glancing at the filly's arrival, "Twilight can't hide her wings with magic, and she can't wear that dress all the time because you'll be able to see the outline of her wings against the fabric."

"I know, I know... Maybe she can borrow one of our cloaks or something? After all, we're a lot further south now, chances are it's warm enough to go without."

"If we don't need them, she definitely won't. Pegasi don't feel the cold as much as we do, so we might end up accidentally cooking her."

"How about a padded vest?" the filly suggested. "If we get her a padded vest, but removed the padding where her wings go, she could hide her wings in the pockets without making a bulge on the outside!"

Fleur patted her condescendingly on the head, "And that would be a great idea... if we had a padded vest and somepony capable of making such adjustments. She'll just have to get used to wearing a cloak for the meantime."

"Yes mistress."

"And that's another thing we're going to have to change. Stop calling us mistress. We don't own you. Nopony owns you."

"Should I c-call you master then?"

"No, if you are to call us anything you're to call us by our names." Fleur pointed to the various ponies in the room including herself, "You can call me Fleur, her Octavia, and her... uh... hmm. When we think of a name for her you can call her that, but until then you can call her 'the filly,' or just 'filly.'"

"Yes mistre-eh-heh-haaah... Yes Fleur."

"Good. I guess we better work out what we're supposed to do now. I know Twilight wants to talk to that assassin, but we don't know where he is, and we can all assume he's heavily guarded in wherever that place is."

"Would this boat have a brig?" Octavia asked. "Do you know, Summer?"

"No mis- Octavia, I'm sorry, b-but I don't- I don't know."

"Maybe we can ask a guard?" the filly suggested.

"I doubt they'd be willing to tell us anything," said Fleur. "Trying to assassinate the Viscount isn't something they would take lightly."

"There's a good chance this assassin wouldn't want to tell us anything either, so it's hardly worth the wrath of the guards just to learn absolutely nothing of any use to us."

"Octavia's not wrong." Fleur rested the back of her head against the wall and savoured the cool sensation for a few seconds, "So we got nothing then."

"Not necessarily," said the filly. "Even if this boat had a brig they'd still want to get him off to protect the Viscount and his guests, right?"

"Right, your point?"

"They'd have to stop the boat to do that. Maybe we could get off when he does and follow them to wherever they take him."

"We'd be getting off in Neigh Orleans anyway," Octavia said in agreement, "and there's a chance they would take him to a jail or something?"

Fleur shook her head, "A prisoner like him? Chances are he's going straight to High Rock for interrogation."

"In that case they would stop the boat before it got to Neigh Orleans since we passed High Rock on the way here!" The filly grinned widely. It felt good to be contributing. Take that, Trixie! "There'd be no point taking him further away from High Rock, just to haul him all the way back."

"Maybe..." Fleur rubbed her chin with a hoof as she thought. "There's not much in the way of major towns between Neigh Orleans and Whiplash though, so if they did stop the boat to transfer him off, chances are they'd have to hold him somewhere for a while so they could organise transport to High Rock." Fleur suddenly shook her head and hauled herself to her hooves. "This is all a moot point though, for all we know we're already in Neigh Orleans and we're wasting time sitting here. If only this room had a window."

"We just need to get outside then," said the filly. "No prob-" The door suddenly crashed open, permitting entry to Trixie, who was walking like her legs no longer had joints. Her mane and tail were also sticking out in all directions, and her eyes were wide with her pupils like pinpricks.

"Never, EVER, let Twilight cure your hangover," she announced. "EVER!"

Twilight entered the room behind Trixie, trying and failing to keep all traces of amusement off her face. "In my defence Trixie, you never asked if I actually had a spell tailored to fixing hangovers, and you never asked for the details. Most ponies only go through it once and never ask again."

"Unless you're Vinyl."

"Huh?"

"Vinyl learnt a purging spell she could cast on herself. She's done it that many times she's damn near immune to the side effects of them."

"That's really not how they're supposed to be used."

Octavia shrugged, "Tell that to Vinyl."

Trixie blinked a few times until her eyes came back into focus, eyes which immediately set on the other blue pony in the room. "Who's that?"

"For crying out loud Trixie," muttered Fleur. "This is Summer, I saved her from the harem."

Summer took a step forward and bowed before Trixie, "It's a pleasure to serve you mistress."

"Hmm, it is, is it? Interesting..."

"I know what you're thinking Trixie-"

"I wasn't thinking anything! Much."

"-and you, Summer, call her Trixie. The mistress thing would go straight to her head."

"Yes m- Fleur."

"Did we miss anything while I was getting my innards thoroughly spring cleaned? I only ask because the boat's stopped moving and Trixie doesn't know if we're getting off or not."

Fleur snorted and poked Trixie in the chest with a hoof, "You're kidding right? You spent most of last night pissed as a fart and you're curious about what you missed this morning?"

Trixie knocked Fleur's hoof away, "Don't even go there Fleur. If it wasn't for your stupid plan I wouldn't have been anywhere near that mini bar, and I wouldn't have had to club that stallion over the head and tie him to a bed! Excuse me for making the best of a bad situation."

Twilight, Octavia and the filly gave each other sideways looks, Summer stared fearfully at the floor, and Fleur hung her head in shame. "Yeah, I know, I fucked up bad and I'm sorry. Honestly, if you hadn't done that to that stallion I would probably be feeling a lot worse right now, so I guess I should say thanks."

"Thanks? For braining a stallion?" Trixie suddenly grinned, "Last time I did that Twilight yelled at me."

"Different circumstances," Twilight said. "The stallion in the harem was going to hurt you so I can't really say anything. I still think the one in Stalliongrad was a bit unnecessary though."

"I'm confused." Fleur looked up at the still grinning Trixie, "Are you mad at me or not."

"Your plan was stupid, and I think any plan you come up with in the future should be thoroughly scrutinized for such stupidity. On the other hoof though, it was a very nice bourbon." Trixie shrugged and sat down on a bunk, "All in all I think I came out on top."

"Ooookay... so you have no objections that Octavia, the filly and I have been planning on getting to the assassin and finding out what he knows?"

"Assassin? What assassin?"

"Yeah, you were totally out of it last night, weren't you? Pack your things and we'll explain on the way." Fleur started to pack her own belongings when a thought struck her, "Trixie, how did you know the boat had stopped?"

"I was hungover, I could feel if you were breathing too hard on me. Every movement the boat made while docking felt like a sledgehammer to Trixie's stomach."

"This sure as hell isn't Neigh Orleans," Fleur stated unnecessarily. It was pretty obvious the small town surrounded by woods on all sides wasn't Neigh Orleans.

Twilight leaned up against the rail to get a better look at the town, subconsciously spreading her wings since she was no longer encumbered by her cloak as Summer was borrowing it. "I don't see a name anywhere."

"Maybe we should disembark and have a look around?" Octavia suggested.

"I don't think we can," said Trixie, "look." She was pointing down to the gangway that connected to a small wooden jetty. How the small platform was stopping the giant riverboat from drifting away was anypony's guess. Standing side by side by the gangway were two guards, facing towards the boat.

"Why are they facing towards us?" the filly asked.

"To stop ponies from leaving I imagine," said Fleur. "Perhaps Lady Aramon ought to go say hello."

"Oh no you don't," Octavia piped up suddenly. "Asking silly questions to dangerously armed ponies is my shtick." Without waiting for anypony to argue she headed off towards the guards.

"Does Octavia seem... different to you?" asked the filly.

"She did seem different at the party last night," Twilight admitted. "I think getting to play last night did her a lot of good."

"And here I was thinking Octavia was largely devoid of amusing little quirks."

"Good morning sirs," Octavia said to the two guard ponies, giving them a polite smile. Soon as she said it the guards crossed their halberds in front of her.

"Nopony is to leave this ship," the one on the left told her.

"But I was hoping to stretch my legs. I'm not too good with boats and I was hoping a brisk trot around town would help."

"Nopony is to leave," the guard on the right reiterated.

"Is this because of what happened last night? The attempt on the Viscounts life? Has the assassin been taken off the ship?"

"That is none of your concern," the left one said.

Octavia did her best to appear panicked, "You mean that madpony could still be on board!? You're keeping us on trapped on board with a would be killer!?"

The guards looked at each other out the corner of their eyes. "No ma'am," the right guard said.

Gotcha, Octavia thought with glee. "So he's been taken off the ship then?" the right guard nodded slightly, "Oh thank goodness," Octavia sagged slightly, feigning relief.

The left guard turned and glared at his coworker, "It's meant to be a secret you idiot! You really are the worst fucking guard here, you know that?"

"I hardly think it's an issue that this fine lady knows her life is no longer in danger."

"Excuse me," Octavia really didn't want to stand there and listen to them squabble like children, "if the assassin isn't on board, then why aren't we allowed to leave?"

"Well go on then," the one on the left snapped at the other guard, "tell her since you're determined to give away all our secrets!"

Clearly the right hoof guard was impervious to sarcasm because straight away he said, "Nopony's meant to leave until we're in Neigh Orleans, and we're still a few hours away from there because we had to stop. That and the Viscounts pet pegasus is missing. We know she can't fly so she must be onboard somewhere, and we can't just let her walk off and escape. Too bad really, it was my turn to 'guard' her last night, heh-heh."

"'Pet' pegasus?" Octavia glanced towards her companions, seeing a small dot of blue poking from beneath the hood of Twilight's cloak.

"You're kidding right?" said the left guard, utterly ignoring Octavia. "After a party? Sloppy seconds is bad enough, but sloppy sixteenths? Gross!"

"Aw c'mon, it'd be fine. Dirty bitch'd be well up for it. Hey, you remember that time I made her lick me clean after I fucked her ass and she said 'thank you master' afterwards? That was so hot."

"You... You vile beasts!" Octavia yelled suddenly. "That pegasus is a living, thinking pony! Not some mindless animal to mistreat how you please! Actually that's not true, I doubt even you would treat an animal that poorly! How could you do such a thing!?"

"Easy there miss, it's just a Pegasus. Pegasuses get treated bad all the time, so why does this one matter?"

Octavia took a step back, her mouth hanging open in amazement. "You don't get it do you? All pegasi matter! No pony should be treated like that, nopony! Not pegasi, unicorns or earth ponies!" She stomped a hoof and growled in the back of her throat, "You disgust me," she spat before turning and heading back to the others.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.

"Lets just say I fully appreciate why Summer appears to be terrified of everything. I can't believe they would do that sort of thing to a pony and think its okay." Octavia took a deep breath to calm herself, but failed and instead snarled and bucked the wall nearest to her, splintering the wooden board she struck. The sound echoed around the woods like a gunshot.

"Woah," the filly muttered. "I didn't think Octavia knew what angry was."

Octavia's chest heaved with her anger until she happened to look at Summer quivering beneath Twilight's cloak, looking at her with fear. Not wanting to scare the poor pegasus further she forced her breathing to steady. "Summer?"

"Y-y-yes mistress?"

Octavia suddenly felt bad for scaring Summer enough that she reverted to calling her mistress. "I'm sorry I'm scaring you, but those guards said such horrible things about what they had done to you and I got so angry." She sat down in front of Summer, who flinched slightly but didn't move, "I promise that I- we, won't let anypony hurt you like that again, right girls?"

"Damn right!" "Of course not." "No way José!"

"And that begins," said Twilight, "by getting out of here as soon as possible. Octavia, has the assassin been taken off the ship?"

"I do believe so."

"Excellent," she looked around and found no other ponies nearby. "I've been trying to find a good spot and I think I got one, so it's time we got going." She raised her head and her horn started to glow.

"No!" Fleur shouted, "Wa-" There was a purple flash and the six ponies reappeared in a small clearing in the trees by the river bank, "-it!" she finished shouting, but it was too late. The filly stumbled sideways, fell over and threw up. Summer fared a little better but appeared to be on the verge of a full blown panic attack.

"What the fuck was that!?" the filly asked once she was done throwing up. A few meters away Octavia was trying to calm Summer down, a task made harder by the fact that she had to do it without touching her and without appearing to be threatening in any way at all. It wasn't proving easy.

"Damn it Twilight!" Fleur yelled, "There are two ponies here that have never been teleported before! You know the first time is the worst, even when you know it's going to happen!"

"Sorry." Twilight picked the filly up off the ground using her magic and cleaned off the vomit the filly had gotten on herself. "I don't mean to do it. I'm just used to doing magic."

"Wait, where are we?" the filly asked, having got enough of her bearings back. She spotted the riverboat through the trees to the right. "That was teleporting?" Twilight nodded. "Cool! I can totally see how that would be useful. Apart from the bit where you throw up that is."

"Actually that usually only happens the first few times at most. You'll get used to it."

"Awesome! Hey Trixie, Can you do that too?"

Trixie looked awkward for a moment, unable to think of an adequate lie before sighing and admitting that she couldn't. "I tried to learn but it isn't easy, and I didn't have anypony to teach me."

"If you do learn I totally volunteer to be your guinea-pig."

"You would? Why? It'd be very dangerous to teleport you around without practicing first."

"Well, y'see, once I got past the whole throwing up thing, it'd be great! Think of the scams we could pull with teleportation!"

Fleur rolled her eyes and grinned. There was something strangely unstoppable about that filly and she had to admit she liked it. She turned her attention to where Octavia was trying to calm Summer, and was surprised to see that Summer was no longer panicking, but was sat with her hooves over her mouth and with tears in her eyes. "Is she okay?"

"I'm... not sure. She stopped freaking out over the teleporting pretty quick, but then she sat there like this and hasn't done anything since."

Fleur reached out and cautiously poked Summer, who didn't react in the slightest. "Hey Summer, you alright?" Summer squeaked something but Fleur couldn't understand it. "Uh, come again?"

"I'm off the boat..."

"What was that?"

"I'm off the boat!" Summer shouted, uncovering her face, which seemed to fighting a battle between shock, horror, and unbridled joy. "I'm off the boat! I'm off the boat! I'm off the boat!"

"Shh! Keep it down," Summer managed to contain herself barely, but her tears came even faster as she tried to hold it in.

"I'm really off the boat," she said a lot quieter, "It's real, it's really real!" She threw herself onto that ground and grabbed Fleur's leg in a hug, "Thank you mistress! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Hey, enough of the mistress talk," Fleur said good-naturedly, "but yeah, it's real. Why'd you think it wouldn't be?" Summer hugged Fleur's leg a little tighter as if afraid to let go, "Never mind, silly question. I guess we better discuss what we're going to do now, so you're going to have to give me my leg back." Summer reluctantly released her leg and they gathered around Twilight, Trixie and the filly, who were having a debate on the illegality of using teleportation to commit crimes.

"Trixie's just saying that using teleportation to commit a crime doesn't make the crime somehow more illegal. It'd just be a tool."

"I'm not saying it would be 'somehow more illegal,' but it's still wrong to use such spells to commit crimes-"

"Based on your opinion."

"Alright, yes!" Twilight growled in exasperation, "It is my opinion! Ponies skilled enough to teleport should not be wasting their talents on breaking the law! It's such a waste!"

"But what if you're breaking the law for a good reason," the filly posed, "like feeding your family or something."

Twilight sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I'm going to sound like such an elitist saying this, but ponies that are trained enough to teleport don't come from poor backgrounds. They wouldn't need to steal food for their survival, and any pony that did need to steal to live wouldn't be able to teleport unless they had a special talent for it, and any pony from that kind of background, displaying that kind of talent in Equestria would probably be granted a scholarship into one of the magic schools where they would never have to steal again."

"But they could steal if they wanted to though?"

"Of course they could, but once again it'd be totally illegal as well as a waste of their talents, which is why I think it's wrong."

"Okay!" Fleur shouted over them, "I have no desire to sit here listening to a cyclical argument about using magic to commit crimes. Instead we need to talk about what we're doing."

"All we need to do is find out where the assassin is being held and talk to him," said Trixie. "Shouldn't be too hard. Unless they've already taken him to High Rock, chances are he's being held somewhere secure in town."

"So, we'd be looking for a jailhouse of some kind then?" Octavia asked.

"Probably," agreed Fleur. "For safety though, I think most of us should stay here, while a couple of us go find him. Trixie, Octavia, Summer and the filly should wait here while Twilight and I go looking."

"What!? Why does Trixie have to wait here?"

"Yeah," the filly agreed, "why does Trixie have to wait here, whining the whole time."

"Uh! Trixie does not whine, she voices legitimate concerns to anypony who will listen!"

"Also known as whining!"

"Stop!" Twilight stood between them and cut off their argument. "I was actually thinking that Octavia should come with me, since she's the only other adult here that's seen him. I'm not being argued with about this since it also means that two 'earth ponies' would be going and would therefore be less likely to draw attention."

"Um... uh... ah... hmm..." Summer raised a hoof like she wanted to say something but wasn't brave enough to just say it.

Twilight smiled at her, glad that the nervous pegasus wanted to contribute so soon after her release, "Yes Summer?"

"B-begging your pardon mis- T-Twilight, but you're not an... not an earth pony." Twilight closed her eyes and performed the invisibility spell on her horn, opening them again to see Summer staring at her, wide eyed. "W-wha... How'd...how'd you do that mistress?"

"It's magic, a spell. Like the one I used to bring us here."

"U-u-unicorns can do that?" Summer started to rub her hooves together nervously. Previously, asking questions tended to earn her a beating.

"All unicorns can use magic to some degree, yes, like all pegasi can walk on clouds and manipulate the weather."

"Oh..." Summer's nerve finally got the better of her and she lapsed into silence.

"You didn't know pegasi could do that, did you?" asked the filly.

Summer shook her head and lowered it, hiding her expression behind the hood, which was probably for the best when Trixie snorted and blurted out, "Have you been living under a rock or something?"

"Trixie!" Fleur yelled.

"What?"

"You know what." Fleur growled and ignored Trixie who looked confused, the filly shaking her head at her disapprovingly, "Yeah, you and Octavia go. I think I need to explain to Trixie a thing or two while you're gone, and don't rush because it might take some time to get it through her thick skull."

"It's not that thick. Trixie can't help being born this way."

"Actually we might be better off coming back tomorrow," Octavia said before whispering something into Fleur's ear, whose expression quickly darkened. She spared a glance at Summer before looking to Twilight, "Do you think you could sink that boat from here?"

"Well... yes, but I'm not going to." Twilight quirked an eyebrow as Fleur bared her teeth slightly.

"That's too bad. You two go on then, we'll stay here and give Trixie a full education." She failed to notice Summer flinch as she said that, but Twilight saw it.

"Okay, but words only. Summer already thinks you're going to hit Trixie."

"What? No, no, I'm not going to hit anypony." Fleur ran her hooves down her face and sighed, "Dammit..." She waved a hoof in a shooing motion at Twilight and Octavia, "See you guys later."

Octavia roughly kicked at a pebble, sending it flying, "I can't believe Trixie would say something like that. I mean, you would think that'd be something Summer should know, but I can honestly say I fully understand why she doesn't."

Twilight sighed and stared up at the sky for a moment, "As much as I want to yell at Trixie for saying that, I have to admit she's not totally off the mark. What did they do to Summer to make her like this? To make her not know even the slightest bit about pegasi beyond that they can fly."

"She does seem rather... I don't know, childlike I suppose, but if I had spent my life chained up on that boat, being beaten, raped, and abused by everypony around me... Well, I like to think I could handle it but I'd only be kidding myself."

"What did those guards say to upset you so much? I've never seen you angry before, it was kind of surprising to be honest."

"I won't tell you the messy details, but they were talking about her like she wasn't a real pony. They would take turns to 'guard' her and do horrible things to her while getting off on her saying thank you for doing those things to her. It's like they don't realise pegasi are actually, living, thinking ponies with feelings!" Octavia shouted the last bit, some of her former anger bubbling to the surface.

"I know... What happened here to make this country so wrong? I've read the history of what happened before the exodus and sure the three tribes distrusted each other, but they never did things like this!"

"The Duke and his kind have a lot to answer for, that's for certain. Do you think most ponies realise what their rulers get up to?"

"Probably." Octavia looked at Twilight with surprise, prompting Twilight to explain what she meant. "Most ponies want to live their lives in peace, and for the most part they have that peace. To them, a few pegasi getting hurt is worth it if it means their lives continue in peace.”

"Choosing to live in willful ignorance is no excuse."

"I wouldn't call it willful ignorance." They continued in silence for a minute, until Twilight said something Octavia never thought she would say, "Have you ever thought to question the princesses commands?"

"Of course not! Hold on... does this include you?"

"For the sake of argument, yes, but pretend that we've never met and that I'm some," Twilight gave a heartfelt sigh, "some distant figure on a throne somewhere. Anyway, say that one day the princesses decreed something you didn't agree with, like forcing all unicorns to wear inhibitors in public. Since you're an earth pony it doesn't directly affect you, so would you do anything about it?"

"Of course I would, my best friend's a unicorn. What hurts her, hurts me."

"Even though the princesses have ruled for so long? Have steered Equestria since before you were born? You would try to overthrow their rule because they did one thing you didn't agree with?"

"I-uh... hmm. Okay, I wouldn't try to overthrow them, but I would certainly join any movement to get the inhibitor rule revoked."

"Right, very sensible. But what if you had grown up with that rule in place? Would you try to fight it?"

Octavia thought for a moment before answering, "Probably not. Even the unicorns would be used to it at that point. Is that what you're trying to say? Nopony does anything about the pegasi here because they're used to it being this way?"

"Pretty much. Add to that the fact that the Duke is the head of a ruthless military that will kill you and everypony you know for showing a hint of dissention, and yeah, nopony's going to want to fight back."

"But some will. Prance proved that."

"Yes, but that wasn't about the pegasi in the slightest. Using the inhibitor example, they weren't fighting to get rid of the inhibitors, they were fighting because an entirely new law was forced on them, like forcing earth pony's to wear fetters so they can't buck or something silly like that. You'd be fighting to get rid of the fetters, but not the inhibitors."

"What can we do to make ponies fight for the removal of the inhibitors then?"

"I don't know. Ponies aren't going to fight for the removal of inhibitors if they aren't wearing one themselves, so why put their neck on the line like that? They'd have to have something else to fight for that coincides with the removal of inhibitors."

Octavia smirked at Twilight, "Such as freedom from the tyrannical rule of the princesses?"

"Heh, yeah, essentially. But what if those same ponies are afraid of the idea of unicorns living without inhibitors? Would they still fight? Or would they be put off from fighting?"

"The way the pegasi here suffer hardly compares to living with inhibitors. Inhibitors don't hurt the ponies wearing them."

"True, it doesn't compare, but that same fear still exists. They might be afraid that free pegasi would go back to the way they were before the exodus and start making demands in exchange for manipulating the weather. As far as they're concerned, the current system works better for them, because it’s the pegasi that are suffering instead of themselves. There are probably ponies that think what the pegasi suffer is justice for the centuries of demands the pegasi put on them for food."

"You've been thinking about this a lot haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have." They both fell silent as they approached the edge of the town. They stopped, trying to determine the guard presence in the town, but they couldn't really tell from where they were.

"How does this all end Twilight?" Octavia asked quietly, her eyes betraying her worry.

Twilight frowned as she thought on how best to answer. "I don't know," she said eventually. "It's almost too much to hope that this has a happy ending. This country's too broken for that."

"Hoovendale," Octavia read out loud from the sign she was looking at on the front porch of the general store. "At least we have a name for where we are."

"Doesn't help us find the jailhouse though. That pony said it was near the general store, but all these buildings look the same!" Octavia couldn't argue with that, as the town did seem to be running a monopoly on rough-hewn log buildings. The only reason she had known it was a general store was because of the sign saying so.

"The pony did say we'd know it when we saw it though, so there must be some distinguishing feature that sets it apart from the others. Twilight looked up and down the street adjacent to the general store and spotted what the distinguishing feature might be; a pony in stocks outside one of the buildings. Reluctantly she approached the pony, which was a reddish-pink unicorn mare. "Good morning."

"Good morning? Good morning!? Do you have any idea how much my nose itches? It's been driving me nuts all night!" The unicorn tried to reach her nose with her hooves but couldn't quite reach.

"Why don't you use your magic?" The unicorn sagged in her restraints, taking a moment to answer.

"Can't, ain't got no magic," the unicorn said sadly. "Lost it a couple years back, don't know why. Banged my horn, then it went numb and my magic went and never came back."

"Sounds like you damaged the nerves in your horn," Twilight said. "Pretty hard to fix even with the right know how."

The unicorn looked at her funny, "You a doctor or something?”

"No, I just know a thing or two about problems that affect a unicorn’s use of magic. This might seem like a silly question, but is this the jailhouse?"

"No, it’s my ma's house, I broke one of her vases and she takes discipline very seriously." The unicorn rolled her eyes at Twilight.

"I'll scratch your nose if you answer me straight."

"Yes! Yes it's the jailhouse!"

"Did some ponies bring a white stallion here? If so is he still here?"

"Yeah, coupla hours ago, and I haven't seen anypony bring him back out. Buncha army types went in there with 'im. Can you please scratch my nose now?"

"One more question. Why are you locked up out here?"

The unicorn grinned, "Drunk and Disorderly, if ya really wanna know." Twilight shook her head and reached out a hoof and scratched the unicorns nose making one of the unicorns legs start twitching like a dogs would, "Oooohhhh... That's the stuff, thanks!"

"Don't mention it." Twilight gave the unicorn a nod and disappeared around the side of the building, followed shortly by Octavia.

"Are we getting jaded?" Octavia asked. "We just talked to that mare, who is locked up in stocks, like it was nothing; the most normal thing in the world."

"She didn't seem very upset so I'm guessing that wasn't her first time in them. She seemed cheerful enough." Twilight stopped at the middle window of the squat, one storey building and studied it, wondering which one of the barred windows the stallion they sought was behind. "Besides, there's nothing we can really do for her without drawing attention to ourselves.” Twilight reared up and leaned against the building to look through the nearest window, but even stretching her neck out she barely reached the tip of her nose to the bottom of the window. "I can't reach."

"Maybe you could fly?"

"No, if somepony saw that... Let's just say that trying to look through these windows would be the least of our problems." Twilight looked around, hoping to find something to stand on, like a box, but the back alley was curiously devoid of box like objects. "Octavia?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I stand on your back?"

"What? Why do you have to stand on my back? You're bigger than me, can't I stand on yours?"

"I can use my magic to lessen my weight. You won't hardly know I'm standing on you."

"Then why don't you float yourself up to the windows then?"

"For the same reason I shouldn't use my wings; it'd just look bad. Actually give me your cloak first." Octavia grumbled under her breath but removed her cloak, hoofing it over to Twilight who quickly donned it and cancelled the spell hiding her horn. She then motioned for Octavia to stand by the first window before enveloping herself in a levitation field and climbing onto Octavia's back. "Nothing in here," she said. "Move onto the next."

"This is ridiculous," Octavia grumbled, but moved on anyway, Twilight walking her front hooves along the wall for balance. Octavia stopped, letting Twilight peek inside.

"There's somepony in here, but not the pony we want. Go on to the next," Twilight walked herself along the wall again until they stopped at the next window. She peeked inside and saw the assassin, but he was accompanied by two guards. Twilight yelped and quickly ducked down before she was spotted, "Found him," she whispered, "but there's two guards in there with him."

"Can't you, I don't know, knock them out or something? Use that spell you used in Prance on the soldiers?"

"I could, yes..."

"But?"

Twilight sighed. That she didn't really want to do that to a pony again was the problem. That wasn't really a good enough excuse though. "Fine, here goes." She concentrated and formed the spell in her mind before poking her head up so she could see the guards. A purple glow surrounded their heads for a moment before both gently collapsed onto the floor, much to the surprise of the assassin.

"What the fuck?" he half shouted, scrambling back from the guards as fast as his restraints would allow. "Is somepony there?"

"Uh, yes actually," said Twilight, giving the stallion a weak grin.

"Who are you?" the stallion demanded as he backed away from the window.

"I was at the party on the boat, I saw what you tried to do and I have a couple of questions for you."

"Why do you think I'd tell you anything? If you were at the party then you must be on the Viscounts side. I'm not saying anything."

"Actually my friends and I had snuck into the party for our own reasons. Nothing so sinister as trying to kill the Viscount mind you."

"I don't believe you. Go back to the Viscount, or the Duke, or whoever sent you and tell them I'm not falling for it."

Twilight bit her lip as she thought. She hadn't expected the stallion to be so resistant, but that was probably more her fault than his. "I only wanted to know why you were trying to kill him."

The stallion barked a laugh, "Why? Isn't that obvious? This country is sick, and it's never going to get better until the Duke and his entire bastard family are dead!"

"Two wrongs don't make a right," Twilight said quietly to herself, although she wasn't sure why. She looked at the stallion for a moment before asking, "Who's Pierre?"

The stallion jumped up and glared at Twilight, "How do you know that name?"

"Uh, you yelled 'Pierre sends his regards' at the Viscount when you were apprehended."

The stallion buried his face in his hooves and groaned, "I did, didn't I. Fuck!" The stallion looked at his hooves for a moment before speaking again, "All I'm going to tell you is that Pierre is the truth."

"I need more than that! Can't you tell me who he is? Where to find him?"

"Why? So you can go and tell the Duke? Then what? Is he going to hunt Pierre down and kill him? No fucking way."

"I'm not with the Duke!" Twilight looked down to Octavia to see if she had any ideas, but the small head shake was enough to tell Twilight she didn't. Twilight thought desperately, the one and only lead she had was at risk of turning into nothing. "What if I broke you out?" she said desperately.

"Pfft, and how exactly are you going to do that?"

Twilight grinned, "Easy." Her horn flared and less than a second later the stallion was standing in the alley with them, doing his best to remain standing upright while his eyes were clamped shut. "What the fuck?" he yelled, "What did you do to me?"

"Teleported you," Twilight said before jumping down off Octavia's back. "Open your eyes." The stallion did so, cautiously opening one eye before quickly opening both. "Fucking hell," he muttered in amazement.

"So are you going to tell me who Pierre is? Or am I going to have to put you back in your cell?"

"You could do that anyway," the stallion said. "With that kind of power you could force me to tell you everything and still put me back in the cell. I'm telling you nothing."

"But I- I just busted you out! You can't tell me nothing!"

"Come on Twilight, there's no reasoning with him." Octavia said, "Let's just leave him and go." Octavia pulled gently on Twilight who gave the stallion a baleful stare before following.

"Wait!" the stallion shouted a few seconds later, "You're just going? You're not going to put me back in the cell?"

"Why would I? I'm not your enemy," Twilight told him before resuming her path. A few seconds later she heard jangling as the stallion tried to run after them.

"Hold on," he said, "if you get these cuffs off me I'll give you a clue." Twilight's horn glowed and tore the cuffs apart, reducing them to mere scraps. "Now turn around and wait a minute." Twilight huffed but complied, waiting while behind her the stallion made some strange scratching sounds before galloping away. She and Octavia turned back around, the stallion was indeed gone but he had left something scratched into the dirt of the floor; HAIL GREEN SON. He had also scratched 'thanks for busting me out' under the cryptic message.

"Hail green son?" Octavia said out loud, "Is that a code or something?"

"I don't know." Twilight studied the message for a little longer before erasing the message with a sweep of her magic, "Maybe it's something a Mareitanian would know. Let’s get back to the others."

Twilight pushed aside the last few branches separating her and Octavia from the clearing where they had left the others. Surprisingly, things were remarkably quiet with Trixie sat some distance from the others, poking the dirt with a hoof and looking rather contrite if Twilight were any judge. Summer was sat next to Fleur like a dog staying by their masters side, which is a terrible comparison to make but Twilight couldn't think of any other way of putting it, and Fleur was laying on the grass next to a tree, idly watching the filly who was halfway up said tree.

"How'd she get up there?" Twilight asked once she had approached Fleur.

"She climbed," Fleur told her. As they watched the filly ran along a branch towards the trunk before jumping, springing off the trunk, and grabbing the underside of a branch above before scrambling onto the top of the branch. "Mad isn't it," said Fleur. "Anyway, how'd it go in town?" Did you find him?"

"Yeah we found him, but we didn't exactly learn much..."

"What do you mean you didn't learn much?" Trixie asked, having approached them. Twilight couldn't help but notice that Trixie was doing her best to avoid eye contact with Fleur.

"I mean exactly what I said, we didn't learn much. He wasn't overly talkative and suspected us of being agents of the Duke and wouldn't tell us much until we busted him out. Even then he wouldn't tell us who Pierre is, or where to find him."

"So what did you do?"

"Nothing. We were about to leave him and go-"

"Leave him?" said Fleur, "Outside his cell? Are you serious!?"

"Well... yeah, why shouldn't I be?"

"Because he might be a complete psycho murderer! Pierre could be a voice in his head for all you know! Nice going Twilight."

"I don't think so. He seemed perfectly reasonable. Besides, what would we gain from putting him back in the cell? Anyway, we were about to leave him when he offered us a clue in exchange for removing his hoofcuffs."

"And that was...?"

"Hail green son, son being spelt with o, not a u. He ran off before we could question him about it and we don't know what it means so we were hoping one of you guys might have an idea."

"Hail green son, Hail green son..." Fleur murmured to herself a few times before shaking her head. "Nope, nothing here. Trixie?"

"It sounds like a reference to something, but I have no idea what that could be. Do you know Summer?" Summer squeaked something and rapidly shook her head.

"Did you at least find out where we are?" Fleur asked.

"Hoovendale," Octavia told her, "and we only found that out by accident." Twilight got out the map and studied it until she found Hoovendale before placing it on the ground where everypony could see it, "Know anything about it Fleur?"

"Big logging industry a few miles upstream, mostly because of all the trees. Other than that I got nothing."

"Are we still heading to Neigh Orleans then?" Trixie asked, a small hopeful grin adorning her muzzle.

"I guess so," Twilight muttered noncommittally, her eyes following the line of the road between Hoovendale and Neigh Orleans that ran alongside the Mareissippi. It was roughly fifty miles by her guess.

"Or, we could take a little detour," Fleur suggested. Using her magic she highlighted a spot on the map and made two glowing lines between the spot, where they were, and Neigh Orleans. "It only adds a few days travel to Neigh Orleans, and I rather feel turning up in Neigh Orleans so soon after sneaking off the riverboat might be detrimental to our health."

"What?" Trixie cried. "No, we need to go to Neigh Orleans! We should- We should see if we can find out what this 'hail green son' is there!"

Twilight put a hoof on Trixie's shoulder, "Fleur's right, we should wait until anypony who can recognise us is gone. Imagine what would happen if somepony recognized me as Lady Aramon and freaked out that I have a horn and I'm travelling with two prostitutes and a cellist. I don't think it'd end well."

"Not to mention if somepony recognized Summer as their escapee pegasus," Octavia reminded them.

Trixie looked like she was about to argue but eventually grumbled a "Fine."

"Hold on," Octavia said, "you haven't told us where this detour is going. Fleur grinned and morphed the spot on the map to a ring so everypony could see what was under it. Twilight immediately started bouncing up and down like a little filly.

"The Caverns of Mareitania! The Caverns of Mareitania!! Eeeeeeee!!"

"You're joking right?" Trixie growled, "Why the hell do we need to go there? You yourself said it was a waste of time Fleur!"

Fleur shrugged and folded the map up before answering. "Maybe it will be a waste of time, but we need to lay low for a little bit and it would be nice to have a bit of a break where something unpleasant probably won't happen. Besides it was totally worth it to see Twilight bouncing around like an overexcited schoolfilly."

Trixie growled and bucked out at nothing, which was still enough to make Summer yelp and hide behind Fleur,” I can’t fucking believe this!"

"Trixie, you've waited over twenty years to find your parents, surely you can wait a few more days?" Trixie snorted but didn’t argue.

"Oi! Filly!" Fleur yelled at the small yellow pony clambering about in the branches above them, "Get down from there, we need to go!"

"Okay! Catch me!" The filly charged along a branch and leapt out into the clearing, spreading her forelegs like she had every intention of flying. Suddenly three different magic auras surrounded her as Twilight, Trixie and Fleur attempted to catch her, and lower her to the ground. Once she was safely earthbound again the filly grinned at them, "Heh, that was nuts. Kudos to you though Trixie, I guess you do care."

"It was all shock factor, I assure you."

"Are you insane!?" Fleur suddenly yelled, "What if we hadn't caught you?"

"We wouldn't be having this conversation right now, that's for sure."

"Why you little... yellow... maniac! Twilight, tell her!"

"Me? Why should I tell her?" Fleur glared at Twilight who suddenly realised what Fleur meant, "Uh, I mean that was stupid! You could have been seriously hurt or even killed!"

"Yeah, but I wasn't. It was like some kind of crazy trust exercise, and congratulations, you all passed! Well, the ponies that could catch me passed anyway. Sorry you two," she said to Summer and Octavia.

"I-I-I... I don't... I don't even... Just don't do it again, okay?" Twilight rubbed her head and glanced at Fleur who seemed to be having the same reaction she was.

"Fine, ya bunch of cry-babies. So... where we going then?"

"The Caverns of Mareitania!" Twilight told her happily, doing another little bounce for emphasis.

"The what of the what?"

"She means the Caverns," Fleur said in a deadpan tone. "Some ponies ought to remember certain naming conventions don't apply when you're in the country something's named after."

"Uh-huh. Why we going to the Caverns?"

"For funsies mostly."

"Oh, okay. Sounds good if you call wandering around in a big dark cave fun."

Author's Notes:

Life seems to be done crapping all over me, and I've taken one hell of a metaphorical shower so it's high time I got back in the saddle.

For some reason I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and because of that it might be a load of bollocks but I haven't realised that because I'm biased. Heck if I know.

Also on 25th I'll have been a writer on Fimfic for a whole year so happy anniversary me, or something.

18. Story cave

Twilight's hooves echoed on the wooden floors of the Golden Oaks Library. She wasn't entirely sure why she was here but all the same, it felt good to be home. She breathed deeply, the scent of wood and books filling her nostrils at the same time as filling her with a terrible sense of longing. She shouldn't be in the library, and yet here she was, and for the life of her she couldn't work out why.

She was about to contemplate the mystery when a collection of giggles emanated from the kitchen. "My friends!" Twilight grinned happily and ran into the kitchen where she was met by the steely gaze of her five friends and Spike. There was also a lot of pancakes, piled up on the table and covering every inch of every surface to the point that every part of the kitchen looked as though it was made of pancakes. Even Applejack's stetson had a sort of pancakeish quality to it.

"Hey guys!" Twilight said happily. "You have no idea how good it is to see you! Why are you all here anyway? And what's with all the pancakes?" she asked as the pancake ceiling dripped a large blob of syrup past the end of her nose.

"Y'see, the thing is y'all went to Mareitania without us, and we don't take kindly to that sort of behavior," Applejack told her in a cold tone of voice.

"Nopey Dopey! So we went and threw a 'Twilight doesn't care so let's eat pancakes in her kitchen' party. Not the most excite-ifferous of names but meh, it's your brain." Pinkie shrugged and stuffed a whole stack of pancakes into her mouth, "You do dream a good pancake though."

"I- But- What?"

"I must say though that the 'cold hearted bitch' look is very much in fashion right now." Rarity got up and paced around Twilight a few times before sitting back down, "At least you got your fashion forwardness going for you."

"B-but I'm not a cold hearted bitch! You know me! You know I'm not like that!"

Rainbow Dash flew over and pressed her nose up against Twilight's nose, "Oh yeah? Then how could you leave like that then? How could you go to Mareitania without us? I mean, come on! We're your friends! Friends don't do that to each other!"

"Now now everypony, let's be fair. Twilight was only trying to do what was asked of her." Fluttershy smiled warmly at Twilight who felt relief that at least one of her friends was on her side. "After all, we all know she has a deep seated fear of disappointing the princesses and that she values being a princess more than anything else."

"What? No! That's not true, you guys are more important to me than anything in the world!"

"What do you think Spike?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight looked to the last occupant of the table who was wolfing down a stack of gem-laden pancakes with the help of a fork in each claw.

Spike stopped eating and thought for a moment before shrugging, "Meh, let her be. It's not like we need her anyway. I mean we got each other, and pancakes! Besides, did you see the way she let all those ponies get hurt? How could we be friends with a pony like that? No way!" Spike went back to eating as the others all laughed their agreement.

Twilight couldn't speak as the laughter continued. All she could do was choke up and cry as the mocking laughter echoed all around her. She lay down heavily and clamped her hooves over her ears in a halfhearted attempt to make it stop.

"Enough!" somepony roared, sending the pancake room and its occupants whirling away, though not without burying Twilight in a small mountain of pancakes. Twilight started to feebly dig her way out when a dark blue leg adorned with a silver horseshoe thrust itself towards her and pulled her out. "My apologies Twilight, it took me longer than I expected to reach you."

"Luna!" Twilight thrust herself towards Luna and grabbed her around the neck, as if afraid Luna would disappear if she let go. Then she started bawling, all her hurt and fears coming out in one big weepy mess. Luna returned the hug and nuzzled Twilight gently until the tears stopped. "Feeling better?"

Twilight nodded and wiped her eyes, "I-I'm sorry, I don't k-know what came over me."

"Nonsense Twilight, I would be more worried if all the events of the last few weeks hadn't left their mark on you."

"What are you doing here anyway?"

"My sister and I hadn't heard from you in a few days and we were becoming concerned. When I saw you were trapped in a nightmare I thought I would assist you and kill two birds with one stone, as it were. Again my apologies for taking as long as I did. Reaching the dreams of ponies outside of Equestria is difficult for me and more so for ponies in Mareitania. It was only my familiarity with you that made it possible."

"Why is it so hard for you to dream walk in Mareitania?"

Luna gestured to their surroundings, Twilight truly noticing for the first time that they were no longer in the library, but were in the realm of dreams. "See how different this is to the realm of dreams in Equestria?" Twilight nodded. She had walked the dream realm with Luna on several occasions and had found the mystical, star filled expanse to be serene and beautiful. Here though, the sky was dark and angry, filled with streaks of red and purple. The only stars she could see were around herself and Luna.

"Why is this so different to the dream realm in Equestria?"

"As Mareitania is a land filled with fear and horror, so too does its dream realm reflect this. I must be very careful where I tread, least I be overwhelmed by the nightmares of the ponies here."

"D-do you mean you could become Nightmare Moon again?"

"Oh no, the nightmares of ponies had nothing to do with me becoming Nightmare Moon. She was born of my anger and resentment. All the nightmares here would do is wound me and force my return to the waking world." Twilight relaxed and looked around the dream realm again, wondering what exactly it took to alter this place so badly. "Do you have any news you wish to tell me?" Luna asked, rousing Twilight from her silent reverie.

"Oh uh, yes, yes I do."

"Pierre..." Luna mused, "Such a name sounds griffish rather than pony."

"That's what I thought but Fleur says it's old prench, and I'm happy to take her word for it. Anyway we talked to the pony that tried to kill the Viscount and in exchange for his freedom he left us a clue, although none of us can make sense of it." Twilight's horn glowed, forming the message the assassin had left for Octavia and herself.

"Hail green son..." Luna mumured. "A most vexing clue indeed. It's almost as if it should make some kind of sense, yet doesn't. I'm also surprised you would trust the word of an attempted murderer."

Twilight sighed deeply and nodded, "Yeah I know. It wasn't until Fleur pointed out that I might have released an unprincipled murderer onto the streets that I really thought about it, but he didn't seem dangerous to me."

"And he wouldn't tell you more about Pierre?"

"No, he was worried we might be agents of the Duke, sent to find Pierre. The clue was the most we got out of him."

Luna nodded in understanding, "I can appreciate his caution. Ah well, I am sure you will find the meaning of the clue in due time. Now about these new companions you have acquired, do you trust them?"

"Yes, of course. I honestly don't think the filly would betray us without good reason and since she is just a filly we are doing our best to make sure no harm comes to her. Summer on the other hoof could potentially be a problem. She could betray us simply because somepony tells her to."

"It's a terrible thing they have done to her. Slave conditioning is not easy to break as we learnt with escapees of Sombra's rule. Even free of his direct control those few ponies were subservient to others around them."

"Which is exactly what's happening with Summer."

"Be patient with her Twilight, and don't pressure her to change her ways. Such conflict in her mind could be harmful to her. Show a little kindness and hopefully she can be made anew."

"We're trying our best but it's Octavia that seems to be trying the most. For the last couple of days she's been spending a lot of time with Summer."

"Perhaps then she has found a kindred spirit in Summer. From what I have learned through her dreams and nightmares she lived under very strict rules in her youth. Go here, go there, do that, don't do that, and most importantly, be quiet. It doesn't surprise me she would empathize with Summer."

"It also explains why she would be friends with a loud and boisterous pony like Vinyl Scratch."

"Indeed, even now she rebels against her parents, if only in small ways. At any rate I hope she can help poor Summer. Last but not least I feel I should ask you what your immediate plans are short of solving this riddle and finding this 'Pierre.'"

"Actually we're taking a bit of a break from things and we're going to explore the Caverns of Mareitania!" Twilight grinned happily and squirmed in her excitement.

"Are you indeed?" Luna said bemusedly, "Then I hope you shall tell me what you find in there. Starswirl never wrote of what he found in the caverns, and he never spoke of it either, leaving me and my sister most curious of what he found. At any rate it shall be a fine balm to your soul."

"It's going to be great! Even if we don't find anything it'll be amazing to walk in Starswirl's hoofsteps!"

"Quite so. One more thing Twilight..."

"Yes?"

"It's time to wake up."

"Huh?"

"Bluh?"

"Hey! Hey Twilight! Hey! It's time to wake up! Hey! Hey! Hey Twilight! Wake up damn it!" The filly was bouncing up and down on Twilight's side which was, in all fairness, an effective method of waking ponies.

"Gruuuuhhh... I'm awake, I'm awake... Gerroff me..." The filly bounced off and went to pester Trixie who used her magic to float the protesting filly into the branches of a nearby tree before rolling over and going back to sleep. Fleur was rubbing her left ear and had the expression of a pony that was awoken by means of having a filly sticking their tongue in said pony's ear. Octavia was still sleeping, and between them was Summer, curled up in a fetal position and shivering.

"What time is it?" Twilight asked.

Fleur glanced at the sky vaguely while still rubbing her ear, "I dunno? Eightish?"

"Uh, is your ear okay?"

"That filly has an unreasonably long tongue," Fleur supplied. "An unreasonably long and wet tongue."

There was a thud caused by the filly jumping the last few meters to the ground out of the tree Trixie placed her in. "All the better to wake you with, my dear," she said before taking a running jumping onto Trixie. "Nopony puts me in a tree!"

"How close are we to the caverns?" Twilight asked while keeping an eye on Trixie and the filly. Trixie had once again picked the filly up in her magic and was dangling the filly by her rear hooves over her head, just far enough away so that the filly's flailing hooves skimmed by the end of her muzzle without touching it, the muzzle itself sporting a faint half smile. The filly slowly and purposefully crossed her forelegs and 'hmm'd' as she thought.

Fleur pointed behind her, "In those mountains. The entrance is literally ten minutes walk from here."

"Eewww-Ooofff!" Twilight's and Fleur's attention snapped back to Trixie and the filly who was now lying on Trixie's stomach, grinning hugely. "Why would you do that?" Trixie demanded to know as she wiped something off her face.

"What? I told you what I was going to do. Have I ever given you any reason to think that I wouldn't do something like that?"

"What did she do?" asked Fleur.

"She dribbled on me! Right in Trixie's face!" Fleur snorted in laughter and Twilight tried to hide her own smile but failed. "Stop laughing! Trixie did not deserve that!"

"You hung her by her rear hooves over your face. Hate to break it to you but yeah, you kind of deserved that. She did exactly what I would have done."

Trixie sighed and wiped her face on the back of the filly's cloak, "To be fair, that's exactly what Trixie would have done too."

Twilight lay back and tried to stave off her craving for pancakes when she noticed Summer peeking at her and the others. "Good morning Summer," she said as kindly as possible. "Did you sleep well?" All of them were trying to get Summer to engage in normal conversation as much as possible, just so the pegasus could at least talk to them without freezing up.

"G-g-g-g..." Summer swallowed and tried again, "Good morning Twilight. No I-I didn't sleep very good. I- I had a nightmare..."

Twilight nodded, remembering what Luna had shown her of the Mareitanian dreamscape and how broken it was. "Do you want to talk about it?" The pegasus shook her head rapidly and Twilight let it go. Over the last day or so Summer had confided almost entirely in Octavia, who then passed the information onto the others. All of them had learnt more about depravity than they had ever thought possible. It did leave Twilight wondering though, why Octavia? Was she simply the quietest of them all which made Summer more comfortable? Or was it that Summer was far more used to dealing with earth ponies and was somehow replacing her mental image of her masters and mistresses with Octavia. If so, that was more than a little worrying.

"Will you at least tell Octavia about it?" Fleur asked hopefully. Summer nodded gently and Fleur gave a satisfied nod of her own. "Good, that's good. I guess we better get up then. That cavern ain't gonna explore itself now is it?"

Twilight ignited a small orb of light on the end of her horn, Trixie and Fleur doing the same, and directed it into the low cave that was the entrance to the caverns. "We're not really going in there are we?" the filly asked, a small tremor in her voice.

"Why? Is da lil babby afwaid of the dark?" Trixie teased.

"No, of course not! I'm just not sure how much Summer is going to like it in there is all." They all looked at Summer who flinched under the attention, but otherwise seemed fine with going into the dark filled caverns.

"They u-used to lock me in a cage in the cargo hold in the d-dark," she offered as an explanation, although judging by the awkward expressions on the others faces nopony had really wanted to hear it.

"So the dark doesn't bother you then?" asked Fleur.

"No mistress, it was... peaceful. And as long as I kept the toys in they wouldn't b-beat me when they let me out." Summer watched as they all reeled slightly from her answer, "I'm sorry if I said something wrong!" she cried.

"It's... fine, honestly," Fleur told her. "It's just that we don't really expect to hear those sort of things so they might come across as a bit of a shock for us."

"You want me to say n-nothing then?" Hurt and confusion etched Summer's features. Fleur ran a hoof down her face and sighed. "I-if that's what you want..."

"No, it's not what I want. At all. Don't ever think that it would be. I just... I-uh..."

"It's alright Fleur," Octavia said from the back of the group. "I'll have a talk with her and see if I can get her to understand what too much information is." Fleur smiled her appreciation and turned her attention back to the cave.

Twilight set a hoof onto the slope and headed down, the others close behind. After a few meters the ground levelled out and became strangely uniform, almost like it wasn't a natural formation but more like an oversized animal burrow.

Twilight inspected the walls up close and found them to be covered in dozens upon dozens of marks, such as those that might be made by metal tools. They didn't appear to be very recent but it was obvious that they were far more recent than when Starswirl had ventured through here.

"This place feels wrong..." Trixie murmured, "There's no cave... stuff in it."

"Cave stuff?" the filly asked. "Is that a technical term?"

"You know what I mean. Where's the stalactites and stalagmites? The eerie sound of distant water dripping, and-eep!" They all dropped to the floor as a flock of small, black, leathery winged bodies flew over them, screeching as they went. "At least there are bats here," Trixie commented once the flock had vanished.

The filly gingerly raised her head and shivered, "If one of those things touches me I'm going to freak out sooo much..."

Trixie grinned coyly, "You're afraid of bats aren't you..."

"Yes! Yes I am! It's not the dark I'm afraid of! It's those creepy little monstrosities!"

Twilight cleared her throat, "Perhaps now would be a good time to tell everypony to not touch anything with their hooves and do not put your hooves anywhere near your mouth."

"Why not?" asked the filly.

"Because of possible contamination by guano."

"Guano? What the heck's guano?"

"Poop!" Trixie supplied happily.

"Eeewww! This trip is getting worse all the time! And I don't know what you're so happy about Trixie, you're walking in it too."

"Trixie is well aware of that, thank you very much."

"Let's get a move on shall we?" said Fleur. "I'm not so fond of small places myself."

"What is that?" Octavia pointed at something embedded in the wall of the cave. On closer inspection it was a heavily rusted bar with a hoop on the end. "What is that supposed to be?"

"If I was to hazard a guess I'd say it was supposed to hold a torch. Hold on." Twilight pointed her horn further into the cave and formed a second orb of light which sped away from her, illuminating the cave as it went until it hit a bend and fizzled out. Staggered along the walls were more rusted objects like the one Octavia had pointed out, "Yep, definitely torch holders. It's also pretty clear this cave isn't natural. Or at least, not anymore."

"Seems a bit odd," said Octavia. "I'm no scientist but I'm fairly sure that diamond dogs wouldn't do something like this."

"They might," Twilight disagreed, "but not without a good reason. Diamond dogs aren't totally uncivilized. At least not the ones in Equestria. I am though, actually thinking this is the work of ponies. This cave was carved out with tools, but diamond dogs use their paws for digging."

"Why would anypony want to come in here though?" asked Trixie.

"I would say for mining, but I'm really not sure what there would be to mine in a cavern."

"There must be something, otherwise why are there diamond dogs supposedly living here?" said Octavia.

"Can we just assume that there's only one way to find out and get a move on!" Fleur snapped, "This tunnel isn't getting any bigger!" The six ponies lapsed into silence and headed further into the darkness, the only sounds being the echoes of their hooves on the bare rock. At least that was until the filly tripped over something that bounced off out of sight, making a disconcerting rattle as it did.

"Son of a bitch," the filly groaned as she held her chin in her hooves. "Stupid dark and its stupid… non-lightness."

"What did you trip over?" Fleur asked as she looked around, seeking the offending item.

"I don't know, it bounced off somewhere." The filly gestured up the passage and Fleur headed in the same direction, stepping gingerly in case she tripped over as well. "I don't see anything. Are you sure you didn't just trip over your own... Oh no. Oh Celestia no..." Fleur stopped, staring at what her light spell had illuminated. It was the mouldering skeleton of a pony, slumped against the wall of the cave and draped with the rusting remains of armoured barding.

"There's another over there," Octavia pointed out. The skeleton was in much worse a condition than the other, with many of its bones cracked and broken, and the side of its skull, just to the left of its horn, had been caved in giving the impression the remains had been heavily trampled at some point. By its side were the rusted remnants of what looked to be a sword.

Trixie poked the head of the skeleton leaning against the wall, making the skull give up its fight against gravity and fall to the floor, echoing loudly as it did. "Oops," Trixie said with a apologetic grin as most of the others glared at her.

"Show a little respect Trixie," Octavia hissed.

"Sorry. Why d' you think there's pony remains here anyway?"

Twilight peered closer the skeleton by the wall, her magic tracing around a narrow slit in one of the plates of the barding. "I think these ponies were killed here and just left. This one has a stab mark in its armour."

"Do you think they killed each other?" the filly asked, kicking at the rusted sword.

Twilight glanced at the other body that had been trampled over. "I don't think so. They look like they tried to stop something getting in but failed," she said, but she quietly hoped she was wrong. "Let's keep going, there might be a clue further in."

It didn't take long for them to find more skeletal remains scattered around further down the passage, each of them showing signs of having been killed and left to rot. The ponies also couldn't help but notice that the further they went, the more numerous the skeletal remains became until the passage suddenly opened up into a large open area, one which was littered with bones.

Twilight uttered a curse under her breath, almost as if she was afraid to disturb the silence surrounding them. Certain other ponies though, didn't possess her reticence. "What the fucking hell happened here?" Trixie asked loud enough to cause an echo.

"When we came in here I wasn't expecting to find a tomb," Octavia said quietly. "I think we should leave."

Twilight shook her head, "No, at the very least I want to find out what happened here." She raised her horn towards the ceiling and created a large orb of light which she cast into the air, moving it and increasing its brightness until the entire cavern was illuminated under what could only be described as a miniature sun.

"I thought this place would be bigger," the filly said almost as if she were disappointed, although Twilight couldn't help but agree. The cavern she had lit up was maybe three or four times the size of a hoofball pitch. Far smaller than the mountain range above it would suggest.

"We should split up," said Twilight. "Look for any clue that could tell us what happened here. Fleur and the filly, you go left. Octavia and Summer, you go right, and Trixie, you're with me. If you need help, just shout and we'll be there in a jiffy."

The ponies all headed off in their given directions, each of them being careful to not disturb the remains of the fallen warriors. And warriors they were; all the bodies seemed to be wearing some kind of armour and more often than not had a weapon of some description by them.

"This feels wrong," Trixie said, although far quieter than her earlier outburst. "What could happen to kill all these soldiers?"

"I don't know," Twilight admitted, "but I have a feeling the answer is 'other soldiers.'"

"But they're all wearing the same armour."

"Maybe they turned on each other then, I don't know. Maybe their enemy reclaimed the bodies of their own fallen while leaving these here to rot."

"Maybe." The two ponies continued through the cavern, eagerly seeking out any clues they could find. Eventually they found themselves in an armoury, if the rusted and rotted remains of the weapons and armour there was any indication. There were also the rusted remnants of an anvil by the crumbled remains of a forge. "Surely all these fires and stuff in a cave would have been, like, really bad for the health of these ponies?"

"I don't think it really mattered in the end," Twilight replied in an offhand way. "There are less bodies up here," she observed, "so they were definitely defending against an attack from the entrance."

"Hey, what you think this is?" Trixie was standing next to something a little taller than herself that was shrouded in a sheet of mouldering canvas. Before Twilight could tell her to be careful Trixie pulled at the canvas, which fell apart in her magic, to reveal a set of silver barding, covered in intricate scrollwork and shining slightly despite the layer of grime coating it. "Woah..."

Twilight stared silently at the armour before her, studying the scrollwork and noticing the golden tree symbol of Mareitania on the large armoured peytral. There was a hole in the forehead of the helm that was clearly designed for a unicorn’s horn, the scrollwork weaving around it. The barding consisted of several plates of silver amour, complete with more scrollwork, and were worked so that they were placed around a hole in the side which would allow a wing of a pegasus to poke through. Or the wing of an alicorn...

"The last rebellion!" Twilight exclaimed. "This must have been the alicorn’s armour!"

"Really?" Trixie said sceptically. "Trixie was expecting a mythical figure like the Lady, or whatever she's called, to be a bit bigger than this, like Celestia kinda big. This armour's made for a pony that's only a few inches taller than us."

"I suppose so... Does it really matter though? I mean I'm an alicorn and I'm nowhere near as tall as Celestia is. Who says alicorn's have to be tall?"

"My imagination, that's who." Trixie snorted and looked away, tracing her eyes over the rest of the cavern. "I guess it didn't end well for the rebellion even after the Lady surrendered. I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise."

There was a crunch and a clatter from behind them as Fleur and the filly approached, Fleur staring at the armour with apprehension. "I guess that confirms my suspicions," she said.

"The last rebellion?"

"Yep." Fleur studied the armour, her eyes glazing slightly until Twilight spoke again.

"Did you find anything?"

"Huh? Oh, right. No, not really. Just the living areas and the stores I think. Everything was pretty thoroughly smashed up and rotted away."

"There was less bodies over there though," the filly pointed out.

"Yeah we noticed that too," Twilight told them. "If this truly is the last rebellion then what happened here was their last stand where they fought to the end."

"Or they didn't but the soldiers killed them anyway," Fleur said bitterly. "Are the other two still looking?"

"Actually m-mistress, we've f-found something." They all yelped and span around to glare at the pegasus who blended in with the gloom far too well in Twilight's cloak. "S-sorry," Summer squeaked with her eyes squeezed shut and her ears folded back.

"It's okay," Fleur told her. "You just scared us a bit. You're surprisingly sneaky."

"Sorry," Summer said again before opening her eyes. "Octavia s-sent me to get you."

"Is she okay?"

"Mmhmm, we found something so if you could... uh, follow me... uh... please?" Fleur nodded, prompting Summer to turn around and head back to where she had left Octavia, the others following close behind.

"What did you find?" Twilight asked her.

"It's a book, but Octavia said we shouldn't touch it ourselves."

"Why not?"

"Because it's dirty and we have to use our hooves and mouths mistre- Twilight."

"Oh, right. Fair enough I suppose." Summer led them through the cavern to where Octavia was waiting on a raised area next to the skeletal remains of a unicorn. She was also surrounded by black marks on the ground, evidence that whatever had been here had been burnt. "Summer said you found something?"

"Actually she can take all the credit for it; she has remarkably sharp eyes." Octavia gave a beaming smile to Summer who returned a small, shy smile of her own.

"That's pegasi for you," said Twilight.

"Yep. Anyway, we found this place here, which seems to have been burnt at some point, making me think it was records that the soldiers burnt, and we were about to move on when Summer spotted that." Octavia pointed at the unicorn's remains, or rather, the book underneath it. "I didn't think it was a good idea to touch it ourselves and thought it might be best to bring you here.”

"Good idea." Twilight gently lifted the skeleton up and slid the book out from beneath it and reverently returned the bones to their former resting place before paying attention to the book, taking note of the amount of dark red upon it.

"Are those blood stains?" asked the filly, although that was a bit of a understatement. The blood had fused quite a bit of the book into a solid lump. With careful manipulation of her magic Twilight managed to separate some of the pages in the middle of the book. She lit her horn and read some of the writing before remembering there were others that would probably like to hear what it said. She cleared her throat and began to read.

"The pegasi refuse to fight. Even after our efforts to free them, they believe that all they will become is slaves under a new regime. Do they not understand what we are trying to do for them? What we are trying to do for all ponies? That they will not consider fighting for our Lady in her quest for freedom for all is an insult! Perhaps they preferred their lives as slaves! If so I'm sure we can accommodate their wishes perfectly well! Hopefully the pegasi in other camps will be more pliant, especially once we figure out how to remove their collars fully, rather than merely cease their operation."

"I'm going to hazard a guess here and say this is probably the unicorn's diary," said Fleur. "I wonder why the pegasi would refuse to fight though."

"After centuries of slavery I imagine that they weren't keen on being forced into something they didn't start," Twilight told her. "Honestly, I can't blame them, especially with the symbol of their slavery still attached to them."

"Is there any more?"

Twilight skimmed down the page, a range of expressions passing across her face. "Uh, not on this page. It's mostly just rants about the pegasi, flavoured with insults that only a creature with wings could... appreciate." She tried to turn the page but they refused to separate so she kept trying until she found a page she could turn.

"Let's see... Date's obscured by blood again... Okay, right, we found a colt wandering around outside and were forced to apprehend him. How are we to trust a child to not reveal our location to somepony? Even sat as far from him as I am I can still hear him wailing for his mother. The Lady tried to console the child but even her splendor was not enough to distract him from his incessant hollering. Maybe it would be kinder for all to cut the boy's throat. We can't release him and his cries are already driving ponies to distraction."

"This unicorn wasn't a very pleasant fellow was he," said Octavia, the disdain clear in her voice.

"He's just one pony," Twilight said. "I'm sure that his opinion wasn't the same as everypony else’s." Twilight tried to turn the page but again it was all stuck together. She passed quite a few pages before she found one that would open.

"The attack on Bitmark has failed. Spectacularly. Without the pegasi and their numbers to harass the armies of the Duke we were left far too open to counterattack. Cursed featherbrains! Do they not see what we are trying to do? Why do they still refuse to aid us when we have done so much to aid them? I fear that without them the revolution shall soon falter and- and the rest is too stained for me to read," Twilight finished.

"Did they really base their entire plan on the idea that the pegasi would help them?" Trixie asked while Twilight attempted to find a new page. "Seems a bit short-sighted."

"Don't see why not," said Fleur. "The pegasi would have the numbers they need and the Duke's army at the time would have been mostly helpless against them. Seems like a sound plan."

Trixie snorted, "Not really, the pegasi are taught to control the weather, not fight. Between that and their clipped wings I imagine that the pegasi would have been pretty crap on the battlefield. Especially if they're afraid to strike back against their masters like Summer is."

"Huh, when you put it like that, yeah, I can understand why the pegasi didn't fight. Actually, like that it kinda sounds like the rebellion didn't expect them to be much more than airborne cannon fodder."

Twilight found a new page and smoothed it down before reading. "It's over. Without our Lady to guide us we fell to petty infighting, which led many to leave, declaring our cause to be hopeless. There are barely more than a couple hundred of us now, all hiding within our last bastion. It's only a matter of time before the Duke comes for us and ends us once and for all. Perhaps I too should leave before it's too late."

"I guess he left it a little too late," said Octavia.

"It does look like it's the last entry," Twilight agreed as she tried to separate more of the pages, but she was doing more damage than good and instead placed it in the legs of the pony who wrote it. "I wish we could learn more from it. I imagine some of it could be useful to us."

"Yeah, as a guide on what not to do," Trixie said sarcastically.

"Actually I was hoping for a hint on how to remove the collars if nothing else." Twilight turned and gazed out across the cavern, a sense of sadness enveloping her. These ponies may not have succeeded in their goal, but they deserved better than to be left here, forgotten. "When all this is over I want to give these ponies a proper burial. They deserve at least that much."

"Assuming we succeed," said Fleur. Twilight couldn't help but concede her point but was happy no one had dismissed her idea.

"So now what?" asked the filly. "We came all this way and learnt nothing. We haven't even seen a hint of a diamond dog."

"I agree," Octavia said. "There should definitely be more to this place than what we can see. I doubt Starswirl the Bearded spent as long as he did exploring the caverns if this is all he found."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed. "I was under the impression this distraction away from important things in Neigh Orleans wouldn't be a total waste of time."

"Actually," Fleur reminded Trixie, "we came here in the full knowledge that this might be a total waste of time, so don't try that silly argument. Besides, this hasn't been a total waste of time."

"Oh? How so?"

"At the very least we found out a decent reason as to why the last rebellion failed, even before the Duke issued his ultimatum to the Lady. We also found out there was an alicorn present, if not the actual Lady if the armour made for an alicorn is any indication. Both important pieces of information."

"Fine," Trixie admitted with a pout. She noticed that Octavia seemed a bit confused, "The armour's over there," she said, pointing over her shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you." Trixie led Octavia away, followed closely by Summer who almost chased after them when she noticed Octavia was going somewhere. Twilight, Fleur and the filly followed behind because they had nothing better to do.

"You don't think Summer's getting a bit attached to Octavia do you?" asked the filly. "Can't be healthy."

"Not really a lot about it we can do," said Fleur. "She knows what she wants."

"We could all try and do things with her, so she gets used to dealing with ponies other than Octavia," Twilight suggested, "but we don't want to force her outside of her comfort zone either." They stopped at the armour, Octavia seeming suitably impressed with it. "Right now I just want to take a break from running all over the country, blundering from one mistake to the next."

"But there's no more cave to explore," the filly pointed out, "and unless you intend to camp out here for the fun of it we should probably head off."

"Not yet, there's something I want to try first." While Trixie and Octavia admired the armour, Twilight, much to the consternation of Fleur and the filly, raised her head and started to release a fine purple mist from her horn.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" asked Fleur, "You look ridiculous."

"I'm seeing where the air in here goes. If there are any hidden doorways with an air current going through it the mist will be drawn towards it."

"Then surely the mist would be drawn towards the entrance then, seeing as that's the biggest hole around here?"

"Not necessarily, if the air is going somewhere else then the mist will be drawn away from the entrance because that's where the new air would come from."

"And if the air is going to more than one place?"

"Then we'll have to investigate every place it goes." They waited, and much to Fleur's and the filly's surprise, the mist started drifting towards the back of the cavern, carried on a breeze so gentle that they couldn't feel it. Twilight couldn't help but look a bit smug.

"Alright, pat yourself a bit harder on the back, show-off," the filly said with a grin. They followed the trail of the mist, albeit slowly because the breeze was very gentle and not moving the mist any faster than a meter every ten seconds or so. After a short eternity they were led to the back left of the cavern, behind where Fleur and the filly found the remains of the rebellions stores. There was a pile of collapsed stones there, through which the mist was being drawn.

"Stand back everypony, this could get messy." Twilight started moving the rubble, a steady stream of rocks and pebbles floating through the air and forming a new pile several meters away. It didn't take long for the outline of a tunnel to become visible, but Twilight became concerned at what was in it. Rather than the tunnel collapsing, it had been purposefully filled in with larger rocks using a pattern like a bricklayer would use. "Well that's weird."

"I wonder why they blocked this tunnel up?" Fleur pondered out loud.

"I don't think the ponies did this. I imagine they would have sealed it up properly, with cement and bricks and stuff."

"You think the diamond dogs did it?" the filly asked excitedly.

"Mmm... maybe... I don't know. From what I know of diamond dogs they would've just piled dirt in the tunnel and been done with it. I guess we'll find out soon enough." Twilight started levitating the rocks out, the process taking several minutes because she had to do it layer by layer, and the entire thing reached back quite a few meters.

Once the last rock was cleared Twilight sat down heavily in an attempt to catch her breath, "I really- shouldn't have- done that- in one..." she panted.

"Good job though," said Trixie, giving Twilight a sarcastic pat on the back, "if the whole princ-mmmph!" Trixie was rapidly silenced by a thin band of purple wrapping around her muzzle. A band made by Twilight who was giving Trixie the raised eyebrow treatment.

"You remember the list of things we don't talk about?"

"Mmhmm."

"That's still on the list."

"Mmhmm." Twilight released her hold on Trixie's muzzle before giving a cherubically innocent smile to the others, "Are we ready to go?" They all gave various indicators to their readiness and followed Twilight down the diamond dog hole, leaving the orb of light to fizzle out and return the remains of the last rebellion to their rest.

"Now this is more like a diamond dog tunnel," Octavia said as they cautiously trotted into the depths of the caverns' winding tunnel system. The tunnels were all rough-hewn from the rock and were clearly no more natural than the entryway into the first cavern had been. Unlike that tunnel though, the diamond dog one changed shapes and sizes in the space of a few meters and regularly crossed over with over tunnels.

"How do the diamond dogs navigate through these labyrinthine tunnels," the filly said, earning herself another collection of strange looks.

"By scent I imagine," Twilight told her, although she didn't know if that were true or not. The ponies kept walking, following the tunnel that was always in front of them, but it was becoming clear that wasn't the best method of navigation.

"You think we should have left a trail for us to follow back?" Trixie asked, sounding a little nervous.

"I can't help the feeling that we're being watched," added Octavia.

"And is it just me, or is it a lot warmer down here than in the cavern?" said Fleur.

"Yes to the first two, double yes to the last," the filly muttered although she did nothing about it, leaving her cloak where it was. Octavia helped Summer remove her cloak though, since it was obviously becoming uncomfortably warm for her.

"Maybe we should turn back," Fleur suggested.

"No," Twilight said, sounding full of determination. "If we really need to get out I can teleport us back outside. Let's keep going for as long as we can, and if we find nothing I'll port us outside, okay?"

They all agreed to those terms although with varying degrees of reluctance. They kept heading in the direction they had picked, but progress was slow as the nerves the others displayed started to rub off on Twilight. "It's fine, It'll all be fine," she whispered to herself. "There's nothing down here to be afraid of." She kept going but stopped when the floor beneath her began to echo weirdly, "What is that?"

"What's what?" Fleur asked her.

Twilight stomped lightly, the sound echoing slightly. "The ground, it's hollow."

"Maybe it's a tunnel crossing beneath us," Octavia suggested, although she couldn't help but stomp on the ground herself to find out what Twilight meant.

"Pfft, you're all overreacting," said Trixie. She reared up and prepared to stomp the ground a good deal harder than the others to prove her point. "There's nothing here-aah!" As she brought her forehooves to slam against the ground they went straight through the ground so that her chest and chin hit the floor with a solid smack.

That was a lesser concern though as the ground cracked around her, opening up into a hole which swallowed Trixie and swiftly spread to swallow the rest before they had a chance to move. Thankfully though they didn't have far to fall as the ground collapsed into a pit about twice as deep as Fleur was tall.

"Everypony okay?" Twilight asked as soon as she had recovered enough to do so.

"I think I landed on my face," Trixie groaned. "Twice."

"And yet half as many times as you deserve you fucking idiot," Fleur snapped. She took in her surroundings, seeing that the only way back out was to climb out. "Why would the diamond dogs dig a pit like this?"

"To trap silly ponies of course!" a voice from above them growled. The ponies looked up to see several diamond dogs in simple, yet robust looking metal armour pointing spears down at them. What caught their attention more though was what was stood beside one of the dogs. Wearing different amour that gleamed in the darkness and glaring daggers down at the six ponies, was a male crystal pony, sparkling in the gloom.

"What the what?" the filly said loudly, summing up their collective confusion quite nicely.

Author's Notes:

Fleur, I are disappoint.

Also, the two orange skinned and purple haired people above her are now Scootaloo's long lost brother and sister. Y'know, after her parents put her up for adoption and stuff. (Don't think too hard about the expression of the blue girl next to him and about where his hand might be.)

Pie-cake eating needs to be a thing.

19. Twilight's adventures underground

"What's a crystal pony doing here?" Twilight asked in surprise as she gawped at the dark grey crystal pony.

The pony looked down on them with obvious disdain. "You're asking me the questions? Seriously?" Twilight folded her ears back and grinned sheepishly.

"Why is nopony else concerned that pony is made out of shiny crap?" the filly asked. "Am I seriously the only fucking pony worried about that." Summer gingerly held up a hoof, "Thank you Summer!"

"Relax," Fleur told her. "Crystal ponies are ponies from the Crystal Empire where everything is really crystally, even the ponies."

"Oh thank you Fleur, that was really fucking helpful."

The crystal pony narrowed his eyes at Fleur, "How do you know about the Crystal Empire?" he demanded.

"Because I've been there. In fact... Hooves up everypony that's been there." Fleur held up a hoof, joined by Twilight and Octavia. "It was on my to do list," muttered Trixie.

"But that's impossible!" the stallion yelled. "The Empire vanished over a thousand years ago!"

"Mmhmm, and it came back last year." Twilight cocked her head quizzically, "Surely you would have noticed when your coats became crystalline again?"

"No, our coats have always been crystalline down here!" The stallion appeared to be on the verge of a few blown aneurysm.

"Really? How?" Twilight asked in disbelief.

"I. Am. Asking. The questions!" the stallion yelled at her. He took a moment to compose himself and in a far calmer tone of voice asked "What of the traitor King Sombra?"

"He's gone, destroyed by the Crystal Heart." Twilight told him, taking note of the relief that crossed the stallions features.

"The Crystal Heart is back? Are you sure?"

"Positive. I'm actually the pony that found it," Twilight said, although she felt embarrassed for saying it like that. The stallion fell quiet, the silence stretching out far longer than necessary.

"You wants we should toss 'em in the deeps now boss?" one of the dogs asked, clearly becoming agitated by the stallion's silence.

"No! No... Get them out of that pit and put inhibitors on the unicorns and bind the pegasi's wings; we're taking them to the council." Two of the dogs dropped their weapons and set about digging a ramp that the ponies could walk up while two more dogs jumped into the pit, jamming inhibitors on Twilight's, Fleur's and Trixie's horns before pulling out some rope to bind Summer's wings. Twilight sighed in relief that the inhibitor didn't cancel the spell hiding her wings.

Octavia quickly interspersed herself between Summer and the dog, "You don't need to do that, she can't fly!"

"Huh, likely story," the hulking diamond dog said before roughly shoving Octavia aside. He stomped towards Summer who backed up until her rear hit the side of the pit before cowering down and sobbing, her wings locked tightly to her sides.

"Stop Bruto," the stallion said, the diamond dog backing off a few steps. "Can she genuinely not fly?"

"She doesn't know how. She was trained and kept as a sex slave her entire life, and she used to be punished if she tried to fly. We literally only rescued her the other day and we haven't even tried to teach her."

The disgust was evident on the stallions face and he nodded to Bruto. "Leave the pegasus unbound; she doesn't need to be traumatised further." Bruto growled and crammed the rope back into his armour before reclaiming his weapon and pointing it at the six ponies. "How do you intend on teaching a pegasus to fly? Especially in this country?" the stallion asked.

There were some awkward glances between four of the six ponies, a confused glance from the shortest one among them, and Summer was still cowering on the floor, trying her best to stop shaking while Octavia rubbed her back. "We haven't worked that out yet," said Fleur. "We'll probably work on it once we get back to Equestria."

The stallion raised an eyebrow, "You're Equestrians?"

"Two of us certainly. Another two of us have lived there for some time."

The stallion shook his head and grinned, "The council are going to have a field day with you lot."

"How much further is it?" the filly whined, "We've been walking for aaggeeessss..."

"Stop whining little pony," Bruto behind them growled, making Twilight grin as she remembered how Rarity had dealt with the diamond dogs back home. Suddenly the haft of a spear struck her on the rear, causing her to yelp and limp for a few steps before walking normally again.

"What was that for?"

"Won't hit baby pony. Yet. So hit you instead because you find dogs' pain funny."

"But I'm not a baaaby! Why are you so meeeaaannn?? What did I ever do to yooouuuu-aah!!" Bruto swung his spear so the bottom of it struck the filly squarely between her rear legs, sending her flying a couple meters to land with her cloak over her head. She jammed one foreleg between her thighs and screamed while her other leg scrambled to move her cloak back over her back, but not before Twilight noticed a strange pink line on the filly's back, devoid of fur.

The other diamond dogs set on Bruto the moment the filly had landed and proceeded to claw, bite and punch him, swiftly drawing blood. The stallion walked up to Bruto while Twilight and the others made a barrier around the filly. The other dogs ceased their attack, allowing the stallion to approach Bruto, who tried to stand up before being roughly pushed back down by the stallion. "Did I tell you to do that?"

"B-but sir! She just prisoner!" Bruto yelped as the stallion backhoofed him across the face.

"I said, did I tell you to do that?"

"No boss man."

"No, I did not, because I would never tell you to strike a filly. Even if I did I would never tell you to strike her in such a way. Try that again and you'll be cleaning latrines for the rest of your miserable life, got it?"

"Yes boss man." The stallion stepped away from the prone dog, allowing him to drag himself back to his paws, whining pitifully all the while.

"I'm very sorry about that. There's a reason people don't like Bruto, besides his wondrous odour that is." The stallion tried to get closer to the filly but was swiftly blocked by Trixie and Octavia. "I'm not going to touch her, I only want to see if she's okay."

"Don't care," Trixie told him.

"I'm fine," the filly squeaked from behind Trixie. The young filly glared at the stallion, despite the tears still streaming from her eyes, "Just don't expect me to walk the rest of the way." The filly stood up, but from the way her back hunched up it was obviously painful for her. Fleur lay down next to the filly, allowing her to scramble onto Fleur's back with a bit of help from Twilight nudging her.

Fleur stood up and glared at the crystal pony, who took it as a hint to get back to leading them to their destination. "It really isn't much further now, promise." They set off again and true to his word, it was only ten minutes before they came to a large metal door that was guarded by another diamond dog and a-

"Vampony!" yelled the filly, delicately trying to back away without falling off Fleur's back. "What are you doing? It's a freaking vampony!" Noticing that nopony else was freaking out, although on Summer's part that may have been because she had no idea what a vampony was and that she should be scared of it, the filly stomped a hoof on Fleur's back. "Why is nopony else freaking out?" she asked, sounding like she wanted to cry.

"It's only a bat pony," Fleur told her. "She's not going to hurt you. And there's no such thing as vamponies."

The filly buried her face in Fleur's mane. "This place is trying to kill me," she mumbled, "with its shiny ponies and half bat ponies and crazy dog people."

The dark grey bat pony mare gave her a lazy smile, exposing her fangs, "Actually we're quarter bat, and quarter dragon, and prefer the term 'thestrals.' Sooo... anyway, Onyx, I see you made some new friends and holy shit what happened to Bruto?"

"Bruto happened to Bruto," the stallion growled. "I'm taking them to see the council."

"Really? Why? Couldn't you just toss them in the deeps like everypony else that intrudes down here?"

Onyx shook his head, "No chance Shadow, they claim to be from Equestria. Well some of them anyway, and displayed knowledge of the Crystal Empire, saying it had returned."

"No kidding?" Onyx shook his head at the thestral. "Huh... Still, why would a bunch of Equestrians be traipsing around Mareitania?" The mare shrugged, "I guess that's something for the council to sort out."

"Uh, excuse me." Twilight waved a hoof, hoping to get the mares attention.

Shadow pointed a hoof at Twilight, "You in the purple!"

"Uh, yeah... um... you said you were quarter dragon right?"

"That do be right."

"Huh... Princess Luna never mentioned that..." Suddenly Twilight's space was invaded by the mare as she shoved her nose up against Twilight's.

"So Princess Luna is back?" she asked. Twilight was unsure whether the thestral was happy about that or not.

"Um, yes?"

"And not Nightmare Moon?"

"Well, she was Nightmare Moon when she first came back, but me and my friends used the Elements of Harmony on her, restoring her to Princess Luna."

Shadow suddenly leapt away in a flying back flip, cheering wildly. "Yeah! Princess Luna's back! Wait 'til the others hear this!"

"They can hear about it after the council is done talking with them," Onyx reminded her. "Once the council is convinced of their honesty, then you can spread the news."

"Aww, you're no fun." Shadow pouted and folded her legs with a huff. She glanced at the ponies and her eyes suddenly widened when she saw summer, "Hey! Is that a pegasus? Haven't had one of your kind down here in... well, longer than I can remember anyway."

Summer dropped her eyes to the ground and rubbed her forelegs together nervously, "Sorry."

"Sorry? What the hell you apologizing for?" Onyx grabbed the thestral by her tail and dragged her back down to the ground, whispering something in her ear. Shadow quickly folded her ears back and muttered a swearword, "I guess the surface is still as shitty as ever." She took off again and flew over to the door, "I just want you to know that nothing like what happens on the surface goes on down here." She knocked three times on the door, an echo issuing from every strike.

A second later there was a clunk as something was unlocked and the doors ponderously swung open, pushed by another diamond dog and a crystal pony mare. "Welcome to the greatest city in Mareitania, Caverndown," Shadow said with obvious pride. The six ponies stood in awe of what they saw before them, which was an entire underground city built out of crystal. They stumbled through the door and found themselves on a ledge overlooking the city, the light shining from its facets almost unbearably bright after their time spent in the dark tunnels.

At the center of the city was a squat, domed building with a bell tower type structure in its middle. Around the dome the rest of the city was arrayed in way similar to the Crystal Empire. At the back of the city a waterfall fell from a ledge higher than they were, landing in a reservoir from which a river ran around the city before disappearing into another cave, and in the roof of the cavern were dozens upon dozens of holes, the purpose of which escaped the six ponies until their eyes adjusted and they could see the thestrals flying back and forth, figuring the holes must be their homes. As a final touch the walls of the caverns were covered in clusters of crystal which shone as if emitting pure sunlight. "Pretty cool huh?" said Shadow.

Perhaps the most important feature of the city though was in its many streets. Ponies, both crystal and thestral, as well as diamond dogs, were walking around on whatever business they had like nothing was wrong with the world. Harmony did have a place in Mareitania, and it was called Caverndown.

"This place is amazing," Twilight said breathlessly. "Ponies living peacefully with diamond dogs. I never thought I'd see that."

"Well, technically the diamond dogs were here first so it wouldn't have been very nice of us to just kick 'em out."

"Enough Shadow, we can answer their questions later. Right now we need to get them to the council." Onyx started to lead the ponies down a ramp that hugged the cavern wall when he stopped/ "Bruto, take Shadow's post." The diamond dog whined but shuffled back out through the door which was quickly sealed up again.

Onyx led them down into the city, taking a route that led straight to the domed structure in the center. As they walked they were met by the curious stares of the ponies and diamond dogs in the street, which was a far cry from the outright hostile stares they would get from some ponies on the surface. "Why does this place look like the Crystal Empire?" Twilight asked, "Even if it's only a quarter of the size."

Onyx snorted but deigned to answer her question, "It was built to look like the Crystal Empire as a reminder of our late home. Admittedly it's lacking a giant towering castle in the center, but I've been told the rest is a pretty good imitation."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Onyx shrugged as he walked, "It's not like I've ever seen the Crystal Empire so I don’t actually know."

"Fair enough. When did your people come here?"

"I said your questions would be answered after you're done with the council."

"Aww come on Onyx," said Shadow, giving the stallion a nudge in the side. "There's no harm in answering a few questions."

"Ugh fine. My ancestors came here during the reign of King Sombra. They came to Maretania to escape from his clutches-"

"Why didn't they go to Equestria?"

"Because they thought that Equestria was going to be next on Sombra's list of conquests. Anyway, a large group of escapees came to Maretania seeking shelter, but the country was still pretty turbulent at the time, what with the pegasi only having just been subjugated. Rather than risk further enslavement they wandered until they found the caverns where they found the diamond dogs."

"Of course this was literally just a hole in the ground back then," Shadow added. "Diamond dogs don't exactly go in for fancy."

"So the diamond dogs took your people in?" Fleur asked.

Onyx nodded, "Yeah, the diamond dogs love of crystals meant that they were more than happy to take us in. Our people hadn't intended to stay for long though, but when the Empire vanished we had nowhere else to go and we ended up building the city here."

"But where did you get all the crystals from?"

"There were loads already here from what I've been told, but not enough to build all this from, so we grew them."

"You can grow crystals?" Trixie asked suspiciously.

"We aren't called crystal ponies for nothing. I'm not saying we built it quickly mind you, it took decades."

"Okay then," said Fleur, nodding approvingly. "What about you Shadow? How'd your people end up here?"

"Eh, it's not really a long story. After Celestia beat Nightmare Moon less than three minutes after the lunar rebellion had begun, we figured that Nightmare Moon's army of little monsters probably wasn't welcome in Equestria, so we scattered and most of us left. Through quite a bit of trial and error we ended up here where the crystal ponies and diamond dogs offered my folks a place to rest their wings."

"Hold on," said Trixie, who seemed amused by something. "What do you mean 'Nightmare moon's army of little monsters?'"

"Oh, well, you don't think Princess Luna decided on the spur of the moment that she was going to throw a hissy fit and bring about eternal night on a whim do you? She made plans, and one of those plans was making an army loyal to her and robust enough to take on the army loyal to Celestia. She did that by creating my people, the thestrals."

"Luna created your people?" Twilight asked in amazement.

"Well, yeah. Didn't you know that?"

"No! Luna's never mentioned that she created the thestrals! I don't know if Celestia even knows that!"

"Oh, well yeah, she created us. Half pony, part dragon and part bat."

"Why dragon?" asked Octavia.

"Because dragons are hella tough. Sounds like a good thing to have in your unstoppable army of the night. The bat part was mostly for show though. Princess Luna apparently did love them bats. It's also because of the dragon and bat thing that we all have wings, although I don't know why she didn't try to make alicorns..."

"How do you know all that?" Twilight asked, choosing to ignore the part about alicorns. She knew full well how alicorns are made.

"My dad told me, and he was told by his dad who was one of the first thestrals created."

"But that was over a thousand years ago!" Twilight blurted, "How was he there!?"

"Dragons live for, like, a really long time. I mean like thousands of years. Because we're part dragon we live for pretty long time too. My gramps was almost seven hundred when he died. Lore keeper Ebon is even older. He's seven hundred and eighty... something, I think."

"Who's Lore keeper Ebon?"

"One of the council," Onyx told her, "and representative of the thestrals. Incidentally, he's here in this very building with the rest of the council so that's enough questions." Onyx had brought them to the building in the center of the city. He led them up the stairs and stopped at the entrance which was guarded by two mares, one a crystal pony and the other a thestral. "Why have you brought these ponies here?" the crystal mare asked.

"They have information I think the council would be very interested in. I brought them here for questioning."

"What kind of information?" asked the other guard.

"Information on Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and Princess Luna." The eyes of the two guards widened and they looked sideways at each other.

"You better not be kidding around with this Onyx," the crystal mare said, suddenly a lot less professional sounding. "The council will have your head if you're wrong."

"Yeah, I know." The two guards stepped back and opened the doors, one of them entering before allowing Onyx to lead them inside. The room they were led into was surprisingly empty, housing only some podiums and benches. There were doors leading into other rooms but they were far less important than what was floating in the center of the room inside the tower structure Twilight noticed on top of the dome. It was a crystal, shaped like a heart.

"Is- Is that a crystal heart?" she asked Onyx, watching as the crystal gently spun on its axis.

"Indeed it is," was the answer she received, but it wasn't Onyx that said it. The group was approached by a crystal pony mare, who was distinguishable from other crystal mares not by her rose coloured coat, but by the horn adorning her forehead.

"A crystal unicorn!" Twilight exclaimed, "I've never seen one of your kind before!"

"Is Twilight about to have a fangasm?" the filly whispered in Fleur's ear.

"I see you know something of crystal ponies if you know how rare crystal unicorns are. Good, that'll make it easier to decide if what you're claiming to know is true." The mare must have noticed the confusion on Twilight's and the others faces and she bowed, "Councillor Quartz, representative of the crystal ponies, at your service. I'll be one of the people questioning you as soon as the others arrive."

"Who are the others?" Twilight asked.

"Lore keeper Ebon, the ironically named representative of the thestrals, and Chief Fishbait, representative of the diamond dogs. Please do not laugh at his name. You wished to know about our crystal heart?"

"Yes please. How do you have one is all I really wish to know."

"Our forebears created it. Without the true crystal heart we lost our luster amongst other things, and a new one was made in its place. However, it was never as good as the original and without the magnifying and amplify powers of the Crystal Empire's castle it never will be. There are even parts of the caverns where it's effects do not reach."

"Couldn't you try to recreate the amplifying matrix of the Empire?"

"We don't know how. Believe me, I wish we could. Things might not be so rotten on the surface if we could spread its effects further." A door thumped open, echoing around the room, "Ah, the others are here." First in was a snow white, male thestral, with a salt and pepper mane and tail and piercing red eyes. Behind entered a mottled grey and brown diamond dog, who, despite being a diamond dog, had a twinkle in his eye betraying an intellect perhaps greater than his fellows.

"I hopes this isn't silly waste of time like last meeting," the diamond dog said once he had claimed the left podium. "Almost made me miss lunch."

"Calm yourself Fishbait," the thestral admonished the chief as he claimed the center podium. "I'm not sure this meeting will concern you too much as it is."

"Ebon, Fishbait, glad you could join us," said Quartz as she claimed the remaining podium. "Perhaps now we could find out what these lovely ponies know about the Empire and Equestria."

"What? Why do chief have to be here for this? This doesn't even involve diamond dogs!"

"Fishbait..." Quartz said with an unspoken warning.

"No no, go on, I listening."

Lore keeper Ebon cleared his throat, "Sentry Onyx, why have you brought these ponies before us?"

"We found them wandering the tunnels. As we apprehended them we found out that some of them are from Equestria and they claimed that the Crystal Empire and Princess Luna had returned. I thought it prudent to bring them here for questioning."

The thestrals eyes bulged, "Princess Luna? She's returned?"

"I know!" Shadow shouted excitedly, "Isn't it awesome!" The councillor narrowed his eyes at her and she took a step back, "Sir."

Ebon shook his head and readdressed his captive audience. "When did she return?"

"A bit less than a year and a half ago, your honour," said Twilight.

"And she was truly herself, not Nightmare Moon?"

"She was Nightmare Moon, at first, but my friends and I reclaimed the Elements of Harmony and cleansed her of her evil. She is Princess Luna once again."

Ebon sat back and rubbed his chin in thought, "Well I'll be... It was obvious that the mare in the moon was gone, but I never dared to hope that our true princess would be restored."

Fleur took a step forward, "Excuse me your honour, but are you saying you don't support Luna as Nightmare Moon?"

"That's Princess Luna to you, unicorn, and no, we do not support Nightmare Moon. Eternal night would be just as deadly to us as it would be to the rest of the world which is why we never moved to support the princess in her attack on Celestia. We are loyal to Princess Luna, our benevolent lady of the night, not that vile tyrant."

"Then why didn't you try to stop her!?"

"Because she would have done something drastic to make us obey if she knew we planned to betray her!"

"Me thinks you getting too excited Lore keeper, you missing important questions like what ponies doing in caverns!" The diamond dog turned to the group and growled, "What ponies doing in caverns?"

"We originally came looking for something called the long story," Twilight told him, "but I have always wanted to explore the caverns since I was a filly, to walk the same paths as Starswirl the Bearded."

"Oh great," Fishbait grumbled, "tourists. Bearded pony came long ago, found dogs and crystals and left us alone. Maybe you should do same, yes? Also long story load of hokum. It just ponies keeping records of things, not dogs."

"So you do keep a record of all that has happened in Mareitania?" asked Fleur.

"As much as we can, yes," Quartz answered. "However that doesn't mean ponies should come sneaking around down here hoping for a history lesson. What interest are our records to you?"

"We were hoping to find information on the last rebellion and the alicorn that led it," Twilight deflated a bit, "but I think what we found in the first cavern answered that question for us..."

"Indeed." Quartz leaned forward and squinted her eyes slightly, "What is your interest in the alicorn?"

"Mostly to know if she was real or not," said Twilight, "and to see whether it was the Lady."

Lore keeper Ebon barked a single laugh, "The Lady? The Lady is a myth! I don't know who it was that led that rebellion, but I assure you it wasn't her."

"Then who was it?" Twilight implored.

"As I said, we don't know. We might have shared the caverns with the rebellion but we had nothing to do with them. We only investigated after the grand army had slaughtered them, and then all we did was claim the remainder of their supplies and reseal the passage."

"You mean you left all those bodies there!?"

"It was the only prudent decision," Ebon said with a sniff. "We do our best to keep our existence hidden from the Mareitanians and digging a mass grave for a couple hundred bodies isn't a very secret endeavour!"

"But-"

"Silence!" Quartz shouted, silencing both Twilight and the thestral. "We are not here to debate decisions made four hundred years ago! Now please, could you tell me what you are doing in Mareitania?"

"We are here on behalf of both Princesses' Celestia and Luna to bring an end to the rule of the Duke by any means possible."

"So not much then," Fishbait joked, although the humour wasn't shared by his cohorts.

"A fool’s errand if ever I heard one," Ebon muttered distastefully. "How do you intend to do that?"

"We... We don't know. We're still formulating a plan."

"Ridiculous..."

Quartz pursed her lips as she thought, "I regret that we cannot assist you in your goals. We have taken steps to keep ourselves hidden and safe, and aiding you would destroy that, especially if you fail. As we too would like to see the Duchy brought down though, and since you have done us a favour bringing this news to us, I think we can give you access to our records," she looked to the Lore keeper who nodded, "but that is it. First though I think I ought to ask you about the Empire. Is it truly returned to us?"

"It is. It came back last year but unfortunately Sombra returned with it. Thankfully we were able to reclaim the Crystal Heart and activate it, both protecting the Empire and destroying Sombra, and now it’s part of Equestria and is ruled over by Princess Cadence."

"You mean to tell me you had a hoof in that too?" Ebon said incredulously. "Anything else you were involved in?"

"Uh, my friends and I might have helped stop Discord when he broke free of his prison last year..." Ebon's eyes bulged in disbelief.

"Maybe tearing the Duchy down isn't beyond you..."

"A few months later we intentionally released him again and reformed him. He now does his best to do good, albeit with the occasional slip up." No way was she about to let Discord forget Tirek.

"Purple pony for president!" Fishbait shouted joyously. "Clearly she can do anything!"

"Who is this 'Princess Cadence?'" asked Quartz.

"She's... the Princess of Love..." Twilight bit her lip, even she knew that springing the existence of new alicorns on these people might seem a bit far-fetched.

"Equestria has another princess? Truly?" Ebon said in a voice strangely devoid of feeling.

"Two more princesses actually; the Princess of Love and the Princess of Friendship, although she's barely been a princess for a few months."

Fishbait snorted, "Equestria sound like sissy place with princesses of 'love' and 'friendship.' What name of friendship pony?"

Twilight froze. Her friends looked at her expectantly, except for Summer and the filly, and Trixie even gestured towards the council before making little flapping motions with her hooves. Twilight glanced up at her horn and shook her head slightly, trying to indicate that she couldn't reveal her wings because of the inhibitor. Not that she thought she should anyway.

"As I said she's a pretty new princess, so her name somewhat escapes me. Duskshine Sprinkle, or something like that." Twilight hoped to hell that the council bought her poorly thought up lie.

Ebon and Quartz spared a glance at each other while Fishbait picked his nose and flicked whatever he dug out away. "Are we so out of touch that we don't even know about two new alicorns?" Quartz muttered.

"Pfft, purple pony could be lying about new pony princesses."

"I doubt it," said Ebon. "What reason would she have to do such a thing?" He stared at the six ponies for a few seconds like he was deciding something, before speaking. "The council thanks you for your cooperation, but we have things we wish to discuss. Privately. Sentries Onyx and Shadow will escort you to the archives if you wish."

Twilight and the others bowed to the council members, "We are most thankful for your generous decision to let us see them."

"Yeah, and for not throwing us into the deeps," the filly muttered a little too loudly. "Whatever they are."

Ebon gave the filly a stern look, "The deeps are a vast underground lake far below the caverns. The perfect place for doing away with inquisitive ponies."

"Isn't that rather brutal?" Fleur said, sounding shocked.

"Yes, it is. As I said, we take protecting our secrets very seriously. As a final thing, could I ask your names?" Twilight told him, pointing out the ponies the names went to, ending with the filly. "The filly..." Ebon deadpanned.

"She doesn't have a name for some reason," Fleur explained, "and for some reason we can't think of one suitable."

"I see." Ebon looked to Quartz and Fishbait, both of whom nodded. "Very well, this council is adjourned. Shadow and Onyx will take you to the archives and should we need you we will send for you."

Twilight blinked in the unnatural light the crystals emitted as they stepped out of the council chambers, "That went rather well I think."

"I disagree," said Octavia. "They claim that they wish to remain secret, which I can respect, but how could they have remained secret for over a thousand years? Especially considering that the crystal ponies came here openly, hoping for asylum."

"Are you questioning the council’s wisdom?" Onyx narrowed his eyes at Octavia who had the decency to look a little ashamed.

"Not at all, I just think that keeping an entire colony of crystal ponies, thestrals, and diamond dogs secret for over a thousand years would be next to impossible. There would at least be rumours of your existence, even if there was no proof."

"Oh yeah?" Onyx sneered, "There's nothing backing up what you're claiming either!" Even Shadow seemed put off by his defensiveness.

"Dude, chill out. They do kinda have a good point."

"Oh not you too Shadow. As I said, these ponies have no reason to doubt our claims."

"Yes we do," said the filly, an unusually serious expression on her face. "You have, what, a few thousand ponies and diamond dogs down here right?"

"Something like that," Shadow confirmed.

"What are they eating? I don't see any farms down here, and it's not like you can grow food without proper sunlight. So where's the food coming from?"

"Pfft," Shadow snorted, "That's easy. We gather some from the land and what we don't get from that we steal."

"You what?"

"We steal it. That's why the crystal ponies and diamond dogs let us stay here, because we could go out at night and take food from the farms and stuff."

"Every night?"

"Yep!"

"You take enough food from the surrounding area to feed a few thousand ponies and diamond dogs, every night, without being seen and without ponies being suspicious about all that food going missing..."

"Um... yeah?" Shadow frowned and scratched her head. "Well, we must do, right?"

Fleur swept the filly up in her legs and gave her a nuzzle, "I gots a smart filly!"

"Enough," Onyx said with an air of finality. "We are going to go to the archives, and you are going to stop poking holes in our way of life." He walked off without looking to see if they were following and feeling that they had little choice they followed after him.

"Something about this place smells rotten," the filly said just loud enough for the ponies near her to hear, although judging by the way Shadow bit her lip it was clear she heard it too.

"Here we are," Onyx announced, "the archives." The crystal pony had led them to a building on the outskirts of the city. The only thing differentiating this building from the others was that it said 'archives' on the front and appeared to be backing into the wall of the cavern meaning there was no way to tell how big the building truly was.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the archives in the council chambers?" Twilight asked.

"We used to, long ago," Onyx answered, "but we had to find a new place because the council chambers ran out of room. Of course this was about five hundred years ago so don't quote me on that."

"What could you possibly have so much of to record?" Trixie said sceptically.

"Mining records mostly," said a pleasant voice from behind them. It belonged to an elderly thestral mare, light grey with a white mane and tail. "Who are these ponies you've brought here?"

"My apologies Archivist," Onyx said to the newcomer, "I didn't realise you were out."

"Even I'm entitled to get out of that dusty building once in a while Onyx, despite what Ebon might think. Now introduce me to these ponies before I give you what for."

"Sorry archivist." Onyx pointed to the appropriate pony as he said their name, "This is Fleur, Summer, Trixie, Twilight, Octavia, and the filly."

"The filly?"

"Yeah, I don't have a name, just a description. Roll with it."

"I see. Well I am Archivist Script, Lore keeper Ebon's younger sister and master of these archives. How can I help you?"

"Hang on," said Trixie, "if you're the master of these archives then how come Ebon's the lore keeper and not you?"

"Because he's the oldest individual in the city and therefore must be possessed of a lifetime of wisdom like no other could hope to match." Script tried to keep her face serious but quickly failed, bursting into a smirk. "Or it could be that he's allergic to paperwork and gave me the job of dealing with it while he took all the glory. Now, as I said, how can I help you?"

Twilight took a step forward before speaking, "We've been given permission to look for information on the last rebellion and the alicorn that led it."

Script immediately rolled her eyes and sighed, "You came looking for the long story didn't you? Typical, the first surfacers to be allowed down here in as long as I can remember, and it turns out you're tourists chasing a myth. I'm not even sure why that stupid legend persists."

"What do you mean?"

Script walked around the group and stood in front of the archive building, "The long story was a bunch of chicken scratch scraped onto a wall by a diamond dog detailing how his people arrived in these caverns. All in all it took about five minutes to read, which might be long by diamond dog standards, but for the rest of us it only took as long as it did to read because it was written in pictograms and was very much open to interpretation. It was destroyed centuries ago, which only makes it all the more annoying when ponies come looking for it."

"What did it say though?" asked Twilight, who was slightly mortified that anypony could destroy an ancient piece of art like that.

"It basically said that the dogs came, saw some shiny crystals and decided to stay. Doesn't even say where they came from and why they came here. Now then, that's enough chitchat. You wanted information, so let's find some information." Script led them into the archive, and was about to shut the door when she noticed Shadow hanging back, "Are you not coming in dear?"

"Umm... no. My shift ended a while ago and there're some things I need to do." She spread her wings and crouched down, ready to take off.

"Shadow! Wait!" Onyx shouted, but it was too late, the thestral was gone. "Damn it Shadow, you're going to get in trouble for abandoning your duties again." Onyx snorted and headed inside, shutting the door behind him before turning and walking into Twilight's backside, not that she noticed because she was too busy taking in the atmosphere.

Twilight breathed deeply, sampling the musty smell of accumulated ancient knowledge. The archives did expand far back into the side of the cavern, carefully carved out of the rock until you couldn't tell you were inside a cave rather than a room, and inside that cave was a veritable collection of treasures. If you were Twilight anyway. The others didn't share her enthusiasm in the slightest.

"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Trixie whined.

"By asking the archivist nicely I imagine," Octavia told her.

"Oh great and knowledgeable Archivist Script, do grant us your favour and show us where the history section is." Trixie bowed deeply before the Archivist.

"It's... uh...at the far end, where all the history is. Are you okay dear?" Trixie had started sneezing heavily and appeared to be having trouble stopping.

"Your f-f-f-floor is... is... a-a-ah-choo! Your floor's a bit d-d-d-dusty... Ah-choo!"

"Then that will teach you for trying to mock her," Octavia said. She nudged Trixie on the side and followed after Script who was leading them up through the archives.

Twilight looked at the rolls of parchment carefully stacked in their cubby holes as they passed, "You said most of this was mining records?"

"Yes indeed, the diamond dogs would mine even if we didn't record all this, so we figured that if it's going to happen anyway it may as well be organised."

"What are you mining for?" Fleur asked.

"Why, whatever we happen to find. Crystals and precious metals aren't that commonly found here anymore but we do have quite a bit of iron and copper down here."

"But what would you need those things for?" asked Fleur. "You hardly need them for building materials."

"And can't you grow your own crystals?" added Trixie.

"We have the occasional need for such things, but as I said, the dogs would mine them all the same." Script led them into a room that branched off at the end, a room that bore a little sign over the door saying 'history.' It wasn't a very big room.

"I thought there'd be more than this!" Twilight exclaimed before quickly covering her mouth in embarrassment. "Sorry, I just thought that a thousand years’ worth of history would require more room."

"Sadly not. You see, while we're safe down here in Caverndown we are rather cut off from the world. Events that are common knowledge on the surface might be missed by us, or lack a lot of detail. The gatherers bring back what news they can but that is not really a lot to go on since they can't stop somepony and ask them about it. We record what little we do find out."

"Why though?" Trixie gave the archivist a funny look, "It's not like what happens on the surface really applies to you."

"I don't know... The crystal ponies started the archives before my people even arrived here, and the ponies that started them are long since passed. I'm sure it's mostly for posterity." Script ran a hoof over the shelfs as she searched, "Aha, here we go," she pulled out a scroll and gave it to Twilight, "This should contain the knowledge that we have of the rebellion four hundred years ago, but feel free to look through the other scrolls here. After all, there's been more than one rebellion in the last one and a half thousand years. I'll be at my desk by the entrance if you need me. I'm writing up a scroll on what recently happened in Prance."

Script headed off, leaving the five of the seven ponies to exchange awkward expressions with each other. "Do you really think what she said about other rebellions is true?" said the filly.

"I don't see why not," said Fleur. "I doubt that ponies put up with the Dukes' crap for a thousand years before realising that they should maybe do something about it."

"But it seems odd that every one of them failed," Octavia added.

"Yeah," Twilight put down the scroll Script gave her and unfurled it slightly using her hooves since her magic was still inhibited. "I'm going to read this, you guys look for information on the other rebellions if they have any." Twilight settled down and started reading while the others spread out on their search. She couldn't help but grin though. It might not quite be a library but it was the closest thing to one she'd found since leaving Equestria.

"Are you okay Summer?" Octavia paused in her reading to address the pegasus sat stoically next to her. "You don't have to just sit there."

"I don't know what else I can do. I can't read so I'm useless right now." Summer looked so crestfallen that Octavia couldn't help but pull herself away from the scroll she was reading to hug the pegasus.

"You are not useless, and I don't want you to ever think that you are."

"B-but even the filly can read! I can't... I can't do anything..." Summer turned her head to look at her cutie mark of a sun covered by a couple of clouds, "I don't even know what that means... I don't even remember getting it!"

"It's probably a metaphor for something."

"What's a metaphor?"

"A metaphor is a... um..."

The filly piped up from the other side of the shelves, "A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, for example, saying somepony has a heart of stone means they're emotionally distant and not that they literally have a heart of stone."

There was a brief pause that nopony seemed to want to break until Onyx said "Is this filly for real?"

"My existence is not to be questioned thank you very much."

"Seriously though," said Trixie, "how you don't have a cutie mark in this stuff is weird. You sound like more of an egghead than Twilight sometimes."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with being smart."

"Trixie never said there was! Otherwise Trixie would be insulting herself!"

"Says the one who talks in the third pony as often as she can!" said Fleur.

"Trix- I told you I'm trying to kick the habit!"

"Guys!" Twilight shouted, "I don't know how long we'll be allowed in here so maybe we should argue less and read more!" They all grumbled but returned to their reading.

"A metaphor for us," Octavia whispered, "would be a herd of bickering foals."

Summer giggled lightly but her expression quickly turned serious again. "Can you teach me to read?" she asked after a few moments. "I want to read, I want to be useful."

"Um, okay. I'm not sure I'm the best pony to teach you but I'll do my best. We'll have to start with the basics though." Octavia motioned for Summer to lie down next to her, and using her hoof she carefully marked out the letters of the alphabet in the dust.

Twilight rolled another scroll up using her nose, lamented her lack of magic, and added it to the pile of scrolls she had already read. So far she had found nothing of use apart from a list of dates on which battles occurred and who had won said battles. Mostly the Grand Army. There was nothing about the ponies themselves, what their goals were and what went wrong. The mostly destroyed diary they had found had been more informative. There was also an annoying lack of information on the alicorn, other than saying she was there and that she surrendered.

She stood up and stretched, taking note of the plate and small collection of glasses that had accumulated around her. She didn't even remember eating or drinking the entire time. She grinned happily though, as it had been far too long since she'd had a research binge, and her mind felt slightly gooey. "What time is it?" she asked, hoping somepony was still there to answer.

"Don't know," Fleur groaned. "No sun underground so I can't tell. Suffice to say it's been a long time since we came in here. Please say it was worth it."

"I'm not sure... There's a lot of dates and suchlike but nothing truly informative. How about you guys? Find anything?"

"There have been a few rebellions over the years,” said Fleur, “but like you said, there's just dates and occurrences. There's nothing really telling us why those rebellions failed just as bad as the last one. Whoever made these records wasn't very good at it; the rebellion before the last doesn't even have a pony mentioned as its leader."

"The Duke at the time is mentioned though," said Trixie. "Helmcleave the Horrible. Apparently he liked to hang and draw his enemies, before beheading them in the noose and sticking the severed heads on pikes above above the main gateway of High Rock Keep. Really not sure why they went into such detail with that, but whatever."

"Delightful," Fleur said sarcastically. "Octavia, you find anything?"

"I'm afraid not. There's a mention of a place called Manestone being razed-"

"Manestone?" Fleur said confusedly, "Never heard of it."

"Hence ‘razed.’ The town declared its independence from the Duchy, but it doesn't say why, and the Duke back then didn't take too kindly to that sort of thinking." Octavia got up and walked closer to whisper to them, "I did find something though, scribbled on the side of a scroll from three hundred-ish years ago. 'Another shipment sent out to G.A.' I have no idea what it means though."

"Shipment sent out?" Trixie pondered out loud. "Sent out where? Caverndown doesn't trade with the surface-"

"Especially since their existence is meant to be secret," Twilight finished. "I wonder who G.A. is?"

"Usually that's used as shorthoof for the Grand Army, but that wouldn't make much sense in this situation." Fleur scraped at the floor, drawing a line in the dust, "I don't think we should worry about an abstract note on the side of a scroll right now. What we should find out is what we're going to do now."

"Well that's just it," said Trixie. "Trixie's been looking through all this hoping to find some clue as to what 'hail green son' might mean but so far has found nothing." Twilight bit her lip. She had been so taken with her research and everything else that she'd forgotten all about the clue.

"Hail green son?" said the filly sleepily. "Wha's that?"

"It's the clue the assassin gave us..." Fleur said slowly. "I'm pretty sure we told you. We talked about it after Octavia and Twilight got back from their little trip together."

"You mean the trip where the rest of us stayed behind and you gave Trixie a right royal rollicking? You never mentioned it while I was there."

"She was up the tree wasn't she..." Twilight facehoofed and ran the hoof down her face before groaning. "Filly, do you have any idea what 'hail green son' might be?"

"How's it spelled?" Twilight started to spell it out letter by letter before stopping. She searched around until she found a blank piece of parchment and a charcoal stick and wrote the words onto that instead.

The filly studied it for a moment and shrugged, "I don't know about any green son's or anything like that. You sure you're not just trying too hard and it's actually a lot simpler than you think?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked in the hopes that they weren't all about to be shamed by somepony much younger than them.

The filly traced her hoof over the letters, silently moving her lips, before speaking again. "Well for starters, this is an anagram of Neigh Orleans..."

Silence reigned for a moment until Fleur reared up and threw her forelegs into the air; "How dumb are we!?"

Trixie quickly raised a hoof, "Oo-oo-oo-oo-me-me-me-me! Trixie knows! The answer is very!"

"Bingo!" Fleur dropped back onto all fours and pulled the scrap of paper over to her with a hoof. "Did we seriously miss that because we were trying to be too clever about it?"

"Probably," Twilight admitted. "Best part is though, is that we were going to go there anyway, meaning that the clue is actually completely pointless."

"Unless," Octavia piped up, "the clue could have two meanings. Hooves up everypony that has been to Neigh Orleans before. Apart from Trixie that is." None of them raised a hoof apart from Summer who started to raise one before putting it back down. "Summer?"

The nervy pegasus ground a hoof in the dust, "I've kinda been there before but I didn't exactly see anything."

"Why not?" asked the filly.

Summer bit her bottom lip, "Octavia, what's a polite, not too much informationish way to say I was chained up and forced to... do stuff... to anypony that wanted to use me?"

"Uh... You were... indisposed?"

"Indisposed..." Summer nodded, "I was indisposed."

The conversation took an awkward turn after that but Octavia cleared her throat and pushed on, "As I was going to say, there could be something in Neigh Orleans that the clue is a reference to."

"So I guess this whole diversion into these caverns was a complete waste of our time," Trixie moaned. "Why is Trixie not surprised..."

"You do remember where we are right?" Twilight said, gesturing vaguely in the direction she thought the city was. "I would hardly call finding all this and the remains of the last rebellion a complete waste of time. The small amount of stuff we learnt from that unicorn's diary was worth this diversion, as you call it."

"Ugh, fine... whatever. To answer your first question Fleur, what we're going to do now is go to Neigh Orleans."

"Yeah, I've gathered that, but what I meant was what are we going to do right now, as in we're still prisoners here. Are they at least going to give us a bed for the night?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"Is Onyx still around?" Twilight asked since she couldn't see him.

"Don't know," said Fleur. "He went somewhere a while ago and he never came back. Maybe Script knows where he is." She led the way out of the history section and headed back towards the archives entrance, hoping to find Script at her desk. Instead she found Onyx sat inside the door, his eyes half lidded like he was trying to not fall asleep. Script was nowhere to be found. "Onyx?"

The crystal pony jolted, his eyes fully open. "I'm awake! I wasn't slee- Oh, it's you. Are you done in here?"

"We think so," said Fleur. "Where's Script?"

"In bed I imagine," Onyx told her.

"Why? What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight. I imagine you're wondering where you're going to be staying tonight?"

They all nodded. "Something like that," said Fleur.

"The council has provided you with temporary accommodation in the city. I've also been told to remove your inhibitors for some reason, so if you'll line up I'll take those off before taking you to where you'll be staying." He pulled something that looked remarkably like a spanner from out of his amour and set about removing the inhibitors from Fleur, Trixie, then Twilight, before placing all the items back into his amour. "Now, follow me."

He pushed the archive doors open and immediately stopped when he found Shadow outside, pacing back and forth outside on the stairs, a frown adorning her face. "Shadow?"

"Gah!" the thestral yelped and jumped into the air and hovered, giving the other ponies a good view of the saddlebags she was wearing. "Damn it Onyx! You scared me!"

"Uh-huh. Where've you been? We were both meant to guard these ponies."

"I was getting some shuteye so that I can guard them tonight while you get some shuteye. You're not going to be much use sleeping on the job."

"Fine," Onyx grumbled. "What's in the bags?"

"Just some snacks in case I get the munchies later on. Now come on, take these ponies wherever they're going so I can get to guarding and you can get to sleeping." Onyx grunted and led the ponies down the stairs and before heading left, sticking to the outskirts of the caverns. Shadow quietly brought up the rear, various expressions hinting at some kind or nervousness whenever somepony looked her way.

After a few minutes Onyx led them to a reasonably sized house built of crystal. It was even more apparent that this was somepony's house when he led them inside as it was furnished in a way that suggested 'family home' rather than the jailhouse it was currently being used for. There was even a family portrait on the wall, depicting a small family of four crystal ponies, two adults and two foals. "Whose house is this?" Trixie asked.

"It belongs to the ponies in the picture." Onyx told them. "They've let the council borrow it to house you while they stay somewhere else." Onyx yawned heavily, "I won't give you the full tour but feel free to use the facilities. The bedrooms are upstairs and if you need anything, ask Shadow who is going to be guarding you responsibly, isn't that right Shadow?"

Shadow sighed irritably, "Yes Onyx."

"Excellent. If there's nothing more I shall bid you all goodnight, and I shall see you in the morning." Onyx turned and walked past Shadow, who tried to keep out of his way the best she could, before heading out and shutting the door behind him.

"Jerk," Shadow muttered once he had gone.

"Are you okay Shadow?" asked Twilight. "You seem a bit..."

"Edgy?" "Neurotic?" "Paranoid?" "Nervy?" suggested the others.

"I'm fine. I just... I kinda learnt something and it's kinda... Well... Y'know what, it's fine. Goodnight folks."

"Wait!" shouted the filly. "How're we supposed to sleep when it’s still light out?"

"Hmm? Oh, well it's always light outside. Just close the curtains and you'll be fine."

"Okay, and you promise not to sneak into my room and drink my blood?"

"Aww, but fillies are my favourite..." Shadow scuffed the floor with her hoof, "Shoot. Okay, I promise to not drink any blood. Besides, as I said, I brought snacks." The filly nodded, satisfied, and headed upstairs followed closely by Fleur, Octavia and Summer.

"Are you sure you're okay? You can talk to us if you want,” said Twilight.

Shadow ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought and sighed, "Maybe later. I'm still trying to get my head around things." She turned and exited the house, leaving Twilight and Trixie on their own.

"She's hiding something."

Trixie gasped dramatically, "How could you tell? Was your friendship sense a-tingling?"

"No, my friendship sense wasn't 'a-tingling.'"

"Uh... you don't actually have a friendship sense, do you?"

"No." Twilight remembered her new role as the princess of friendship, "Or at least not yet, now come on, I'm hoping to get to sleep before you start cuddling me."

"For the last time, that isn't Trixie!"

Author's Notes:

I apologise for the expositiony nature of this chapter, but I couldn't really think of some other way to get the information out of the way without going off on some huge tangent that could be a fic in its own right, so in the end I just thought 'screw it.' Twilight is going to ask questions because its her nature, and I can't have everyone just shut her down all the time, so, ta-da! Exposition!

20. Nowhere's perfect

"But auntie, I don't wanna go to school today," Trixie murmured in Twilight's ear, "my nose's the wrong colour and my hooves are too big..."

Poor excuse for not going to school, Twilight thought bitterly. She had done her best to get some sleep, and had for the most part managed to sleep through Trixie's nocturnal embraces up until Trixie had started to talk in her sleep. That was too much.

She gently removed Trixie's limbs, a feat made much easier without an inhibitor making magic impossible, and climbed out of bed before stretching and tip-hoofing down the stairs where she found an anxious Shadow pacing back and forth in the living room.

"You should be in bed," Shadow said tersely, not even looking at Twilight to say it.

"If you ever have reason to share a bed with Trixie you'll find out exactly why I'm here. What about you though? Are you okay?" Shadow stopped pacing and finally looked at Twilight, her face creased with worry. "Please Shadow, tell me what's wrong."

"You and your friends should leave. This place, it isn't what you think it is. Heck, it isn't even what I thought it was..."

"What do you mean?"

Shadow sighed and sat on the sofa next to her saddle bags. "Yesterday, after we saw the council and you all decided they were hiding something and were suspicious of the food situation, I got to thinking, where does all this food come from? We've never been short, even during the winter when gathering would be near impossible, so I went and asked the gatherers."

Twilight sat down on the chair opposite to Shadow, "What did they say?"

"Well nothing much, but even they admitted that something didn't add up. One of them told me to go and look in the stores just to see what kind of food is in there because they’ve noticed that occasionally we have food that nobody seems to remember gathering."

"What happened then?"

"Well..."

Shadow slinked down the tunnels, sticking to her namesake as best she could as she headed towards the stores where the gatherers deposited what they had found. Normally there was no reason for her to worry about coming down here since her position as a sentry gave her full access to most parts of the caverns, but she had to admit to feeling nervous enough to not want to advertise her presence.

As she drew closer to the stores she heard hoof steps and the scratching sound that diamond dog claws made on bare rock, and hid the best she could behind a small outcrop of rocks, hoping that her grey colouration would blend in with both the stone and shadows.

"Gatherer ponies not find much last night," said a diamond dog. "Makes me wonder how this place not starving yet."

"Yeah," said another diamond dog, "if not for meat hunters dogs would have to eat pony food too! Then what ponies do?" Meat hunters? Shadow thought, Is that what the dogs really eat? Gross! Shadow had often wondered what the diamonds dogs lived on, but the diamond dog warrens beneath the city wasn't a place the pony population of the caverns were really tempted to go. Even the pony guards tended to avoid that place, meaning the workings of the diamond dogs were a mystery to most ponies, although there was no lack of rumours.

"Will you two be quiet," said a refined yet masculine voice that Shadow suspected belonged to a stallion of some description. "You know there's always plenty of food here so cease your whining." They were approaching her hiding spot now, causing her to push up against the rocks as hard as she could and squeeze her eyes shut since they were the most noticeable part of her in the dark.

She chanced a quick look as they passed, taking note that the stallion was a crystal pony, and that none of them wore the armour of the guards. If they weren't gatherers and they weren't guards, what were they doing there? Shadow also recognised one of the dogs, Jackspot, whom she had had a run in with previously when he had said something derogatory about her friend, causing Shadow to correct his attitude by bucking him in the balls as hard as she could.

It was also Jackspot that nearly blew her cover when he stopped and sniffed the air. "You smell dat?" he asked. "It smell like pony."

"So?" said the other dog with a grunt, "What that supposed to mean? Entire cavern smell like pony!"

"And?" the stallion said dangerously.

"And nothing. I just saying that smell of pony extremely common."

"I smell something," Jackspot murmured, ignoring the other two, "a presence I've not smelled since..." He suddenly covered his privates protectively. "Nevermind, it not important. Let's go," he said hurriedly, walking off quickly with the others following after him.

Shadow slowly released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding and scolded herself, "Why am I so on edge about this? I'm a guard, I'm allowed to be down here!" She shook her head rapidly in an attempt to banish the sense of unease she was wallowing in but the feeling stuck with her.

Moving on it wasn't long until she arrived at the stores and started to walk among the large crystal bins where the different types of food were stored separately, hoping to find what it was that the pony that told her to come here had meant.

She kept walking around the bins, a small idea percolating in her head as she noticed that very few of the bins were full apart from ones containing sprouts and alfalfa, which looked like they hadn't been touched in a while, not like that was any surprise.

She sat down in the shadow of a tall grain bin and started on a laughable attempt at math. She could tell there wasn't much food here, and even less so with winter barely having ended meaning that all the food were things that would keep. There was versinly nothing fresh. Spread what there is around a few thousand ponies and you were... barely two, maybe three days away from starvation.

"This can't be right..." She tried another estimate of the food situation but arrived at the same conclusion. "But this is impossible! We can't be on the verge of running out of food without someone mentioning rationing!" Her breathing became heavy and she grasped her head in her hooves as her mind kept running laps around the same question; what the fuck is going on here?

There was a bang from the far side of the room making Shadow quickly duck down out of sight. She poked her head around the edge of a bin and was surprised to see the door recessed into the wall opening which was impressive considering the bar and chains sealing it shut, although now she was looking the bars and chains opened with the door, not hindering its movement in the slightest.

A female diamond dog stepped out and shuffled towards the passage back to the city, leaving a very confused Shadow behind her. She was almost one hundred percent sure that the area behind that door was restricted to everyone because the tunnels beyond it were unstable and dangerous. Now though, she wasn't so sure.

She waited a couple of minutes to see if anyone else was going to come through it before quickly flying over and examining the door. It didn't take long for her to realise that the solid oak door gave a good impression of being completely impassable despite previous evidence. She noticed a raised bump of rounded crystal in the door and peeked through it, although all she could see was a pinpoint of grey. Clearly the crystal was meant to be used from the other direction, probably so whoever came out could check the coast was clear and not reveal the door’s secret. Obviously they were a bit lax about it if they missed Shadow having a small existential crisis.

She pushed at the door until her hooves slid on the floor but the door didn't even creak at her attempts, let alone move. Admitting temporary defeat she took a step back and studied the door again for some clue towards getting it open. It didn't take long for her to notice that there were a lot of dints and scratches at the bottom of the door, all centred around a bolt set into the wood. Cautiously, she pushed at the bolt, which moved a little but did nothing more until she turned around and kicked back at it. There was a clunk as the bolt pushed in, and the door swung out, smacking her on the rear as it went.

She poked her head around the door and nervously looked at what was behind it, but the suspense was ruined when all she could see was a rough-hewn passage that went around a corner. She stepped through the door and saw a button on the wall with Open/close scratched over it. She pushed it and the door ponderously swung shut again, Shadow noticing that the whole thing was on a hydraulic ram, which seemed a bit excessive but would definitely stop anyone from accidentally pushing the door open.

Shadow nodded to herself, mostly as a gesture of comfort and certainly not because she suspected that what she was doing was crazy and bound to get her into ridiculous amounts of trouble, and set off down the passage towards whatever she might find.

"Well, what was it?" Twilight asked a little languidly. As interesting and worrying as the lack of food in the stores was, the story had an excess of detail about the door and getting through it. She wanted to move on.

"I was literally about to tell you when you interrupted me."

"Sorry, but you were going on about that door an awful lot and I really sort of wanted you to move on, with, for example, telling me what you found."

"I'm telling the story!" Shadow eyed up Twilight who easily returned it. She had been practicing on beings made of much sterner stuff than Shadow, although she had yet been unable to match Gummy's stare. That little toothless alligator was just too good.

"Hey! Are you paying attention!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Right... Anyway, as I was about to say..."

It was another cavern, a big one. Not as big as the main cavern by a long stretch of the imagination, but still pretty darn big. There was also an awful lot of carts, which was odd considering that Caverndown had no use for such things. Shadow spread her wings and leapt into the air, deciding that aerial reconnaissance might be the best thing for her to do, especially considering that the cavern ceiling was certainly high enough for her to do so.

She quickly flew up and did her best to hide amongst the few stalactites lining the ceiling, hoping they, and the darkness, would keep her out of sight of those below. She scanned the cavern, her keen eyes piercing the gloom around her.

Spreading along one side of the cavern were several large bays containing what appeared to be piles of dirt and rocks, but even Shadow knew well enough that they were piles of different ores that the diamond dogs had dug up. As she watched a couple of diamond dogs dragged a cart over to one of the piles and start filling it.

This drew her attention to the other carts, several of which were also full of ore and had been dragged next to a low tunnel that led to somewhere Shadow didn't know. There were other carts that looked like they had just been dragged in, and were being unloaded by a couple of diamond dogs under the direction of a thestral. It was what they were unloading though that caused her the most concern; baskets of food ranging from potatoes, to carrots, parsnips, those vile little things called sprouts. and more besides.

"What is going on here?" Shadow said to herself. As she tried to think of an answer the last basket was removed and the cart was dragged over to one of the bays where it was filled up with more ore. It was obvious that this was an exchange of some kind but Shadow had no idea who with. Her suspicions kept leading to the Duke but there was no way they could have agreed to trade anything with that bastard. Or could they? Shadow needed proof of something, one way or the other.

As she was deciding how to obtain such proof a twinkling of lights caught her eye from the far end of the cavern. Flying in that direction she found that beyond the bays of different ores were smaller bays containing what looked like uncut gems, although this wasn't what had caught her eye since uncut gems didn't twinkle and looked like rocks. What had caught her eye was a crystal pony working under lamplight, trying to nail the lid down on a crate, cursing around the hammer in his mouth.

Once he had done that he picked up something and laid it down on the top of the box before picking up a paintbrush and painting over whatever it was. He removed the thing again and Shadow saw that something had been left written on the crate, P.E.C's, which was clearly an acronym for something. Once he was done a couple more diamond dogs shambled over, picked up the crate between them and carried it over to one of the carts which the crate was unceremoniously thrown into.

Shadow turned her attention back to where the stallion had been working, seeing heavy scratch marks on the floor that led back to a small entry. Clearly a lot of crates had been dragged along there over the years for it to mark the rock like that. Shadow glanced around to see if anybody was near, and seeing that nobody was she flew down and quickly, yet quietly entered the passage.

It led to a room that clearly wasn't natural judging by its squared off corners and flat sides. It was also full of benches and tools, making it obvious that this was some kind of workshop. Thankfully nobody was around giving Shadow plenty of time to poke around. One bench held a collection of cut and uncut gems, and clearly this was where the gems were cut if the jeweller’s tools were any indication. Shadow reached out to run a hoof over one of the cut gems and was very surprised when the gem sparked and gave her a small electric shock.

"What the hell!?" she said before sticking her hoof in her mouth and sucking on the small burn mark the gem gave her. As she did that she saw the padded gloves on the table and felt a bit of an idiot.

Moving on she found that somepony was making small metal rivets if she knew her stuff. On the bench opposite was a small box of locks that didn't appear to be used on anything she recognised, and further up the row of benches someone was making straps made of thick canvas.

Shadow kept going, her confusion growing with each different little thing she found being made here. At least, that was until she found the last few benches where all these items were assembled into one thing.

"Oh no..."

"What was it? What are they making?"

Shadow didn't answer but instead reached into her bag and pulled something out, throwing it onto the coffee table in front of her, allowing Twilight to take a good look at the offending item.

Twilight peered closer before reeling back in horror, "Is that... Is that a pegasus collar!?"

"Yep. They're making them and exchanging them and the ore for food." Shadow hunched up and hugged herself, not quite sure how to feel about it. "I also imagine it's why this place is kept so secret by the dukes."

Twilight felt sick. Just when she thought she had found the one decent place in Mareitania it turns out to be a huge lie. "We have to tell somepony."

"What! No! We can't tell anyone about this! It'd be chaos!"

"But we can't just let this keep happening."

"Yes, we can. Most people down here have no idea this happening, and we can't go and tear their lives down like that. Besides, even if news got out, what do you really think would really happen?"

"But it's wrong! We can't let all these ponies and dogs live in a lie like this!"

"Yes Twilight, we can." Shadow shook her head and sighed, "You and your friends need to get out of here."

"Why?" Twilight asked, sounding more than a little bitter.

"Because you're Equestrians plotting to overthrow the Duke. The same Duke that supplies this place with food. Do you realise how much of a threat to the status-quo you are? I'd be surprised if the council hasn't already informed the Duke of your intentions."

That set Twilight's head spinning, the last thing she expected when she came down here was to be sold out to the Duke. "Wh- What should we do? How do we get out of here!"

"Patiently. If you try to escape now it'd be obvious that you were running from something. You should wait and hope something crops up, allowing you to escape."

Twilight nodded forlornly, the idea of waiting for an opportunity to escape sounding risky. "Why would they remove our inhibitors if they intend to hoof us over to the Duke?"

"Hmm... I don't know... Maybe they're trying to create a false sense of security for you?"

"Yeah... maybe. Are you sure we shouldn't tell anypony?"

"Twilight, what do you think would happen if we did? Even if we stopped trading with the Duke it'd only be a matter of time before he marched an army in here, or, if he has any sense he'd wait until we were starving and then march an army in. Either way we'd all be slaves and the collars would be made anyway. At least the people are free down here." Twilight couldn't argue with that. "Besides if you overthrow the Duke and free the pegasi we won't have to make them anymore, and we can finally stop hiding underground.

"I suppose. I guess this all counts on whether we can get out of here now."

"Yeah, by the way, I have a gift for you."

"A gift? Is that really appropriate right now?”

"Depends how you look at it. I know we can't realistically stop the production of the collars so I did the next best thing." Shadow reached into her saddlebags again and pulled out a scroll of paper, "I stole some blueprints on how the collars work, and the tools needed to activate and deactivate them." She pulled out a couple of thin rods with gems attached to the ends, "Could be useful right?"

Twilight snatched the plans in her magic and unfurled them on the table, "Shadow! This is- This is really confusing... Hmm..."

"Yeah I know. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't look at it here though. Fuck knows what would happen if Onyx or someone came in here and caught you going over those. Have a look at them once you're outta here. Anyway, I'm going to get back to guarding, and you should get some sleep."

"Okay," Twilight rolled the scroll up and picked it, the collar, and the keys up. She was about to go back upstairs when she paused, "Thank you for this Shadow, truly."

"Yeah, well... I'd rather wish I had nothing to tell you because there was nothing to tell."

Twilight's mind was chasing itself in circles and it was pretty clear that sleep wasn't going to be much of a factor in her life right now. Luckily Trixie had rolled away from her and seemed content to suck her hoof and murmur in her sleep, so at least Twilight had the time to herself.

She was also feeling a tiny bit guilty that she hadn't asked Shadow if she was okay as the poor mare was bound to be feeling torn over her discoveries. Maybe she should go check if Shadow was alright rather than lie where she was thinking about it.

Or maybe she should be looking over those blueprints, trying to work out how the collars operated to try and see if she could find a way to disable them en masse.

Or maybe she should try and get some sleep... Nah. Maybe a letter to Sunset? She hadn't replied to the one Sunset sent the other day although Sunset had implied that she would write the next one. Maybe not then. I wish I had a book to read.

In the end Twilight just lay there, unmoving, but unfortunately not unthinking. Her mind turned towards the filly and those marks on her back. They couldn't possibly be scars could they? If so how did she get them? Just as the temptation to sneak into the filly's and Fleur's room was building a muffled thumping came from downstairs followed by the sound of a door opening, "Morning Shadow."

"Ugh, hey Onyx. Does this mean I can go to bed now?"

"Not yet, the council wants to see our guests."

"What? Why?"

"Something about providing them with passage out of Caverndown." Twilight's ears folded back. Hopefully that meant what he said.

"Well... alright then..." Shadow sounded a bit suspicious herself. "I'll go wake them up." There was the sound of hoofs tapping up the crystalline stairs followed by a knock on the door to their room, which seemed unnecessary seeing as how Shadow walked straight in anyway. "Onyx is here," she hissed. "He's going to take you to the council!"

"I know, I heard."

"Then you heard about the passage out of Caverndown thing?"

"Yeah, and I hope that it's what it sounds like."

"What're you two talking about?" Trixie mumbled. "It better be worth waking Trixie from her beauty sleep."

"The council wants to see us," Twilight told her, even if Trixie already knew that part, "so we need to get up."

"Trixie remembers when she could stay in bed as long as she wanted... Trixie misses those days." Trixie rolled out of bed and promptly fell over as her hooves failed to grip on the crystal floor. "Whoever decided that crystal was a good building material was a moron," she groaned from her landing spot.

Shadow snorted to hide her amusement, "Yeah, we get that a lot around here. Apparently crystal pony hooves are better at gripping this stuff than others. Anyway, I'll go wake the others."

"Wait!" Twilight said hurriedly, "You wake Octavia and Summer and I'll wake the others."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Twilight followed Shadow out of the room and along the landing to where the others rooms were located. She knocked timidly and entered, which she felt silly for after seeing as how she was going in there to wake them up. Apparently she didn't need to try anyway seeing as how Fleur was already awake. The filly though, was still sleeping.

"Good morning Twilight," said Fleur, who was immediately shushed by Twilight. "Huh?"

"I want a look at those marks on her back while she's still sleeping," Twilight whispered. "I doubt she'd let us do it while she's awake."

"That's probably because it's a secret or something," Fleur whispered back, although she couldn't deny her own curiosity. "Fine, but let's be quick about this." She pulled the covers off herself and the filly, exposing the fact that the filly had apparently slept with her cloak on. "She always does that," Fleur explained.

Twilight bit her lip and gently lifted the filly up off the bed in her magic, taking care to not move the filly around too much in case she woke up. Once she was high enough Twilight unwrapped the cloak enough to expose the filly's back.

Fleur gasped when she saw the collection of scars the filly had on her back, but none were as large as the two large parallel scars just back from her withers, exactly where a pegasi's wings would be. "She couldn't be... But... what?" Fleur murmured, her mind rebelling over this discovery.

"But she is," Twilight confirmed, her stomach churning. Suddenly the filly started thrashing and screaming like she had been set on fire. "Get off me! Get the fuck off me!" Surprised, Twilight dropped the filly who bounced off the bed and onto the floor where she backed away slowly, tears filling her eyes as anger and betrayal vied for supremacy on her face.

"It's okay, we aren't going to do anything- Wait!" Fleur shouted but it was too late, the filly had bolted and was thundering down the stairs. Thinking quickly, Twilight teleported downstairs and erected a barrier over the door just before the filly got to it, the filly running full pelt into it and bouncing off.

"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

"Let me out Twilight! Let me out!"

"Why? What's wrong?" Twilight asked as Fleur and the others came down stairs. Onyx was sat on the sofa with a half-eaten bagel in his mouth and looking very confused.

"Waff voeing on?" he asked before swallowing and trying again, "What's going on?" Shadow poked her head out of the kitchen, slice of toast in mouth, to listen in.

"Let me go Twilight!" the filly shouted again before bucking ineffectually at the barrier over the door.

"Not until you tell me why you're trying to run away."

"Because you're going to hate me now!" the filly wailed, her tears coming faster.

"Hate you?" said Fleur. "Why on earth would we hate you?"

"Because everypony does!" The filly collapsed to the floor, finally giving in to her tears and distress.

"Um, sorry to be a bother," said Octavia, "but I rather feel that an explanation would be useful to those of us who have no idea what's going on."

"Yeah," agreed Trixie. "What she said but with less fancy."

Twilight looked to the filly to see if she was going to offer an explanation, but the filly didn't move, except to cover her eyes with her legs. "Um... I'm not sure how to put this, but the filly's a... well, she's a pegasus."

"Pfft," Trixie snorted, "is that all? I thought something bad had happened."

"Are you kidding me?" the filly screeched. "Are you fucking kidding me!?" The filly pulled off her cloak and threw it at Twilight, showing her scars to all the ponies around her. "Go on then! Get a good look at how much of a fucking pegasus I am and get on with hating me!" A mixture of expressions passed across the faces of the ponies assembled there while Summer launched into a choking fit.

"Why do you think we're going to hate you?" Fleur asked imploringly as Octavia smacked Summer on the back.

"Because everypony always does. Every time I get found out about being a pegasus everypony turns on me even though I don't have any fucking wings!"

"But that's stupid, why does it matter if you're a pegasus?" Trixie asked before suddenly realising her own answer, "Right, Mareitania. Sorry."

"Trixie's not wrong though," said Fleur. "You being a pegasus doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to us."

"And what could you say to make me believe you?" The filly was panting now, looking more like she wanted to attack instead of flee. Fleur said nothing though, instead pointing at Summer who flinched slightly from the attention.

"We don't hate Summer do we."

"Yeah," Twilight agreed, "and we all know ponies back in Equestria who are pegasi. Two of my best friends are pegasi!"

"And Twilight has wings so it's not like she can judge," said Trixie.

"Trixie!" Twilight, Fleur and Octavia yelled, making Trixie crouch down wearing a grin that could have gone 'baa' at any moment.

"Heh... Sorry?"

Seeing as how the game had been given away Twilight focused and dispelled the illusion hiding her wings, spreading them for all to see. "There's no way I could hate you for having wings."

"You got to be fucking joking! A unicorn gets to have wings! I get mine cut off and you get to have some? A fucking unicorn!?"

"Actually I'm an alicorn..." Twilight mumbled, feeling bad for having shown her wings to the wingless pegasus.

"I don't care what you are! This is so unfair! And you lied to me! You've lied to me all this time about having wings!"

"She's also a princess," Trixie offered helpfully. Twilight pointed her horn at Trixie and cast a spell, a door appearing from thin air and slamming itself shut in Trixie's face, "Ow."

"Stop saying stuff Trixie!" Twilight yelled, her voice cracking slightly. Her ears folded back when a hoof tapped her on the flank.

"An alicorn and a princess?" Onyx said accusingly. "Anything else you wish to tell us your highness?"

"Yeah," Fleur said loudly. "Trixie likes to hug ponies in her sleep!"

Trixie gasped, "No Trixie does not!" she said from her hiding spot behind the door. "She denies all these spurious accusations made against her about nocturnal snuggles!"

Onyx rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I don't care. This is serious stuff Twilight. I'm going to have to inform the council."

"No! You can't!" Twilight begged. "This has to stay a secret, please!" She recast the spell to hide her wings as emphasis.

"No, the council needs to hear about this."

"Aww c'mon spoilsport," said Shadow, batting her eyelashes at him, "let them have their secret. It's not like the council really needs to know is it?" Around him the other ponies simultaneously gave him either puppy eyes or fluttered their own lashes at him. Except for the filly who was throwing a measure of confusion into her mix of emotions, and Summer who had the expression of a dog learning a new trick.

"Fine..." Onyx said grudgingly. "I don't know why it's a problem if the council finds out though."

"Let's just say some secrets are best kept secret," said Shadow, giving a knowing look to Twilight.

"Have I gone completely mad?" asked the filly. "One moment I'm having my privacy extremely intruded on and my secrets laid bare for all to see, and the next Twilight's an alicorn princess, whatever an alicorn is."

"I'll tell you what an alicorn is later," Fleur said to the filly. "For now I only want to assure you that we think no worse of you for being pegasus, and I hope you can forgive us for-"

"Sticking your muzzle in where it's not wanted?"

"That's what she said!" Shadow exclaimed, holding a hoof up. "Come on! Somepony? Anypony? Don't leave me hanging! Onyx? No? Fine..." Shadow pouted and kicked at the floor.

"Uh... yeah... Anyway, we're sorry."

The filly glared at the floor and ground her front right hoof a bit, "Fine, but this doesn't mean I forgive you. Pull another stunt like this and you won't be seeing me ever again." She picked her cloak up and threw it over her back and was halfway back upstairs when Trixie stopped her.

"Wait, since you're secretly a pegasus does this mean you also secretly have a name?" The filly stared coldly at her for a few seconds before finally answering.

"Yeah, Swift Wings. Seriously though, never call me that. Ever." The filly continued upstairs and out of sight.

"Ooh, ouch," muttered Trixie.

"For once in your life, be quiet," Octavia said, giving Trixie a light cuff around the back of the head.

The journey back to the council chamber was rather quiet and sullen, apart from the quiet murmuring of Fleur and the filly, who were behind the rest of them as Fleur explained what alicorns are and why it was so important that Twilight being one remained a secret. The entire time that went on Twilight swore she could feel the filly glaring at the back of her head.

Soon enough they were led into the council chambers where the councillors were already assembled. "There you are," the Lore keeper said. "We were expecting you sooner than this."

"Apologies Lore keeper," Onyx glanced at the filly, "but we had some unexpected occurrences this morning."

"No matter," Councillor Quartz said smoothly. "Did you find what you were looking for in the archives?"

"Not exactly..." Twilight admitted awkwardly. "The archives aren't the most... complete source of information I've come across..."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lore keeper Ebon asked, looking down his nose at Twilight.

"It means we're wondering how you came upon a title like Lore keeper," the filly said sarcastically. She was quickly shushed by the others but it was clear from Quartz's and Fishbait's amusement that the comment wasn't totally unwelcome.

"You're a precocious little thing, aren't you," Ebon said darkly. "I'm so very sorry our little archive is so very far below your lofty Equestrian standards. Perhaps it would be best if you left the caverns and found a library in Mareitania somewhere."

"Sorry about that your honour," said Fleur. "It's been a trying morning for us."

"Indeed? It may come as a surprise but we intend to remove you anyway. It is not our custom to have guests in Caverndown and it is high time you left."

"So, what?" Trixie protested, "You're just kicking us out?"

"A detachment of sentries will escort you out," Quartz explained.

"Yeah, and if Bruto get too physical again just kick him inna nuts," Fishbait added. Six diamond dogs wearing sentry armour walked into the chambers behind them, the filly tucking her tail between her legs at the sight of Bruto.

"It's time for you to leave," Ebon said, "and if you should attempt to return you may not find us so welcoming. Good day." The six ponies turned and filed out of the chambers with Shadow bringing up the rear as Onyx led them, the diamond dogs walking on either side of them. Now more than ever they felt like prisoners as they were being escorted outside.

"Does this feel wrong to you?" Octavia whispered as they were led through the city.

"Yeah," Trixie agreed. "Yesterday they were all like 'welcome to Caverndown, we hope you enjoy your time here.' But today they're all like 'get the fuck out.' Weird."

"I think you remember that wrong," said Fleur. "They were more like, 'you know stuff? Maybe we won't toss you in the giant underground lake.'"

"Meh, details. Whatever it was it was less intimidating than this."

"I'm sure it's nothing guys," Shadow whispered, joining in the conversation. "It's not like they're refusing to let you leave or something silly like that."

"She has a point," Twilight added. "I'm sure if they had bad intentions they wouldn't let us walk out the front door." Twilight suspected that if they did have bad intentions they would be leaving through the back door. In chains.

The guards led them out of the city, graciously giving the ponies a final chance to take a look at the underground city. The effect was ruined for Twilight since she now knew the cost of keeping this place alive.

Once the ponies were done looking they were led back into the tunnels, weaving their way through them by the light of the torches the dogs had for what seemed like hours until they got back to the semi-welcome sight of the last rebellion, Twilight's eyes lingering on the pristine suit of armour as they passed it.

"It’s time to say goodbye Shadow," Onyx said, stopping at the last tunnel to the outside world.

"Aww," Shadow pouted, "fine... Well, it's been a blast guys. Good luck with the whole stopping the evil regime thing you got going on. I would say that if you're desperate you could always come back, but apparently you're not welcome here anymore so... probably not the best idea..."

"Bye Shadow." Twilight gave the thestral a hug, "Thanks for everything. I don't suppose I could ask your full name?"

"I never told you it? Huh... It's Shadow Seeker." She nodded at Onyx, "His is just Onyx for some reason." The others said their farewells, with Octavia taking a moment to help Summer put her cloak back on, before slowly starting up the tunnel, the six diamond dogs falling into line behind them.

Twilight's horn lit up as the tunnel seemed to suffocate the torches now being held behind them and it didn't take them long to find the first hint that something was wrong, she could see light in the tunnel ahead but she remembered the tunnel being longer than this so there was no way they could be seeing daylight yet. She looked behind them to see if Shadow and Onyx were still there, but they seemed to have gone so she looked forward again and swallowed nervously, heading towards the light in fear of what it could be. She was not to be disappointed.

Waiting in the tunnel in the light of several torches were a dozen members of the grand army, fully armed and amoured. The lead pony sneered at them before talking to Bruto, "Are these all of them?"

"Yer, dese dem," the dog said back dumbly.

"Excellent. Come quietly ladies and nopony gets hurt." Several of the soldiers stepped forward and lowered their weapons so they pointed straight at the six ponies while a couple of soldiers came from behind the rest, bearing several sets of chains.

Twilight backed away, her rump bumping up against Fleur behind her as the diamond dogs pushed them up against the others, forcing them towards the soldiers. "Twilight! Do something!" Trixie hissed.

Twilight looked around wildly, her mind trying to form a solution as panic set in. She saw her chance when she noticed that the tunnel beyond the soldiers was clear. She focused her magic and, taking care to not leave anypony behind, teleported the group to the other side of the soldiers before sending a telekinetic blast back up the tunnel, sending the soldiers' rear guard flying into the others.

"Run!" Twilight shouted before sprinting down the tunnel as fast as she could while making sure the others didn't fall behind. She saw the filly was struggling to keep up so she used her magic to pick the filly up and place her on her back.

"How did they know?" Octavia shouted as they ran, the clatter of armour and hooves and the baying of the diamond dogs not far enough away for any of their liking.

"They sold us out!" Fleur shouted in reply, "They fucking sold us out!"

"But why? They have nothing to do with the Duke! Do they?"

"It's complicated!" Twilight shouted. "I'll happily tell you about it later, but right now we need to get out of here!"

"How do you know about it?" Trixie shouted accusingly.

"Shadow told me this morning! Seriously, I'll tell you later!" There was a snarl behind them and they looked around to see that Bruto alone had caught up to them, running on all fours like an ape. He leapt and reached out, managing to grab one of Octavia's rear legs, stopping her instantly as he landed on his front.

She kicked back with her other leg but he caught that too, "Help!" Octavia shouted as she struggled to free herself. Nopony was prepared for the scream of pure rage that came from Summer as she sprinted towards the diamond dog, spun, and bucked him in the head as hard as she could, his helmet flying away with a clang.

Bruto yelped and released Octavia and was trying to cover his head but didn't have the time as Summer reared up and dropped her forehooves onto his head, again and again until her hooves and chest were splattered with Bruto's blood. Octavia tried to pull her away but the pegasus seemed almost feral as she stamped again and again until finally, there was a sickening crunch as Bruto's head caved in.

Even the soldiers that had caught up were shocked into stillness as they saw this small blue pony beat a diamond dog more than twice her size into a bloody pulp. "Come on!" Octavia shouted at Summer, pulling on her tail until the pegasus got the message.

They continued sprinting down the tunnel, heading towards the distant glow of daylight. The light blinded them as they ran out, and they slowed down to compensate for their blindness which was a good thing because it allowed them to spot the semicircle of soldiers pointing spears at them before they ran into them.

They stepped back, and Twilight, wary of the soldiers still behind them, formed a shield all around them, strong enough to resist the blows that the soldiers laid upon it. The soldiers from behind them filtered out of the cave and joined the semicircle allowing the ponies to get a glimpse of the baleful yellow eyes of the remaining diamond dogs glaring at them out of the darkness.

"What do we do now?" Fleur said out of the corner of her mouth. "Can't you teleport us away from here?"

"You could 'ave a go," said a voice from behind the row of soldiers facing them, "but you'd only hurt yourself with this thing 'ere." The soldiers parted, allowing two earth ponies clad in dark iron armour to walk towards the edge of the shield, one a stallion and the other a mare.

"What thing?" Twilight asked.

The mare rolled her eyes, the expression visible through the narrow slot the armour provided for vision. "He means an anti-teleportation field generator. The way he said it implies you can see it, which I know you can't."

"I mean that black glowin' rock over there," the stallion said helpfully. "Now then, we've got orders to capture at least one o' ya unicorns alive and we ain't too picky about which one."

"However, if you surrender you all get to live."

"Fer now anyway. So what'll it be?"

"I'd like to see you get us from under here!" the filly shouted, full of confidence.

"They always want a demonstration..." the stallion muttered. "Okay then, you asked fer it."

The stallion stepped up to the shield and placed a hoof on it, a blue rune that shifted like a glowing ember flaring to life on the armour covering his hoof. Twilight grunted, a half-scream escaping her as the rune burned like cold fire on her magic, but for the sake of her friends she held on.

"Hmm, I'm impressed," the mare said. "Not only a unicorn that can make a shield, but a strong one too."

"We'll show you strong!" Trixie yelled, shooting a blast of pink magic that admittedly wouldn't have done much in the best of circumstances, but did even less to the mare in the black armour. The blast struck her and a series of blue runes flared to life across her armour, dissolving the blast into nothingness.

The mare snorted, "Strong? Really? If your purple friend there had done that it might have tickled me, but that? That was pathetic." The mare reared up and placed both forehooves on the shield, the stallion adding his free hoof.

Twilight screamed and collapsed to her knees, unable to stand as the runes cold fire burned at her mind. She maintained the shield but she knew it would only be a matter of seconds until they broke through. "Trixie," she hissed through gritted teeth, "make some illusions."

"Illusions? Of what?"

"Of us, as many as you can. Have them run away from here as fast as you can when I say so." Trixie nodded and got to work fulfilling Twilight's requirements while Twilight set about working out a spell of her own, despite the pain she was in.

Twilight collapsed the shield with a cry and her two assailants fell back onto all fours, "Definitely a unicorn t' look out for this un," the stallion said approvingly. "No' bad at all."

Twilight suddenly stood, her horn blazing with a new spell as she teleported the very earth from beneath the two black armoured ponies, who fell into the hole with a shout. "Now Trixie!" Trixie unleashed her own spell, dozens of illusions of them charging away from their position and into, and often through the soldiers who tried to attack the illusions coming towards them with no effect.

There was a thud as the giant clump of earth Twilight teleported fell to the ground just outside the ring of soldiers, distracting them enough to make them break rank. Twilight pushed them aside, glad to see her magic still worked on them, and made a hole in the semicircle of panicking soldiers. "Go go go!" she shouted, leading the way as she knocked back any soldiers that came near to them, Trixie and Fleur doing the same, though with lesser effect.

"After them!" the mare screeched from her place in the hole as her quarry ran as fast as they could. Whatever soldiers were left after the brief but confusing melee where almost all the wounds were caused by them hitting each other instead of the illusions, chased after the six ponies.

"Twilight! Can you teleport us out of here?" Octavia asked as they ran, taking care to watch her footing on the rough ground.

"Need... to get... further... away!" Twilight gasped. She was very close to hitting her limit and the run from their attackers was only depleting whatever energy she had left that should have been used on a more long term form of escape.

"How much... further?" Trixie asked, out of breath herself after producing so many illusions.

"They're catching up!" Fleur shouted, delicately prancing over a fallen tree. She even makes fleeing for her life look elegant, Twilight thought in her semi delusional state of magical exhaustion. She turned her attention away from Fleur and back to getting away, trying to think of a place to teleport to that wasn't too far away but the only place she could think of was in Caverndown or the clearing they had briefly occupied after leaving the riverboat.

"Twilight!" Octavia shouted. Twilight knew that she was just going to have to go for it. She pictured the clearing in her mind and focused on moving her and her friends there. Her horn burned with exhaustion and through fighting off the lingering effects of the anti-teleportation field, and it took her several attempts to get the spell right in her overtaxed mind. Finally she had the spell in her mind and unleashed it, teleporting them away. Not that she was sure where to. All Twilight could remember after casting it was a flash, hitting the ground too hard and somepony shouting her name as blackness claimed her.

-0-0-0-

"Ya look ridiculous," the stallion said as he watched his female counterpart scrape mud off her amour.

"Shut up Breaker! I'm not in the mood for your shit right now!"

"Aww, did lil Pearly get embawwassed in fwont of the soldiers? After all your boastin' and confidence too."

Pearly pulled off her helm, revealing a beige coloured pony with a brown mane and sparkling blue eyes. "And what about your own showboating you idiot! Did you forget that too?"

The stallion pulled off his own helmet and shook his long tan coloured mane out. The stallion had light grey fur and green eyes which were perched not far above a lazy grin. "Oh aye, but ya have ta think about it; when's the last time we went up against a unicorn that's actually a challenge? Let's face it, she bested us fair and square."

Pearl snorted and turned to address the nervous looking soldier trotting up to them, "Well? Did you capture them?"

"Uh... no, they got out of range of the teleportation field and teleported away. We don't know where to."

"Idiot!" Pearl grabbed her helmet in her hoof and smashed it around the face of the soldier, knocking him over. "I want soldiers in every town and city looking for these fugitives! I want them found!"

The soldier whimpered his confirmation to the order and ran off, Breaker smirking at him as he went. "I can't even remember the last time we actually needed the anti-jump stone. Kudos to that unicorn, she really knows her stuff. That blue unicorn weren't too shabby either."

"I know, and it concerns me that this unicorn, this 'Twilight Sparkle' knows such things. I hate to think what they're teaching these unicorns in Equestria."

"Aww c'mon honey," Breaker kissed Pearl on the cheek, "You really didn't expect to catch somepony like that first time did ya? C'mon, it's my turn to cook dinner tonight and the kids asked for that fancy ravioli they're so fond of. You know folding those stupid lil things takes me ages with these big, fat hooves." He kissed his wife on the lips this time and she gave a halfhearted kiss in return. She wasn't interested, as for her, the chase was on.

Author's Notes:

Chapter thing with wordses! Woo!

21. Into the bayou

Twilight awoke with a groan, feeling like somepony had taken a hammer to her skull, repeatedly and vigorously. She cracked an eye open, squinting in the harsh light of the campfire burning nearby. "Murgh-appuh," she mumbled. She was attempting to ask what happened but apparently speech wasn't her forte at this moment in time.

"Twilight? Was that you?" Fleur asked in a quiet voice.

"Mmhmm."

"Oh thank goodness! If you'd have been out of it much longer I think we'd have been in serious trouble."

Twilight was about to ask how long she had been out of it but instead she noticed how horrifically parched she was. "Wa'er," she mumbled, running a parched tongue over dry, cracked lips.

"Oh! Of course!" Fleur knelt down next to Twilight and propped her up as much as she could before holding a canteen to Twilight's lips in her magic. Twilight gulped greedily on the water, half of it spilling down her chin and front, but she didn't care, it was wonderful. Truly water was an underappreciated substance.

"Thanks," she said once she'd had her fill. Fleur let her lie back down again and Twilight took a few minutes to recover as some of the fuzziness left her, leaving her instead with a steady throbbing that seemed to originate from the right side of her head. She also realised that her right eye was in darkness.

She gingerly reached a hoof up to her eye and felt it, finding that it, and most of the right side of her head and around her horn, was covered in a thick layer of bandages. "Fleur, what happened? Why's my eye bandaged over?"

"You're eye's fine Twilight. We couldn't get the bandage to stay on without covering your eye."

"Oh, phew." Twilight sighed with relief that her eye was unharmed, but that still raised the question of why she needed to have a bandage at all.

"Are you okay Twilight?"

"My head hurts..."

Fleur gave a mirthless chuckle, "Yeah, I imagine that head-butting a rock at full gallop would do that to a pony. I'm honestly surprised you survived it. I guess alicorns must be pretty tough."

"I hit a rock? When? How bad was it?"

"A real mess. You were falling over before you hit the rock which is probably why you came off as bad as you did. Though if you had hit your horn straight on at that speed it probably would have snapped clean off. Even so, you were still in a bad way and I'm pretty sure you... died... at one point."

"What? That's impossible!"

"You don't need to tell me that. You stopped breathing and I'm sure your heart stopped which are pretty much the two qualifications you need for being dead. We were about to give up when suddenly you started gasping for air and you had a pulse again. I'm willing to admit that you might have had a pulse the entire time and I just lost track of it, but it's still weird."

"Was the filly okay? She was riding on my back if I remember correctly."

"She's fine. She was catapulted off your back and into a bush, but yeah, she was otherwise uninjured."

Twilight sat up, making her head spin, but it was worth it as it felt like she had been lying down for ages. She stretched her wings, glad that they were seemingly undamaged if a little stiff. She took stock of her surroundings, noting the others were all asleep which was sensible seeing as how it was apparently night time. "How long was I out?"

"Three and a half days. You've been in a coma, or whatever it was, for the entire time."

"Three and a half days!?" Twilight was shocked to think she had been unconscious for that long. No wonder she was so thirsty. "What have I missed?"

"Not much. First there was the mad scramble to fix you up and stop you bleeding out, and then you possibly died anyway but got over it. We worked out we were in the clearing by Hoovendale so Octavia and the filly went to town for medical supplies so we could patch you up as best we could. Might have been easier if one of us knew first aid."

Twilight felt the bandage on her head again, "You seem to have done okay for ponies with no medical knowledge."

"Not really, all we did was stop the bleeding and wrap it up. We had no idea if you were okay or even if we were doing the right thing. You could have been brain dead for all we knew."

"Not that you could tell the difference," Trixie murmured in her sleep.

"Doesn't miss a beat does she?" Fleur said with a grin. "Anyway, once we were fairly certain you were in a state of non-imminent death we decided to start heading to Neigh Orleans because it's the biggest place around here and therefore the best place to get help for you if you hadn't woke up by the time we got there. We commandeered a cart-"

"You mean stole."

"No, commandeered, get it right. We commandeered a cart to carry you and the last three days have been spent walking. We're now a few miles outside Neigh Orleans."

Twilight nodded, but quickly stopped as waves of nausea washed over her. "What about those soldiers? Have they been following us?"

"Not so far. I'm willing to bet that the guards have been told to look for us so for now we're staying out in the countryside. Incidentally, while we were looking for your map we found a pegasus collar, some gem tipped rods and some blueprints. Care to explain?"

"Shadow gave them to me. I was going to tell you guys about them but I never got the chance. Soon as everypony is awake I'll tell you how I got them. Unfortunately though I haven't had a chance to study them yet so I can't tell you much."

"Actually Trixie has been going over the plans and says she has some ideas about how they might work."

"Good, that's good." Twilight bowed her head as she tried to piece together her memories of what had happened three days previous when memories of two black clad ponies came to the fore. "Fleur, those ponies in black. Who were they?"

"I don't know," Fleur admitted. "I've never seen or heard of anypony dressed in that kind of armour or having that kind of power. What did it do to you?"

Twilight didn't know. Other than the searing pain and the feeling that the runes were so cold they burned, she had no idea how they worked. Did they absorb magic? Or destroy it? And how could she feel them through her magic? "I don't know, but it hurt and it... scares me. I really hope there aren't a lot of ponies with that armour because I really don't think that's a fight we can win."

"Here's hoping." Fleur lay on her side and snuggled down into her sleeping bag, "I know you've been out of it for a few days but you should really try and get some sleep. We'll be going into Neigh Orleans tomorrow and we ought to be at our best."

"I'll try."

"Okay. Good night Twilight."

"Night," Twilight said half-heartedly. She had far too much to think about right now, and barely half a mind to think with thanks to her injury. She snuggled down into her own sleeping bag and shivered, but not from the cold. Maybe tomorrow she ought to quiz Celestia on what she knew about those runes.

Twilight awoke again, this time much more pleasantly to the smell of food cooking nearby. She raised her head and opened her available eye just in time to see a yellow blur jump on her and hug her around the neck, nuzzling her desperately.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" the filly cried, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I assure you that was never my intention," Twilight said as she returned the nuzzle. "In fact I could happily go my entire life without anything like that happening ever again."

"Which part?" Trixie asked with a hint of sarcasm. "The part where we get attacked by ponies in freakish anti-magic armour, or the part where you do a long distance teleport carrying five passengers and subsequently smash your brains out on a rock?"

"All of the above, and then some."

"Good answer. How's the head?"

"Feeling like it's a couple of sizes too small for what's inside it."

"I thought that'd be a normal feeling for you."

Twilight smirked at Trixie, "If you're jealous, just say so." Trixie smirked back but remained silent giving Twilight a chance to drag herself to her hooves, which was a difficult process made worse by the fact that her balance wasn't too good.

"You know, most ponies would take more than three days being unconscious before getting active with a head wound like that," Octavia commented, giving Twilight a disapproving look.

"Most ponies aren't doing what we're doing." Twilight stood still, her legs wobbling and her head spinning. At the very least she could confirm one of her symptoms was a concussion. "There's a very good chance I'm going to need that cart for a bit longer." Fleur walked over carrying a bowl of something hot and steaming in her magic, the smell of which made Twilight's stomach growl. She tried to laugh it off but the gesture just made her head spin more and she rapidly sat down to save herself from falling over. Fleur held the bowl in front of Twilight, clearly hinting that Twilight should take it.

Twilight tried to take the bowl in her magic but for some reason her magic refused to work. Her head injury might have had something to do with it but that didn't feel right. It was more like her magic was scared. Her horn managed a few sputters of magic but in the end she took the bowl in her hooves rather than keep Fleur waiting.

"I'm pretty sure medical advice says to refrain from magic after any head injuries," Fleur said, suspecting that might be the problem. "That or you're suffering from a burnout."

"Yes, but that same medical advice doesn't say magic should be impossible." Twilight sighed and lifted the bowl to her mouth, drinking the porridge straight out of it. Cutlery was widely regarded as an unnecessary unicorn invention by most other ponies and creatures with hooves.

"All the same you should give it time." Fleur returned to the pot of porridge she had lazily bubbling over the campfire and filled some more bowls, one for herself, Trixie, Octavia, the filly and Summer.

Summer! "You killed that diamond dog!" Twilight blurted out. Summer dropped her gaze to the floor and the others made various motions indicating that Twilight shouldn't go there. Not that Twilight noticed. "How could you do that!?"

"I d-don't know. I was just angry... I guess..."

"Angry? Angry!? Being angry is no excuse to hurt somepo- somebody, let alone kill them!"

"B-but he was hurting Octavia!" Summer hunched in on herself and started to cry. "I'm sorry mistress!"

"That's still no reason to kill someone! I would have gotten her away from him if you had given me a chance!" Summer sobbed, repeatedly mumbling "I'm sorry mistress," and Twilight felt some of her anger recede. Summer wasn't a pony she needed to be yelling at. Not least because Summer probably thought that Twilight was going to punish her.

"She doesn't really remember doing it," Octavia told Twilight, placing a comforting hoof across Summer's withers.

Twilight said nothing, instead sampling the stinging sensation that ran round the inside of her skull. She rubbed her head and tried to think of a solution but her friendship lessons were letting her down on the 'a pony I know just brutally killed someone' side of things. "Fine, but I'm not letting this go. We can't have this happen again."

"I really don't think she would..." Octavia tried to say in Summer's defence.

"No? Are you not curious how a pony too terrified to defend herself managed to kill a diamond dog three times her size in a frenzied attack all because you were being hurt? Not that I want it to happen but there's a fairly significant chance of something similar happening and I don't want to see that sweet little pegasus splattered with blood again."

"I'm pretty sure there was some chunks of brain too," Trixie muttered quietly, but not quietly enough when she noticed Twilight shooting her a dirty look.

"I'm glad you can joke about this Trixie," Twilight said, "because this-"

"Actually Twilight," Fleur interrupted, "I rather think you're being naïve about this. Yes it's unfortunate that what happened, happened, but I think you're overreacting."

"If you're about to lecture me on how it's okay to kill, I suggest you save your breath,” Twilight said in a low voice.

"I'm not about to suggest that it is, but this comes back to you thinking our mission can be done without violence. Did all those bodies littering Prance not suggest to you that violence, and killing, is going to be a factor? At least Summer did it in defence of someone."

Twilight folded her ears back. Give it to Fleur to know how to bring her back down to earth. As much as it horrified her, Twilight was beginning to realise that violence would be a factor. Even in the peaceful land of Equestria her battle with Tirek had taught her that violence can be a solution.

"Fine," Twilight admitted, her desire for this conversation to go on having severely diminished. "All the same we should keep an eye on her in case it happens again."

Twilight lay down in the cart as they resumed their journey towards Neigh Orleans, playing with her hooves as an awkward silence pervaded the area. Twilight had to admit she felt bad about confronting Summer like she did. It's not her fault she has more issues than...than... Twilight had to admit that Summer was a new benchmark for issues and she wished Applejack was there to make a countryism about it.

Perhaps now would be a good time to have a chat with Celestia. Twilight pulled her bags over and rifled through them until she found the speaker stone and pulled it out using her mouth. She set it down in front of her and tried to coax her magic into co-operating, but she achieved little more success than earlier.

Rather than risk straining herself she admitted defeat and asked for help, "Trixie? Or Fleur for that matter, could I have some assistance for a moment please."

"Sure," said Fleur, "what's up?"

"Do either of you know how to infuse energy into a rune based magic system?"

"Uh... I think you best have Trixie help you with that. My talents lie with telekinesis and this," Fleur's horn glowed and suddenly the air around her seemed to shimmer and sparkle in a way that somehow enhanced the beauty of whatever was within the effect. Fleur pouted and fluttered her eyelashes before cancelling the effect. "Very few uses for that spell I assure you."

Twilight coughed in an attempt to hide her amusement, concentrating for a moment on the back of Octavia's head, watching as she pulled the cart. "Yes, well... Trixie, do you know what I mean?"

"Not really, but it can't be that hard. Can it?" Trixie bit her lip.

"Not at all. All you have to do is touch your horn to the stone and transfer some of your magic into it. Pretty simple right?"

"Right." Trixie picked the stone up in her magic and floated it over to her before pressing it to her horn. There was a brief spark and a moment later the rune changed colour, "There! Trixie knew she could do it!"

"Great job Trixie! Now pass the stone back and-"

"Hello?" said the voice of Celestia coming from the stone, "Are you there Twilight?"

"Oh! Uh... good morning your highness!" Trixie squeaked in surprise.

"Who is this?"

"It is I, Trixie!"

"Trixie? Where's Twilight?" Celestia sounded worried.

"I'm here!" Twilight shouted. Trixie grinned like she was planning something but returned the stone to Twilight's eager hooves.

"Twilight, why was Trixie talking to me?"

"I'm having some issues with my magic at the moment and Trixie had to activate the stone for me."

"Oh, I see," Celestia said sounding remarkably unsurprised. "Are you otherwise uninjured though?"

"Not entirely, but it’s nothing I won't recover from. I have some news for you, but first, I have to ask if Luna's there. She wanted to know what was in the caverns."

"She just left for bed but give me a minute and I'll send a guard to summon her." The stone fell silent, the only clue of its continued operation being the colour of the rune adorning it.

A few minutes later the stone spoke again, this time with the voice of Luna. "Good morning Twilight, you are finished with your adventures within the caverns?"

"Yes, and I have a lot to tell you. In fact," Twilight motioned the others nearer, "there are some things that everypony needs to hear."

Twilight described all of the events of the last few days, beginning with their discovery of the last rebellion, their capture by Onyx and his diamond dogs and their arrival at the crystal city of Caverndown. Celestia had expressed disbelief that such a place existed without her knowledge, and Luna was surprised that a large number of thestrals had ended up there, a moment that quickly grew awkward when the filly mentioned something about vamponies and asked why Luna would create such a thing. Celestia had promised Luna a long talk about playing god before the day was over.

Twilight had then moved onto their trip to the archives where they had learned a whole lot of nothing helpful before moving onto the darker discoveries made in Caverndown, like how Shadow had discovered the truth about them trading with the Duke for food.

"Is that why they wanted us out so fast?" the filly asked. "Because we had found out about their dirty little secret?"

"I wouldn't think so," said Luna. "Chances are that they informed the Duke of your presence as soon as that meeting was over, and the Duke demanded you be turned over to him immediately when he learned that Twilight was there. It would seem your secrecy has been compromised. You must be extra careful from here on."

"That's not the only thing we have to be careful of," Twilight said. "When we were being taken from the caverns there were two ponies in black, anti-magic armour. Their amour was covered in weird blue runes that seemed to negate magic, and I was hoping you knew something about it. Is this a new thing? Is this why we never heard about it?"

"Actually," Celestia said, "it's quite the opposite. It's old, older even than Luna or I. I had thought it all but forgotten about if I'm honest."

"What is it? What are you talking about?"

"Runic warding. An ancient method of negating magic from millennia ago, back when the three tribes would actively war against each other. It was developed by the earth ponies as a weapon against the unicorns, offering a way to remove the severe advantage unicorns had over them of range. It was incredibly difficult to produce though, and as I've come to understand, never saw wide ranging use, apart from a few elite units."

"Then they must have found a way to reproduce it if those ponies had some," Fleur argued.

"Unlikely. As part of the ancient treaty drawn up between the three tribes, all of the rune warded armour and all knowledge of it was given to the unicorns. They would have been stored in Unicornia which is currently where the Duke resides. I imagine it was found long ago and returned to its original purpose."

"But why keep it so secret?" askedTwilight. "Surely somepony must know of it after all this time?"

"Dead ponies tell no tales..." Luna said cryptically, making Twilight shudder with the thought. "Besides, considering the lack of magic education amongst the unicorns in Mareitania I imagine such armour would be wholly unnecessary until your arrival."

"Perhaps," Twilight conceded. "They're only immune to direct magic so it’s not as if we're totally helpless against them. I just wish I had realised that before pushing myself to near burnout trying to resist them."

"Are you feeling okay Twilight?"

"Not really. As we were fleeing I teleported all six of us quite far, which combined with my efforts against those ponies was enough to make me blackout. Apparently I almost killed myself when I hit my head on a rock at the other end of the teleportation."

"Twilight! You know better than to do things like that!”

"I know, but it was an emergency and I couldn't clearly picture anywhere closer!"

"Enough!" said Luna. "What's done is done. Perhaps we ought to end this conversation, especially since it's well past my bed time. What are your plans for the meantime?"

"You know that clue I told you about? Turns out it was an anagram of Neigh Orleans, which we were going to anyway. We're going there now in the hopes of finding this 'Pierre,' and possibly Trixie's parents too."

"An excellent plan. I would hope to hear from you once you have discovered who Pierre is."

"Don't worry, you will. Bye Luna, bye Celestia." The princesses said their farewells and the stone fell silent, but not before Twilight caught a snippet of conversation that sounded like Celestia saying "I can't believe you made the thestrals and never told me!" Twilight was curious what Luna's response would be but suspected she would never find out.

"So..." Trixie drew the word out like she had something on her mind. "That's what a conversation with the princesses is like..."

"Yeah. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Seemed a bit disappointingly normal to me." Trixie shrugged nonchalantly and carried on in silence.

"I guess we should talk about this collar business and how they work," said Fleur. "Trixie?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. As far as I can tell the collars work using the crystals to provide an electric shock if the pony gets out of range of the antenna they use-"

"Oh bravo Trixie!" the filly said sarcastically. "Did you also know that two plus two equals four!" The filly held a hoof to her mouth mockingly, like she had given away a guilty secret.

"Excuse me for warming up with the basics."

"Do you have any idea how they work then?" asked Octavia, surprising the others that she had actually spoken.

"Yes I do. It's all in the resonance frequency of the crystals they're using in the collars. When the crystals in the collar resonate at a certain frequency they hold onto their charge, but if they lose that frequency they release it, shocking the pony wearing the collar. The antenna contains a crystal which resonates at the non-electrocution-y frequency but it only has a certain effective range of a mile or so, so if the pegasus gets out of range of the antenna-"

"Zap!" said the filly.

"Exactly. The shock is delivered through copper contacts, which is why you can't see the crystals, and the lock contains a breaker thing so even if you're in range of the antenna you still get a shock if you try and take the collar off by force. That's what the crystal tipped rods are for."

"I hate to admit it," said Fleur, "but that's really fucking clever. Perverse, but clever."

"Nice job Trixie," Twilight said, genuinely impressed with Trixie's work. Trixie buffed a hoof on her chest as she preened.

"The blueprints had notes on the frequency used so they can tune all the collars and antennas to use the same frequency range. Trixie has been trying to replicate that frequency with her magic but I have no idea how to check if it works or not."

"I do!" The filly grinned maliciously, "Put the collar on."

"That hardly sounds like a good idea," said Octavia, giving her opinion, but Trixie and Fleur looked thoughtful.

"Maybe we should try it," said Fleur. "You never know when having a spell that can do that might be useful."

"Quite, but who's going to be the pony that puts the collar on?" Trixie said as she looked around, hoping for a volunteer.

"It's your spell," said the filly, "you should put it on."

"What? No! There's no way Trixie is putting that thing on!"

The filly gave a heartfelt sigh, "Then I guess we'll never know if the Great and Powerful Trixie has truly created a spell that can fool the collars... Oh well..." They continued their journey for another minute but it was clear from the range of expressions crossing Trixie's face that she was fighting a battle between her sense and her pride. Sense never stood a chance.

"Alright! I'll do it!"

"I'm with Octavia when I say this is a bad idea," said Twilight, but her objections went ignored as Fleur lifted the collar and the rods out of her bags.

"Okay Trixie, take your cloak off and then start your spell thingy. I'll put it on once you're ready." Fleur stood with an expression of rapt anticipation as Trixie removed her cloak. Octavia unhitched herself from the cart and sat down, a carefully flat expression on her face.

"Okay, Trixie needs total silence for this bit." Trixie sat down herself and bowed her head as she lit her horn and preformed the spell she had been working on. Once it was ready to her satisfaction she stood and raised her head, allowing Fleur to place the collar around her neck. Fleur held the collar shut and everypony held their breath as she inserted a rod into its appropriate slot, turning it with a click.

"See, Trixie told you she could- Heurk-k-k-k!" Fleur had removed the rod and whatever Trixie was trying to say was lost as a significant number of volts hammered its way through her body. Trixie fell over and seized up while simultaneously spasming violently, a high pitched squeal coming from between her clenched teeth.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Fleur repeated over and over as she tried to get the rod into its lock with limited success as Trixie kept spasming and unintentionally knocking Fleur away. She finally got the rod into place and turned it, deactivating the collar, although there was little difference in Trixie who was still suffering from spasms.

"That went about as well as I thought it would," Octavia said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Are you kidding!?" the filly said gleefully; "That went better than I hoped!"

"Will you please stop kicking me Trixie?" Twilight moaned. After her unfortunate incident with the collar Trixie had found her ability to walk severely impaired, at least until the spasms stopped, and had been thrown into the cart with Twilight.

"Trixie can't help it, Trixie's legs aren’t working too good."

"We said it was a bad idea! Why couldn't you have listened?"

"But, in Trixie's defence, it could have been a very good idea!"

"No Trixie, it couldn't."

"You're just jealous because I'm burnt toast."

"Is that a literal description?" Fleur wheezed. After Trixie had put the collar on despite her warnings, Octavia had refused to pull the cart with both Twilight and Trixie in, leaving Fleur as the only pony capable of pulling it since nopony wanted to burden Summer with the task.

"No, it's from the song I'm making. I don't mean to brag, don't mean to boast, but you're a six course meal and I'm burnt toast."

"I'm pretty sure you got that backwards," Twilight said as she nursed the suspicion that she had heard something similar before, although she couldn't think when.

"I have not. Trixie likes burnt toast, and you being a six course meal implies you're fat."

"You like burnt toast?" asked the filly. "I mean I've eaten out of the garbage before now but even I draw the line at liking burnt toast."

"It’s an acquired taste." Trixie started humming the song and suddenly everything clicked into place for Twilight.

"Trixie, does this song involve you having tricks up your sleeve?"

"It may do. Why?"

"Let's just say that you're not the first... individual, to have thought of this song."

"Somepony stole my song? Who? Do I know them?"

"Uh, no, not exactly, but you do share quite a lot of similarities."

"Well if I ever meet them, Trixie and they are going to exchange some very strong words!" Trixie went to fold her hooves but spasm'd instead, clocking Twilight on the jaw with her hoof. "Heh... Sorry."

"Agh, why can't things leave my head alone? I have an entire body that could take some instead!"

"Oh the things I could imply," Fleur smirked, but it soon faltered. "But won't because I don't have much breath to waste."

"Actually, I do believe you could have a break," Octavia told her. "We should probably change Twilight's bandages for something a bit more subtle before we head into town."

"Oh thank Cadence," Fleur groaned before slipping out of the harness and collapsing.

"Thank Cadence?" Twilight asked. "Why thank her?"

"You mean I'm limited to thanking only one of our four nigh immortal alicorn pseudo-goddesses? There I was thinking that 'thank Twilight' had a nice ring to it."

"Oh no, don't even think about it! I'm already having enough issues with this whole alicorn thing without ponies throwing that into the mix!" Twilight glowered at Fleur who grinned back disarmingly. "And I am most definitely not a goddess."

"Maybe in a thousand years’ time then?"

"Never, if I can help it." Twilight clambered out of the cart, her legs feeling a lot more stable than earlier, and lay down while Octavia slowly unwound the bandages from around her head. Slowly, light returned to her right eye and she swivelled her eyes around in sheer joy of being able to use both again.

"Now let's just take this off-" Octavia gasped, "Oh my!"

"What? What is it?" Twilight asked, a hint of panic entering her voice.

The filly dashed around to have a look, "Woah, freaky!" she said as Fleur also had a look, muttering similar sentiments.

"What is it? What's wrong with my face!?" Twilight shouted.

"That's just it," said Octavia, "there's nothing wrong with your face at all! It's completely healed!"

"What? But that's impossible." Twilight felt the side of her head with her hoof and was surprised when she failed to feel anything that wasn't there before except for a slight twinge as she touched something tender. "I need a mirror."

Fleur searched her bags for a mirror as Twilight kept touching the side of her head while her personal space was slightly invaded by Summer and the filly who were peering closely at her lack of a wound.

"Here." Fleur held a compact mirror in her magic, allowing Twilight to angle herself until she could see the side of her head. As Octavia had said there was no injury, just a faint pink scar running down in front of her ear and a bold patch in her mane where she had somehow lost some hair.

"Even though this is a good thing," Twilight said carefully, "I want to freak out so very much."

"So I guess alicorns get to have freaky healing abilities too," the filly commented. "Lucky bastards."

"I wonder if she can grow limbs back if they're cut off?" Trixie asked, rubbing her chin with a thoughtful expression.

"We are not cutting any of my limbs off!"

"Actually Trixie was thinking of something less severe, like cutting off your tail."

"No! I need that for flying, and for... not looking like a tailless freak!"

"I was only suggesting..."

"Everypony calm down." Octavia waited until she had their attention before speaking, "Yes, while Twilight's recovery is quite astonishing, we can probably avoid making a big fuss over it and freaking her out with suggestions of cutting bits off to see if they grow back." She turned her attention solely to Twilight, "Is your magic any better?"

"I don't know." Twilight cast her sight around until she spotted a small pebble. Focusing all of her not inconsiderable will upon it, she, after a few false starts, managed to get it wobbling a few inches above the ground. "Hah!"

"Low and behold the mighty alicorn that fought Tirek to a standstill... triumphantly levitating a pebble..." Trixie slowly clapped her hooves together. "Mag-nificent."

Twilight gritted her teeth, "You know, for a pony who unwittingly got herself electrocuted earlier you're being pretty. Damn. Mouthy!" On the last word there was a pop from the pebble as her magic crushed it. She dropped it in shock and it fell to the ground in a shower of dust and fragments.

"Okaaay..." Trixie backed up a step and grinned nervously. "Seems like Twilight's magic is totally fine. Also, I got electrocuted for science which is totally a legit thing to do."

"What are we looking at Trixie?" Fleur asked as they sat on a low ridge that overlooked the city of Neigh Orleans. Not that anypony was going to admit it but the place looked huge. Apparently rather than building taller buildings the ponies that made this place had built sideways, and had difficulty deciding when to stop.

For the most part it was built on land and the waterfront stretched down one side of the city while the far side of the city stopped where the bayou began, the bayou itself almost as large as the city and was filled with trees so all it looked like from a distance was a big green blob. Adjacent to that was the Mareissippi delta which led out into Mareitania's only access to the ocean.

"It appears to be a city of some kind," Trixie snarked. "How should I know? For all I know this might not even be Neigh Orleans at all!"

"Surely you must know something?" Octavia implored. Trixie sighed and sat down before pointing at the city.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell you it’s next to the Mareissippi, but in all honesty it's almost built in it. The part where rich, fancy ponies live is the bit by the river where most of the interesting stuff is. Then there's the poor part that's back from the river and is actually bigger than the rich part. That's where my parents are supposed to have lived. Then there's the bayou that's basically a swamp with slums built in it, but only the totally destitute live there, although there are some that take a weird sort of pride in it."

"That was an awful lot for a pony that apparently knows nothing about this place." Fleur nudged Trixie with her elbow, "You holding out on us?"

"It's only what my aunt told me mixed with some guess work."

"What now then?" Twilight asked. "I doubt it would be a good idea to walk in through the city gates in case the guards are looking for us."

"Then we head to the bayou," said Trixie. "The guards probably don't patrol there, not least because there's no solid ground to walk on and the natives probably wouldn't be welcoming."

"Then how do the natives get around?" Fleur enquired.

"How would Trixie know? Maybe they use their freaky voodoo magic to walk on water."

"Voodoo?" Twilight said questioningly, "Really?"

"So my aunt says."

"But voodoo's make-believe, like curses and-"

"My aunt said it’s a lot like zebra magic in that it uses potions and stuff, but with some unicorn magic thrown in."

"But that's shamanism!"

"So? You think a zebra's ever set a hoof in Mareitania to tell these ponies that what these ponies practice is actually a more magically inclined form of shamanism? Is it still shamanism when a unicorn does it? Besides, all those stories you hear about evil zebras and stuff, those can totally be applied to voodoo witchdoctors."

Twilight rubbed her temples, "I can tell that this place is going to get on my nerves so very much."

"Where are we most likely to find Pierre?" Octavia asked, trying to return the conversation to useful topics.

"Heck if I know. Maybe we could ask around in the bayou or the poor part, see if anypony knows anything."

"Anything else before we head in?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, you won't need your cloaks down here. My aunt said that even in the height of winter it was always warm enough here to go without dressing up."

"Nuh-uh, no way," the filly said. "I am not taking my cloak off."

"Do you still have your old one then?" Fleur asked. "It'd probably fit in better around here."

"No, I threw it away because I didn't think I'd need it anymore. Besides, forget about me, what about Summer? She's panting already!" They looked at Summer who gave a pitiful appearance as she sat there with her mouth open, panting.

"Are you okay Summer?" Octavia laid a companiable hoof on Summer's shoulder, noticing the pegasus sag slightly.

"'m hot," she whimpered.

"Twilight, is there no way you can hide her wings with magic?"

"Not that I can think of. If I knew how to cast the spell I use to hide my wings on her I would have long ago."

"Will they even care in the bayou?" Fleur asked. "They don't sound like the kind of ponies who would rat her out."

Twilight shook her head, "Too risky. Until we can find another way to hide her wings she'll have to keep the cloak. We'll have to make sure she drinks plenty of water just in case."

Twilight waited while the others readied themselves, thinking of ways to solve Summer's problem while she waited. She could use a spell to cool Summer easy enough if her magic was working properly, but at the moment it could either do nothing, freeze her solid, or set her on fire in a fit of irony.

"Summer? You will remember to speak up if you start to feel unwell right?" Summer gave a small nod which Twilight could only assume was the entirety of her response. "Okay then, are we ready?" The others gave their affirmations, and they headed of towards the bayou, leaving the cart to whomever found it.

"Oh, there's one more thing about this place Trixie forgot to say. Watch out for the snakes."

"Snakes?" Twilight asked with a slight quiver.

"Mmhmm. Aunty said this place is lousy with them. Poisonous ones too."

"Good! Great! Fantastic! I have a new plan! I'll wait here until you're done in town and you can pick me up on the way out!"

"Got something against snakes?" Fleur asked.

"And they possibly have something against me, so as I said, I'll wait here."

"Don't be such a wimp Twilight." The others kept walking, leaving Twilight to fret and stress on her own. After trotting on the spot a few times and almost chewing a hole in her bottom lip she hung her head and admitted defeat.

"Snakes... Why did it have to be snakes?"

The six ponies found themselves leaving the beaten path and instead heading down a less beaten, but still well used dirt track that led them to a small jetty where they found a swamp green unicorn.

"You folks heading into the bayou?" he asked.

"Sure are!" was the filly's rustic reply.

"Then I'm yer pony. Name's Swamp Runner, though you can call me Swampy if ya want."

"How exactly does one run on a swamp?" Octavia enquired. From what they had seen of the swamp it seems to consist of mostly water with trees growing up through.

"With my giant boat shaped hoof, that's how. What kinda damn fool question is that? Ain't nopony that can actually run on a swamp. Now you getting on in here or what?" Five of the six ponies clambered into the boat, leaving Twilight who was staring in semi catatonic fear at the giant snake that was entwined around a tree branch above the jetty. "Twilight?" Trixie said, hoping to get her attention.

"Snaaa-sna-sna-snaaa-snaaa-snake!" she squeaked.

"Oh don't mind him none, he ain't gonna hurt ya; he ain’t got no teeth." The snake opened its mouth to show his lack of fangs.

Twilight wasn't going to mention that the snake was easily big enough to crush a pony to death but instead focused on the toothless aspect to distract herself. "What do you call him seeing as he's got no teeth?"

"Peter," Swamp Runner said, totally ruining Twilight's train of thought. "Though he has been known to tolerate being called Pete."

"Oh, that's good to know." Twilight shuffled along the jetty towards the boat, making sure to always face the snake at all times. The snake himself seemed completely nonplussed, keeping his eyes on the weird pony below him, even when she fell into the boat because she was too busy staring at him.

"You okay miss?"

"Ow..." Twilight groaned. "Gravity sucks." She righted herself and settled down next to Fleur and the Filly. Swampy pushed the boat out and started moving them in the direction of what they could only assume was bayous inhabited parts.

"So where you folks going then?" They looked between each other but none of them knew what to suggest.

"We don't really know," Fleur admitted.

"So you're lost then?"

"I wouldn't say we're lost, we just don't know where we're going."

"I'm failing to differentiate between t' one and t' other there. How can you not know where you're going?"

"Well, we know where we are, but not where we're going. There's an important difference there."

"Yes, but you could have decided to not travel anywhere and reached the same conclusion, yet you decided to come be woefully without direction in this place specifically so you must have some idea of what you're looking for, meaning you ain't as lost as you claim to be."

"You're the one saying we're lost!"

"Actually," Twilight piped up, "we're looking for somepony, goes by the name of... Pierre?"

"Pierre huh? I've 'eard of 'im, heck, everypony round 'ere has. Don't mean I have a sodding clue where to find him."

"Oh, great." Twilight rubbed her head, "In that case can you suggest someplace to go?"

"I reckon I can. Ain't nopony pass through these parts without going to see Mama."

"Mama? Who's Mama?"

"Mama Brew. She's like the wise old pony of the bayou. She might have some idea of how to get you where you don't know you're meant t' be."

Twilight looked to the others, none of whom had any objection beyond a shrug. "Does Mareitania run a monopoly on wise old mares or something?" Trixie asked in a whisper. "Specifically ones with matriarchal monikers."

"I really don't think anything in Mareitania trumps Equestria's wise old mares," Fleur whispered back. "You know who I mean? The millenia old ponies who rule the country?"

"Gee, thanks Fleur, that doesn't make me sound old at all, especially since you're older than me." Twilight groused to the sound of sniggers. They didn't say much more after, instead opting to watch the trees pass by as Swampy hummed a ditty. The only moment for concern came when a snake as long as three ponies swam past, causing Twilight to have a total freak out while the filly hung over the front of the boat to get a better look.

Soon though, they started to see signs of civilization on the swamp in the form of rickety huts poking out of the water on stilts, although the wizened old stallion playing a banjo on the one porch didn't suggest a particularly high level of sophistication. They also started to see an increased number of craft like Swampy's being propelled across the water.

After a few more minutes they were able to see where Swampy was taking them as an actual town came into sight, although calling it a town might be a touch generous. There were more huts standing out of the water on stilts, propped up against the base of trees, while above was a vast collection of tree houses. The entire town was connected by a crisscrossing of wooden walkways and rope bridges, and looked one strong breeze away from falling over.

"I do believe this place would stretch Fancy Pants' definition of 'charmingly rustic' to its limits," Fleur commented as Swampy took them through the town.

"Don't even mention when he said that to me," Twilight said with a huff. "Didn't he realise that I was from Canterlot and that I'm not exactly poorly well known as Celestia's student? Not to mention how horribly condescending it is."

Fleur coughed awkwardly, "Yes... well... If I had been there at the time I might have steered his choice of words somewhere else. I swear he's obsessed with charmingly rustic things while totally eschewing the application of such notions to himself."

"Mmhmm..." Twilight snorted in annoyance at the memory. To think that he was one of the better nobles in Canterlot was enough to make her want to spit.

"Swampy, where are you taking us?" Octavia asked as it seemed that they were heading straight through town and out the other side.

"To Mama's house. She don't live right in Swamptown, she lives just outside it."

"Swamptown," Trixie mused. "I guess that makes it easier to remember." She followed a line of rope bridges that went from tree to tree leading to a very old tree house a small way out of town. The tree house itself didn't look very impressive, although most of it could have been obscured by the hundreds of colourful glass bottles that hung from the branches of the tree.

"I guess you never want for a spare bottle in Mama's house," the filly said as she stared in wonderment at the riot of colours dancing above her.

"Trixie is wondering whether she emptied all those bottles herself."

"Stories do say that she did drink herself blind." Swampy shrugged, "O' course, stories say just about anything and everything 'bout Mama." He steered his boat to bump up against a jetty at the base of the tree and they climbed out, "I'll be heading back to town so if ya want t' get out o' here you'll have to use the bridges. Take care folks!"

"This places feels strangely welcoming," Octavia said as they waved him off. "Almost like it wants us to go in and have a hot meal that's been prepared ahead of our arrival."

The others sagged with relief, "So it's not just me thinking that weirdly specific thought about how welcoming this place is," said Fleur. "I was beginning to worry."

"There is a strong positive energy here," Twilight observed, "so hopefully that means the planting of ideas like that isn't a prelude to a trap."

"You say that like you do this a lot."

"More than you Trixie, that's for sure. I once came across a dark magic door that trapped you in your deepest fears, and I don't mean an irrational distrust of wheels. I mean your deepest, darkest, innermost fears," Twilight shuddered.

"If you had to put up with wheels breaking on your beloved and otherwise trustworthy caravan, you wouldn't trust them so readily either." Trixie raised her nose in the air and huffed as she led the way up the wooden steps that spiraled around the trunk of the tree, Twilight thinking this oddly familiar after mentioning the door.

"Are we meant to knock or something?" the filly asked once they were stood outside the front door.

"Nah, you can jus' come in if you want," a female voice called from inside. Twilight pushed the door open and entered, the others following in after her. Apparently the voice belonged to a chubby white pony with a cloth wrapped around her head, through which the point of a horn was barely visible. She was standing over an old tin bath, stirring something with a wooden spoon held in her magic. "Hello?" Twilight ventured.

The spoon flicked up and sped across the room into Fleur's mouth, her eyes going wide in surprise. "You think my gumbo needs anything?"

Fleur swallowed, mostly out of shock, and gagged as the spoon was removed. She smacked her lips a couple of times, "It could use... a little, uh... cowbell?"

"Cowbell? Huh, guess I can't be right 'bout everything. Well come on in children, lemme get a good look at you."

"You're blind," Trixie pointed out tactlessly, earning her a sharp jab in the ribs from Octavia. Although now it had been said it was hard to avoid looking at Mama's milky white eyes.

"Ain't slowed me down yet," Mama said cheerfully. She peered closely at Trixie, moving her head up and down as if inspecting her. "You got a darkness in you child. You tasted power and then that power was taken from you. Be wary child, power rarely comes without a price."

She moved onto Octavia who merely got a smile and an approving nod before moving onto Summer and the filly. "Two pegasi, both flightless but for very different reasons. I just want you to know you're welcome here and you don't have to hide under a cloak if you don't want."

"The cloak stays on," growled the filly, as Summer scrambled to remove hers.

"Suit yerself." Mama moved on to Fleur, saying nothing for a while as she studied her. "Being pretty ain't a talent, but I guess you already know that. I suggest you look into finding out what your talent really is. And don't steal nothing off 'f the folk round here, they ain't got much to begin with."

Finally Mama moved onto Twilight, "Dang girl, what happened to you? Your magic ain't moving right, like an animal that's been injured. Maybe there's a lil something I can give that'll help." Mama didn't move and Twilight was about to say something to relieve her awkwardness when a snake wound down from the ceiling, depositing a bottle into Mama's magic.

"Don't worry none about Winder," Mama said as Twilight froze up with a whimper, "he's just my seeing eye snake." Mama swirled the bottle in her magical grip and held it out to Twilight, "Take a swig of this."

Twilight removed the cork from the bottle using her teeth and sniffed it before taking a cautious mouthful. Her eyes bulged as the liquid burned down her throat and she almost spat it back out, "What is this stuff?" she choked as fire pooled in her belly.

"Mama Special Brews' moonshine," Mama said proudly. "Good fer what ails ya!"

"It's like drinking lava!"

"Trixie'll take a hit of that." Trixie took the bottle up in her magic with no resistance from Twilight and drank a mouthful. The effect wasn't immediately noticeable, although her mouth did appear to open in a silent scream.

"I don't know about you," Octavia said, "but I think I'll decline."

"Yeah, me too," said Fleur. They watched as Summer picked up the bottle and looked into it before taking a small mouthful. She quickly spat it out and dropped the bottle, which Fleur deftly caught in her magic. Summer's eyes watered as she coughed, putting a cautious amount of distance between her and the bottle.

"Can I have some?" the filly asked, full of hope.

"No."

"Aww..." Fleur passed the bottle back to Mama who drank a large mouthful of the moonshine before replacing the cork. "It ain't everyponies cup of tea."

"What's in that stuff?" Trixie asked, her voice a little strained.

"Heck if I know, I'm blind."

Twilight stared off into space, "I think- I think I can see the future... The future's colourful... Groovy."

"Don't ponies from Equestria drink much?"

"Not really," Fleur told her before twigging onto what exactly Mama had said. "Have we got a giant sign following us around saying we're from Equestria? Are we really that obvious?"

"It's the way you carry yerselves. Most of you don't look downtrodden enough to be true Mareitanians' even if most of you are from here."

"Hey Mama?" Trixie trotted around looking at the various bottles on the shelves arrayed around the room. "Have you ever met a pony called Grammaw?"

"Fat ole grey biddy, lives in Hoof-ridge?"

"Yeah! That's her!"

"Never heard of her."

"Huh? But, you just... What?"

"Now how about you nice ladies grab yerself some grub and let Mama tell you what it is you came here to ask Mama for."

Author's Notes:

I apologise for the lack of updates but I've been struggling to get any writing done lately, not least because my brain has been totally full of Legion hype instead of ponies like it usually is. I am trying to get some done but I imagine the update rate is going to drop until the ponies retake their rightful place.

22. Lost and Found

"So, you're looking for Pierre hmm? Well, you in the right woods, but the wrong neck. Pierre hides out in the poor part of Neigh Orleans, although his business do occasionally pass through these parts."

"So you know where we can find him?" asked Fleur.

"Not so much. What you do is express an interest in finding him, then he finds you."

"And what's the best way to do that."

"There is a house in Neigh Orleans they call 'The Rising Sun.' It's an... establishment run by a pony called Greenson. Word is you go to him and say a certain phrase and nothing'll happen right then an’ there but you might be visited by a pony later on who knows another pony that might have heard a thing or two about Pierre."

"That sounds horribly convoluted," said Trixie.

"Has to be, for safety. I wouldn't rush there though, spend a bit of time in town, make yerselves seen an' recognisable otherwise they's just going to think you working for the Duke, trying to hunt Pierre down. If you have some connections in the city that'll help."

"You know an awful lot about this," Octavia said sceptically. "You don't work with him do you?"

Mama chuckled heartily, "Now wouldn't that be a thing! Nah, I'm too well known by the authorities to get myself involved in secret organizations. Though, I haven't turned down anypony that asks for help either, if you know what I mean." Twilight raised a hoof, "Yes child?"

"When will I stop seeing things? I'd really like to stop seeing things."

"Hmm, only powerful ponies have that effect when they drinks me moonshine, ponies that have seen both the light and dark sides of magic. Have you tasted the darkness?"

Twilight's eyes swam as she tried to focus on Mama, "I've done dark magic yes, but it's not something I enjoy and certainly not something I do lightly."

"Good, though I ain't here to judge. If you want to know, that moonshine does things to ya, lets ya actually see the energy of a place, though you have to be powerful to pick up on it." Trixie pouted and folded her legs. "It works well for me 'cause I don't see too good otherwise and that makes it easier. It'll wear off soon enough."

"Good, because all these colours are really distracting."

"Yep, and I made it that way here on purpose. You won't find me working with no dark."

"You're a witchdoctor aren't you?"

"No way, no how am I a witchdoctor. Yes I practice voodoo but I am no witchdoctor. If you must have a title for me it'd be priestess I suppose but I prefer to not live on such a high pedestal."

"Are there any witchdoctors here?"

"O' course there are. Balance in all things child, though I suspect you know that since you done light magic too. Everything has its use, light and dark, though only the dark has a cost."

"What would you call normal magic then?" asked Fleur.

"Magic. If you're looking for good and evil in this discussion I suggest you stop because good and evil are subjective; it's what you do, not how you do it. The dark can be used for good just as the light can be used for bad. All the same though, the dark is wilful and has a cost as your friend Trixie there knows, and I suggest you steer clear."

"What do you mean the dark has a cost?" Octavia asked.

"The light gives selflessly, though it might not give you what you want because some things shouldn't be done. The dark though will always give you what you want if it can. There are limitations sure, but first a bargain must be struck and you might not know you've made it like Trixie who had power but at the cost of her sanity, and in the end the dark may end up using you rather than you using it. There are ways out of it but those tend to cost you a lot more in the end."

"But I've never struck any bargains," said Twilight.

"None that you know of, though you could be one of those lucky few that can make the dark dance to your tune instead of you to its."

"How do you know all this?" Trixie asked. She was annoyed that this total stranger seemed to know an awful lot for a pony they'd never met.

"You expect me to give away all my secrets?" Mama chuckled and took another sip of moonshine. "No Trixie, I cannot see your past. I can see that something did happen and the effect it left on you, but the details are between yourself and whoever else knows."

"All this crazy magic talk is boring," the filly complained. "Let's talk about something else."

"And what exactly should we talk about, child of Whiplash?"

The filly leapt to her hooves, "Don't say things like that!"

"Why live in denial about it? All these secrets you keep in you can't be doing you any favours."

"So you're saying I should go around telling everypony that I'm a pegasus but my wings were cut off so now I'm a freak as well? No fucking way!"

"No, but perhaps you should tell those who love you and care for you."

"Love me and care for me? Hah! They've barely even known me three weeks!"

"Who says love has a timescale?"

"Shut up! I'm not telling anything because there's nothing to tell!"

"Are you so afraid of losing them you would keep the truth from them?"

"What do you know about it? Nothing!" the filly shouted before running out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

"Was that really necessary?" Fleur said accusingly.

"Her reaction did seem over the top I'll admit."

"That's not what I meant!"

"Oh I know, but even with half her secrets laid bare the child clings onto the rest of them. She needs to tell somepony before she forgets how to. I was only trying to give her a little push in the right direction."

Fleur got up and followed the filly out muttering to herself, "Crazy old mares and their remarkable ability to stick their noses in where their noses aren't wanted."

"Anypony else want anything?" Mama asked with a smirk.

"No I think we're good," said Trixie. "Come on Twilight, the door's over there."

"But there's also a lot of yellow over there too..." Twilight rubbed her eyes and kept blinking rapidly but managed to get on her hooves and follow Trixie out, Summer following behind as she failed to notice that Octavia hadn't moved.

"Can I help you child?"

"When we first got here you said something to all the others but not me. Why was that?"

"Because there was nothing to say, you know what you're doing and what you want. You also possess a remarkable inner strength that isn't going to give in without a fight. There was nothing I could tell you that you needed to hear."

There was a creak from the door as Summer poked her head back in, "Are... Are you coming?"

"I'll be there in a moment Summer." Summer closed the door again and Octavia looked Mama in the eye as if weighing her up, "Farewell Mama, thank you for the hospitality."

"No biggy, but there is one thing I do want to say now that it's just you an' me. Take care of the pegasus, she needs you more than you realise. Oh, and don't think I can't tell what she done. Taking a life always leaves its mark."

"Tell that to the ponies that deprived her of hers." Octavia gave Mama a nod and left, shutting the door behind her, and turned to find Summer waiting for her. "Are you okay Summer."

"Mmhmm," Summer said, nodding. "Apart from the cloak thing that is. I'm not used to this. Not that I'm complaining," she said hurriedly. "This is so much better than if I was still on the boat."

"I know." Octavia gave Summer a quick hug around the shoulders. "Uh, where are the others?"

"Looking for the filly I think. She wasn't here when we came out."

"Drat. Okay, we better catch up to the others and find the filly before a snake eats her or something."

Mama sat back and made herself comfortable, her moonshine held in her magic nearby should she feel the need for it.

"An alicorn in Mareitania hmm? Interesting..." Anyone that knew Mama with any depth could tell she was surprised, and her poker face wasn't so good as to be able to hide it. As she sat there her mind’s eye played over events that either could be, wouldn't be, and most definitely shouldn't be. She knew that an alicorn in these parts could only spell trouble, but sometimes you needed a little trouble to shake things up.

"Winder, go keep an eye on our new friends, see that they don't come into any difficulties."

"Yesssss Mama."

"Filly! Where are you?" Fleur shouted as she trotted along the rope bridges ahead of the others. Trixie and Twilight had been with her originally but it quickly became apparent that Twilight was having difficulty telling the difference between things that were solid enough to walk on, and things only she could see and were in fact not there at all.

"Filly!" Fleur cursed under her breath. Why did the filly have to get so worked up about this? It's not like they were forcing her to tell them anything. She picked up her pace as much as she dared, as the rope bridges tended to bounce and she wasn't sure how strong they were. "Filly, where are you?"

She stepped off a bridge and rounded the platform that wrapped around the tree, almost tripping over the filly who was sat on the platform completely unmoving. "Gah! Why the heck are you just sat there?"

"The platform's slippy and I almost slid off so I thought I should probably wait here." There was a growl from the swamp below and Fleur stuck her head over the edge to look, seeing a trio of crocodiles looking back up at her.

"Good thinking. Soooo..."

"I'm not telling you."

"I wasn't about to suggest that you should. I got things from my past I don't want ponies to know."

"Really? But you're pretty and annoyingly perfect. What could you have to hide?"

"Perfect? Moi?" Fleur giggled and shook her head, "I don't know why you would think I'm perfect. I mean I steal, I curse, I'm remarkably apathetic at times, and I'm horribly petty if I think a pony's slighted me in some way."

"Sounds perfect to me. Actual perfection would be boring. But that's just it, you had a hard life growing up and know what it's like, and yet you got out of here and made a new life for yourself in Equestria where you probably live in a big castle and have everything you could ever want."

"I don't exactly live in a castle-"

"You're everything I could ever hope to be, and everything I never will be; rich, successful, happy, and really, really pretty."

"Actually I used to hate being this pretty."

"What? Why?"

"Because it got me a lot of unwanted attention. I used to think of mutilating myself, and would wish for something to either take my looks away or kill me." Fleur clenched her eyes shut as tears threatened to escape.

"Fleur?"

"Just as I said I didn't want to talk about the past..." She sighed deeply, "Here goes. When I was thirteen," Fleur's voice shook and she had to fight to keep it from breaking, "I fell in with a gang of homeless ponies in Prance. Nothing formal, they just worked together for mutual survival, and I thought myself so lucky to have them looking out for me."

"But..."

"But then it started, I'd hear the colts making little comments about me, about what they wanted to do with me because I was better looking than the other fillies. Then they started making passes at me and every time I would ignore it or laugh it off when in reality I should have gotten out of there and gone back to working alone."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I was tired of being on my own after so long. It had been six or seven years since my parents had been killed and I hadn't reached out to anypony much until I joined this gang. Besides, the only way I would have stopped what they were going to do to me was to leave the city, which I didn't really want to do because it's my home."

"How bad was it?"

Fleur's faced scrunched as she tried to stave off the memories, "Bad. Five of them ganged up on me and there was no way I was going to fight them off, so in the end I just took it."

"Ouch... What happened then?"

"I was absolutely devastated, couldn't look at a stallion without being terrified. But the funny thing is it's not the attack that hurt me the most, it's what the other fillies did after. I needed help and tried to talk to them, but every one of them told me to get lost. Eventually I found out they had told the colts to do it because they hated me for being prettier than them and for getting all the attention. I never even wanted the attention!"

"Oh, that's low."

"That's when I left Prance, which eventually led to me leaving Mareitania." Fleur wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself, but was quickly waylaid when the filly threw herself around Fleur's neck in a hug.

"I'm sorry that happened to you Fleur. Nopony deserves that." The filly released her hug and nuzzled Fleur under the chin. "Since you told me that, I suppose it can't hurt me to tell you that I'm a pegasus from Whiplash and my name's Swift Wings despite my shocking lack of such wings." Fleur couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, fine. Could you at least tell me something small, like how old you are?"

"Fourteen."

"Fourteen?" Trixie blurted from the other side of the tree.

"Hey! You tricked me!" the filly said accusingly to Fleur.

"No I didn't! I had no idea they were there!"

"Actually," Twilight said sadly, "we've been here for a while. Fleur, I-"

"Don't Twilight, I said I don't want to discuss these things and I meant it. I think I've blubbered enough today without you giving me the talk about how sorry you are and blah blah blah."

"Seriously though," Trixie said to the filly, "you're fourteen?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with that?"

"Well, nothing really. Trixie just thought you were younger because you're so small."

"Yeah, malnutrition will do that to a pony."

"Right... sorry. I guess being older explains why you're so sharp then."

The filly clapped slowly, "Bravo Trixie, good save."

"I suppose now would be a good time to discuss our future plans just to spare Trixie's blushes," said Octavia. "Mama said we shouldn't head straight to the house of the Rising Sun, whatever that may be, so we may as well find something else to do."

"We do have something else we can do," said Twilight. "Trixie wanted to find her parents, and now we're in Neigh Orleans, more or less, with the time to do it. That and Mama said it would help to have connections in the city."

"If they're not dead," Trixie said morosely. "You know what that bar pony said in Prance about that thing they did as an example here twenty years ago."

"I know Trixie, but we can still try. Besides, even if they are, you know, gone... wouldn't you like to at least know where they're buried so you can say goodbye?"

"I guess so."

"Do you know where to find them?" Octavia asked.

"My aunty gave me an address but that's not much help when you don't know your way around."

"Then how about we head into town and have a look around. Maybe see the sights before asking somepony for directions?" Fleur said cheerfully, "Maybe we should find out where this house of the Rising Sun is first just so we know."

"Okay," said Trixie, "there's really no point in rushing is there?"

"Exactly! First though, I guess we better go find Swampy."

They found Swampy in town eating at what could only be described as Swamptown's premier eatery, if that was a description you could apply to an old mare cooking things on skewers over a brazier.

"Howdy folks," he said genially. "Mama give you what you want?"

"And what we don't want," the filly said bitterly.

"Yeah, she good like that, but she never says anything if it's not for a good reason. Anyway, what can I do you for? You lookin' to head into town?"

"Yes please," said Fleur. "We need to find a place called the Rising Sun."

Swampy's eyes widened and he choked on his food, and it wasn't until Fleur smacked him on the back that he was able to recover. "Why the hay would five fine mares and a filly like yourselves want to go there?" he spluttered.

"You heard of it then? What is it?"

"Yep, me an' every other stallion with a few marcs to spend know about that place. It's a gamblers den, a whore house, and a damn fine place to get shit-faced."

"Oh."

"Is this to do with that person what we did discuss on the way here?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Swampy winked, "'Course you don't, 'course you don't. Well I can get you most of the way there but it's in the back streets o' town and I can't 'xactly take you there by boat."

"Just get us as close as you can," said Twilight. "We can work it out from there."

"Alrighty then, that'll be eight marcs."

"What?" Trixie exclaimed, "But the last one was free!"

"Actually it was four marcs but I forgot to charge you. You should consider yourself lucky I ain't charging you more considering where we're going. No way I'm going past the Rising Sun without taking a gander inside."

"Here we are folks," Swampy said proudly, "Neigh Orleans, the crown jewel of the Mareissippi."

"Really?" the filly said skeptically as she looked at the collection of small greasy jetty's that fronted a myriad of equally dilapidated buildings.

"Well, okay so it ain't the nice part but it's still Neigh Orleans." Swampy tied the boat off and waited until they had all disembarked before climbing out himself. As soon as he did a long, dark body slid up out of the water and into the boat. "Now then Petey, you watch my boat good and I'll find you a nice tasty possum fer yer dinner, okay?" The snake coiled up on one of the seats and appeared to smile. "Right then, come on ladies."

He led them in a straight line towards the city center, and as they moved away from the bayou the quality of the buildings improved, but not much. But the ponies living there more than made up for it. There were market vendors, and street entertainers, and all manner of exotic smells wafting through the air.

"This is what Prance used to be like," Fleur said wistfully. "Y'know, before the martial law, and the riots, and the fires, and dead bodies everywhere..."

"It may look nice but you gots ta be careful, there's all kinds of wrong'uns 'round here."

"And how, pray tell, do we tell the wrong'uns from the good'uns?" Octavia asked haughtily.

"Heck if I know, just be careful and you'll be fine."

"What are the guards like around here?" asked Twilight. She had been keeping an eye out for them but so far she hadn't seen any. At least she thought she hadn't. She could more or less see normally again as the moonshine's unwanted effects wore off but she wasn't about to believe everything her eyes told her.

"Normally they're the ones spending the most money if you know what I mean. Bunch of good fer nothing's the lot of them. I know that earth pony supremacy is all the rage in other cities up north, but 'round here us unicorns outnumber the earthies four to one and the guards know that ain't a fight they can win."

"So they're not particularly harsh then?" asked Fleur.

"Now I didn't say that. What I'm saying is that they're a bit more careful about their targets and you's less likely to be picked on just fer being a unicorn like you is in other places. They're still a bunch of assholes though and aren't above an old fashioned dehorning if they think you deserve one." Swampy spat, "Bastards."

They kept walking, taking in whatever sights there were, and it wasn't long before they started to hear music and the sound of raucous laughter amongst other sounds of a more carnal nature. "Here we is ladies, the house of the Rising Sun. Now begging your pardons but I'm heading in and you're welcome to join me. Anypony? No?" They all declined his invitation. "Suit yerselves then. Good luck ladies! Until we meet again." They watched him saunter in through the front door.

"So this is the house of the Rising Sun," Octavia said in an even tone of voice. "Doesn't seem very inconspicuous to me."

"That's probably the point," said Fleur. "Where better to hide than where nopony expects you to be."

"Guys, I think we better leave," said the filly.

"Why?" asked Trixie, "Embarrassed to be here?"

"Hardly. I'm actually suggesting we go because Summer looks like she's about to have a full blown panic attack." They all turned to look at Summer who was shaking like a leaf and had turned pale as she sweated.

"Shit," Fleur said quietly. "Come on, let's go." They picked a direction and started to walk, Octavia having to gently encourage Summer to move.

"Sorry about that Summer," she said. "I guess we didn't think about how a place like that would affect you."

"'s okay, I didn't know that would happen." Summer took a deep shuddering breath and released it with a snarl. "Sorry," she said, noticing the others questioning looks, "but those mares make me so angry!"

"Those mares? You mean the prostitute's? Why?"

"Because they want to do that! They want to let those stallions fuck them! They have a choice and choose to do that! I never got a choice and I never got anything for it except beaten because I'm a pega-!" Three shades of magical aura clamped themselves over her mouth.

"Keep it down Summer!" Fleur hissed, "You shout out loud that you're a... pony like that, and we'll all be in serious trouble." Summer nodded and they released her.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, "but it’s just not fair..."

"I know, and I know this won't make you feel better but a lot of those mares don't think they have a choice either; it's either do that, or starve. Given that choice what would a lot of ponies do?" Summer nodded, but said nothing more.

"So, now what?" Twilight asked once it became clear Summer wasn't going to say anything further.

"Try to find Trixie's parents I suppose," Fleur suggested.

"Actually," said Trixie, "I want to look in there." She pointed to a doorway shrouded in curtains with a sign above it saying 'Doctor Deal Good's Mystical Emporium.' "Sounds interesting."

"Really Trixie? Really?" the filly said. "Are you actually being serious?"

"Yes, of course I am. Now come on, I only want to have a look." She trotted over to the doorway and feeling that they had little choice the others followed after her. Trixie squealed like a schoolfilly as she entered the room and saw various trinkets and other magical paraphernalia adorning the walls and shelves.

"Aah!" the filly squeaked. "Who in the hell does that!?" she shouted, pointing to a jar with several unicorns horns in it.

"Trixie," Twilight said in a whisper. "We should get out of here. This place feels really wrong."

"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing wrong here. Apart from the jar of horns that is. I'm only going to have a look then we'll go okay?"

"Why the rush?" said a deep voice from the back of the shop, making them shout in surprise. "My sincerest apologies ladies, I did not mean to scare you." A dark grey unicorn stallion wearing a purple velvet jacket and a top hat stepped forward out of the shadows that filled the rear of the building. Those weren't his most distinguishing features though. His bright green eyes glowed with an eerie incandescence, and his face bore grey markings which, when looked at from the right angle, almost looked like a skull.

"It's okay," Twilight said hurriedly, "we were just about to leave."

"Nonsense. Stay a while and have a look around. You might just find something you want."

"Might you recommend anything?" Trixie asked.

The stallion picked a stack of cards up off a table in his magic before fanning them out and shuffling them. "How about a simple tarot reading?"

"Okay then, impress me." Deal Good grinned and floated the table and two chairs over, one on each side for Trixie and himself to sit upon. He shuffled his cards again and spread them out in a fan with the backs facing Trixie.

"Three cards," he said, "past, present, and future." Trixie picked her first card and laid it on the table. "The ace of wands reversed hmm... You had what you wanted once and you let your focus fall from your work and onto yourself. You lost your way and then you lost everything. Your ego and arrogance played its hoof there I feel. Next card."

Trixie picked out her next card, laying it next to the other. "Death!?"

Deal Good chuckled, "Fret not, the death card is not literal and means you are undergoing a change, or a transformation if you will. You are your own pony and you choose your own path. New beginnings come from the remains of old ends. Now for your final card."

Trixie picked her final card and put it on the table. "The magician," Deal Good said with a grin. "A very good card indeed. You have potential Miss Lulamoon to wield power and use it to its absolute fullest, if you reach out and take the opportunity."

"But Trixie doesn't have that kind of power."

"No, but once upon a time you did, even if in the end it didn't give you what you wanted. What if I told you there was a way to regain such power but with none of the side effects you're so familiar with."

"Trixie, don't!" Twilight moved next to Trixie and glared at Deal Good. "He's trying to get you to use dark magic!"

"I prefer to think of it as 'misunderstood' magic. Besides, why should you be the one with all the power? Why shouldn't Trixie have a chance to have what you have?"

"I worked for my magic. Worked and studied for years-"

"And yet, in the end the powers you have now were given to you, hoofed over on a silver platter! Did you even consider saying no just once?"

"I, uh...I-"

"No, you didn't. You took that offer of power just as I am offering power to Miss Lulamoon. Give her one good reason why she shouldn't do the same."

"Think about it Twilight," Trixie said hopefully. "With what we're trying to do this power could really help us! I know you don't approve but we have to think of the big picture."

"Trixie, please! Don't do this!"

"Yeah, come on Trixie," said Fleur. "I know you want to be more powerful but this really isn't the way to do it."

Deal Good clasped his hooves together and rested his chin upon them, "You say that like you're an expert Miss De Lis."

"How do you know our names?"

"Ways and means, ways and means... It's also how I know you aren't too proud of your own magical prowess. The offer's open to you too if you so wish it."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"Suit yourself." He watched as Trixie struggled with indecision, knowing that it was only a matter of time until she gave in, even if it wasn't today. "So what'll it be Miss Lulamoon?"

"I... I... I'll do it. I accept your offer. On one condition."

"Trixie! No!" Twilight gasped, her voice full of pleading. "You're making a mistake!"

"Excellent choice!" Deal Good said happily, cutting right over Twilight. "Now, what is this condition of yours?"

"Even if I do this I'm not obligated to use the magic."

"Of course not Miss Lulamoon, you never would have been. Now, how about your friends wait outside while you and I conduct our business."

Trixie turned to the others, taking note and trying to ignore the expressions of worry and disappointment on their faces. "Please guys, I'll be alright. In fact I'll be better than alright!" She grinned nervously but it faltered when nopony even tried to return it.

"You are such an idiot Trixie," Fleur said before leaving, the others following behind her, Twilight giving her one last sorrowful look before she too was gone.

Trixie's face fell, "Maybe I shouldn't do this."

"Neighsayers never achieved anything Miss Lulamoon. Think of how impressed they'll be once your new powers show their worth."

Trixie thought about it and even though she had plenty of reasons to not go through with this, she couldn't deny the truth of the matter. She wanted this, and she wanted it badly. "What do I have to do?"

"I can't believe she's doing this," Octavia muttered as they waited outside.

"I can't believe she would even consider it," said Fleur. "

"I can," said Twilight. The others stared at her and she went on to explain, "Power is addictive, and Trixie knows that better than any of us. Which only makes it worse that she would agree to this. I thought she would have learnt last time that dark magic just isn't worth it."

"But this time is different right?" the filly said hopefully. "The doc said that there's no side effects."

"No he didn't," Fleur pointed out. "He said there were none of the side effects she was familiar with, like for example, going bat-shit crazy. I imagine there are side effects aplenty of a different kind."

"Oh. Shouldn't we be stopping her then?"

"It's her choice," Twilight said weakly. "Who are we to stop her?"

"Um, her friends perhaps? Doi."

Twilight shook her head, "Wouldn't matter. In her mind she's doing this for us, to help us. She'd only resent us if we try to stop her."

"Does that snake look familiar to you?" Octavia asked. She pointed across the street at a snake slithering up the road and in through the door to Deal Good's emporium.

"Was that Winder?" said Fleur.

"Yes!" Twilight squeaked from her new position up a lamppost.

Deal Good pointed his horn at the table and it spat a blob of magic out that bubbled disconcertingly on the surface before spreading out and forming a contract. He then created a quill and inkwell next to it and offered the quill to Trixie, "If you would sign your name please."

Trixie took the quill in her magic and dipped it in the ink before writing her rather elaborate signature on the contract. Soon as she finished the final star around her name the contract flashed and a wisp of bubbling black magic shot out of it and coiled around her horn before sinking into it. She winced in pain but the feeling soon passed and once it had she had to admit that she felt no different. "Is that it?"

"Almost, there's one more thing we need to do if we really want to seal the deal." His horn glowed in a more normal looking green colour and he pulled a pin out of one of the fetishes he had nearby and floated it over, holding it point up in front of Trixie. "All I need now is a tiny drop of blood and then the power will truly be yours. Just let it fall on the contract and we'll be done."

Trixie took the pin off him and held up a hoof. She bit her lip nervously as she looked at his almost manically keen expression. She swallowed and nodded before jabbing the needle into the soft part of her hoof, producing a tiny bead of blood that trickled across her frog and gathered on the outer edge of her hoof.

The bead of blood built up and dripped off her hoof, and was about to land on the contract when the body of a large snake interspersed itself between her hoof and the paper, the blood landing harmlessly on its scales.

Trixie leapt back with a shriek as the snake reared up and hissed at Deal Good, though he seemed completely nonplussed. "Hello Winder, long time no see. Now if you'll excuse me I'm in the middle of a transaction." Winder lunged at Deal Good as if to strike him, "Damn it Winder, Mama knows to stay out of my business just as I know to stay out of hers."

Trixie sat back, cradling her hoof as she watched the bizarre exchange going on between the room’s other occupants. She watched as Winder lunged again just for Deal Good to catch Winder's head in his magic. Deal Good's eyes twitched to the contract and if Trixie had been better at reading ponies she might have seen the smile behind them.

Deal Good released Winder's head and held his hooves up in surrender, "Fine, you win. Take the mare and go. I will however be reminding Mama that she is to stay out of my business if she knows what's good for her."

Winder flexed his neck and narrowed his eyes, "Good choice," he hissed.

"You can talk!" Trixie shouted in surprise. Winder shrugged, a gesture for which snakes are poorly suited, and started bumping Trixie with his head, pushing her towards the door.

Once they were gone Deal Good pulled the contract over to him and smirked at the smudge of red Winder had left on it. "Good enough," he said, his eyes flashing.

"You ssstupid pony!" Winder hissed at Trixie as soon as they were out of the door. "Why would you sssign a deal with him?"

"Why can you talk?" Trixie shouted back.

"What's going on Trixie?" Fleur asked as she and the others trotted over.

"Trixie was about to finish signing the contract when this snake stopped me! And he can talk!"

Fleur raised an eyebrow, "Winder can talk? Really? Did that stallion drug you or something?"

"No, he did not drug Trixie! Winder really can talk!"

"I thought you said this dark magic thing wasn't going to send her bat-shit crazy?" the filly said.

"Guess I was wrong. Hey Trixie, what's your opinion of wheels?"

"Wheels are amazing! Winder, stop messing around and show them you can talk!" Winder appeared to think about it for a moment before attempting to shrug again. "Oh fuck you Winder." Trixie turned and stomped off.

"Alright, alright! Yesss I can talk, and no she's not totally crazy. Although she does have to be pretty darn crazy to sign a contract with Deal Good." Everypony blinked at him a few times, not sure how to react to the talking snake. "What?" he said defensively.

"See! I fucking told you he could talk!" Trixie shouted in triumph.

"Nope," Twilight said quietly before falling over sideways in a faint.

"Still better than vamponies," the filly said with a shrug.

"Twilight? Please wake up." Summer shook Twilight gently in an attempt to rouse her. It didn't work, and Summer wasn't entirely sure what to do. When she was in captivity and they wanted to wake her quickly they usually threw a bucket of water over her, but she didn't want to do that and lacked a bucket in any case.

She poked Twilight again and looked to where the others were arguing with Trixie and a talking snake, which was kind of weird but for all she knew talking snakes might be common. Feeling she had little choice since Octavia had told her to look after Twilight, she took her canteen out from under her cloak, opened it and poured a bit of the water down Twilight's nose.

The effect was immediate as Twilight choked on the intrusive water, snorting and coughing as she tried to get the water out. "Summer? Did- Did you pour water down my nose?" she asked once she had recovered enough to do so.

"Isn't t-that what you're supposed to do?" It always woke her up.

"What? No! Why would you even think that?" Summer folded her ears back guiltily and a look of shame crossed over her face. "Never mind, you don't need to answer that. Just... give me moment and I'll be fine." Twilight used her magic to get as much water out of her nose as she could so that she could at least breath without the feeling that something was dribbling into her lungs. "There. So, what did I miss?"

"Oh! Uh, not much. Fleur yelled at Trixie, then Winder yelled at Trixie, the filly laughed at Winder, then Octavia yelled at the filly for being rude-"

"Hold on, hold on. What do you mean Winder yelled at Trixie?"

"Winder, you know, the talking snake."

"That was real!? I thought I dreamt that!" She looked over to the others and watched as Winder jabbed his tail at Trixie before turning to talk to Fleur. Twilight swallowed and tried to garner some courage before heading towards the others. "Hey guys, what's happening?" she said as casually as she could lest she anger the snake.

"Ah, Twilight, you're awake." Octavia moved Twilight's head around with a hoof, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Me? Pfft, I'm fine. No problems here at all!" Twilight's eyes darted to Winder, "Nope, none whatsoever."

"Winder's not going to hurt you," Octavia told her.

"Why would I think that? I mean he talks, so he must be totally civilized and no threat to anypony. Right?"

"What'sss her problem?" Winder asked.

"Scared of snakes," Fleur told him.

"But only non-talking ones! No way is there any possibility I might be scared of the talking ones!"

"Good luck there then. I'm the only sssnake that talks in these partsss."

"I still don't get how you're talking at all," the filly said.

"Let's just say I'm living proof of why it's a bad idea to make a deal with that con-pony in there. It also meansss I know what I'm talking about when I say we should take the unicorn to Mama."

Trixie threw her hooves into the air, "Alright! Fine! I'll go to Mama if it makes you poor delicate flowers feel better about all this, but honestly, Trixie feels fine."

"You won't be saying that when you're turned into a sssnake if you break contract."

"That what happened to you?"

"Sssomething like that. We best go find Swampy and get a lift back. I imagine you left him in the Rising Sun?"

"Yeah." Winder slithered off and they followed after him, but didn't follow him into the building. Instead Octavia and Summer looked the other way and very pointedly talked about something else while Fleur asked the filly why she was almost bouncing with happiness.

"Weird shit's happening again! I love weird shit! I never even realised how mundane my constant struggle for existence was until I met you guys and the crazy crap that comes with you. It's awesome!"

"Glad somepony's enjoying it." There were a few shouts and screams from inside the building and a minute later Swampy stumbled out.

"Alright y' slithering bastard, I'm coming damn it!" Swampy looked at the six ponies in front of him before looking back to Winder, "Aww, what the hell y'all gone and done if you got Winder involved?"

The filly pointed at Trixie, "She did it!"

"Hey!"

Mama stared unseeing at Trixie, "You're going t' have ta say that again because I refuse to believe what it is my ears are trying to tell me."

Winder sighed theatrically and said it again for what felt like the hundredth time. "She signed a contract with Deal Good."

"I thought that's what you said but I don't suppose you could run that by me again?"

"Mama!"

"Alright, alright, simmer down." Trixie shifted nervously as Mama kept staring at her, "What did he offer you?"

"He offered me power."

"Dark magic I assume."

"Well, yes, but I don't have to use it if I don't want to."

"You are, without a doubt, one of the stupidest mares I have met in a long time."

"Excuse me?"

Mama sat down and took a pull of moonshine before answering, "Any unicorn with a lick of determination can use dark magic if they want. It sure don't feel nice at first and takes some getting used to, and that's assuming you can put up with the idea of it damn near consuming you from the inside out, but it has the advantage that you don't need to know much 'bout magic to use it. That contract you signed gave you nothing you couldn't already have had if you went and tried hard enough."

"Then... Then what do I get out of it?"

"Did you even read the contract?"

"No!"

Mama sighed heavily, "Why does nopony ever read the contract? To put it as simply as I can your life belongs to Deal Good for whatever nefarious purposes he deems fit. Probably to pay off his own debts."

"But I didn't do the blood thing, Winder got in the way!"

"Then he must have got some on it by accident because I can see its magic hanging over you."

"The contract did do something when I signed my name," Trixie said hopefully, "could that be what you're seeing?"

"Nope, that's just to give you a taste for the magic, make it easier for you to use that first time. It also makes it seem like he gave you something."

"But you said you had to make a bargain to use dark magic!"

"No I didn't, I said anypony can use dark magic as long as you realise there's a cost, and the only way to negate that is... Oh. I didn't mean a literal contract though! And certainly not one made with a pony!"

"Then how do I get out of this? How do I break the contract!? Help me! Please!" Trixie fell to her knees begging. Not a normal thing for her to do but at this moment she was too scared to care.

"The only way to get out of the contract is to physically destroy it, but since it's made of a conjured vellum of pure dark magic it's damn near impossible to destroy."

"What if we used light magic?" Twilight suggested.

"Nope, won't work, believe me because Winder wouldn't be a snake if it did. Dark magic won't work either before you ask, and don't even bother trying to cheat your way out of it because Winder tried that and look what it got him."

"At least his life is his own!" Trixie shouted in desperation.

Mama glared at Winder who lowered his head in shame, "That's 'cause the life he signed away wasn't his own. Changed his mind and tried to lie his way out of it, but Deal Good is too damn clever for that. He claimed the other pony involved and turned Winder into a snake for his trouble."

"I'm doomed," Trixie said forlornly. A tear slid down her cheek as despair set in, joined by plenty more as she hugged herself.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Twilight asked as she moved in to comfort the sobbing Trixie.

"Not 'less you can kill Deal Good, but believe me when I say that is far easier said than done." Mama sat back and ran a hoof down her face, "This is my fault. I shoulda warned ya about Deal Good."

They sat in silence, Trixie's muted sobs being the only sound in Mama's house. Trixie had unwittingly doomed herself and there was nothing any of them could do.

"What did you mean Deal Good might use her to pay his debts," Octavia asked in an attempt to break the sullen quiet.

"Hmm? Oh, Deal Good made an agreement with the dark for eternal youth. He was once like me, but as age caught up to him he became afraid of dying, so he made a deal with the dark; eternal youth in exchange for the souls of other ponies. I hate to think of how many ponies he's damned just to keep his sorry skin walking this world."

"How old is he?" Twilight asked.

"Centuries at least. He's powerful too, which is why nopony has ever managed to kill him."

Trixie suddenly stood up, "I'm going to find him. Since I'm doomed anyway I might as well try."

Mama shook her head, "You won't find him."

"Why not?"

"Because him and his 'emporium' are never in the same place twice."

"That's... That's some serious magic," Twilight said, sounding more than a little awed.

"As I said, he's powerful. Best you can do is stop here for the night and hope that tomorrow presents a solution."

"I'm still impressed that we managed to walk around Neigh Orleans for fifteen whole minutes before Trixie got into trouble," the filly said cheerfully.

"Trixie is starting to remember why she doesn't like you."

Deal Good leaned back and sighed happily. He had finally got somepony to sign a contract for the first time in ages, meaning that hopefully his creditors will get off his back for a while. He got a good pony too. Gullible as she might be, Trixie Lulamoon did have potential.

There was a knock at the door, "We're closed!" he yelled. There was a moment of quiet before the door was violently kicked open, granting entrance to two figures in black armour.

"And now we're open," Deal Good said grinning nervously. Something about these two didn't feel right. "How might I be of assistance to your fine selves?"

The two ponies looked around the shop for a minute, the bigger of them snorting in amusement at the jar of unicorn horns on the shelf, before the smaller addressed him. "You apparently had six ponies in here earlier. Who were they?"

"How do you expect me to remember something like that? Lots of ponies come in here."

"Tha's not what we heard," the bigger one said with a snigger.

Deal Good narrowed his eyes and was thinking about ways to remove these two intruders when the smaller said, "It would be of great importance to the Duke if you were to remember." That said, Deal Good suddenly lost his impetus to get rid of them.

"Well I don't rightly remember-"

"Then let me help you. There's three unicorn mares, one purple, one white and the other blue. A grey earth pony mare, and two others that were yellow and blue."

"What do you mean two others?" Pearl stomped a hoof on the table, cracking it. "Okay, okay! Yes they were here!"

"They sure were boss," Breaker said, looking at a stack of papers. "That blue unicorn signed this contract for..." Breaker squinted at the writing, "What the hell kind of contract is this?" Breaker tried to pick the contract up, but it turned black and bubbled where his armour touched it, the runes glowing a dark red colour. "What the fuck?" Soon as he removed his hoof the paper reformed.

Deal Good eyes widened, nothing could damage his contracts. At least not until now. "Don't touch that! It's very important!"

"Then tell us what it's a contract for," Pearl said with no small amount of threat.

"That is none of your business!" Deal Good's eyes flashed green and emitted wispy purple smoke as his horn flashed and bubbled. He shot a blast at the two intruders that demolished most of his shop's interior, but it was worth it to get rid of them and save that contract.

The smoke slowly cleared, revealing the two figures standing where they were before like nothing had happened, the only difference was their armour which now glowed an angry red from the hundreds of runes covering them. "Fucking witchdoctors," Breaker spat.

Pearl held up a hoof to stop her partner. "We need him alive," she said before narrowing her eyes at Deal Good. "I don't think you appreciate how much trouble you're in right now. You've attacked two agents of the Duke using illegal magic in an illegal establishment-"

"With an illegal name," Breaker added.

"With an illegal name, full of illegally made contracts. For your sake I hope you don't try anything again because I will remove your horn and force you to eat it, shit it out, and eat it again before killing you very slowly, am I clear?" Deal Good nodded emphatically. "Good."

Pearl pulled a brown cloth bag from her armour and tossed it to Breaker who caught it before removing his hoofguards. He then rolled the contract up, placed it in the bag, and shoved it into his own armour before replacing his hoofguards.

"Since that contract is important enough for you to try and kill us I will give you a chance to reclaim it. Help us capture these ponies and we will not only return it, but we might also forget we ever saw you and this place. Refuse and we'll see how well it can resist this armour's touch. Deal?"

Deal Good said nothing for a moment. What choice did he really have? He couldn't afford to lose that contract and he doubted his creditors would be patient enough for him to find another. It didn't matter to him if Trixie was in prison either so he had absolutely nothing to gain by refusing.

Admitting defeat he bowed deeply, "Of course oh masters of mine, your wish is my command."

"You bet it is."

Author's Notes:

One of the problems with taking breaks from writing is that I tend to lose the thread of what I was doing. I'm sure there's a point to the things in this chapter I'm a little meh about.

23. Power struggle

Trixie rolled over for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour. Apparently a horrific sense of impending doom was ill conducive to getting a good night’s sleep. Trixie couldn't believe she had been stupid enough to not read the contract, although she couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't. Normally she read everything thoroughly but hadn't felt the need to do that with Deal Good.

She concluded it must have been a magic trick or something and rolled over again before looking up at the tip of her horn. Despite what Mama might say that contract had given her something, even if it was only a taster. Seeing as how she had no choice but to wait for whatever fate Deal Good decided to cast for her, she reasoned that she may as well give the magic a try.

She clenched her eyes shut and grit her teeth before focusing her magic, trying to recreate the feeling the contract had given her when she signed it. Apparently it wasn't so easy and after several minutes of trying she hadn't achieved any magic different to her own. Had the contract really given her nothing?

She could feel herself getting angrier at her failure. Was she destined to always be a second rate magician? Was she incapable of doing this thing all unicorns were apparently capable of doing? It was so unfair! And Deal Good! How dare he subject her to the situation she now found herself in! Especially since she couldn't do this stupid fucking magic that he had apparently given her!

Suddenly pain shot through her head and horn and she gasped in surprise. She cracked an eye open and squinted at the roiling miasma of black, purple and green bubbling on her horn, and almost squealed with glee that she had done it, even if it did hurt. It was strange though, even though it hurt it was tolerable and she somehow felt stronger for putting up with it.

She grinned with satisfaction, imagining herself as a powerful dark magician, as beautiful as she was terrifying. All she had to do was get angry and the magic was hers to use, and as a pony Trixie felt she had plenty of things to be angry about, not least of which was the pony lay near her, little miss Twilight 'perfect pretty princess' Sparkle!

Trixie blinked as that thought entered her mind, and stopped her magic. Where did that thought even come from? She might have a few lingering jealousy issues but she certainly didn't hate Twilight. Did she?

"Makes you think funny things don't it?" said Mama from nearby, making Trixie yelp quietly in surprise. "You should be wary of your thoughts when using that magic."

"It's fine, Trixie is fully in control."

"Uh huh, sure. All the same you should be careful. Oh, an' if you use that magic in my house again I will throw you out the window."

"Yeah yeah." Trixie lay down facing away from Mama and thought about the possibilities now open to her with this magic. Maybe she might even be as powerful as Twilight if this magic is all it’s cracked up to be. She fidgeted restlessly. She wanted to do the magic again, Mama be damned.

She kept her eyes open this time, and focused on getting angry. The magic seemed to come easier than before and she was about to revel in her success when she felt herself being lifted off the floor. The force lifting her suddenly swept her forward towards the window, "No! Wait! Don't!" Trixie yelled but Mama didn't listen. Trixie screamed as she flew through the window and sailed in an arc towards the swamp and the waiting jaws of a crocodile that clamped down on her with a snap.

Trixie kept screaming, but slowly came to notice there was no pain. She stopped screaming and opened her eyes to find that she was still in Mama's house where she had been laying, except now everypony was staring at her with varying levels of annoyance and concern. She whipped her head around to glare at Mama who rolled over and said "Consider that a warning."

"So what are we going to do today?" the filly asked cheerfully as they walked along the rope bridges towards Swamptown. They had left early, mostly because Mama was an early riser and she liked to sing as she performed her morning chores with the assistance of Winder.

"You got to dig a little deeper, na na na na na!" Fleur half sang, half hummed to herself.

"Will you please stop humming that horrific drivel!" Octavia moaned.

"But it's soooo catchy! I can't help it! It don't matter who you are, na na na na!"

"Hello? Is Trixie's impending doom not an issue anymore? I think we should head into Neigh Orleans and try to hunt that scumbag down."

Twilight shook her head, "Mama said it’s impossible to find him in the same place twice."

"Then we just keep looking until we find him!"

"But that could take forever to do," Octavia pointed out. "It might well be impossible if he doesn't want us to find him."

"Even then there's no way to guarantee that we could do anything to change what's going to happen," Twilight added.

"How can he have any claim over me if we steal my contract back? Trixie's sure everything will be fine once it's in our possession."

"You don't know that," Twilight said sadly.

"So what!? We're just going to give up? Trixie's not important enough to try and save so we won't bother! Is that what you're trying to say?"

"No! It's not!" Fleur snapped. "But we can't go running around trying to fix this when we have no idea how!"

"Then what do you propose? Carrying on like normal in the hopes that Trixie's soul isn't sucked into Tartarus before we... what? Complete our mission? Because Trixie is expendable and it doesn't matter?"

"We're all expendable in this mission Trixie!" Fleur yelled.

"I'm not!" quipped the filly.

"Most of us are expendable on this mission, so don't even try to claim that we're happy to leave you to your fate as long as the rest of us are okay! And stop trying to pin responsibility for fixing this problem on us when we told you not to sign the damn contract!"

Trixie growled and glowered at Fleur, part of her wanting to lash out and hurt her for being a bitch. While that wasn't a particularly new feeling for her, it wasn't usually so pronounced and she had to hold herself back. "All I want is some help so I can fix this," Trixie said from between gritted teeth.

"And you'll have it," Twilight said, moving to stand between the two ponies, "but we're not just going to run around in the hopes that we can find Deal Good. Once we know more and have a plan we will all help you, right girls?" The others, Fleur included, all spoke their agreement. "See?"

Trixie nodded and sighed, "You're right. I'm sorry for acting this way but I'm... well, I'm scared. You have no idea what it's like walking around with the knowledge that something really horrible might happen to you at any moment. It's scary."

Fleur patted Trixie on the back, "We'll get you out of this. Somehow. When we know how. You know, soonish."

Trixie snirked at Fleur, "Best reassurance I've had so far. So, since Trixie’s impending doom is currently unfixable, what are we going to do instead?"

"Look for your parents?" suggested Twilight.

"Yeah," agreed Fleur, "but first I think we should take a look around the Rising Sun."

"But Mama said we shouldn't go there so soon," Octavia protested.

"I'm not going to try to get in touch with Pierre, I just want to have a look around so it’s not a surprise when we go there in earnest."

"Um..." said Summer quietly.

"Oh right. Okay, some of us can go in there. Summer, you, the filly and Octavia can hang back if you want."

"Thank you," Summer said, though it was unheard as the filly yelled at Fleur.

"Why do I have to hang back?"

"Because it looks weird if we take a filly in there, even if said filly is older than she looks," Fleur finished, holding up a hoof to ward off the filly's next argument.

"So unfair," the filly grumbled instead.

"Mama said the owner's called Greenson," Fleur continued, ignoring the filly, "and I do believe that 'green son' was part of the clue that assassin gave us and it might be a good idea to get a handle on who this pony is. At the very least he might give us directions to wherever we need to go to find Trixie's parents. You do have an address for us to follow right?"

"Yep, thirty four Shoebend Street."

The filly snorted with suppressed laughter, "Shoebend Street? Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." Trixie smirked at Fleur, "It's funny how your plans seem to involve prostitutes in some way."

"I know right. Perhaps it's possible to win this thing with prostitutes. What if I got the Duke a whore for the night and in the hope that he lightens up a bit?"

"You're assuming that old bastard could even get it up?"

"Hmm, fair point. Maybe not then."

They found transport to Neigh Orleans, though not with Swampy. Instead they ended up with a yellow earth pony mare called Toothy Pegs, possibly called such because of her serious under-bite which would have exposed her lower teeth if she had any left. The mare was also holding a conversation with at least three other ponies, none of which were on the boat and probably didn't exist at all outside her head.

So far her topics of conversation had ranged from the trouble with cleaning snakes big enough to eat you, the best way to cook a mushroom curry, how lucky she was to have such good friends, and how hard it was to find a decent sarsaparilla in the bayou, all made funnier to listen to thanks to her amazing lisp. So far none of them had dared to intrude on her conversations and were waiting eagerly to find out what her next subject would be.

"You know what the problem ish with folksh these daysh? No. Improper hoof maintenance! What you talking about shtupid? What have I told you about calling me shtupid? Yeah! There'sh no need for pershonal commentsh like that! I'm shorry but I just don't shee how improper hoof maintenance ish what'sh wrong with folk! I jusht think folk would be happier if they had better hoovesh to trot around on, that'sh all!"

Soon though they arrived at Neigh Orleans and they disembarked, allowing Toothy Pegs to return to the bayou, the sound of her three pony monologue being heard long after she had gone out of sight. The filly patted Trixie on the leg, "Despite your current problems Trixie, at least you're not her."

"Gosh filly, you say the nicest things sometimes." She rolled her eyes and snorted before moving to keep up with the others who had started heading further into town towards the rising sun. As she walked she kept an eye out for any suspicious looking emporiums, but she couldn't remember exactly where they found it last time and couldn't see it anyway. Maybe the others were right about it being a waste of time trying to hunt Deal Good down.

"Okay," Fleur said once they were a reasonable distance away from the Rising Sun. "Octavia, you, Summer, and the filly wait here while the rest of us go and have a nosey around."

"Are you sure I can't come?" the filly whined as Octavia nodded her assent.

"Very sure, now be good."

"Yes mom," the filly drawled sarcastically.

"While I am technically old enough to be your mother I think we can leave that kind of thinking be." Fleur gestured, pointing a hoof at her eyes, then at the filly before trotting to catch up to where Trixie and Twilight were waiting.

"I'd think you'd make a wonderful mother Fleur," said Trixie, but it was clear from her grin that she wasn't being serious.

"Maybe, maybe not, but the fact is I'd rather eat my own hooves than have foals. Not to mention what having foals does to your figure." They kept going until they were outside the Rising Sun where they stopped for a moment to study it. It didn't seem as lively as when they had seen it the day before, but that was probably because it was early in the morning and its clientele hadn't woke up enough to start drinking off their hangovers.

The only pony they could see was a stallion leaning against the wall by the entrance. "Can I help you?" he asked smarmily.

"That depends entirely on what kind of help you're offering," Fleur snarked back.

The stallion grinned, "I could help you take those bags off if you want to go somewhere private.

Fleur gagged and shook her head in disgust, "Last I checked you aren't the last stallion on Earth so I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you."

"A simple no would've sufficed," the stallion grumbled. "Fucking bitch."

"Asshole," Fleur muttered before pushing past him inside. The first thing they noticed upon entering was the smell, which lingered with a strangely potent mix of cheap booze and musk. The second thing was the somewhat lesser but still noticeable fact that their hooves stuck to the floor in a rather disconcerting way, and the third thing was the mural behind the bar.

It featured an image of a sun rising from behind two hills, and was poorly painted and unremarkable in every way except that the sun looked like "Celestia's cutie mark!"

"Shut up Twilight!" Fleur hissed, although she was sure she saw the barpony's ear twitch at Twilight's thoughtlessly loud comment. She rolled her eyes and approached the barpony who was eyeing her up, which only served to make her unusually nervous and unable to think of what to say except for the possibly stupid thing of "Hail, Greenson."

The green earth pony quirked an eyebrow and regarded them silently for a moment before answering, "Hail travellers, what brings you here."

"Oh, you know, various reasons, not least of which being that somepony recommended this place to us."

"Is that so? Well what can I do for you? You looking for a drink? A room? Or are you after something else?" he said, emphasising the something.

"We could be looking for something else but for now I think we could use some directions to Shoebend Street."

"Shoebend Street?" It was clear Fleur's request had him by surprise by being so mundane. "Well, okay I suppose, but you've come completely the opposite direction if you've come from town."

"Actually we've come from the bayou," Twilight told him.

"I see. Well, you go right out of here then left when you reach the city centre. You know it's the centre 'cause there's a big ole statue there." He kept giving directions which seemed to keep going and going with an abundance of turns. Trixie was the first to gain a glazed expression as she lost track of things, followed by Fleur who wished she had wrote this down. Twilight was the only one still listening and nodding as he finally declared "then you take another left and you're on Shoebend Street. You get that?"

"No." "Nope." "Yes."

"As long as one of you gets it. Take care folks." Trixie led the way out followed by Twilight, with Fleur bringing up the rear which allowed her glance back and catch Greenson giving them a very thoughtful look, though that might have been because they were heading in the totally opposite direction he told them.

"Well?" Octavia said questioningly, "Did you learn anything? You weren't really gone that long."

"Not exactly," Fleur admitted grudgingly.

"We did learn the way to Shoebend Street though," Trixie said cheerfully. "Or at least I think we did... Twilight?"

"Yes Trixie, I haven't forgotten it yet."

"Great! Come on then ponies, let's get moving!" She started trotting off with her head held high but she slowed down as a few facts of reality asserted themselves. "Hold on, if we didn't learn anything apart from the directions then what was the point of going in there?"

They looked expectantly at Fleur who hung her head slightly and pouted, "Alright, you got me, I messed up. I did have an idea of what I was going to do in there and it worked flawlessly in my head-"

"But..." the others chimed simultaneously.

"But for some reason I completely forgot what I was going to do and say and came out with 'hail Greenson' like some cheesy play written in old equestrian and then I was too embarrassed to want to hang around."

"Seems about typical for us," Trixie said, shrugging.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Fleur asked threateningly.

"Let's face it, we suck at this! Celestia could really have found some better qualified ponies than us! I mean, our first plan was to get to Stalliongrad, which we did briefly before running away after I was arrested and thankfully rescued. Then we went to Prance which was in riots two days later. The party was our biggest success so far and even then the most useful piece of information we got was gained purely by the circumstance of that assassin trying to take out the Viscount while we were there! Add Caverndown and my recent cock-up to that mix and we couldn't look more like a joke if we tried!"

"I rather think you're being a tad negative there," Octavia tutted. "I mean we found the filly and saved Summer, we found the remains of the last rebellion, and learned about the collars in the Caverns. Prance was bad timing for us, and in the end we did get the information at the party even if it was by chance-"

"I could've been raped there!"

"Yes, and that would have been terrible if it had happened. All the same I don't think we're doing as badly as you think."

"Oh whatever, it's not like it's a competition. Let’s just go and do the thing, at that place that Twilight's going to lead us to."

The six ponies eventually made it to the city centre, not that they were in any rush, and took a moment to have a break as they observed the giant bronze statue sat in the middle of the square.

"When I die, I want to be commemorated with a statue that big," Trixie said half-jokingly.

"The ego demands it!" Fleur said, directing a bemused glance at Trixie before looking up at the statue that was easily as tall as ten ponies. The statue depicted a sour-faced and aging stallion, dressed up in military finery.

"Who is that meant to be?" asked Octavia. "I'm assuming they're meant to be quite famous if they warrant a statue this large."

"Duke Ironhoof, founding father of our great nation," the filly read from the plaque attached to the pedestal.

"Who was that?" Twilight asked, looking to Fleur in the hopes of an answer.

"The first Duke," Fleur told her. "The pony that rallied the earth ponies to take Mareitania once the windigoes were gone. Neigh Orleans is supposed to be his home town as well as where his efforts to take over this country started from."

"Why here?"

"What is this? Story time?" Fleur rolled her eyes but answered anyway. "The effects of the windigoes winter weren't as severe down here which meant that a lot of ponies stayed rather than join the exodus. Duke Ironhoof was the one who rallied the earth ponies, since this was apparently an earth pony city at the time, and led them to take the country once the winter was over."

"What kind of pony names their foal Ironhoof?" Trixie asked with a smirk. "It's like his mother knew he was destined to be a complete asshole."

"I doubt that was his original name Trixie," said Twilight.

"Oh really? I could totally see him being a Buttercup or a... a... I dunno, but something lame anyway."

"So if this was an earth pony city," the filly said as she looked around the other ponies in the square, "why are there so many unicorns here now?"

"Because they're too poor to live in places where they need to buy clothes, which is probably why this was an earth pony city in the first place. I imagine a lot of earth ponies at the time considered that to be ironic justice."

"But wouldn't they want to maintain the integrity of this city's origin's as an earth pony city and the birthplace of modern day Mareitania?" Twilight asked incredulously.

Fleur shrugged, "Heck if I know, but I imagine this statue is mostly to remind all the unicorns living here just who holds the biggest stick in Mareitania. Here's a hint, it's not the unicorns, definitely not the pegasi, and isn't even the majority of the earth ponies."

"This statue needs something..." the filly said thoughtfully as she rubbed her chin. "Like a great big bushy beard and eyebrows, or something."

"How about some filly blood," said a voice behind them, "if you even think about defacing that statue." They turned around to see who was talking to them, finding that a couple of guards were behind them. "And you, unicorn," he said to Trixie, "call our great founding father an asshole one. More. Time."

"Um... no thanks, I think I got all the name calling out of my system for now. Sir," she added respectfully. "In fact, if there were a duty to clean the statue Trixie would volunteer right now."

The guard narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Don't push your luck unicorn." He then shoved Trixie and stalked off, followed closely by his companion.

"Jerk," Trixie muttered once he was out of hearing range.

"Look on the bright side," Fleur told her. "In Stalliongrad that'd be a dehornable offence."

"Oh? Oh really? Wow. I'm sure not being sarcastic when I say I love how liberal Neigh Orleans is! No wonder it's such a great place to live. Being full of filthy liberals and all must be really galling to those ponies up north knowing such a place exists..."

"Nopony likes sarcasm Trixie," Twilight primly reminded her.

"Sometimes I question how well you know Trixie."

"Ooh hey!" the filly suddenly said excitedly. "You know how we're," the filly held a hoof up to her mouth to whisper, "rebels and stuff? Do you think we could blow up the statue?" Twilight swore she could see fire gleaming in the filly's eyes.

"Uh... I'm not sure we could really class ourselves as, y'know, rebels, and I'm not sure what you would hope to achieve with blowing this up, so I'm going to say-"

"Maybe?"

"-no."

"Aww. I thought you were cool Twilight."

"And I didn't think you were a pyromaniac in the making."

"What? I just like the way it makes things all toasty!"

"You're incorrigible," Twilight stated before heading off with the others following.

"Hey! You're only allowed to use words I know the meaning of! No fair Twilight!" The filly chased after them, and like the others, failed to notice the eyes watching them from the shadows.

"Well, here we are, Shoebend Street," Octavia said as she squinted up at the mossy and barely legible street sign. "Now what?"

"Now we find thirty four," the filly said with obvious sarcasm. "Duh."

"I know that, but this place appears to be a maze. I mean look," she pointed at one of the rough wooden houses, "there's number one," she pointed at the house across from it, "and there's number sixty seven! How does that even make sense?"

"I don't know,” said Fleur, “I'm still trying to figure out why it's called a street when it appears to be a mass of houses built wherever anypony felt like building one." It was clear that whoever had designed this place had planned it to have a nice regular checkerboard layout, but had at some point early in its construction forgot what shape a checkerboard was and had instead ended up with the amorphous blob of misaligned houses that was Shoebend Street.

The filly snirked, "So the guy hammering the numbers on the houses might have been a little drunk, big deal. We'll have to keep looking around until we find it, that's all."

Fleur sighed, "Is this the part where we split up?"

"No!" Twilight said quickly. "No. Something tells me that splitting up in this place would be a really bad idea. We'll just have to follow a pattern until we find the right number."

"That's gonna take ages..." the filly whined."

"I know, but as I said, splitting up sounds like a bad idea. Besides, with everypony keeping an eye out I'm sure it won't take long."

"Are you saying that on the assumption that Summer can count?"

"Hey!" Octavia shouted as Summer hung her head. "There's no need for that!"

"What? I'm just saying."

"Can you even count!?"

"Yes miss, t' four miss, 'cause that's how many hooves I got."

"Quit being a smart ass, filly," Fleur chided, "and apologise to Summer."

"Okay, okay, sheesh. Summer, I'm sorry for what I said."

"'s okay," Summer squeaked, although judging by her expression it really wasn't.

"See? She's totally cool with it. It's like we're besties or something."

"Big up the pegasus massive?" suggested Trixie as she pumped her forehooves into the air. Judging by the enraged expression that crossed the filly's face it wasn't the right thing to say and Trixie quickly retracted it. "Right, nevermind. Sooo... Should we get looking?"

"I think that's for the best," Twilight said. Picking a direction around the outskirts of the street she started walking, only looking back briefly to see if the others were following her, which they were thankfully.

Looking around she had to admit that this place wasn't the worst by Mareitanian standards. Sure the houses were all pretty rickety and wooden and ancient looking, but they also had their own little bits of space that could have been transformed into gardens if the ground wasn't so dry, and they seemed like they would make decent enough homes.

All around her she could see ponies living their lives as best they could and making the best of what they had. She could also hear the sounds of foals laughing as they played which struck her, as the last time she could remember that sound was in Ponyville. All in all this was one of the better places they had come upon in her opinion.

She looked back, hoping to see what Trixie was making of it all, and was faintly surprised to see Trixie looking very apprehensive. "Everything okay?" she asked after slowing down to let Trixie catch up.

"No," Trixie said with a unusual amount of honesty. Realising that she had given a straight answer for once Trixie went on to explain. "I'm... scared Twilight. What if that pony in Prance was talking about my parents? What if they've been dead for years? Part of me would rather not know. And don't bother trying to convince me that they're fine."

"I wasn't going to." Twilight fell silent as she tried to think of how to put what she thinking into words, "Trixie, I don't know if they're alive or not but I want you to know that we're here for you either way. I can't even imagine what I'd do in your situation right now."

"Good to know, but I'm still terrified of finding out the answer." Trixie pointed between two houses, "What do you see there?" Twilight squinted, hoping to catch what it was Trixie was pointing at but couldn't see anything and said so. "Exactly, there should be a house there, and there isn't."

"Do... Do you want me to go have a look for you?" Trixie nodded. "Okay then. Guys, wait here with Trixie, I'll be back in a minute." She trotted between the two houses Trixie had pointed between and as soon as she passed the fences of the two houses realised that what Trixie had feared was there was true.

There were barely any remains of the house that had once stood here. All that was left was a square of concrete with the rotting and still lightly charred uprights jutting out of it. Other than that, all that was remained of the house was some other pieces of rotting wood and the half burnt remains of some stairs.

Twilight shook her head, forcing herself to not assume the worst. This place was ridiculously dry considering how close they were to the river and the bayou, and most of these houses would probably burn like paper given half a chance. What she needed was proof that this wasn't the house they were looking for.

Twilight moved into the wreckage, taking care to not step on any nails that might remain, and searched, hoping to find some clue that would show whom this house belonged to. Sadly though, between the ravages of time and the fire there was very little she could find to prove anything.

She started sifting through the remains with her magic, hoping her magic's finer touch would turn something up but still there was nothing. Ready to give up she tossed a small chunk of wood away when a tinkling of metal caught her attention. Twitching her ears she followed the noise to its source and was rewarded with finding two small bits of metal, corroded and warped from the fire but still very clear in their meaning.

"Oh no..." Twilight muttered, suddenly feeling numb. She held the pieces in front of her and was about to return to the others when the crunch of a hoof made it clear she didn't have to go far. Trixie stood there, peering at Twilight with watery eyes while the others waited pensively behind her.

Twilight didn't know what to say as she walked towards Trixie. Feeling herself choking up she placed the two pieces of metal, a three and a four, in front of Trixie. "I-I'm sorry Trixie, I'm so sorry," Twilight choked tearfully as Trixie's breathing became harsh, tears running down her own cheeks.

"It's... It's..." Trixie collapsed into tears as grief claimed her, and Twilight held her as twenty years of hope abandoned the blue unicorn in a chorus of wailing and tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Twilight kept repeating quietly, while Octavia held Trixie from the other side and Fleur ran a comforting hoof down her back. Summer stood nearby, biting her lip, unsure of what to do in the situation while the filly sat facing away, an expression of anger marring her features.

After a few minutes Trixie pushed them off and sat up, wiping her eyes and nose. "It's fine, I was stupid to think they might have been alive."

"Trixie?" said Twilight, unsure.

"I said it's fine!" Trixie snapped, "Nothing nice ever happens to Trixie, I get it." Trixie growled and threw the numbers into the ruined house.

"Um, excuse me?" They all looked round to see where the voice came from, finding that it had come from a chocolaty brown earth pony mare wearing a rough dress, the wisps of white in her mane betraying her advancing years. "Are you- Are you Trixie Lulamoon?"

"I am, what of it?"

A shaky smile spread across the mares face and a tear gathered in the corner of her eye, "I can't believe it's really you! Your parents would be so happy to know you're alive."

Trixie stared at the mare for a moment before shaking her head and snorting. "Yeah? Well they're dead so I don't think it matters what they think. Who are you?"

"Oh! Uh, I'm sorry, I'm Sugar Cookie, I live across the road there. I knew your parents when they... when they were alive. I'm sorry you didn't know about them being gone but after what happened nopony knew if you were dead or alive or what. It's such a relief to know you're alright."

"Y-you knew my parents?" Trixie asked shakily.

"I did. They were wonderful ponies and they loved you very much, which is part of why they wanted out of Mareitania, to give you all the life they felt you deserved."

"Well that backfired," the filly said snidely.

"Filly!" Fleur yelled, clamping her magic over the filly's mouth.

"She's not wrong Fleur," Trixie said quietly. "Their idea of giving me a better life really did backfire." Trixie took a couple of deep breaths before asking "Were you there when it... happened?"

Sugar Cookie averted her gaze and nodded. "I was. It was horrible and I'll never forget that night, not least because I have a reminder of it every time I look outside," she said, nodding towards the burnt ruins.

"Could you tell me about it? Please?"

"I don't know, that's not really something you need to hear."

"Please!" Trixie begged, "I need to know!"

Sugar Cookie glanced between Trixie and the ruins of the house before closing her eyes and sighing. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you, it's not a nice story. It was evening and just starting to turn dark, and I was curled up with my husband Daybreak when we heard the soldiers arrive..."

"What on earth is going on out there?" Cookie mumbled sleepily as she rested her head against Daybreak's side. The sound of marching hooves was barely audible but was slowly coming closer, joined by the steady crash of armour.

"I don't know," the unicorn said, "but I don't like it." Rather than tempt fate by investigating, the two ponies opted to wait and see if the noise passed, but when it was at its loudest by their home it stopped. "Huh?"

"Barricade the doors and windows!" Somepony shouted, "Make sure they can't escape!" Minutes later there was all manner of hammering as whatever was out there complied with the voice's orders.

"I don't like this," Daybreak said. "I'm going to have a look."

"No baby, don't. You don't want to get into trouble."

"I'm only going to look out the window, that's all." The yellow stallion gently slid from under Cookie and went to the window nearest the noise outside before twitching the curtain aside with his magic. "What the..."

"What? What is it?"

"It's soldiers. They're boarding up the windows on the Lulamoon place. Why the hell would they be doing that?"

"I don't know," Cookie rolled onto her stomach and looked at her husband, "but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. The Lulamoon's are gone, remember?"

"Yeah, sure..." Daybreak said slowly, sounding not at all convinced. He backed away from the window and let the curtain fall back into place before returning to his wife. He was about to sit back down again when the sound of a mare shouting in fear rang around the room. "What the fuck?" he cursed, running back to the window and looking through it in time to catch the soldiers ponyhandling a blue coated and golden maned unicorn mare out of a wagon and into the house. "They've got Radiance!"

Sugar Cookie joined him a moment later, "What? Where?"

"They took her in the house!" Daybreak ran to leave the house, Sugar close behind him, just as they dragged a white and silver maned unicorn male out of the wagon, his fur covered in stains, his left eye swollen shut and his horn little more than a jagged stump. "Hat-trick!"

The other unicorn's good eye focused and searched for the pony shouting his name, "Daybreak? Daybreak! They're going to bu-" he started to shout but was silenced by a soldier smashing his snout with an armoured hoof, adding to the many stains on Hat-trick's coat.

Daybreak ran up to the line of soldiers where a sandy coloured stallion with newly made lieutenant’s stripes was giving orders to the soldiers, "What's going on here?" Daybreak demanded to know.

"Lower your tone unicorn, unless you're so desperate to join your former neighbours." The lieutenant waved down the road and a cart was pulled up, filled with bundles of kindling. "If you must know these ponies are being made an example of. A warning against all who would defy the Dukes' laws."

Working by torchlight, four of the soldiers started pulling the bundles out of the cart and began placing them around the house. Realising what was about to happen Daybreak looked around desperately for help from the crowd that had gathered whilst noticing that many of the soldiers were now giving each other uneasy glances. As the soldiers worked a mustard coloured pony fell out of line and approached the lieutenant. "Lieutenant Sabre, sir, is this... Is this really necessary? I mean, we caught them, it's over."

"Get back in line and don't you dare question the Dukes' orders again or you shall be court-martialled!" Sabre sneered. The stallion hesitated for a moment before slumping in defeat and returning to his position. While the exchange between the lieutenant and the soldier was going on the last of the bundles was set in position on the porch of the house and the soldiers were now pouring oil over the firewood, filling the air with a foul stench.

Grabbing a torch in one of his hooves, the lieutenant walked up onto the porch and addressed the ponies before him. "Citizens of Mareitania, the ponies within this abode dared to think they could defy the laws of this great country. In recompense for this reckless lack of judgement our noble Duke has decreed that they pay the ultimate price and be made an example of for all traitors that would dare to defy his will!"

On finishing his short speech the lieutenant pressed his torch into one of the bundles, the oil catching fire instantly and spewing flames up the side of the porch. Simultaneously, the four soldiers that had stacked the firewood against the house now drew torches along the bundles along the sides of the house, creating a burning curtain that licked up the bone dry wooden walls, quickly spreading the roaring flames all around the house.

"No!" Daybreak, Sugar Cookie and many of their neighbours rushed the soldiers in an attempt to free the ponies trapped inside the growing inferno, and there was more than a few shouts as ponies were injured on the soldiers weapons. Scoring a deep cut on his chest, Daybreak stepped past the weapon while doing his best to ignore the pain and found himself looking into the sad and fearful eyes of the soldier that had tried to confront the lieutenant.

There was a scream from inside the house, followed by shouting as the fire started to find its way inside, drawing Daybreak's attention away from the soldier. There was a desperate banging at the front door, but the makeshift barricade held despite the flames devouring its structure. Daybreak glared at the soldier, who desperately looked like he wished he could just disappear, shaking his head and mouthing a single word, "Don't."

Daybreak looked away in defeat as the screams intensified. Even if he were to get past the soldiers now there was no way inside; even at the distance he was from the fire he could still feel the heat singeing his coat. Judging by the way the other ponies around him were backing off they had drawn the same conclusion, and many of the soldiers were inclined to step away from the flames.

Folding his ears back, he turned away and found Sugar Cookie sat with her hooves clamped over her mouth and her eyes brimming with tears. Holding her he rocked back and forth as she bawled and kept rocking back and forth as the screams ended and the soldiers left, and still remained rocking her as hours later, the rains came and doused the flames.

Sugar Cookie wiped her eyes and drew a deep, shuddering breath. "I pray to the Lady that in all my days I never have to witness something as horrible as that day ever again."

"What h-" Octavia tried to speak but her voice broke. "What happened then?"

"Not all the soldiers left, but the ones that remained seemed as shaken by what happened as we all were. Once the rain had put out most of the fire they didn't even try to stop us as we put out what was left. Then we found what remains of the Lulamoon's we could, not that there was much, and buried them in the cemetery a couple mile up the road."

"Take me there!" Trixie said urgently. "I need to see them."

Sugar Cookie for her part seemed to become nervous at the request, looking around several times before turning back with a forced smile. "Okay, it's not far. Follow me." She led them away and out of Shoebend Street, leading them up away from the city and up a dusty track.

"Um," Fleur cleared her throat, "If you don't mind me asking, what became of your husband after that night?"

"That night... changed him. He became distant and angry, and would often spend days away from home, and before long he never came back at all. I still see him though, sometimes, but I'm not going to pretend I fully understand his choices."

"Do you know what he's doing?"

"Not well enough to tell you," the mare said pointedly.

"Sorry." Unwilling to intrude where they weren't wanted, nothing more was said until the group crested a small hill that seemed to be the cemetery if the rows of headstones were any indication. Sugar led them to the side, to the poorer part of the cemetery where the unicorns were kept separate from the earth ponies.

"There," she said, pointing to a single headstone. Trixie walked over to it and tried to read it but her eyes were blurring with tears.

"Twilight, c-could you read it, for me?"

"Oh, uh, okay." Twilight walked over and scraped some of the moss off the headstone with a hoof before reading what was written, "Here lies Hat-trick Lulamoon, Radiance Lulamoon, and their two beloved... children? What?"

"B-but I thought I was their only child?" Trixie's voice cracked, "Wasn't I?"

Sugar Cookie looked away for a moment before answering, "That's what we thought too, but when we went to collect the remains we found four skeletons; the two belonging to your parents and two belonging to two young foals."

"How did you know one of them wasn't Trixie?" Fleur asked.

"Because she was bigger than they were when she left."

"They burnt foals..." Octavia said in disbelief. "Those monsters actually burnt foals? How could they do that!?" Summer moved beside her and rested her head against Octavia's neck.

"This is seriously messed up," the filly muttered.

"How long was it between them leaving and the fire?" Twilight asked as she eyed Trixie nervously, who was lying on the grave with one hoof pressed against the headstone.

"Five or six months," Sugar answered. "Not long enough for a full pregnancy but if she were already pregnant when they left then, yeah..." The mare sighed heavily, "I'm not sure I can talk about this anymore. If you need me I'll be over there." She walked away for twenty or so meters before sitting down and staring out across the city.

"This is so wrong," Fleur said to Twilight. "I was fully prepared for the possibility that her parents weren't around anymore, but this is something else entirely."

"I know. I wish I could do something or say something to help but I don't even know where to begin."

"Maybe you should start with saying anything at all," Octavia said waspishly, "rather than let her lie there and stew."

"And what's stopping you, your ladyship?" the filly snapped back at Octavia.

"The same thing that's stopping you probably." Octavia looked Twilight squarely in the eyes, "You've known her longer than any of us, and while that might not have been the best of relationships you still know her better."

"Doesn't mean I know what to say to her! You guys probably know mo-" Twilight stopped herself as pointing out that the others were more familiar with losing others was a sure fire way to fall out with them, though the expressions on their faces made it clear they suspected what she was about to say. "Okay, I'll... try."

She moved over to Trixie and sat next to her before hesitantly moving to place a comforting hoof on her back before deciding not to. She racked her brain trying to think of something, anything, to say which might help, but couldn't. In the end it was Trixie that spoke first.

"It's funny," Trixie said as she tried to wipe some of her tears away.

"Uh, what is?"

"I don't remember my parents beyond a few flashes of memory, and if I try to think of somepony as my mother I usually think of my aunt instead, and my brothers and sisters have always in reality been my cousins. I didn't even know my actual brothers or sisters existed until just now and I don't have the slightest attachment to them. Nothing at all."

"Okay," Twilight said carefully, horribly unsure of where this was going.

"So if I know barely anything about them and have no attachment to them, I want to know something..."

"Know what?"

Trixie turned her head towards Twilight, her fur streaked with shed tears and her eyes red and puffy with the promise of more tears to come. "Why does it hurt so much?" Trixie sobbed. "I don't even know these ponies! How is it that losing something I never even had hurts so much!? I- I don't even know their names, or if they were my brothers or sisters, or both! Or if they were unicorns, earth ponies, or pegasi? And yet I miss them and I hate that I'll never get to know them. I'll never get to see what amazing ponies they could've become..."

"Trixie, I-"

"No! Don't you dare say you 'know how I feel,' or 'you understand what I'm going through!' You've never lost anypony! You know nothing, Twilight Sparkle, and you never will!"

All of a sudden a chill overtook Twilight and she shivered. It took her a moment but she noticed a darkening aura begin to build around Trixie's horn and a few small wisps of purple leak out the corner of her eyes. "Trixie! Your magic!"

"What? What about it?" Trixie growled.

"It's dark magic. You're doing dark magic!"

"So fucking what!"

"You shouldn't be doing it! You'll hurt yourself!"

The hoof struck quickly, smacking Twilight around the side of her face and sending her sprawling before she could react. "After all that's happened you're criticising me? Who the fuck do you think you are Twilight? You think I care if I'm doing dark magic?"

Twilight held a hoof to the side of her face, "But Trixie!"

"No! I'm glad I'm doing this! I'm going to tear the Duke a new one and if this magic helps me do that then I'm happy to use it! If you don't like it then you can fuck off!"

"Trixie, please! This isn't the-" Twilight barely erected a shield in time as a blast of dark magic descended upon her. Twilight was shocked, and not just because Trixie had attacked her. While the attack hadn't been anywhere near breaking through her shield it was still a lot stronger than what the average unicorn could muster, and stronger than Trixie's usual ability.

Once the attack was over Twilight dropped the shield and scrambled to her hooves before backing away. Trixie didn't make a move as Twilight backed away, but instead turned back to the grave and lay down again. Choosing to believe that Trixie wasn't going to attack her she returned to the others, nursing her cheek with a hoof while a very small part of her wondered why it was always the face.

"What did you do?" Fleur asked as soon as Twilight was close enough.

"I... I don't know. I could barely get two words in, and then she started manifesting dark magic and got angry when I suggested she should stop."

"Why would you do that?" Octavia asked.

"Dark magic feeds off strong negative emotions, and Trixie is feeling some very strong negative emotions right now." Almost as if to prove her point there was a howl of rage from Trixie. "It becomes a cycle where her emotions feed the magic and in turn the magic feeds her emotions, and when I tried asking her to stop she attacked me."

"Good job your magic didn't spaz out then," the filly said almost absently. "Who wants crispy fried Twilight?" That hadn't even occurred to Twilight. Suddenly her surviving Trixie's attack seemed a lot more miraculous.

Twilight tested her shield spell out a few times, each attempt being successful, but she couldn't regulate how much power she put into the spell. The first one would've struggled to stop a spit wad, whereas her third attempt was twice as powerful as the spell her brother used to shield Canterlot. Too bad it was the size of a rabbit. "I don't think I'm out of the woods just yet."

"Well that's just too bad for you isn't it sweetie." Caught up as she was in casting her spells, neither she nor the others were paying attention as three ponies, two in black armour, had trotted up to them like it was a social visit. "I guess you'll have to surrender instead."

"You!" Trixie raged at the third pony to approach them.

Seemingly nonplussed, Deal Good chuckled at Trixie, "Hello Trixie, good to see you're embracing your new gift."

Sugar Cookie galloped over, "What are they doing here?" she gasped breathlessly, appearing to be genuinely afraid.

"You know who they are?" Twilight shook her head, "Doesn't matter, we need to get out of here!"

Sugar Cookie looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded, "I can do that, come on!"

"No! Deal Good is right there! We have to stop him!" Trixie glared at Twilight, "Or is that not important enough to you?"

"There's no way we can beat all of them Trixie! We have to run!"

"I'm. Not. RUNNING!" Trixie unleashed a blast towards Deal Good that was considerably more powerful than the one she used against Twilight. Deal Good though just grinned and raised a shield of his own, the blast barely even fazing him even as the runes on the other two's armour flared red from the deflected energy.

"Hmm, impressive, yet still lacking. You're going to have to try a little harder Miss Lulamoon."

"Trixie!" Twilight tried to get Trixie's attention, but Trixie either willfully ignored her or was too caught up in attacking Deal Good. "Damn it! Sugar Cookie, get the others out of here!"

There was a 'whump' as Trixie unloaded another attack against Deal Good, Twilight raising an invisible wing to ward off the shockwave as it hit. "What about you Twilight?" Fleur asked as she shielded her eyes with a hoof.

"I'm going to help her however I can, but you guys can't do anything here. I'll be fine."

Fleur looked like she was about to argue when the shockwave from another attack hit her. Shaking off the dust she scooped the filly onto her back, "Be careful," she warned before running after Sugar Cookie and the others. Thankfully neither Deal Good nor the two armoured ponies went after them.

Once they were gone Twilight gulped and fought off the desire to wet herself. "Come on horn, don't fail me now."

She joined Trixie, who was almost wreathed in dark energy, the sensation making Twilight's skin crawl. "Not running?" Trixie asked nastily.

"Not while you're here." If Trixie appreciated the gesture she didn't show it and instead directed another attack at their assailants. Twilight couldn't help but wonder what was sustaining Trixie as the unicorn was expending energy like it was going out of fashion and yet hadn't even broke a sweat. Twilight wasn't sure who there scared her the most at that moment.

A beam of swirling black energy swept towards them and Twilight erected a shield to cover the both of them. It barely held as the attack stopped and Twilight could feel her horn aching as it tried to cope with her own fluctuating magic. She dropped the shield and shot a small blob of pinkish magic at Deal Good who deftly sidestepped it without really trying.

It distracted him enough for Trixie's next attack to graze him though, and he grunted in pain as he quickly raised a spur of black crystal to block the attack. The damage was negligible at best and hadn't even left a mark on the stallion's dark coat. "Better Trixie, better. But not good," he taunted, Trixie wildly shooting another attack at him in retaliation.

Twilight stepped back and tried to take stock of the situation. As much as she hated to admit it, with her magic in its current state she was woefully outmatched. There was no way she could hope to stick with Trixie and match Deal Good attack for attack, and even less so if the two armoured ponies involved themselves. Almost as if to prove her point Deal Good span and bucked at the spur of crystal he had created and a head sized chunk cracked out of it, flying towards Trixie who growled and batted it aside, straight towards Twilight.

Rather than try to shield herself from it she did what her newest instincts told her to do and leapt into the air, gaining altitude as quick as she could. While Trixie seemed content to take the fight head on, Twilight's only advantage right now was mobility. Rainbow Dash would be so proud, Twilight thought.

"How is she flying!?" yelled Deal Good, quickly glancing at Pearl and Breaker.

"How the bloody hell should we know!?" Breaker yelled back, "You're the pony with the fancy magical, and totally illegal, do-hickeys, you tell us!"

The dark stallion grunted and sent out a pulse of dark magic that seemed to harmlessly pass through everything, at least until it reached Twilight's wings. Twilight screamed and struggled to stay airborne, her wings feeling like they were burning as the dark magic seemed to almost devour the spell hiding her wings. The sensation passed quickly though and Twilight fought to regain altitude.

"She has wings? Why didn't you say she had wings? This deal is getting worse by the second! And you could help you know!" Deal Good reared up and shot three smaller blasts of magic towards Twilight before returning his attention to Trixie.

Twilight waited as the spells sped towards her and deftly flew to the side, the three dark blobs speeding past her before noticing the spells begin to arc around back towards her. "Great," she muttered bitterly before flying straight up as fast as she could. It wasn't until the leading spell was right on her tail, and almost eating it with an actual mouth full of dark fangs, that she worked out they were quite a bit faster than her. She back flipped and pointed herself towards the ground and pushed herself downwards, the spells just missing her, though they were already turning to follow her.

An idea came to her mind and she couldn't help but grin as she pumped her wings, increasing her downward velocity as the spells caught up to her once more. Angling herself towards the sides of their attackers she aimed for a point just short of them before pulling up as hard as she could, skimming over their backs. The spells chasing her couldn't pull up fast enough though and the leading one slammed into the ground while the others were dissipated by the armour of the two earth ponies.

"Deal Good!" Pearl shouted at the increasingly weary looking unicorn. "Watch it with those attacks!"

"Help me then! I can't beat them on my own!"

"If we could we would've before now, but we can't get the flying one and you made the other one into a monster, so this is your fight entirely. Or do we need to remind you why you're doing this?" Breaker kicked off his hoofguard and pulled out the bag containing Trixie's contract. Pulling the bag down slightly he pressed the exposed contract against his armour for a moment before letting it reform.

During this Twilight returned to Trixie, and was shocked to find the ground around her scorched and smoking while the unicorn herself sported dozens of small burns and lacerations. Rather than dodge or block Deal Good's attacks, the daft mare had been taking the hits, and the fact that she wasn't injured worse and was still standing said a lot about her current state of mind and magic. Like Deal Good though she was starting to show signs of exhaustion.

"Trixie?"

"They've got my contract. That's how they're making him fight for them."

"How can you tell?"

"I can feel it Twilight. When the big one pressed it against his armour it... hurt? Maybe. It definitely felt like something though."

Twilight was about to argue, or say that it wasn't important right now but stopped herself. Instead she said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Take it from them, I don't care how. Then bring it here or destroy it if you can, but get it away from them at least." Trixie narrowed her eyes, "I'll make a distraction."

Twilight nodded, slightly wary of Trixie's sudden focus and took to the air again as Trixie gathered her magic and formed a orb of black energy that burned with green and purple flames, and launched it towards the others with a scream. Deal Good set up a shield to protect himself but the spell wasn't aimed directly at him, instead striking the ground in the midst of them and creating a shockwave that even knocked Pearl and Breaker off their hooves.

Sensing her opportunity Twilight swooped down and snatched the contract out of Breaker's hooves with her magic. "No!" Deal Good shouted after her, "You fools! How could you let her take it!?" He wildly shot attack after attack after Twilight who dodged desperately until Trixie was able to stop him by blasting him side on with her magic.

While he was distracted Twilight pulled the contract out of the bag and unfurled it, taking note of Trixie's name, and a small smudge of blood of all things. Fully confident that this was definitely the right contract she tried tearing at it with her magic but to no avail. She tried burning it, shredding it, vaporizing it, and disintegrating it, but the contract remained annoyingly undamaged. Mama had said the thing was supposed to be damn near invincible and the only thing Twilight had seen to affect it was the anti-magic armour.

Of course! Twilight thought gleefully, The armour! If she could get close enough to hold it against their armour long enough it might destroy the contract. Deal Good still seemed distracted so Twilight flew down and pressed the contract against the mare's armour, but as soon as she did the armour seemed to negate her levitation and the contract fluttered to the ground before it was even damaged.

Quickly grabbing the contract again before anypony else could, she flew back up and circled around a few times as she thought. Deal Good was being heavily assaulted by Trixie so he hopefully wasn't going to be any interference for a while, though Trixie did appear to be nearing collapse.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hoof, she watched as the mare turned to keep an eye on her while the stallion seemed content to watch the fight between Trixie and Deal Good. However that also made him Twilight's best target, and since she couldn't use her magic to hold the contract to him she was going to have to use her hooves, and to stop him from trying to stop her she was going to have to tackle him.

Twilight swallowed and steeled herself, "This is going to suck" being her battle cry before she dove down towards the armoured stallion, the contract held in her outstretched hooves. Even with the wind whistling in her ears Twilight could hear the mare shout a warning to the stallion but it was fruitless as Twilight was already almost upon him. With a sickening crunch she slammed into the side of him and they both went flying, Twilight trying to end up in a position on top of him. She got lucky, but how long she could keep on top was a different matter as the stallion was already trying to rise. She pressed the contract against him with her left hoof, while the right beat him about the head a few times, and she screamed as it felt like she was dipping her hoof into boiling acid as the contract tried to stay in one piece.

She persevered though, even with her hoof blackening, and the contract dissolved before dripping off the armour like it was made of black slime. "Nooo!" Deal Good screamed as both Twilight and Breaker backed away from the black puddle the contract left. Quickly though it became apparent that the puddle was growing and something was piling up inside it. Twilight tried to take to the air again but a wrench of agony in her right wing made it clear that flying wasn't an option right now.

Instead she limped away and watched as the black slime piled up into a tall, vaguely bipedal construct with stubby legs and obscenely long arms that nearly dragged on the ground. A head formed and it split as a maw that went most of the way around its head opened, strings of slime going from top lip to bottom. Two eye sockets formed but remained empty, though you could tell it could see perfectly well as its empty gaze swept across them before stopping on Deal Good.

It pointed a dripping finger at Deal Good, "You," it said in a voice that hissed and reverberated in an assault on your hearing, "You have failed us for the last time Deal Good."

"No! I had the contract! She's right there, see?" Deal Good pleaded as she pointed as Trixie.

"She's no good to us now," the thing said, "and you are out of time. Your contract has ended, Deal Good, and it’s time to pay your dues."

"No! Wait!" Deal Good turned and tried to flee but the thing slammed a hand into the ground, shooting inky tendrils from its fingers. A moment later three skeletons burst halfway out of the ground and wrapped their bony legs around Deal Goods', stopping him in his tracks. Deal Good kept begging and pleading as the thing lurched towards him, before it leaning over him and collapsed into a pool of black with Deal Good at its centre. Even the two armoured ponies flinched as an agonising scream erupted from Deal Good's mouth, his skin and flesh visibly melting off his bones while he remained horribly aware of every sensation.

After far too long he sank below the surface and the pool shrank away into nothingness, leaving nothing more than a dark stain on the ground. "This is why I don't like unicorns and their bullshit," Breaker commented while Twilight voided her stomach.

Twilight wiped her mouth and turned toward Trixie, finding her slumped on the ground, unconscious. "Trixie!" Twilight tried to run over but her hoof was far too painful to use and she had limped only halfway when Pearl beat her there. "Surrender and your fr-" was all Pearl managed to say before Twilight used her magic to rip a headstone out of the ground and smash it around the mare's head, the stone breaking into hundreds of fragments as the clang echoed around the surrounding woods. Pearl rolled a few times before stopping, a sizable dent in her helmet.

"Pearl!" Breaker sprinted towards his wife but stopped as Twilight ripped another headstone out of the ground and held it back threateningly. "Fine," he growled after a moment, "take the unicorn and go." Twilight nodded and lowered the stone, using her magic instead to haul Trixie onto her back which was a whole new exercise in agony with her injured hoof and wing.

Twilight started to limp slowly and carefully towards where Sugar Cookie had led the others when a thought struck her. Looking back over her shoulder she asked, "Why didn't you help him?"

Breaker paused in trying to wrench the helmet off Pearl's head, "Because even though he lost we still won. He was too dangerous to let live. That, and you've taught us we're not as safe as we thought. Not get the fuck outta here!"

Twilight turned, satisfied with that answer, and begun her long and painful trip after the others.

Twilight ached everywhere, besides outright hurting in several places, most notably her horn, her injured hoof, and her right wing which was dragging along on the ground. Trying to carry a pony on only three legs wasn't helping either and Twilight wanted nothing more than to drop her load and sleep.

She kept going though, slow as her progress was, and was concentrating on putting one hoof in front of the other, although she wasn't sure how that phrase worked with an odd number of hooves. Trixie started to slide off and Twilight paused to secure her before sighing heavily. She didn't even know where the others were and hadn't thought of a way to find them since she had other more pressing matters to attend to at the time.

With that in mind she was surprised when she hobbled into a small clearing and found Fleur, Octavia, Summer, and the filly hogtied with bags over their heads. Twilight didn't even know what to make of it and stood there with her mouth open before sliding Trixie off and limping as fast as she could over to Fleur.

Twilight pulled the bag off Fleur's head and straightaway Fleur started to shout something through the gag in her mouth. Twilight couldn't make out what it was though and started to untie the gag as Fleur kept trying to shout at her, tears of running down her cheeks.

Twilight finally managed to untie the gag and threw it aside and was about to ask what was happening when Fleur shouted "Run!" at her. It was too late though as something dropped out of the tree beside her and struck her above her horn with something heavy. She staggered sideways and her vision faded but she remained conscious enough to stand and hear her attackers.

"That was pathetic!" said a voice that sounded a lot like Sugar Cookie's. "You didn't even knock her over, let alone out!"

"It's not my fault!" said a voice that definitely belonged to a stallion. "Her skull must be made of iron or something!"

"Don't be such a whiney little baby. Give me that and let me show you how it's do-"

Author's Notes:

I'm sure some of you might be disappointed that Trixie's dilemma was resolved as soon as this, but her problems with Deal Good was never the point.

24. Friend or foe?

Being woken up by means of having a bucket of freezing water thrown over you was seldom a pleasant experience. Especially not when the hood you were wearing became waterlogged, making every breath a soggy battle for precious air.

Add to that the fact that Twilight was hogtied on a cold, hard, and now wet floor with ropes chafing her injured hoof while her damaged wing was flopped over her back in an unnatural, and frankly painful position, and you might have a clue as to how unhappy she was right now.

Not to mention the inhibitor on her horn and how much her head hurt.

A hoof jabbed her in the stomach, not in a particularly painful way but in a way designed to let the jabbee know their attention was desired. "Five more minutes..." Twilight murmured quietly.

"Wake up!" an impatient sounding stallion yelled right in her ear.

"Could you turn me over and throw some water on the other side? I could use a bath." Twilight didn't know why she was being so contrary. Normally she'd have been in a complete panic in this situation, but after all that had happened recently Twilight felt her ability to give a damn was slipping away from her.

"Oh good, you are awake." The stallions hoof pressed down on the base of her injured wing making Twilight yelp in pain. "Now if you'll take a moment to answer some of my questions I would appreciate it."

"You have my undivided attention," Twilight hissed from between gritted teeth, tears in her eyes as his hoof twisted on the joint.

"Excellent. Now, who are you?"

"Princess Celestia and her band of travelling minstrels. I play the drums." The stallion pressed harder on her wing for a moment before removing his hoof.

"I see. Seems you're going to be as difficult as the rest of them. Thing is, I know you're not Princess Celestia because she's white, so that means you're either Twilight Sparkle, or Sunset Shimmer."

"What? Sunset Shimmer? Where'd you even get that name from?"

"The book in your belongings."

"Oh," Twilight said, though in the depths of her mind she was cussing the scenery blue. "Could you look after that, please? I'll be wanting it back."

"I'll try to convince the others to not use it as toilet paper. So then 'Princess Twilight Sparkle,' what is an Equestrian princess doing here?"

"I heard the cheeses here are to die for. I didn't realise how literal that was. I mean, wow, you do not want to be a unicorn with wings in Mareitania I can tell you."

"Your insolence is going to cost you," the stallion grunted. There was a brief swishing sound and Twilight braced herself just to receive a light stinging sensation from the frog of her back left hoof.

"Did you... Did you just whip my hoof?"

"Uh..." The stallion suddenly sounded very unsure of himself, "Yes?" Twilight burst out laughing and the stallion stood there, a blush growing on his cheeks. "Stop that!"

"I'm sorry, it's just... it's just... Ahahahaha!" Twilight tried to hold her sides but the ropes prevented her from doing so. She tried to calm herself and slowly managed to until another fit of giggles overtook her. "Ahh, my sides hurt!"

"What's so funny!?" the now clearly impatient stallion demanded to know.

"I'm sorry, but between my hoof, my horn, my recent concussion from when you abducted me, and my clearly busted wing, which I am sure you know very well about seeing as how you purposefully stamped on it, I am in a lot of pain. You really think whipping my hoof is going to intimidate me?"

"Oh. I thought you were going to be weird like that other mare and enjoy it or something."

"Which other mare?"

"The grey one."

"Huh, wasn't expecting that. So I guess that means you have my friends?"

The stallion stuttered for a moment before sighing, "Yes we have your friends."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yes, good. That means I won't have to track them down when I break out of here, and they better not have a hair out of place or there'll be hell to pay."

"Uh..." A nervous silence filled the air and Twilight gave a tired grin as the stallion completely failed to call her bluff. In actual fact she was in no fit state to attack a stuffed toy, let alone a dungeon probably filled with guards. And that was if somepony kindly removed the inhibitor and ropes first.

A door creaked open and another set of hooves clopped towards her, echoing on the bare stone. "Get out, get out, get out! For the love of the Lady, get out you fucking idiot," said a voice that was very definitely female and surprisingly familiar. The stallion quickly departed, but didn't shut the door behind him. "You just can't get the staff these days."

"Hello Sugar Cookie."

"Twilight Sparkle, how are you doing you old devil?" the newcomer said, making Twilight doubt who it was she was talking to since this pony seemed a bit more confident than Sugar Cookie had been.

"Honestly, I've been better," Twilight said, making the mare chuckle.

"I'll bet. We'll have to get somepony to look at your injuries once we're done. For now though I bet you're wondering what's going on."

"Amongst several other things, yes."

"Excellent! Unfortunately though, I'm not really at liberty to tell you much of anything other than you're safe, and your friends are safe."

"Even if they're being subjected to strange and ineffectual tortures?"

"Now now, we're not doing anything to the kid, and we had to give up on the pegasus-"

"What did you do to her!?"

"Nothing much. She wouldn't even speak and when we tried to coerce her she flew into hysterics and kept begging for Octavia. We had to put them together in the end to make her stop. That and trying to get information out of the earth pony was proving difficult."

"Enjoying it too much?"

"Yeah, all she kept saying was 'harder' and it was really off putting..."

"What about the other two?"

"The white one's fine, and is still undergoing her own interrogation, while the blue one hasn't woke up yet." Twilight's brow creased with worry. Not that she knew how long she had been out herself, it was still surprising to find out Trixie was still unconscious. "I guess that fight with Deal Good really took it out of her. Craziest thing I've ever seen, since I've never seen a fight between unicorns like that."

Neither have I, Twilight thought to herself. Pushing the thought from her mind Twilight asked "What do you want with us?"

"Ah well, that's the crux of the matter isn't it. We know you aren't from around here, and we would like to know what a princess from Equestria is doing tromping around Neigh Orleans. Have you come here at the bequest of the Duke, or are you here for other reasons." The mare sounded angry as she said Duke, giving Twilight a vital prompt to not be a sarcastic twit and say she was with him. Not that she would have anyway.

"Other. Very much other."

"Oh good, that makes more sense seeing as how they were after you."

"They?"

"Yep, ‘they.’ They don't have a name, don't need one. If they're on your tail you know who they are."

"Black magic proof armour?"

"Indeed. The Duke's elite agents, though that doesn't explain why Deal Good was with them."

"They were forcing him to fight for them. They were going to kill him after."

"Why would they need him though?"

"Because we're better than them?"

"Oh please, that lot have been the bane of unicorns in Mareitania for centuries. You couldn't beat them that easy."

"I wasn't saying it was easy, but it still hurts them if you smack them around the head with a rock."

"Is that so? In that case you must have some very strong magic to throw a rock that hard. Anyway, enough of that. Why are you here?"

"Because you abducted me, obviously."

"That's not what I meant-"

"I know it's not what you meant, but I don't know what kind of cooperation you expect after knocking me out, abducting me, and torturing me and my friends. If you want answers out of me, I want answers out of you! There's only one pony I'll talk to, and I'm not saying who until I know who you are!"

The mare stomped a hoof, "That is not how this works!"

"Enough," said a male voice from the doorway, different to the first stallion in here. "She's not with the Duke so I think it's only fair we tell her who we are." Twilight felt herself being pulled upright with telekinesis before her hood was pulled off. She blinked a few times as her vision adjusted, revealing the weathered yet kind face of a pale yellow unicorn stallion with a baby blue mane and piercing, amber coloured eyes.

Twilight grinned nervously before looking over his back at the mare in the room, who wasn't in fact Sugar Cookie at all. It was a pale, light maroon unicorn with a white mane and sparkling blue eyes. Feeling the ropes around her hooves slacken and fall off she braced her legs as the stallion gently lowered her to the ground, though she was quick to tuck her injured hoof up under her when she was reminded of how much it hurt.

"I am Daybreak, and this is my daughter Rose Thorn, usually known as just Thorn. We're part of the Mareitanian underground."

"Mareitanian underground?"

"Mmhmm. You might know us better as Pierre though."

Twilight's mind stuttered for a moment as she tried to think. "You're Pierre? But how is that possible? You're two ponies!"

"Pierre is more than two ponies. A lot more."

"It is?" Twilight didn't know what to make of this unexpected information. "Why have a singular pony's name then?"

"Our founder was called Pierre, and we adopted the name even as our numbers grew because having a single pony's name is also rather misleading to those who would work against us."

"Oh. That makes sense." She sat down absent mindedly rubbed at her horn, reminding her of the inhibitor there, "Are you going to take this off too?"

"Afraid not. Until we know more about you and friends motives we're not going to trust you that much."

"Fair enough I guess. I don't suppose I could see my friends could I?"

"You can see them in a bit once Miss De Lis is finished with her interrogation. Besides, don't think that because I've untied you that means we're done here."

"Oh. Okay then, what do you want to know?"

"Very simply, what are you, a princess from Equestria, doing in Mareitania if it's not at the invitation of the Duke?"

"Well the short answer is I'm looking for you to ask for your assistance in what is going to be the long answer." Twilight cleared her throat, "I have been tasked by princesses Celestia and Luna to bring about the end of the Dukes' reign." The expression on Daybreak's face was suitably incredulous, while Thorn looked like somepony had told her a bad joke. Twilight continued, "After encountering one of your members trying to assassinate the Viscount and rescuing him, he told me about Pierre and we thought you would be a good place to start."

Thorn suddenly perked up, "Ooh! So you’re the mysterious pony that busted Snowbright out of jail!"

"Hush Thorn." Daybreak quirked an eyebrow at Twilight, "Why would you be at the Viscount's party to see that?"

"Gathering information mostly." Twilight looked between the two ponies, "When we were given this task we weren't really given a lot to work with, so when we heard that you, or rather Pierre, was fighting against the Duke we had to investigate."

Daybreak sighed heavily, "Then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed Princess. Apart from a few radical members who think we should fight the Duke, we have little interest in actively deposing him."

Twilight's heart sank, "Buh- Buh- W-what do you do then?"

"Whatever we can, from distributing food, providing shelter, and smuggling ponies out of the country like your companion Miss Lulamoon. Which, incidentally, is how we found you."

"Huh?"

"Greenson recognised her from back in the day. He was there on the night her parents were... murdered, and was quite surprised to see her walk into his establishment so he alerted us. We started following you and decided that we would like to know about these six mysterious ponies wandering about. Unfortunate that I had to bring my wife into it but she was curious about why Lulamoon would return as well."

"So you abducted us? You could have just asked!"

"I know, but we couldn't be sure whether this was all a ploy by the Duke to have us reveal ourselves. A bit heavy-hooved perhaps, but necessary. So far you've given us no reason to doubt you so we're willing to give you a bit of leeway."

"And the torture? Or at least poor attempt at it?"

"Sometimes it is necessary to withdraw information from certain ponies, but we aren't willing to go to the lengths that the Duke might."

"I see." Twilight sat down and leaned against the wall as she tried to process this new information. She couldn't get far though, the fact that 'Pierre' wasn't actually fighting the Duke became too much of a sticking point in her mind. "If you're not fighting the Duke, why did, Snowbright was it? Imply that you were?"

"What?" The surprise on Daybreak's face wasn't what Twilight had expected.

"Snowbright, after he failed to kill the Viscount, he shouted 'Pierre sends his regards.'"

"He. Did. WHAT!? No wonder the army's been all over us lately! As if Prance wasn't bad enough..." Daybreak stood still as he thought before growling, "I'm going to murder that little bastard! Thorn, take care of our guests 'til I'm back."

"Yes boss!" Daybreak stomped out of the cell, leaving Twilight alone with a smirking Thorn. "So you wanna fight the Duke huh? That's pretty ballsy for a princess."

"I'm surprised you're not. Okay, yes he has an army and a lot more resources at hoof, but surely the best way to do your job would be to remove the reason you have to do it?"

Thorn's smirk grew a little wider, "And that would be what a lot of us here think. The problem is though is that probably over half of the ponies here don't want to fight because it's an incredibly daunting thing to do and nopony wants to consider the damage and suffering such a thing would entail. Whereas the ones that do want to fight can't come close to agreeing how to go about it. Snowbright is one of those that thinks assassinating the Duke, Duchess, and Viscount is all it would take to bring the Duchy to its knees, but most of us see how short-sighted that really is."

"What about you?"

Thorn looked awkward for a moment before answering, "Well, y'see, the thing is..." She sighed and ran a hoof down her face, "Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and what we do here, but I think he's being too passive about all this. At the same time though I know that bringing down the Duke would involve an all-out civil war which doesn't sound like much of a solution to me."

"So you're not in the murder the Duke camp?"

"Nah, that'd put the rule of Mareitania into the hooves of the highest ranking military leader around. Since General Sabre isn't around anymore that doesn't seem so terrible a prospect, but we're not entirely sure who it would be and if they might be worse. In any case though it still sounds like a bad idea to let them run the country."

"So if a movement sprung up to actively depose the Duke, would you join?"

"Maybe. A lot of it would depend on what it is this movement plans to do after. No point replacing one tyrant with another."

Twilight nodded, fully appreciating the unicorn's point of view. However, there were more pressing things for her to attend to. "Can I see my friends now?"

"I guess so. Since you've told us everything we want to know I guess there's no point in interrogating the others. Come on." Thorn gestured for Twilight to follow and after slowly rocking herself onto her three working hooves Twilight did so, but not without a sharp reminder of just how much she hurt.

"I don't suppose some medical attention is out of the question either?"

"Hmm? Oh! Of course! Once you're with your friends I'll go and have a look for Sawbones."

"I'm going to assume that by sawbones, you mean a trained medical professional?"

"Pfft nope. By sawbones I mean a smartass pony that knows more about this kind of stuff than the rest of us."

"Oh. Yay." Twilight kept limping after Thorn, though thankfully they didn't have to go far before they stopped at another cell door. Thorn opened the door with her magic and spoke to one of the two ponies within.

"You can stop Mason, the interrogations are cancelled."

"Cancelled? What do you mean they're cancelled?” A stone grey earth pony stepped out of the cell, immediately catching certain parts of Twilight's attention. While not as tall or broad as Big Mac, the stallion was certainly well built and chiselled to perfection. "I've barely learnt anything yet!"

"No need," Thorn told him. "This one’s told us everything we want to know."

The stallion directed his steely gaze at Twilight who couldn't help but grin sheepishly back. "Fine, whatever. I'll be having a break if you need me." The stallion departed and Twilight sighed wistfully as she stared at his retreating form.

"I recognise that look," Thorn said in a far too knowing voice. "You're wasting your time, I assure you."

"Why? Is he taken?"

"Yep, and he and his coltfriend are very into monogamy." The tone with which Thorn said that made it clear that Twilight wasn't the first mare to be disappointed by that news. Not that it mattered to Twilight that much since at most she might have had a passing interest and little more.

"Go on then. I'll get the rest of your friends into one cell while you two get reacquainted." Thorn departed, leaving Twilight to hobble into the cell to find Fleur tied up like she had been earlier. Pulling the hood off Fleur's head with her teeth Twilight sat back as Fleur got her bearings in the dim light.

"Twilight? What are you doing here?"

"They let me come here."

"Oh. I was hoping this was a rescue. I don't suppose you know who it is that caught us?"

"This is going to sound unlikely, but we've actually been taken captive by Pierre." Twilight was quite taken aback as Fleur sighed with relief.

"Oh thank Luna, I was beginning to think we'd been kidnapped by some weird s and m cult, what with the tying up and hoof whippings and stuff."

"Yeah. Apparently they don't like to actually torture ponies when they torture them for information."

"I don't know about that, my hooves are positively throbbing after being whipped so much." Fleur wiggled in her bonds for a moment before directing a pout at Twilight, "Untie me?"

"Can't. My magic's inhibited like yours, and I only have one working hoof at the moment and I don't think my teeth are up to the task."

Fleur turned her attention to Twilight's blackened hoof before directing her gaze over Twilight's wing flopping against her side, as well as the numerous bruises she was sporting, a small expression of horror crossing her features. "Wow Twilight, you look like shit."

Twilight snorted a laugh before sighing, "It feels exactly as bad as it looks."

"How are you still standing?"

"Determination. Lack of choice. Bone headed stupidity. One or all of the above, I don't know."

"I guess we can give another mark to alicorn toughness that's for sure." Fleur suddenly lifted her head to look towards the door before furtively asking, "Can we trust these ponies?"

"Does it matter right now? We're still their prisoners whether we trust them or not."

"I know, but, should we be trying to escape?"

"We have no magic, no clue where the others are, and no idea where we are. I'm beat up to hell and you're tied up on the floor so I don't think we're going anywhere." Twilight lay down to give her good leg a break, savouring the chill of the stone floor on her other hoof, "Maybe we can try once I've slept for like... a week or something."

"Yeah, you're right, you need time to recover. I guess we'll find out soon enough if we can trust these ponies or not."

Several minutes passed, during which Twilight filled Fleur in on what little she had learnt so far. Like Twilight she seemed disappointed that nopony was fighting the Duke but there was a slight gleam in her eye nonetheless.

After that Thorn returned and, after untying Fleur and giving her a minute to shake the numbness off, she led them to a cell where the others were waiting, complete with the slumbering form of Trixie lying on the one bed. The filly was the first to notice their arrival, "Yay! The gang's all here! It is now, officially, a party. Woo."

"Nice to see you too," Fleur said, greeting the filly with a nuzzle. Meanwhile Twilight headed over to where Trixie lay so she could have a look at the mare. She was clearly breathing which was a good thing, but there was nothing else of note going on. Taking care to not hurt herself Twilight slid one of Trixie's eyes open with a hoof, but all it revealed was an unfocused eye.

Twilight 'hmm'd' and let the eye fall closed again when her own eye was caught by the end of Trixie's horn. Although not terribly noticeable, there seemed to be a slight discoloration on the tip of the horn where it seemed paler than the rest of it. Choosing to ignore it as irrelevant Twilight poked Trixie in the side hoping for a reaction. "What do you think's wrong with her?" she asked nopony in particular.

"I don't know," Octavia answered. "She's clearly alive, which is good, but there doesn't seem to be much going on upstairs. I'm hoping she's just sleeping, but it's been more than a day and she hasn't even stirred in the slightest."

"All we can do is hope she wakes up then." Shaking her head sadly, Twilight turned away from Trixie and looked to the rooms other occupants. Fleur and the filly were chatting about something so Twilight wasn't inclined to worry about them, but Summer was hunched up in the corner, trying to appear as small as possible. The fact that she was wearing wing-binders probably wasn't helping her.

"Is she alright?" Twilight asked Octavia as the pegasus quivered where she lay.

"You do know you can ask her yourself, right?"

"Right, of course." Twilight approached the pegasus, and to her credit Summer didn't flinch or try to make herself look smaller than she already was. Lying down in front of her Twilight smiled as Summer peeked up at her from behind her mane. "Hey Summer, are you okay?"

Summer huffed quietly, Twilight reasoning that she was probably sick of that question, before nodding her head slightly. Very quickly though the nod turned into emphatic shaking as tears built up in her eyes.

"I-I thought, I thought they were going to... And- and then they started whipping me and I... I-I couldn't! I-I-I... oh!" Tears started spilling down her cheeks as Summer shook more than she was before.

"Aww c'mon, you got her crying again?" the filly moaned before Fleur cuffed her around the back of the head.

"Hey, it's alright," Twilight said softly as Summer tried to wipe her tears away. "Nopony's going to hurt you."

"I know I know," Summer said shakily, "but as s-soon as they put these binders on me and tied me up it all came back! I almost wanted them t-t-to do it so they would get on with it and leave me alone! But at the same time the thought of them touching me... I got so scared and I felt sick and I-I..."

"It's alright Summer, it really is. Nopony here is going to hurt you, I promise."

Summer sniffed and took a few deep breaths in an admirable attempt to pull herself together, "I-I know. They were nice enough to put me with Octavia so I guess they can't be all bad. I wish they would take these binders off though."

"Yeah, I'd probably be wearing them too if it wasn't for," Twilight gestured to her wing, "y'know, that."

Summer's eyes widened as she looked at Twilight's wing, "That must hurt."

"You have no idea."

"Remember who you're saying that to Twilight," cautioned Fleur.

"Right, sorry. Has this happened to you before?"

Summer nodded, "Mmhmm. Sometimes the guards would pull at my wings when they... when they, y'know, or they would see how far my wings would bend until they, I don't know, popped I guess, and they looked like that after and it always really hurt..." A dark expression swept across her face like a cloud in front of the sun before it moved on. "Uh, do you mind if I, uh, have a look?"

"No, go ahead." Twilight grimaced as Summer ran her hoof along the bone in her wing all the way from its end to its base.

"Yeah, your wing's come out, it's... uh, disso...cated?"

"Dislocated," Twilight corrected her.

"Right, dislocated. I can put it back in if you want?"

"You know how?" asked Fleur, faintly surprised.

"Uh-huh, the guards did it for me once and after that they expected me to do it myself so I had to learn." Summer raised the wing slightly before moving it into position and placing her other hoof on the joint. "This might sting a little," she said before pushing down hard. There was a sickening pop, although Twilight felt it more than heard it, and she couldn't help but cry out in pain.

"How did you ever do that to yourself?" Octavia asked as Twilight panted heavily with pain.

"It wasn't easy. I would have to hold the wing in position and then fall against the side of my cage to push it in. It didn't always work so I would have to keep trying until it went in."

Twilight stretched her wing out to its fullest and tried to flap a few times. She could do it but her wing ached when she did and seemed a bit sluggish so flying was probably out of the question for a few days. But the important thing was that it was fixed and Twilight couldn't help but pull Summer into an embrace, "Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Summer said as she returned the hug, smiling brightly as she did.

"I'm back and I brought the doc so he can..." Thorn blinked as she studied the wing folded neatly against Twilight's side, "You could've said you knew how to fix that..."

"Sorry," said Twilight, although she was still smiling as she did. "I didn't know Summer knew how to fix it until just now."

"That's probably a good job anyway," said a new voice belonging to a beige earth pony stallion with a light brown mane and tail and a nicely trimmed moustache. "Don't exactly know a lot about pegasus physiology anyway since there ain't a lot of need to know it."

"And who might you be?" Fleur asked politely.

"'m Sawbones, though most just call me Doc. I'm the resident know all when it comes to injured ponies." Twilight raised an eyebrow. She thought Thorn had been kidding when she said sawbones earlier. Apparently it had been truer than had been let on. She took a quick look at his cutie mark which depicted a bone being cut half through with an old fashioned medical saw.

Twilight gulped and tried to put it out of her mind, "My leg still needs looking at if you're interested?"

"Of course!" Doc stepped back out of the room and returned a second later with a doctor's bag in his mouth. He deposited it next to Twilight before gently picking up her leg in his own. "Let's see what we got here. Hair's been burnt off..." He pulled a cloth out of his bag and wiped it over the black on Twilight's leg, stopping in confusion as the cloth came away clean. "What the...?" He tried again but got the same result, "What is going on here? Might I ask how you got this injury?"

"Uh, well, the details aren't all that important but essentially I dipped my hoof into a pool of liquid dark magic."

"Is that so? And there I was thinking this was a burn." He peered at her leg closely before running his hoof over it, Twilight trying to not squeal at his touch. "Well it does appear as though your leg has actually turned black. It also seems to be a bit withered compared to your other leg." He replaced the cloth in his bag and closed it, "Hate to say it but I don't know a thing about dark magic so I can't help you, sorry."

"But what am I meant to do about this!?" Twilight cried as she waved the offending hoof at Doc.

"Maybe," the filly said, "and I really hate to say this, but maybe Mama could know how to fix it?"

Twilight looked to Doc who nodded as he thought about it, "Maybe. She might also have more luck with missy over there. I've tried everything I know but she won't wake up for nothing."

"Alright," said Thorn, "we'll send a runner out to get Mama but it might be a couple of hours so you might as well get comfy."

"Can't we come out and have a look awound? It's dark in here and I'm afwaid of the dark. Pwease don't make me stay in here!" the filly whined, breaking out her most powerful puppy dog eyes.

Thorn's response was to slam the cell door shut and lock it, "No, and no amount of replacing letters with superfluous w's is going to make me change my mind." They listened as her hoofsteps faded into the distance.

"Ooh, she's good."

Without any method of telling the time it seemed like an eternity until Thorn returned, leading Mama and another stallion into the cell.

"Who's that?" Twilight asked as she eyed up the sea green unicorn.

"Well sure he might have changed a bit but surely you still recognise Winder?"

"Winder? Buh... But how?"

"Happened the other day. There he was being his usual lazy self, up in the rafters when suddenly BAM! Fell out of the roof as a pony again. I'm guessing somepony did go and put Deal Good down good an' hard for that to happen. Know anything about it?" Twilight spluttered and Mama winked at her, "Heh, it's alright girl, I know you didn't intentionally kill him. Though I wouldn't say the same for the mistress of darkness over there."

"Mistress of darkness?"

"Just a nickname, I don't mean nothing by it. But I can see it on her and it ain't pretty. I can see that the contract on her is gone though which is good I suppose."

"Yeah, that's what killed Deal Good. I managed to destroy the contract then something came for him. It wasn't very nice."

"I'll say not, but it was no less than he deserved. Now let's see about waking missy up here." Mama started rummaging through the bundle she brought with her allowing Twilight a moment to talk to Winder.

"So, you're a pony again."

"Yes, yes I am, and it feels great. I suppose I should thank you for that, so um, thank you."

"Oh, you're welcome. How are you managing with being a different species now?"

"Having legs again does seem to be a bit of a trial but I'm quickly getting used to them quickly enough. It's also nice to see properly again. Snakes have some weird vision compared to a pony."

"Ahah! I knew I brought some with me!" Mama shouted triumphantly. She held the bottle in her magic and pulled Trixie into a headlock before shoving the bottle into Trixie's mouth and clamping it shut around the bottle. It only took a second or two for its effects to kick in and Trixie started thrashing as she tried to pull the bottle out of her mouth and get Mama off her.

"Haaah! Haaah! Haaah! Water!" Trixie started yelling once she succeeded in getting the bottle out. She grabbed the jug of water Thorn held out for her and downed it, half of it spilling down her front. She finished and panted a little bit before shouting, "More water!"

"Here, suck on this," Mama said, giving Trixie what appeared to be a hard boiled sweet. Trixie shoved it in her mouth and sucked on it desperately. It seemed to be working as she slowly calmed down and flopped down onto the floor.

"What-" She coughed and her eyes started to water, "What was that stuff!?"

"My special moonshine, made with the hottest peppers you can find in the bayou."

"Do you cure everything with moonshine?"

"Well... Perhaps not everything... as such..."

"Trixie can't feel her tongue! Is that normal?"

"Yep! I think."

Trixie narrowed her eyes at Mama, "You're an evil, evil mare, you know that."

"Huh, well if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you are seething with dark magic Trixie. I don't know what happened but you are damn near dripping with the stuff. If it weren't for that whatchamacallit on your horn there you'd probably be using it right now."

"Whatchamacallit?" Trixie felt the inhibitor on her horn and her eyes widened as she noticed their surroundings. "Is that an inhibitor? Are we in prison? Who's the pink unicorn?"

"Light maroon damn it," Thorn muttered. "And you're guests, not prisoners."

"Then why are we wearing inhibitors while in a cell?"

"Okay, so you're guests we're a little bit wary of, I admit."

Trixie held her head in her hooves and frowned, "Why don't I remember coming here?"

"You passed out after I destroyed the contract and I had-"

"The contract! It's gone? It's really been destroyed!?" Twilight smiled and nodded. Trixie leapt up, grinning manically, "Oh thank Celestia! Or rather, thank Twilight!" Trixie did a little happy dance before calming herself down, "Oh wow, you have no idea how relieved I am. Still though, Trixie would like to know what's going on."

"Can it wait Trixie?" Twilight held up her hoof, "I kinda want Mama to have a look at this."

Trixie gawped at Twilight's hoof, "Damn Twilight, did you stick your hoof in a fire or something?"

"No, this is what happened when I destroyed the contract."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes, it does. A lot."

"Oh, okay then, but I still want to know what's going on though. I hate not knowing stuff."

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes,"Fine, I'll catch you up while Twilight gets checked out." Fleur led Trixie to the far side of the room, their murmurings creating a background noise as Twilight climbed up onto the bed.

"Try to be gentle please, it's really tender." Mama nodded and probed the hoof with her magic, a frown growing on her face the longer she did it.

"I'm not sure what to make of this. I mean sure I can tell you the limb's been corrupted by dark magic, but whatever did the damage ain't there no more."

"What’s that mean?"

"Normally in these kinds of cases the dark magic itself is what's doing the damage, so all you need to do is purge the dark magic with light magic and let the injury heal itself in good time. Thing is with this though is that there's no dark magic in it, it's as magically pure as the rest of you, but at the same time something's stopping it from healing naturally."

"So... What does that mean exactly? Can't we use magic to heal it?"

Mama shook her head sadly, "I'm afraid to say that if you being what you are ain't going to heal it, then no amount of spells is going to fix it either."

"Me being what I am?" Twilight twitched a wing and frowned, "Oh. How long have you known?"

"Since you walked through my door. It's pretty obvious for anypony not looking with their eyes."

Twilight thought back to Grammaw and how she could tell so easily. It was starting to feel like it wasn't worth trying to hide with the amount of ponies that can tell just by looking at her. Part of her wondered if Deal Good knew since he seemed aware that her powers weren't entirely native to her. She closed her eyes and tried to put it out of her mind, returning her attention to the matter at hoof. Or of hoof. "Are you saying I'm stuck with this?"

"I'm afraid so. Unless your alicorn healing can somehow overcome the corruption I'm afraid there's no way that hoof is going to get any better."

Twilight laid her head down on the bed and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to hold back her tears. She failed and they slowly slid down her cheeks but she didn't cry, wail or even sniff as they fell. Part of her just felt broken. This mission was asking too much of her and now it had cursed her with a leg she can't even use. The best part was that it had cost her this much and they hadn't even changed a thing.

"What's going on?" Fleur asked as she and Trixie returned from their own conversation. Twilight couldn't hardly bring herself to open her mouth to say anything and was thankful when Octavia answered for her.

"It can't be healed, and it won't heal on its own."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't know," Mama said sadly. "It's like the limb is both dead and alive. Alive enough to move and feel, yet too far gone to fix. There is good news though, although it's unrelated to the hoof. Your magic's much better. I think the whatchamacallit must have stabilized it or something, although we won't know for definite until we take it off."

She looked expectantly at Thorn who suddenly appeared awkward with the extra attention, "If I could I would, but I'm not the pony in charge here."

"Doesn't matter anyway."

"Twilight?"

Twilight sat up suddenly, "I said it doesn't matter!" she snarled. "After all the shit we've been through, all the scrapes with death and ponies I've gotten killed. All the stupid, dangerous things we've done just to get this point, only to find out our best chance at success is nothing more than a bunch of do-gooders hiding under the city! Octavia nearly died and then nearly got raped! Trixie could've been dehorned, almost got raped, and has fallen to dark magic! We're travelling with two pegasi, one that was abused for years as a sex slave, while the other was horribly mutilated for no reason at all! We were nearly captured by the Duke during which I nearly died! I watched a stallion die in agony as he melted in a puddle of dark magic! We are no closer to reaching our goal, and now, to top it all off I've practically lost a leg! I'm sick of this fucked up, murder happy, rape fixated country! I quit! I fucking quit!" She slumped over onto her side again. "I quit and I want to go home..." she whimpered as tears started to fall again, her voice breaking on the word home.

The others were shocked, of all the ponies to break under the strain Twilight was probably the one least expected to do so. "B-but Twilight," Fleur stammered, "we need you." Twilight didn't answer. Instead she rolled over and curled into a ball, cradling her hoof as she wept brokenly. "Twilight..."

"Let her be," Mama said as she tried to shoo them back.

"But-"

"I said, let her be. She needs to cry this one out and you all crowding her and telling her how much you need her ain't gonna help." She kept shooing them out of the room and gently closed the door behind them.

"Well? Now what?" Octavia asked quietly.

"I don't know," Fleur admitted. "Without her this mission's impossible, but there's no way we can ask her to keep going if she doesn't want to. So yeah, I don't know."

"I do," Trixie said, a fierce gleam in her eye, "First we're going to get our stuff back, and then somepony is going to take this inhibitor off or I'm going to beat the everloving shit out of everpony here until they do!"

"What are you thinking?"

"We're going to talk to the two ponies on this world that might give us a straight answer about alicorns."

"You can't do this!" Thorn yelled as she scurried after the stomping form of Trixie, the sign of Trixie's determination written all over her face as her right eye slowly swelled shut.

"The hell I can't!" Trixie yelled back.

"Trixie, what's gotten into you?" Fleur asked as she too tried to keep up with the blue unicorn.

"If I hadn't signed that damn contract, she would never have had to destroy it, costing her a leg. She went out of her way to save me and I'll be damned if I'm not going to try and return the favour." She reached the door at the end of the hall and slammed it open as hard as she could before entering a small room with four other occupants.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Daybreak shouted as Trixie stared at him, snorting.

"Where's our stuff!"

"Over there!" He pointed to the side of the room where their belongings were neatly lined up against the way.

"Oh." Trixie's brain jammed up at how easy that was, "Well, thank you." She immediately went to Twilight's belongings and pulled out the speaker stone with a triumphant flair.

"Filly," Fleur draped Twilight's bags over the filly's back, the bags nearly touching the floor. "Could you take those to Twilight please?"

"Aww, but Trixie's doing stuff! You know I love it when that happens." Fleur twitched her eyes towards the door, "Ugh fine, I'll go. There better be a punch by punch replay when I get back." She ran out with Thorn following her.

Trixie smirked nastily at the four other ponies in the room as the Filly hurried off. "So which one of you gentlestallions is going to remove my inhibitor?"

"Out of the question! There is no way that-" Daybreak tried to protest but Trixie immediately set upon him, knocking him over and standing on his chest with her horn pointed at his face at a dangerous angle.

"That wasn't a request. Now am I going to have to get stabby or are you going to do it?" Her answer came in the form of a roar from Mason who stamped at the ground before charging.

His attack was short lived however as Octavia neatly span around and bucked him in the side of the head hard enough to send him veering off into the wall. "I sincerely hope you know what you're doing Trixie."

"You might be sorely disappointed then." She reared up and stamped on Daybreak's chest, winding him before launching herself at Snowbright who was already looking pretty beat up.

Fleur circled around Doc, eyeing the stallion cautiously, and was quite surprised when he sat down and folded his forelegs. "I'm not a fighter," he said as explanation. Fleur stared at him before shrugging and turned around just in time to get a face full of pink tail as Summer rushed past her and leapt onto Mason's shoulders, clamping her jaw down on the back of his neck while Octavia dodged through his legs and bucked him where no stallion should be bucked, Fleur's ears twitching as the stallion screamed at a pitch that only dogs could probably hear.

"Summer! No biting!" Fleur shouted before a hoof eclipsed her vision. She tried to dodge but wasn't fast enough and the hoof hit her in the muzzle. Daybreak took a step back as she wiped a trail of blood off the end of her nose and stared at it blankly, "Oh it is on." She reared up and smacked him the end of his nose, and he was about to do the same back when Trixie flew into his side, upside down, and shouting something about looking out.

The culprit behind Trixie's sudden bout of flight made themselves know to Fleur by tapping her on the shoulder. Apparently Snowbright wasn't as much of a pushover as his bruises would suggest and he punched her in the side with both hooves, agony blossoming through her ribs as something audibly cracked.

His comeuppance came quickly though, as Mason reared up, knocking Summer from her perch on his back but leaving himself open to be tackled by Octavia, which was enough to send him toppling over onto Snowbright, the stallion looking more than a little pained as Mason's greater mass crushed him.

Mason rolled off Snowbright, meeting Trixie coming the other way as Daybreak kicked her off. Suddenly though, the door slammed open and they all froze in a guilty tableau as the filly rushed in. "Oh come on!" the filly exclaimed as she saw the aftermath of the fight. "You couldn't wait until I got back!?"

"What is going on here!?" Thorn demanded as she stepped in behind the filly, "I was expecting an argument yes, but not a full on brawl!"

"They won't take my inhibitor off!" Trixie shouted, glaring daggers at Daybreak.

"You didn't even explain why you wanted it off!" Daybreak shouted back.

"You never gave me a chance! You just said it was out of the question!"

"I need medic!" Fleur squeaked as she rolled around on the floor, clutching her chest.

"I knew I should have brought Mama with me." Thorn sighed and ran a hoof through her mane, "Dad, take their damn inhibitors off."

"What? No! You've seen how dangerous and unpredictable they are!"

"They're only trying to help their friend Dad. Take the inhibitors off and everything will be fine. In fact," Thorn walked over to a small tool rack in the corner and pulled out one of the spanner like devices used to remove inhibitors, "I'll do it myself."

She popped the inhibitor off Trixie's horn and quickly backed off as it flared to life with a bubbling mix of purples and blacks. "Right!" Trixie grinned maliciously, "Payback time!"

"Trixie!" Fleur said as loud as her painful ribs would let her.

"I'm kidding, relax." Instead she directed her magic to shred the binders restricting Summer's wings, much to the surprise of Summer and the others. "What? I can be considerate. Now if you'll excuse me I have something to do." She lay down, her magic fading to its usual pink colour and pressed her horn to the stone.

A minute later there was an answer, "Sorry about that Twilight, you caught us in the middle of a diplomatic meeting with the Yaks."

"Celestia stop, it's Trixie, not Twilight."

"Oh, I see. Is something the matter? Is Twilight alright?"

"Uh, yes and no. To make a long story short her front left leg has been corrupted by dark magic and can't be healed."

"Can't be healed? That's impossible! Have you tried purifying the wound with light magic?"

Trixie paused as she thought about what Mama had said, "We have it on a fairly reasonable authority that light magic won't help, and it won't heal itself."

"But that isn't possible! Trixie, can I speak to Twilight? I'd like to know exactly what's happened."

"Twilight isn't... available right now. Actually she doesn't even know we've contacted you. She was a bit upset when she found out it couldn't be healed and we've had to give her a bit of space."

"I see." There was a rattle of static as Celestia sighed, "Can you tell me what happened then?"

"Nooo... No I don't think I can."

"Trixie..."

"No! Shut up! I didn't contact you to get moaned at! I contacted you to ask a very important question so I can help her!"

Luna's voice piped up over the stone, "How dare you address my sister in such a manner! Curb your insolence Trixie before I-"

"I don't care what you do! Why is everypony trying to get in the way of me helping Twilight!?"

"Enough Luna, we can discuss Trixie's impropriety at a later time. What is it you wish to know Trixie?"

"Thank you. Now this might sound a little bit crazy, but can alicorns regrown lost limbs?"

Author's Notes:

Have some chapter! Have it all!

22/11 changed Snow Bright to Snowbright because reasons that exist inside my head. Also I'm surprised no-one called me out for saying Celestia was in a meeting with minotaurs this chapter, and Discord saying Yaks in the next. Shame on you all.

25. Grisly experiments in alicorn anatomy

Twilight cried in the loneliness of her cell. She cried for all she felt she had lost, and that wasn't just her leg. Lying here now she had to admit that she felt like half the mare she was when she began this fruitless mission, and the feeling was only being made worse as she became increasingly home sick.

She longed desperately for the comfort of her friends and family; the steadfast reliance of Applejack, the unstoppableness of Rainbow dash, the soothing tones of Fluttershy, the chirpy optimism of Pinkie Pie, and hopefully Rarity would treat her to a spa day and have some suggestions on hiding her hideous appendage while saying as many 'darlings' in a sentence as she could, all while spending as much time with her dear Spike as possible.

Then she would probably bawl all over her parents and hug Shining and Cadence until there was a risk of causing serious bodily harm to them. Then to top it all off she might go through the mirror to see Sunset and her friends there before coming back and resigning her position as princess, because right now a lot of her never wanted to see Celestia again for allowing this forsaken country to persist for the last one and a half thousand years.

Perhaps she might try to remain cordial with Luna though because she hadn't exactly been around for most of that and couldn't really be blamed as such.

There was a timid knock at the door, but Twilight was too busy wallowing in misery to even look. Not that it mattered because the door opened to admit entrance to the filly.

"Uh, hey Twilight. Fleur asked me to bring you your stuff so you can... I dunno, have your stuff again I suppose?" The filly paused as if waiting for something but the only sound Twilight made was a small sniff. "Well, uh, I guess I'll be on my way then. Um... bye?"

The filly departed again and Twilight had tried to say a thank you but it had been so quiet that she wasn't sure she had actually made a sound. Now she was on her own again though, so she could properly return to her misery.

Or perhaps she wasn't alone. There was one friend she could talk to easy enough since her belongings had now been returned to her. She rolled over and tried using her magic to pick up her bags before remembering that the inhibitor prevented her from doing so. Instead she climbed down from the bed, pulled her book and ink well out of the bags and climbed back onto the bed.

She opened the book to the last letter, and was quite surprised that there was another letter waiting for her. Since the book wasn't flashing or vibrating Twilight suspected that the ponies here must have been alerted to it when it had been.

Putting the thought out of her mind she started to read.

Hey Twilight

Sorry it’s been a while but I've not really had a lot to talk about. A least not until today that is.

We've actually made some progress with the Dazzlings, or rather one of them. Sonata messaged me last night asking if we could do something today because she really wanted to get away from Adagio and Aria for a little bit. I messaged the others and they agreed that we could try a movie and something to eat since they were probably harmless activities.

Turns out they were harmless, at least until we went for tacos. Seems she's a bit of a monster when it comes to those. I'm still finding bits of taco in my hair after what we are referring to as the 'taco-boom.'

All the same though, it was still fun and Sonata is actually a really nice person when she isn't stuck in the shadow of the other two. We're going to try something else soon and Sonata's going to try to convince the other two to come. Hopefully it'll be just as fun.

It won't be for a while though, there's something called the 'friendship games' coming up and we'll probably be busy with that. I know Rainbow Dash is totally psyched about it.

Lots of love,

Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight struggled with what she had just read. Not that she had expected all that much excitement from Sunset, she certainly hadn't expected to read that she had gone for tacos and a movie, and was preparing for some games thing.

Twilight tried to be happy for her, she really did, but all she could feel was an inexplicable anger bubbling up in her chest as jealousy tore at her. With a cry she slammed the book shut and threw it away from her as hard as she could and turned her back on it.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Twilight Sparkle would treat a book like that. I'm almost ashamed of you."

"Huh?" Twilight turned back over to meet the mismatched visage of Discord, holding the book in his grip. It had never occurred to her that she had never heard the book land. "Discord?" Twilight wiped a tear away, "W-what are you doing here?"

"Well, y'see, there I was paying witness to a rather fascinating diplomatic meeting between the princesses and the Yaks, when suddenly Celestia and Luna had to excuse themselves. I was thinking, I was, I was thinking 'what could be so important that they would have to leave a meeting like that?' Then it occurred to me that only my good friend Twilight could be that important, so I followed to find out the latest gossip."

"B-but I never called the princesses."

"I know! There I was expecting to hear the dulcet tones of your beautiful voice when all I heard was the unwanted whining of Trixie Lulamoon, and I must say, she said some rather unkind things to the princesses. I was most taken aback! Anyway, she did manage to finally say you were in some difficulty and I thought to myself, I thought, 'Discord, your friend Twilight needs your help!'"

"And you came here straight away? But I thought Trixie had only just called?"

"Oh indeed. In fact she's probably still talking to the princesses right now."

"Then how did you find me so quickly?"

"First off, I'm Discord. Secondly, it took me about two hours to find you. Time zones are wonderful things when you know how to use them properly."

Twilight didn't question it, she knew better than that. Instead she grabbed Discord around the waist and held him as her tears returned. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Oh, oh bother. Twilight dearest, you do appear to be leaking. If you could stop that I would appreciate it," Twilight pulled him closer and snuggled into his fur. "Ooh, I know!" He clicked his fingers and hyper, synthetic music filled the air, "Discord used pat!" He patted her head twice, but got no response, "It's not very effective..."

Discord stood there as Twilight held him and cried, "Oh my, you are in a bad way aren't you. Hmm, W.W.Fs.D... Ah yes." Discord clicked his fingers again and they both disappeared, only to reappear a fraction of a second later with Discord now sat on the bench and Twilight sitting in his lap as he ran his lions paw down her back, stroking her. "Now how about you tell your uncle Discord all about it."

Twilight melted under his ministrations and she had to admit she did feel slightly better as he stroked her, even if it was slightly demeaning. "I hate it here Discord. How could any place end up as sick and twisted as this? I've seen ponies oppressed, beaten, killed. Rape is almost endemic, and to make it worse a lot of ponies treat it like its normal! I'm not sure how much more I can take!"

"Quite. There was a reason I went to Equestria rather than come here back in the day. I mean it takes a lot to put me off, but this place, it just isn't right."

"A-a-and then, to top it all off, this!" Twilight raised her hoof to show Discord, wincing as pain shot through it.

"Hmm," Discord held her leg up as tenderly as he could. "Dark magic corruption, but the dark magic is gone. Won't heal and can't be healed. I'm terribly sorry Twilight."

"Can't you fix it?"

"I'm afraid not. Chaos magic isn't good at dealing with absolutes, and there is absolutely no way this leg can be healed. Or it might heal it, who knows? I certainly don't, but it might make it worse so I'm not going to risk it."

"Oh." Twilight didn't argue since she kind of expected that to be the answer. "I don't suppose you could fix this country instead then?"

"For the same reason no. There's a reason you're doing this, rather than my good self. If I did it I might well fix everything, or nothing, or make it worse, or make it so a rubber duck is crowned ‘el presidente for life.’ You're here to make sure we get the result we want."

"Even you?"

"There is nothing amusing about this place Twilight. I was always in it for the lol's, but this place is severely lacking in such things. There's nothing funny about suffering."

Twilight slumped and her head lolled against Discords side, "I just want to go home."

Discord said nothing, instead he continued stroking her as soothingly as he could. "You know why you can't do that, right?" he said after a minute or two.

"I know, I can't allow this place to keep suffering if I can help it."

"Oh, well yes, that's even better than what was going to say. I was going to say that 'Twilight Sparkle never gives up.' At any rate I really ought to be going."

"What? Why?"

"Because your friends will be here in a minute and I think it best that nopony else knows I was here."

"But-"

"Ah ah! No buts!" He picked her up and hugged her tightly, "Take care of yourself Twilight, and I hope you're not going to forget my invitation to the victory parade. Ta ta!" With a flash he vanished, leaving Twilight suspended in mid-air for a split second before gravity remembered it had a job to do and dragged her back onto the bed with a heavy thud. Unfortunately this involved her landing on her painful hoof.

"Aah! Sonuvva..." Twilight writhed around until the pain subsided, "How am I meant to do anything with this bloody hoof!?" At that moment a happily grinning Trixie burst into the room.

"Twilight! We may have a solution for your problem!"

"Come again?" Celestia said as if she had totally misheard Trixie.

"I want to know if alicorns can regrow limbs."

"Of course they can't! Why would you even think that!?"

"Twilight does appear to have freaky healing abilities, so I thought that you could be able to regrow legs and stuff. That way we could amputate Twilight's bad leg and let her regrow a healthy new one!"

"Absolutely not! There is no way you are going to amputate her leg in the vague hope it might grow back!"

"Silence yourself a moment sister. We may have no idea if we might grow a leg back or not, but I did grow that ear back after I lost it in the battle for the Crystal Empire-"

"A leg and an ear are not the same thing!"

"Indeed not sister, but my point is that it didn't have to grow back, yet it did. We don't know the limits of our healing. Besides, if the limb is as bad as they claim it might be pertinent to remove it lest the corruption spread. At the very least it would cease to be a painful burden to her."

"But she might only have three legs for the rest of her life, which, as you might have noticed, is liable to be a rather long time!"

"So you would rather she be in pain for the rest of life instead?"

"Of course not! I..." Celestia sighed, "We haven't tried to fix it yet. It'd be foolish to remove her leg if it can be fixed."

"Are we seriously listening to two ponies have an argument through a rock?" the filly asked incredulously.

"Do you not remember our attempts to heal such corruptions during Sombra's reign? While they were thankfully few and far between, we did not manage to cure even one case. So unless you've managed to find a way during my banishment, which I doubt, then there is little alternative. You have my blessing to proceed with this course of action Trixie Lulamoon."

There was another drawn out sigh from Celestia, "And mine. Remember though that the choice to proceed with this is Twilight's. Not ours, and not yours."

"Well duh! Trixie was hardly going to chop her leg off without asking her first."

"I should think not. If you could have Twilight contact us as soon as she is able we would appreciate it."

"Yeah yeah, I'll remind her."

"Very well Trixie, farewell." The stone ceased its operation and Trixie tossed it into her bags since Twilight's bags were no longer there.

"I can't believe you would talk like that to the princesses!" Octavia said, flabbergasted.

"Pfft, what are they going to do about it?" Trixie rubbed her chin, "Hey Doc! I'm guessing with a name like yours you know how to do amputations?"

Doc stared at her, his eyes wide, and it seemed to take him a moment to gather his wits. "Uh, yes, yes I do."

"Great! I suppose we best get Mama in on this too." Trixie started towards the exit but a haze of amber coloured magic held the door shut.

"Hold a moment," said Daybreak. "Was that really the Princess Celestia you were just talking with?"

"Well, yeah. What of it?"

"And you would really speak to her in such a manner?"

"Not usually, but I'm not in the mood for pleasantries." Daybreak gawked at her and Trixie grinned as realisation struck her, "Ooh, I know what's going on here. You're butt hurt because you think Celestia's some kind of god."

"No, she isn't a go. There is only one god, supposedly, and it is not Celestia. She is however the living avatar of the sun and should be treated with respect."

"Well sure, but she's just a pony. A big one granted, with a horn and wings, but still a pony. What about Luna? You're not saying she needs to be treated with respect."

"Luna? Who's Luna?"

"Really? Luna? The sister of Celestia? Tried to bring about eternal night and spent the last thousand years being the mare in the moon? We were just talking to her?" Daybreak stared at her blankly and Trixie couldn't help but facehoof, "You backwards ponies are killing me. You're going to be in for one hell of a culture shock someday soon. Anyway, I'm going to tell Twilight the news."

"You do?" Twilight felt her spirits lift as Trixie grinned happily at her.

"Yeah! We're gonna cut your leg off!"

"What!?" Suddenly those same spirits found a new depth at which to lower themselves.

"We're going to cut your leg off. I just spoke to Celestia and Luna and they said there's a chance of it growing back."

"What information are they basing that off!?"

"The fact that Luna grew an ear back once after it was cut off."

"An ear and a leg aren't the same thing!"

"Yeah, that's what Celestia said..."

Twilight felt sick to her stomach, "Are you really being serious about this?"

Trixie started to answer but her mouth was clamped shut by the pink aura of Fleur's magic before she was dragged out of the room. Fleur entered and kicked the door shut in Trixie's face before sitting on the bed next to Twilight. "I'm sorry about Trixie. She seems to be in a bit of a strange mood."

"Was she really being honest about cutting my leg off?" Twilight stared up at Fleur, her expression fearful.

"I'm afraid so. While there may be a chance your leg will grow back the fact of the matter is you're in pain because of it and Luna said something that suggests the corruption might spread. Amputation might be your only choice."

"You mean like it's gangrenous?"

"More or less. I'm sorry Twilight, but I don't see any other way to fix this. The choice is yours if you don't want to do it, but the way I see it is keeping it as it is-"

"Isn't much of a choice." Twilight exhaled through her nose as she thought. She tried placing some weight on her hoof but it seemed like she had hardly put it down before the pain became too much. She also wanted to cry again but apparently she was all out of tears and just felt tired instead.

She leaned into Fleur who wrapped a leg around her withers. "I'll do it," she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Okay." Fleur hugged Twilight a little tighter and kissed her on the top of her head. "Before I forget," Fleur's tail glowed with her magic for a moment before it focused on something within it. The tool for removing inhibitors revealed itself a second later and Fleur used it to remove Twilight's inhibitor before returning both items to her tail. "I figured they might be useful sometime in the future."

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

"I try." Fleur held Twilight a bit longer before breaking the hug. "You know, I thought you'd be a bit more upset at the idea of having your leg amputated."

"I guess there's a physical limit to just how upset one pony can be. Heck, maybe I'll get lucky and my leg will actually grow back and we can all laugh about this in years to come..." An awkward silence filled the room until Twilight cleared her throat, "Sooo... How's this going to work?"

"Sawbones and Mama are cleaning a room up as we speak. Then I'll take you there and we'll get this done lickedy-split."

"Uh, no mention of anesthetic?"

"Well, yes, and then again, no." Fleur's horn glowed and a bottle that Twilight hadn't seen before floated into her view.

Twilight sighed, "That's moonshine isn't it?"

"Bon appétit."

"I don't- I don't-" Twilight drank another mouthful of moonshine, the bottle swaying in her magic so much that Fleur was impressed that she got it in her mouth, "This stuff issa lot nicer than it tastes. Now if it smelled half as nice as it sounds we might be getting somewhere."

"Yes Twilight."

"Splish splosh splish splosh, tee hee! You know this'd prob'ly be a lot more fun if I wasn't going to go have my leg hacked off by amateur surgeons. I mean... blood thins the alcohol and that- and that... wait... Hah! Blood thins the alcohol? What am I saying? Alcohol thins the blood! And makes it more likely that I might bleed out." Twilight's eyes widened as she thought about what she had said, "Should I... should I be drinking this?"

Fleur looked at the barely quarter empty bottle that was floating around in front of her and shrugged, "Probably."

"If you say so." Twilight downed another mouthful and offered the bottle to Fleur who politely declined and pushed it back towards Twilight, "Are you trying to get me drunk?" Twilight asked with a giggle.

"Well, yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to do."

"Oh." Twilight almost went cross-eyed as she stared at Fleur for an uncomfortably long time, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"What!?"

Twilight batted her eyelashes at Fleur, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Why would you even think that?"

"Well, I always thought that if another pony was trying to get you drunk it was because they liked you and wanted to, y'know, do stuff."

"Firstly Twilight, if a pony is trying to get you drunk to... do stuff, they don't really like you and you should leave. Secondly, I'm getting you drunk because we're going to cut your leg off, remember."

Twilight frowned as she thought, "But- But I thought you liked me? I thought we were friends?"

"Of course we're friends Twilight! But I'm not trying to jump into bed with you!" Fleur froze as Twilight started to shudder, "Twilight?"

Rather than the tears Fleur had been expecting Twilight burst out laughing, her eyes watering with mirth, "I'm sorry Fleur, but that was too easy!"

"You fucking bitch Twilight," Fleur said quietly, though she was laughing herself as she did. "You had me really worried this was going to become horribly awkward."

"I might be drunk Fleur, but not that drunk." Twilight sniggered, "I really had you going there didn't I?"

"Yeah, fair's fair, you got me."

"I don't see why alcohol isn't more popular in Equestria, y'know, apart from celebrations and stuff. It's good fun."

"You feeling okay Twilight?"

"Yeah! I mean, I feel kinda fuzzy and woozy, but my hoof doesn't hurt so much anymore so it's not all bad."

"But you're nowhere near passing out?"

"Don't know, never passed out before."

"Keep drinking then."

"Do I really need to be passed out drunk for this?"

"Unless you want to watch them do it, yes."

"I dunno, could be interestin'. It's not everyday you get to see your own leg cut off."

"Twilight, no. Not even for science."

"But! But the sciences! They must be studied!"

"Not this time Twilight, I'm going to have to put my hoof down."

"What a gyp. I'm going to have my hoof cut off and I'm not even going to get to learn anything from it."

"There's probably nothing to learn from it that hasn't already been learnt. If it grows back though, well, there's something that might be worth learning."

"Maybe," Twilight conceded. "Perhaps if we could reverse engineer the magic behind alicorn healing and turn it into a spell, maybe we could make it so anypony could regrow a limb with help. That, or it might give them localised cancer. One or the other."

"Would..." Fleur blinked a few times and swallowed, "Would that be possible?"

Twilight drank another mouthful and tried to think about it, "This'd be easier if I weren't drunk. Ahem, in theory yes, assuming the healing's based on magic rather than a heightened metabolic response thingy. If it is magic then it could be possible to replicate it and adapt it to a pony's own physior- physiom-" Twilight burped loud enough to create an echo, "Body things so they could regrow stuff."

"Like the filly's wings?"

"In theory, yeah." Twilight suddenly focused. Or at least tried to. "Wait a minute, I know what you're doing, and you should stop."

"Stop what?"

"Getting your hopes up. I'm just spit-balling ideas 'cause I'm drunk. My leg might not even grow back, and even if it does it would take months of clinical research in a lab just to find out how, and why. To actually turn it into a workable form of healing could take years past that, even if anypony finds out how it works! How d' you know she even wants her wings back?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"'Cause she hates that she's a pegasus?"

"Only because she's a pegasus who had her wings cut off in a country where pegasi get one hell of a raw deal."

"Wha's that got to do with it? She's never said that not having wings bothers her, just the reasons why she doesn't have them. It doesn't matter anyway because you're never going to tell her about this, are you?"

"Of course not. It's one thing to get my hopes up for her, but I couldn't do that to her in case it can't be done."

Twilight nodded lazily before resting her head against Fleur and closing her eyes, "Good. Fleur?"

"Yes?"

"The room's spinning and I don't feel too good." Twilight suddenly heaved and threw up all she had been drinking, all down Fleur's side.

"Twilight! For fuck sake!" Fleur leapt up and off the bed, allowing Twilight's head to flop down into the puddle of her own vomit. "Twilight?" She poked Twilight in the side but to little avail, the alicorn had finally passed out. "Greaaat... Mission accomplished." She did her best to clean herself and Twilight up before hefting the purple pony onto her back and trudging out of the cell. "The things I put up with."

Sawbones looked up with surprise when Fleur trudged into his grubby operating room and practically threw Twilight onto the table. "I thought you'd be longer than that."

"Unsurprisingly, Twilight's a complete lightweight. Talked a load of crap, threw up over me, then passed out."

"Good job too," said Mama. "If she had drank all that stuff I'd have nothing to sterilize with."

"You're kidding right?"

"No, they're not." Fleur span around to find a morose looking Octavia sat in the corner next to a small forge like device.

"What's with the fire?"

"We need a fire to heat the irons up," Sawbones told her.

"Irons? Irons for what?"

"To cauterize the wound of course."

"That's barbaric!"

"Hence my cheerful disposition," Octavia said without rancor. "Unfortunately though, we don't have anything better to stop the bleeding."

Fleur stared open mouthed as Mama probed Twilight's hoof with her magic before drawing a line just below the knee with a piece of charcoal, "Anything below that line needs to come off."

"I can't see this." Fleur turned to leave and was halfway out of the door before Sawbones stopped her.

"Actually we could use your help."

"My help? For what?"

"With the irons. You need to be steady when cauterizing something like that, and unicorns are frankly better at it because they don't have to worry about not burning themselves at the same time." He went quiet as he tied a tourniquet around Twilight's leg just above the line. "Unfortunately," he continued, "due to Mama's blindness she can't do it."

"Why not ask Thorn or whatshisname, Daybreak?"

"Normally yes, I would, but they're busy organising a meeting right now."

"A meeting? What kind of meeting?"

"A meeting about you lot actually. Trixie's little conversation with Princess Celestia caused quite the stir and there are some things that need to be talked about."

"Like if you're going to fight or not?"

"Possibly. Now are you going to help us help your friend or not?"

Fleur bit her bottom lip and looked to Octavia for support, but all she got was an incredulous look and a raised eyebrow. "Can't Trixie do it?"

Mama shook her head, "No offense to Trixie, but that girl ain't right at the moment. The rest of her bats ain't returned to her belfry yet if you get me drift. I would ask Winder, but he's struggling to master walking again, let alone magic, so I'm afraid you're our only real choice."

Fleur groaned and hung her head in defeat, "Why's Octavia here then?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm just here to keep the irons hot while they work. Believe you me, I'd rather not be here, and if you want to take over be my guest."

Fleur nodded and stood aside, "No point both of us suffering. Besides, tending the fire will give me something to focus on." Octavia smiled with gratitude and hurried out of the door, shutting it behind her. Fleur quickly looked at the tools Mama was wiping down, "Don't suppose you could tell me what the mallet is for?"

"In case the patient wakes up mid procedure."

"Of course." Fleur turned her back on the others and poked at the fire with her magic, focusing on getting the irons glowing nicely while trying to ignore the sounds coming from behind her, although the sound the saw made as it chewed through bone was pretty much impossible to ignore and would stick in her mind for quite some time afterwards.

All too soon though, the moment she had been dreading arrived when Sawbones spoke to her, "Fleur, we're ready to cauterize it. Bring the big bowl shaped one." Fleur searched around the irons until she found the one he meant. She watched the colours shift from orange to red as she steeled herself before walking over to where the others were operating, taking care to not slip on the blood staining the white tiles.

"Now push it against the leg for a few seconds and take it off again." Fleur swallowed down the contents of her stomach as she looked at the raw end of Twilight's leg while ignoring the blackened length of leg laying next to it. She pushed the iron onto the leg and winced as it hissed and seethed as the iron seared the wound shut.

She pulled it away again and inverted her eyes as Sawbones studied the leg. "Again." Fleur had to look at the leg again to line it and the iron up and almost ran when she saw the lumpy, charred stump in front of her, gently oozing blood. She pressed the iron against the leg again and held it there until Sawbones told her to stop. She backed off, holding the iron up like it was a weapon against what she was seeing and watched as Sawbones undid the tourniquet.

A little blood seeped through. "A bit more and we should be done. Get a fresh iron though, that one's not hot enough. Fleur nodded numbly and threw the iron she was holding into a bucket of water before pulling another smaller iron out of the brazier. She pressed it against Twilight's leg again, although gently compared to last time, focusing on spots that were bleeding. At last Sawbones nodded in satisfaction, "Alright, I think that's it. Nice work Fleur, you can go now if you want."

He didn't have to tell her twice. She dropped the still glowing iron into the bucket and fled out of the door, not stopping until she could no longer see as her own tears blinded her, even ignoring the sound of Octavia shouting her name.

Octavia paced around the room that she and the others had claimed near the operating room. Worry and guilt gnawed at her. Worry over Twilight, and guilt for leaving Fleur to face that on her own.

"You know there are quicker ways to make a hole in the floor," the filly said said sarcastically, adding annoyance to Octavia's list of emotions. She took the hint though and stopped pacing.

"I don't see how you can be so calm about all this."

"Firstly, it has to be done. We all know it, and Twilight knows it. Secondly, I know a thing or two about body parts being chopped off, and I can tell you that Twilight's lucky that she gets to be knocked out for it. Anyway, I survived it when I was, I dunno, six or seven? Whatever it was, Twilight should have no problem what with the freaky healing powers she has going on."

Trixie peeked at Octavia from under the leg that was resting over eyes as she reclined on one of the rooms' two beds, "Boom! Score one for the filly."

"How you can joke at a time like this! Especially since this is mostly your fault!"

Trixie closed her eyes again and wriggled around until she was comfortable, "Given the choice between laughing and crying I choose the former."

The filly barked a single laugh, "You didn't back in that graveyard."

"Boom," Summer said quietly from the room’s other bed which she was sharing with the filly.

Trixie sat up, her expression full of rage, "You're fucking kidding right? This doesn't come near in comparison to finding that your entire family, including siblings you didn't know you had, is dead. If it would cost me a leg to bring them back I'd give one up in a flash. Don't talk about things you have no idea about."

If Trixie had sought to cow them she failed utterly. Instead the filly grinned at Trixie and giggled, "Maybe you should think about who you’re saying that to."

"Meaning?"

The filly cleared her throat, "My father, or sire rather, died in a work accident when he flew too far from a mast and activated his collar at four hundred feet in the air. My eldest sister was raped by a guard and was pretty much beaten to death for getting pregnant, and my other siblings are probably being forced to act as slave labour if they're old enough, or are suffering in Whiplash if they're not, assuming they're alive. My mother was, for all intents and purposes, a foal factory, made to mate with as many stallions as possible, making sure she got pregnant again and again. The last time I saw her was when she was begging for my life to be spared because my wings weren't growing in fast enough. The guards’ compromise was to hack my wings off and throw me out in the middle of winter, and if it wasn't for a sympathetic mare that got me help I would've either bled to death, froze to death, or died from infection. Think you got it bad Trixie? Join the fucking club. We've got crumbled cookies and spilt milk."

"Boom."

"Summer!"

"Sorry Octavia, but I'm kind of with the filly on this. I mean, given the choice between losing my wings and being forced to live as a sex slave, I would've had them cut off and never looked back. It's not like I can fly anyway so I wouldn't have lost much."

Octavia held her hooves up in surrender, "Alright, fine. I'm not interested in a 'who had the worst life' competition. Besides, my overbearing parents don't even register compared to the rest of you."

"Overbearing parents?" Trixie raised an eyebrow in demand of an explanation.

Octavia sighed, "If you really want to know. I was brought up in a nice house in Canterlot and had everything I could've wanted on the proviso that I sat down and behaved and never did anything. My parents controlled every aspect of my life; my schooling, my hobbies, my social life, everything. I didn't even get my cutie mark until later in life when I tried my hoof at a cello and instantly fell in love with it, which my parents hated because I was meant to take over the family business. Anyway, soon as I could I left and never looked back."

"Yeah," the filly said totally deadpan, "sounds awful."

"No, not awful, but boring. Really, really boring. I did say it didn't come close in comparison. Anyway, seeing as how we've gone off the topic that Trixie doesn't run a monopoly on hard times, I think we should- Hmm?" Octavia twitched an ear as the sound of hooves rapidly approached. She stuck her head out the door in time to see Fleur galloping past as fast as she could, "Fleur! Fleur wait!" Fleur didn't stop and Octavia started after her for a few steps before the thought struck her that maybe something had happened to Twilight, "Blast! Filly, could you go see if Fleur's alright?"

"Can do, though it might take me a while to catch up, what with my legs being stumpy compared to hers. Where're you going?"

"To see if Twilight's okay." Octavia darted out of the room, looking back briefly to see that the filly was going after Fleur. Turning her focus forward again she sprinted to the operating room, grabbing the doorframe to stop herself skidding past. "Did something happen? Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Sawbones said, not even bothering to look up from Twilight's leg as he calmly bandaged it.

Octavia released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding, "Thank goodness. Though if she's fine, why was Fleur running away?"

"My guess, she freaked out. Wouldn't be the first pony to do so, and probably won't be the last." He tied the final knot on the bandage and pulled a blanket over Twilight high enough to cover her leg. "At any rate I'm all done here and I really ought to get back to the others, see exactly what it is they're plotting. Somepony should stay with her at all times in case she wakes up and needs to see a friendly face. Oh, and if you start seeing lots of blood, it'd probably be best to come and find me."

"Of course... Thanks Doc."

"That's probably my cue to leave as well," Mama said as she wiped her hooves. "Think I've spent enough time in this dank hole to satisfy me for a good long time. 'Sides, who knows what Winder's getting up to without me there to keep an eye on him, so t' speak."

"Are we likely to see you again?"

"Never say never, though if you do could you bring some good news with you? You mares seem to be all doom and gloom."

"That's rather the understatement I think. Thanks for everything Mama."

"Ain't no thing, though I ain't exactly done much anyway."

"Still, things would've been harder without your advice." Octavia watched as Mama headed towards the door, "Mama, I must ask, how is it you know where to go and where things are to not bump into them?"

"Good gracious, is that what you’re thinking of right now?"

"Um... yes?"

Mama held her mane up with her hoof showing her horn off fully, a weak glow surrounding it. "With my magic of course! Ain't nothing mystical about it. Honestly, the things you ponies ask." Mama bustled out the door, leaving Octavia alone with the comatose Twilight.

Not sure what to do with herself she sat next to the table and stared at Twilight, who was drooling with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. After a few minutes she started feeling awkward so she set about cleaning up as best she could since she reasoned that Twilight probably didn't want to wake up and see her own blood splattered around. Unfortunately, that also left her with the problem of what to do with Twilight's severed leg.

"Um..." Octavia poked the leg and a little blood and black ichor oozed out of the end, making Octavia shudder in revulsion. Figuring that what happened to the leg was ultimately Twilight's decision she covered it with a cloth and resolved to never look at it again.

The door creaked open and Summer trotted in, a faint smile on her face. "Hey, is she alright?"

"She's... surviving." Summer smiled and Octavia couldn't help but ask why. "You seem curiously cheerful at the moment. Dare I ask why?"

"Sorry, but I can't help it. Things might seem bad but to me they're still an improvement over what I'm used to. Besides, I've been walking around down here with my wings on display and nopony has said a thing to me about it. It's great!"

"Well I'm glad you feel that way, but I'm afraid that I'm a little too concerned about Twilight and what's going to happen to us down here for me to think about happy things."

Summer wrapped her legs around Octavia in a hug and nuzzled her cheek, "I know, but Twilight's going to be fine, I just know it." Octavia nodded but froze when she felt Summer's lips press up against her cheek for a second before she was released from the hug. "I'm going to see if the others are back and keep an eye on Trixie, okay?"

"Uh, yes, of course. See you later." Summer left and Octavia pressed a hoof to where Summer had kissed her, "...What?"

It was some time until Twilight awoke from her alcohol induced slumber, during which Octavia had left Twilight in the care of Trixie while she tried to find a bathroom. Unfortunately this meant Twilight had to deal with Trixie while suffering from two things she had never experienced before.

Twilight blinked groggily, her eyes not seeming to want to cooperate since all she could see was a weird blue blur. She quickly resolved the issue though when she worked out she was seeing Trixie's face uncomfortably close up. "Hey Twilight!"

Twilight cringed as Trixie's voice drilled right through her head, "Not so loud..."

"Right, sorry.” Trixie lowered her voice, “How you feeling?"

Twilight tried to swallow before answering, but found her mouth to be unbearably dry. She tried to lick her lips instead but encountered a similar problem. "Don't feel good."

"Not surprising. I imagine a lightweight like you would have one hell of a hangover after drinking like that."

Hangover? Twilight had heard of these, but had until now never encountered one firsthoof. So far she was not enjoying her experience. "Ponies have these for fun?" she croaked.

"Uh, well no. The drinking is the fun part. The hangover is the penance for doing such things."

Twilight groaned again and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the light assaulting her eyeballs. She knew well enough that hangovers don't last forever, and there was a more pressing issue to deal with rather than how her head felt. "How's my leg?"

"Ah, well I have good news and bad news. The good news is the operation was a complete success!"

Twilight nodded gingerly, only wincing slightly as Trixie talked much too loud again. "The bad news?"

"They cut off the wrong leg."

"What!?" Twilight's eyes shot open as she scrambled to bring her legs into view, ignoring how violently ill the motions made her feel. She pulled her legs into view and stared at them in horror before noticing her pristine right leg was fine. Especially compared to the bandaged stump of her left. "That wasn't funny Trixie..." Twilight said half-heartedly. Even though they had removed the correct leg it still wasn't much of a comfort.

"Heh, sorry Twilight, couldn't resist. Yes the operation was a complete success, and now we only have to see if it grows back or not."

Twilight snorted, the idea that her leg might grow back seeming ridiculous as she stared, transfixed by her stump. A creeping sense of horror started to spread through her mind so she placed her leg back beneath the sheet and tried to ignore it lest she freak out, but now she was thinking about it she could feel a burning sensation start to nag at her.

Trixie held a glass of water up for Twilight, who gulped it down greedily, before asking for more. "Talking of legs," Trixie said conversationally, once Twilight had finished, "we still don't know what to do with your other leg. We thought it'd be best if you decided." Trixie gestured to a sheet that was clearly covering the remains of her leg.

Twilight was, all things considered, a scholar, complete with a scholars unerring ability to be horribly curious about things. She wanted to see it, and even though the very idea of looking at her own severed leg was horrific she couldn't deny how curious she was. She twitched the sheet aside in her magic and recoiled in disgust at what lay beneath.

The leg had changed since it was removed, and now oozed black, foul smelling gunk like it was decaying at an extremely accelerated rate. Twilight slammed the sheet back over it and heaved a couple of times as she tried to calm her stomach. "Get it away from me!" she choked.

"But what should I do with it?"

"I don't care! Bury it! Burn it! Whatever! Just get it away from me!" Trixie picked the tray the leg was on up in her magic and scurried out of the room, leaving Twilight to panic on her own for a while. Trixie must have informed the others as she left because they all came piling into the room, babbling the usual stupid questions of "Are you alright?" "How do you feel?" and "Does it hurt?" amongst others. There must have been something in her expression though, because they quickly stopped.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But Twilight!" Octavia started, "you can't pretend like-"

Twilight almost screamed, "I said I don't want to talk about it!"

Octavia held her hooves up, hoping to placate the enraged alicorn, "Alright! Alright! Instead, maybe you would like to tell us what you want to do now."

"Huh?"

"Well, would you like to get up? Stay there? Or maybe find a room with an actual bed?"

Twilight thought about it. Realistically she knew she should recover, but lying on the hard table was seriously making her wings ache. At the same time though what she really wanted to do was wallow in self-pity, and cry some more.

"Tell me what's going on," she said instead. "Did I miss anything?"

"Uh, not much," said Fleur. "Thorn, Daybreak and the others are sorting out some meeting for all of their members or something, and we haven't seen any of them for hours."

"Are we invited?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

"Oh." Twilight had hoped that would be a longer conversation. "How about you guys then? What've you been up to?"

"Nothing much really. I freaked out after cauterising your leg-"

"You cauterised my leg? No wonder it hurts so fucking much!" Twilight growled and looked away, spotting in her peripheral vision the bottle of moonshine. Her horn sparked to life and she held the bottle in preparation to bring it to herself. During her internalised battle over whether she should or shouldn't, Trixie banged the door open, brandishing the blackened tray in her magic, although it did appear to be blackened for a different reason this time. "What did you do with it?" asked Twilight.

"I incinerated it," Trixie said proudly.

"Really? How?"

"With Trixie's magic of course."

"You can do that?"

"Trixie can now." She almost purred as she said it.

"Of course you can..." Somehow, during all that had happened, Twilight had almost forgotten about Trixie's dalliance's with dark magic. Straight away the arguments as to why Trixie shouldn't use it leapt to the forefront of her mind, but she restrained them because apart from the obvious arguments of 'dark magic is bad,' her other reasons could be boiled down to 'because I don't like it.' "Thanks Trixie," she said anyway.

"No probs." Trixie placed the tray down and swept the moonshine up instead, taking a lengthy drink and shuddering with enjoyment before putting it back. "Since you're all awake and stuff now I should probably tell you that the princesses wanted to talk to you."

Twilight sighed. Of course they wanted to talk to her, and out of a sense of duty she would, whereas what she really wanted to do was tell Celestia to shove it using the equivalent of an answerphone message. "Fine, but first I'm going to get up and freshen up a bit."

Turns out that walking on three legs wasn't something that Twilight wanted to get used to. At first it had been weird because she still had to hold a leg that was half missing up against her, and she hated the way it moved about in full sight of herself and everypony else.

Octavia, with some assistance from Fleur, had partially solved that problem by fashioning a sling that held the leg up against her body while also covering it completely, which Twilight felt much better about even if it wasn't the most comfortable of things.

Of course this still left her limping around on three legs, which was fine for a while but tended to leave her odd leg out rather tired after lengthy exertions. Instead she tried to use her wings more, figuring that flying through these small passageways was as good a time as any to work on her fine control, but she hadn't used her wings too much lately so they weren't as cooperative as she liked, and every time she flew she couldn't help but feel Summer and the filly's eyes boring into her so she tried to not do it too much. Add to that the fact that her balance while flying was a little out until she got used to one side being heavier than the other, and instinctively wanting to use her bad leg to counterbalance when it was strapped up and only half there in any case made flying a poor choice. She'd keep working on it when she was sure Summer and the filly weren't around.

After a couple of hours of procrastination though, she finally decided to contact Celestia and Luna and quietly hoped she didn't blow up at them too badly. Here goes... She pressed her horn to the stone in the now familiar ritual to activate it and waited for one of the princesses to answer.

"Twilight?" asked the voice of Celestia.

"Yeah, it's me," she sighed in response. Twilight had been quietly hoping that Luna would be the one to answer.

"How are you feeling?"

Twilight almost laughed, but not with humour. "About as well as you expect me to feel."

"Understandable I suppose. Listen, Twilight, I realise that it was a mistake sending you and the others to Mareitania, and if you feel you are no longer able to continue I fully understand..." Twilight rolled her eyes as Celestia said almost exactly what she had predicted she would. What made it worse is that she knew what Celestia hoped she herself would say, and that it was hopefully exactly what she was about to say.

"No, I'm not giving up. This place needs to be fixed, and I've come too far and given up too much to go home now with nothing to show for it." Twilight waited for the answer she was expecting, but frowned as it didn't come.

"I'm so proud of you Twilight." Celestia sounded off when she said that, like she was crying when she said it but was trying to sound like she wasn't. "I still feel that I owe you an apology though, for leaving you to clean up a mess that I should have cleaned up centuries ago."

"Its fine Celestia, I mean you're a very busy mare." Twilight scowled at her own words. Now she was trying to make excuses for Celestia's lack of trying? It was just typical of Celestia to find the one way that would steal all of Twilight's thunder and turn it back on her.

"Not that busy I think. At any rate, I'm sorry Twilight, for all that I've put you through."

"It’s fine Celestia, really." No it's not Twilight! What are you doing!? Get mad damn it! "Now stop crying and pull yourself together, you're embarrassing yourself."

There was a small laugh mixed with a sob from the stone, "It’s been a while since anypony talked to me like that." Twilight waited as Celestia composed herself. "I guess we better talk business then-"

"Actually, I was hoping we could talk about something else. I was hoping you could tell me how my friends are doing?"

"Uh, well... certainly. You might be surprised at what they've been up to entirely. I suppose I should have been keeping you informed of their activities all along."

"Maybe, but I didn't want to know because I felt like I'd be missing out, but I was silly to think like that. Perhaps we should start with one pony at a time, like Rainbow Dash for instance..."

"Well, apart from causing a explosive winter in Ponyville and completely destroying the weather factory in Cloudsdale because she didn't want her pet tortoise to have to hibernate, not much."

Twilight laughed out loud, "You're kidding right? How could she even manage that!?"

"I'm not really sure. I've only read the reports and those sound spectacular enough." Twilight settled down, listening to Celestia recount what it was her friends had been up to in her absence, how Pinkie Pie almost started a war with the Yaks, how Applejack won first place in the Appaloosa rodeo. How Fluttershy had met a new friend that almost ended with Discord destroying the Grand Galloping Gala. Apparently Rarity was preparing to open her dream boutique in Canterlot which was astounding, making Twilight wish she could see it, and she couldn't help but laugh at the elaborate description Celestia gave of how Spike almost completely sabotaged the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, giving Cadence a complete meltdown. Then there was the Tantabus incident which Celestia had to help Luna fix.

"And, as a final note, I do believe the Cutie Mark Crusaders recently gained their cutie marks."

"Really? Wow! What in?"

"Something about helping other ponies discover the true meaning of their own cutie marks."

"Okay, that sounds nice, what about the others?"

"Actually they all have the same talent. Their marks are all pretty much indentical apart from a few minor differences."

"That's unusual..." Twilight rubbed her chin. She had never heard of three unrelated ponies getting similar cutie marks, let alone identical ones. Not even the close knit Apple family was like that. "So what does a 'helping ponies discover the true meaning of their cutie marks' cutie mark look like? Does this mean that Applebloom's the first Apple to not get something fruit related as her mark?"

"Actually her mark does have an apple motif to it. Their marks are small, tri-striped shields with an apple motif for Applebloom, a star and music note for Sweetie Belle, and a wing for Scootaloo."

"Fascinating... How did they get them?"

"Twilight, I know this is unusual, but I don't really know much about it. They only got them a couple days ago, and the only reason I know is because Spike sent me a picture and letter about it."

"Right, sorry. Still though, could you send a letter to Spike passing on my congratulations?"

"Of course Twilight. Since we're talking about cutie marks, there was one thing I wanted to ask. I've received reports from the north east about a strange little town that's recently turned up. Normally this isn't a bad thing, but these reports have mentioned that the ponies all appear to have the same, nondescript cutie marks, and that there's been propaganda flying around about equality and true friendship. As the Princess of Friendship, my first instinct would be to send you, but that isn't an option so Luna's offered to go in your stead. I was hoping that perhaps your friends might go with her if that's okay with you?"

"You hardly need to ask my permission Celestia."

"I know, but I don't want you to think I'm using your friends."

"It's their choice if they go. Besides, knowing Rainbow Dash she'd jump at the chance for an adventure."

"Thank you Twilight." Celestia sighed, "I do wish we could talk more, but today’s duties can't be put off much longer."

"Don't you want to hear my plans?"

"Ideally yes, but we are both busy mares after all. I have absolute faith in you Twilight, and trust you to know the best path." Twilight couldn't help but feel like her ego was being nicely stroked, and it was working. "Hopefully we'll talk again soon, farewell."

"Bye." The stone fell silent and Twilight stretched, shaking the stiffness out of her legs and wings. She had no idea how long she had been there, but she didn't care. Although the conversation had gone a lot different than she had planned, she felt a lot better for having it even if she was slightly galled that Celestia knew exactly which of her strings to pull, although that could be attributed to centuries of dealing with ponies.

"Right, back to my irregularly scheduled silliness," she said before stepping off the bed and landing in a crying heap as she tried to land on a leg that wasn't really there anymore. "Luna fucking damn it!" she hissed as she clutched her stump while squirmed in pain. "I hope this grows back soon if it's going to!"

Author's Notes:

Yes, I cut Twilight's leg off. I know, rather careless of me right? Rest assured this will all tie into something in the future concerning alicorns. Hopefully.

26. Poor decisions for noble reasons

Dear Sunset

Sorry I didn't write back sooner, but things have been rather hectic around here and a lot has happened. I don't think I have time to go into all of it right now but I think it will suffice to say that some of it was good, and some of it was-

Twilight wasn't sure that 'bad' was the right word to sum up their discoveries in Caverndown, fleeing from magic-proof ponies and almost dying, Trixie's dealings with a Voodoo witchdoctor, getting involved in a fight between Trixie and said witchdoctor along with magic-proof ponies, and having a leg amputated, amongst other things. Seemed rather inadequate.

Not wanting to freak Sunset out though she persevered with 'bad.' Perhaps I ought to keep a journal; this all seems a world away from getting mad at Trixie for braining somepony back in Stalliongrad.

-bad. We have though, met up with a group of ponies that might be able to bring us closer to completing our mission.

Anyway, I've decided to make a journal of all that has happened and will happen so you can read that once we've completed our mission here.

As for your news, congratulations on getting through to at least one of the sirens if not the others. Hopefully Sonata can convince the others to come around slowly.

Good luck at the friendship games (whatever they may be,) and I can't wait to hear about them.

Twilight.

Twilight sighed and put the book away. It didn't feel right deceiving Sunset like that but Twilight's news was a good bit heavier than Sunset's and she was worried Sunset might freak out if she knew the whole truth.

"Smile Twilight, it might never happen," said the cheery voice of the filly from in the corner where she was building a house of cards.

Twilight resisted the urge to flap a wing and send the cards flying, "Oh I'm sorry, how many limbs have you had amputated today?"

"Well today, none. I'm still one whole limb ahead of you though."

Don't snap at the wingless pegasus. Don't snap at the wingless pegasus. "Right, of course, didn't realise it was a competition."

The filly stuck her tongue out as she bridged two cards, "It's not, but it would be nice if ponies remembered my condition."

"The condition you tried to hide from all of us?"

"The very same. Past experiences have kinda taught me that ponies in this country don't react well to me telling them I'm a pegasus, only with no wings. Tends to make them angry for some reason, so excuse me for being cautious. Besides, I don't know if you've noticed but I am trying to be more open about it."

"You are?"

"Huh? Oh right, you were kinda passed out and getting your leg cut off while in a totally different room, so I guess you missed all that."

"You think?"

The filly held two cards up to make another point, carefully maneuvering them into position as she spoke, "It was just some things about my parental situation-" She didn't get far into her explanation as the door swung open, creating a breeze that scattered her house of cards while permitting entry to Trixie. "Aww come on!"

"What?" Trixie asked innocently as the filly scowled at her.

"If you didn't have scary ass magic right now I'd so head-butt your kneecap!"

Trixie looked to Twilight in confusion, "She was building a house of cards and you destroyed it when you made your grand entrance."

"Oh, I thought I'd done something truly awful then." The filly cursed under her breath, "Anyway, Daybreak, Thorn, and the Doc are back so you might want to go see what's going on."

"Right." Twilight clambered off the bed, more cautiously than last time, "Lead on then oh destroyer of card castles." Twilight grinned as the filly swore at her.

Trixie led them towards where the others were, taking them into a room that Twilight hadn't seen before, mostly due to her own lack of exploration, and sat down next to Fleur. "So, what's the news then?"

Sawbones stared open mouthed at Twilight, "How are you up and walking already!?"

"What does that mean? You did ask me to come here so you must have expected me to be somewhat mobile."

"Actually I was expecting Trixie to carry you. How does it feel?"

"Weird. I keep forgetting it’s not there and I can still feel it, which is an obvious case of phantom limb syndrome."

"But does it hurt?"

"At first it did, yeah, but it’s kind of okay now apart from the weirdness."

Sawbones almost appeared cross-eyed as he stared at Twilight, his disbelief written all over his face. "This is impossible! You shouldn't be walking around this soon and you should still be feeling pain!"

"Gee, thanks Doc..."

"I'm going to have to have a look at that once we're done."

"Fine."

Daybreak raised his eyebrow as he watched the two ponies, "If you're quite done." He rubbed his forehead and sighed, "We're having a meeting tomorrow between as many of our members as we can to see if we can make a decision on whether we should follow your lead, or just flat out ignore you."

"If the meeting's tomorrow, what did you spend so much time doing today?" Trixie asked with obvious sarcasm.

"We have quite a few members spread all around the place, and it takes time to track them all down, and then we need to give them time to travel to our meeting place, which is why Mason and Snowbright are still out there. If we were to track down our members from all across Mareitania it'd take weeks, but I don't think we have that much time. If we're going to make a solid consensus concerning this then we need as many as we could, and honestly, I wish we could wait the weeks it'd take us to find everypony."

"Fair enough. Sounds like pegasus messengers would be really useful, know what I mean?"

"Where is this meeting happening?" Twilight asked. "Is it here?"

"No, we have a place a few hours walk from here. An old earth pony fortress built during the wars of the three tribes by one of Chancellor Puddinhead's ancestors, hence its rather charming name of Puddingarde."

"Doesn't sound very secret," Twilight said, ignoring the sniggers that came from some of her friends.

"From the outside it looks like little more than a ruin, but the interior is mostly intact. At any rate the Duke and the grand army barely go near the place for some reason."

Fleur glanced at Twilight and shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

Twilight nodded, not least because exploring an ancient keep built by Puddinghead's ancestors sounded fascinating. "Okay then, Puddingarde it is."

"Not so fast. If you want us to do this, to fight against the Duke, then you are going to come up with a plan."

Twilight nearly choked, "A plan? B-but how? We have no idea what your capabilities are, or what we'll need or anything!"

"I'll help," said Thorn. "I know enough about Pierre to at least give you some ideas."

"Okay, but that still leaves us with a lot of missing information. There's no way we can come up with a plan that big before tomorrow!"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out." Daybreak stood and headed out of the exit, leaving a panicking Twilight and her worried companions alone with Thorn and Sawbones.

"Is it just me or has this suddenly become very real?" Fleur said to nopony in particular.

"There's no way we can come up with a solid enough plan to take on the Duke overnight," agreed Octavia.

Sawbones got up and sat next to Twilight's left and patted her on the back, "Don't worry yourself too much, you only need the basics of a plan. Enough to convince everypony in Pierre that they have a decent chance of succeeding. To be honest, a lot of our ponies who already want to fight the Duke would join you out of default. May I?" he asked, pointing to Twilight's leg.

"But why the sudden change of heart about this anyway?" Octavia asked as the doc eased Twilight's leg out of its sling, "Daybreak made it clear that he didn't want to fight the Duke."

Sawbones slowly unwound the bandage as he answered, "That was before we knew you really had Celestia's backing in this. Knowing that she's helping you do this lent you a fair bit of support."

"How come you all know so much about Celestia?" Twilight asked. "I was given the impression that ponies in Mareitania were ignorant of the outside world."

"And largely they are. It's no secret though that the Duke occasionally treats with Equestria, and quite frankly, a thousand year old sun raising pseudo goddess is going to become quite well known anywhere just through sheer existence..." Sawbones fell silent as the bandage slipped from Twilight's leg, along with some charred bits of flesh. "That isn't possible..."

"What?" Twilight forced herself to look, even though she really didn't want to. With the bandage removed she was able to see what the end of her leg looked like. She was expecting it to be a ragged, burnt, bloody mess, but instead it ended in a dome of smooth, pink, freshly grown skin. Even she could tell that wasn't normal.

"Freaking alicorns," the filly said in amazement, and Twilight had to agree somewhat since she felt like a freak knowing she could heal that fast.

"See," said a triumphantly grinning Trixie, "you'll have your leg back in no time!"

"No I won't! You burnt my leg! This is- This is-" Twilight wanted to be sick, or run away, or anything to avoid dealing with this. Something might grow back, but it would take a lot of convincing for her to believe it was truly her leg.

She fought back her desire to freak out and slipped her leg back into its sling, out of sight, out of mind. "We're not talking about this, I just... I just can't, okay?"

"Okay, its fine, we don't have to," Fleur said as soothingly as she could. "Let’s just discuss the plan and nothing else."

Twilight inhaled and exhaled a few times, though it was a bit shaky. "Okay, right, if we are going to fight a war we're going to need numbers, supplies, and a base of operations. How many members does Pierre have?"

Sensing her moment, Thorn cleared her throat," Roughly two hundred spread around the country, but I would hardly call them soldiers."

"Right, so we're going to need a way to recruit more members to build up into a decent sized force. If we're starting at the basics then at least we have plenty of time to properly formulate a plan."

Twilight drifted in and out of being half asleep, lulled by the rocking of the cart she was in. After she and her friends had stayed up most of the night trying to concoct a plan worth something they hadn't really had much sleep. She was also a bit stressed after their exit from Neigh Orleans, not because they had almost been caught, oh no, but because she had been required to walk down some stairs to the dock, and she had not hitherto considered how hard it is to walk down stairs with only one front leg because she was having to hop upwards to go downwards.

Suffice to say it was a little humiliating and time consuming, and she would've just flown down them but she was having to hide her wings again since they were no longer safely underground. Summer was also having to hide under a cloak again, so she wasn't very happy either and had taken to glowering at ponies out of the back of the cart.

Suddenly the cart lurched to a stop and Twilight quickly roused herself to ask what was wrong when she looked up and suspected they might be at their destination. Nestled above several dozen feet of sheer cliff, on the side of a mountain, was the crumbled remains of an ancient fortress. Twilight had to admit to herself that it really didn't look like much, but Daybreak had said only the exterior was largely ruined. Mason banged on the front of the cart, "Come on ponies, we're here."

Twilight shook off the remainder of her drowsiness and jumped out the cart, flapping her wings once to soften her landing. Winding up the cliff was a narrow path that zigzagged up the cliff until it reached a gap in the ruined walls. Not wanting to walk all the way up the ramp she asked Daybreak if any pony might see her so she could fly up.

"There's nopony around here for some distance, apart from maybe the occasional farmer. As I said, this place is pretty much deserted."

"But why? From what I can tell down here this place would be an excellent fortress; easily defendable from the ground, good cover from aerial attacks, easy to make supply routes, and looks big enough to outlast a siege."

"It probably has something to do with it being built by a Puddinghead, and possibly because it’s a bit out the way. Besides, you're wrong about that last one. This place can be besieged too easily if the enemy keeps their distance. All they need to do is cut off supplies, wait, and hey presto, the ponies inside are screwed."

"That's where you're thinking solely as a ground bound pony. With pegasi ferrying supplies in, this place could last indefinitely."

Daybreak smirked at her with obvious skepticism, "Yeah, that'll be the day. Perhaps for now we should get in and get on with this meeting."

"Right." Twilight ended the spell hiding her wings and spread them before turning to her friends, "Meet you at the top." She launched herself into the air, but not without a slight wobble, and not without noticing a flash of anger on the filly's face. Twilight grinned as a devilish idea formed in her mind and she swooped back down toward the ground, snatching the filly up in her magic as she went.

"AAAHHHH! What are you doing!? What are you fucking doing!?" the filly screamed as she flailed in a panic. "Put me down!" The filly looked down, "Please don't drop me!"

Twilight stopped and hovered, facing the filly towards her, "Calm down, I'm not going to drop you."

"Then why bring me up here!?"

"Because all pegasi have an instinct to fly, even you, and I thought you might like the chance to experience what it’s like. There's a pegasus filly back home who can't fly, yet she loves it when Rainbow Dash takes her flying."

"You could've asked me first!"

"You're right, I could have, but you probably would've chickened out."

"Nuh-uh, I'm not a chicken!"

"Buk-buk-bukawk!" Twilight's grin grew a little wider as the filly glared at her.

"Alright! Let's go flying then!" The filly yelled and Twilight immediately set into motion, keeping the filly beside her with her cloak flying out in the wind. She kept it simple, largely due to herself not being particularly secure in her flying abilities due to her missing leg, but even so it was obvious that the filly was loving it if the huge smile plastered on her face was any indication, "WOOHOO!!"

"So you like flying then?" Twilight asked coyly.

"I love it! I love it so much!"

"Thought you might." Twilight banked around back towards the fortress, taking note that the others were nearing the top of the walkway. It also gave her a chance to get a proper look at the fortress itself, so she slowed her approach to give her a chance to properly study it.

The outer wall was a mess with large parts of it having collapsed into rubble along with the bridge over the entry. It was surprising just how wide the wall was though, probably wide enough to support catapults or something similar. The gate that sat in the entry had long rotted to dust along with its counterpart on the other side of the wall, but even so Twilight really was impressed at just how defensible this place would have been from the ground. Even if your enemy got past the catapults, and probably archers for pegasi attacks, they were forced to focus on the entryway, and even then, if they made it through the first gate they were forced into a deadly bottleneck at the second.

Past that there was another smaller wall that had gates at either end which meant that any invaders would have to split up or focus on one gate. Even then they had to fight uphill to a small courtyard that sat in front of the keep. The keep itself looking like it could take anything thrown at it seeing as how it looked like it was carved out of the rock of the mountain and barely showed any of the wear the rest of the fortress did. Twilight had to give it to the ancient earth ponies. When they built something, they built it to last.

"You look like you're thinking of something," the filly said, drawing Twilight out of her thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, I was just thinking I might have solved our base of operations problem. If the inside is as good as Daybreak claims, all we need to do is fix the walls up and we have ourselves a damn near impenetrable fortress."

"Well yeah, that's nice and all, but we can't liberate a country by hiding in there, as cool as that place looks."

"Okay, good point, but we need somewhere better than the tunnels beneath Neigh Orleans to set this all up, and if the Duke does attack us here, we at least have a chance of holding them off."

"Hold them off until what? We all starve to death? Or until they break in? I kinda think you're going about this all wrong."

"Look, having a place like this means we have somewhere to hide if things do go teats up, pardon my prench. If things have gotten so bad we're under attack here then let’s face it, we've already lost." Twilight glided down and deposited the filly in the courtyard before landing, "My only real intention for this place is as somewhere to start."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Thanks for the flying thing."

"You're welcome, and if you want to go again you only have to ask."

The filly perked up again, "Really? Okay!" The filly bounced off into the keep and Twilight followed her, a wistful smile on her face. Perhaps she really ought to consider teaching Summer to fly while she was at it, she thought.

Fleur was waiting for her as she walked into the keep, "I'm not sure whether to thank you or slap you for that."

"Huh?"

"You don't think it might affect the filly, knowing what flying's like but not being able to do it herself?"

"Maybe, but there are ways to simulate flight without wings. Let me ask you Fleur, do you know who invented the hang glider?"

"I'm guessing it wasn't a pegasus."

"And you'd be wrong. The hang glider was invented by Easy Glider of the Wonderbolts after one of her teammates crippled their wing in a training accident. The filly might not have wings, but that doesn't have to mean she's stuck on the ground forever."

Fleur seemed like she was about to argue, but didn't. "Fine, but if she starts getting all miserable because you can't take her flying all the time, I'm blaming you."

"Duly noted." They headed into the keep, following the line of ponies that had accompanied them. The first room they found was a wreck, with piles of musty rotted wood scattered around the place amongst other detritus. Once you got past that though the room itself was still intact, with barely even a crack in the supporting pillars to show its age.
Twilight wandered further into the room while Fleur kept back and waited for her, "This place is amazing! You'd never think this place was over two thousand years old! Ponies back then really knew what they were doing."

"You do realize that High Rock Keep is just as old right?"

"Well, yeah, of course I do. But would it have lasted as long as this if it had been abandoned? I mean, even the wood's lasted almost two thousand years in here because it's so dry."

"Focus Twilight, we got a meeting to go to."

"Right, yes, of course..." Twilight could barely contain her glee at the thought of exploring the rest of this place, but reluctantly followed Fleur to a side door that led to some stairs heading down.

"Ugh, my newly discovered nemesis... Why down anyway? Wouldn't the command center or whatever be at the top?"

"Heck if I know Twilight. Do you want some help or are you okay?"

Twilight studied the width of the stairs and concluded they were plenty wide enough for her to fly down, "I'll be fine. You go on and I'll catch you up in a minute."

"If you say so." Fleur headed off, leaving Twilight waiting at the top of the stairs daydreaming over what the rest of this place would be like. Hopefully there were some records stashed somewhere detailing the history of the keep, although that would probably be expecting a lot of a two thousand year old book to last so long without being cared for.

Stopping herself before she drifted off into a fantasy, she listened out for the clop of Fleur's hooves on the stairs but heard none. Figuring the coast was clear she spread her wings and jumped off the top step, gliding down the stairway with her wings feeling uncomfortably close to the walls either side. She sped past one door, but since she was going so fast she didn't have a chance to see what was in it, which was also her first clue she was going too fast by far.

Fearing a meeting with a wall at the bottom she slowed herself enough to bank the corner before pulling up to stop herself completely, landing daintily on her back legs, in a room full of roughly a hundred ponies. Twilight giggled nervously and dropped onto her front leg, "Uh... hi!"

A susurration of whispers spread around the room, with one or two mentions of her having a horn and wings that she could hear.

"Could she be a messenger from the Lady?" Twilight heard a young mare say before an older mare shushed her.

"Of course not! The Lady wouldn't grant her gift to a mere messenger!"

"But she bears the mark of the Lady! What else could she be?"

"She's a mockery of our Lady!" roared an older, angrier, and definitely male voice. A fat, aging, brown earth pony stallion pushed though the throng to shove his face up against Daybreak's, "What do you have to say for bringing this abomination here!?"

"What I have to say is that not every pony with a horn and wings is any relation to the Lady. She was sent here by Celestia to bring down the Duke, that's it."

"Celestia!" the older stallion spluttered. "That imposter has no right to interfere with our business!" He glared at Twilight before turning back to Daybreak, "I don't know what you're planning here, but I will have no part in it!" He left, with a few other ponies trailing behind him. Twilight sagged, she had barely said hello and ponies were already leaving.

"I wouldn't worry about him," Thorn whispered from beside her. "The only reason he was with us was because worshipping the Lady is illegal. He couldn't care less about us helping ponies."

"Why does he hate Celestia?"

"Celestia caused a bit of a schism in the Church of the Lady. There are some who believe that she was sent by the Lady to watch over us in the Lady's absence, while others think she's the Lady's daughter. Then there's the ones like him that think Celestia got rid of the Lady in an attempt to replace her and steal the ponies love for the Lady for herself."

"That's ridiculous! None of those things are true!"

Thorn shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. I'm not a believer so I couldn't care less, but a lot of Pierre's members are."

Daybreak stamped a hoof on the stone table in the center of the room, "Anypony else feel the need to leave? If so, go now so we can get this under way!" Nopony did. Instead they moved to find a seat on the stone bleachers that went around the edge of the room. "Right, in that case, thank you all for coming."

"Who is that pony?" a pony from the seats blurted out.

"We'll get to that in due time. First though, I guess you're all wondering why we called you here? We're here to decide the future of our country. This pony has been sent by Celestia to bring about the downfall of the Duke, and has asked for our assistance in doing so, but I'm not the only pony here, so I thought it best to put it to a vote. I know in the past we've been divided over this, but with Celestia's backing I thought it was worth investigating. Once this pony has shared her plans with us on how she wishes to accomplish this, we will have a vote to see if Pierre will join her or not." He waved at Twilight and stepped aside, "Twilight?"

Twilight stepped up to the table, her heart beating hard in her chest with nerves. Somehow she had to convince a room full of ponies to go to war against a dynasty that had lasted fifteen centuries, and had superior… well, everything. All using a half-baked plan they invented the night before.

"Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm a princess from Equestria, sent by Celestia to overthrow the Duke. I-uh... I..." There was a semi disgusted sigh from beside her and Trixie stepped up to the table.

"The fact is we have to do this by any means possible, and we thought that finding the only ponies willing to undermine the Duke would be a good place to start."

Octavia stepped up to the other side of Twilight and nudged her, "We realise that it's a lot to ask for you to do this, but this country is never going to get better until he is gone."

Feeling her confidence bolstered Twilight smiled at the ponies assembled before her, "Right, and this is where we tell you we don't really have a plan." A displeased rumble spread around the ponies while Daybreak gawped open mouthed at Twilight. "Please, hear me out on this. No plan is going to survive intact over the next however many months this might take. The last rebellion four hundred years ago had a plan. They wanted the pegasi to fight with them, and when the pegasi refused they fell apart and lost. For us, flexibility is key. Obviously there are some plans, but I'm not allowing us to get stuck doing things one way only for us to find it doesn't work and fail."

"For years Pierre has worked in the shadows, and it has served you well, and I feel no need to change that for now. This isn't a war we can win by fighting head on as yet, so we will have to do everything we can to undermine the Duke and his army. Nibble at them until they are weak enough for us to take bites out of them. Obviously to do this we will have to recruit a lot more ponies, and teach them how to fight and be stealthy, but even the ponies in this room could do a lot of damage if used correctly."

Using her magic, Twilight formed a purple square in midair. On it were four numbers, the first of which she pointed at. "This is our four point plan for the present." The word 'base' appeared by the number one." Step one: fix this place up as a base of operations. I'm not entirely sure how this place works inside, but it’s the best place we have outside of Neigh Orleans to work from." She searched around until she found the stone faced Mason, "Mason, how many ponies and how long would it take you to get the walls outside into working condition?"

Mason scratched his chin and 'hmm'd' for several seconds, "Since the stone we would need is more or less already here, with a team of thirty ponies it might take a month or so."

"Great! Do we have any carpenters here?" Two ponies held up their hooves, although Twilight was hoping for slightly more. "We would need new doors for the gateways outside as well as furniture inside. Would that be possible in a month?"

One of them shook their head, "Making new doors, maybe. But doing that and furnishing the keep? Impossible. You'd have to buy or steal the furniture."

"Oookay..." Twilight thought about it and decided most furniture was largely unnecessary until later. "As long as we get the kitchen and stores up and running that'll be fine; ponies can sleep on the floor until the necessities are sorted. Does this place have a blacksmith?" she asked Daybreak.

"Yeah, the armory and forge is the floor above us."

"Right, in that case we'll need a blacksmith to make arms and armour? Anypony here a blacksmith?"

"Aye," said a large brown stallion from the back of the room, "me and my two apprentices."

"Okay then, good. Once we get this place fully operational we can move onto step two: recruitment. Obviously this can happen at the same time as point one, and I'm hoping that you all know ponies that might want to join us here." She looked to Daybreak who nodded. "We'll also have to somewhat reveal ourselves to the general public to find ponies willing to join us, which will create a lot of unwanted attention for us at the same time, so ponies will have to be carefully vetted to make sure they are legitimately joining us and aren't actually the Duke's agents."

"We will also have to start a propaganda campaign, to make our goals clear and to draw the interest of more ponies, and not just in Neigh Orleans. The Duke will probably make us out as terrorists, so we will have to do everything we can to prove them wrong."

"Step three is training ponies to fight. I'm assuming some ponies here know how to fight, so they will have to teach others how. I will also teach the basics of combat magic to any unicorns willing to learn," Twilight noticed Thorn perk up out the corner of her eye. "We will also be learning how to use crossbows extensively since at close range the well trained and heavily armed soldiers of the Grand Army will have the advantage."

"Step four: take Neigh Orleans." As expected the ponies all started shouting at once and Twilight sat there silently, waiting until the ruckus died down. "I don't know why that troubles you. How else can we do this without claiming territory? There will have to be a separate battle plan to take Neigh Orleans, but with the army mostly distracted by events in Prance all there is guarding Neigh Orleans is the city guard."

"But how can we hold the city when the army does come?" Daybreak shouted. "They could just starve us out!"

"I know. Once we have Neigh Orleans we have access to the Mareissippi and the ocean. Celestia would be more than willing to send supplies via ships-"

"Impossible," Daybreak said, cutting her off. "The barrier would prevent ships getting in. Nothing gets past the barrier."

"What's the barrier?"

"It is what it sounds like. The second or third Duke built it to stop ponies moving in and out of Mareitania by sea. It’s basically a mostly underwater wall built out of giant rocks."

"So it’s not held together by anything?"

"Just gravity and good will."

Twilight grinned, "Not a problem then. I imagine a team of unicorns and myself could probably dismantle it in a day or two. Once we have supplies and a city, ponies will have to pay attention to us, especially once we start spreading news of our existence to other cities. If we can create enough civil unrest in all the cities, the army will be that much weaker as they spread themselves too thin."

"You're basing a lot of this on what-ifs," Sawbones cautioned.

"That's why I'm not presenting you with a full plan. Things can and will change rapidly, and we will have to react to things until we are a large enough force to start calling the shots. I know this isn't a lot to go on but we have thought this out quite thoroughly, so, instead of us boring you with every little detail, how about you ask us what you need to know?" Pretty much every pony in the room held up a hoof, "You in the back."

"What about the pegasi? Will they be fighting too?"

"If they want to, but no, I will not be asking them to fight because we can't count on them saying yes. Instead, I'm hoping to convince them to continue managing the weather because spring is around the corner and the farmers will need the favourable weather to grow crops. Life doesn't stop because of what we're doing."

"And if they refuse to do even that?"

"Then we find a different solution, but with what I intend to offer them I doubt they would refuse. Next question?"

"Will you be allowing open worship of the Lady?"

Twilight almost sighed, but kept it buried. Surely ponies would have bigger priorities? "Sure, there's no point being free if you can't even do that." Realistically Twilight didn't want the Lady anywhere near this, and she had no intentions of fighting a war for religious reasons. Daybreak raised a hoof, "Yes?"

"Who's going to rule this country once the Duke is gone? Are you going to rule it?"

"Oh no, not me. An interim government will have to be formed once High Rock has been taken, just to keep things running. Then, once things are settled, you can pick a leader, or elect them, or whatever." She pointed to a pony enthusiastically waving her hoof, "You in the back."

"What if we fail?"

On the outside Twilight smiled, but internally she was banging her head on the table. How was she supposed to convey to a pony like that, that failing is a distinct possibility without scaring them off. Today was going to be a long day.

"Any more questions?" Twilight sincerely hoped not. Some of the inane crap that she had been asked so far was making her think she was really asking the wrong ponies to help her do this. Mostly it had been Daybreak and his crew asking the important questions, and even then she couldn't answer because they were asking things that would occur further in the future than she could reasonably predict. The whole experience had left her feeling more than a little stupid. She was also worried that her ability to actually do all this wasn't what she hoped it might be if she had such large gaps in her plans.

Thankfully nopony did, although there probably should have been some. Daybreak stepped back up to the table, and Twilight couldn't help but notice a hint of uncertainty in his expression. "So, if we're all... clear on what's expected of us, then I suppose we should hold that vote. Unless you have anything else to say Twilight?"

"Uh, okay. I know our plan doesn’t seem as solid as I suspect you might like, but I know we can make this work and free Mareitania for the good of all the ponies living here." Twilight looked around the room, taking care to keep smiling despite the various ponies that seemed uncertain on all this. Just as her heart felt like it was going to sink completely, Fleur said the first and only thing she had said since arriving at the meeting.

"For the glory of the Lady."

Twilight managed to contain her outburst, but she was furious that Fleur would invoke the name of the Lady like that, just to sway their opinions. The ponies here should be fighting because it’s the right thing to do, not for some mythical being with no bearing on actual events.

"Okay then." Daybreak drew a deep breath and slowly breathed back out, "All those in favour, hooves in the air." Twilight had to look away, noting only that Daybreak was holding his hoof up, and she hoped that by some miracle this might work. "The aye's have it."

"What?" Twilight's head shot up, seeing that maybe slightly over two thirds of the ponies here were holding their hooves in the air, sadly including the ponies that seemed rather religious.

"You won the vote," Daybreak told her. "We're with you."

Trixie cheered and Octavia at least appeared pleased, as did Summer and the filly. Fleur though, was staring coolly at Twilight, as if daring her to challenge her over what Fleur had said. Twilight couldn't help but wonder how many of the ponies here would still be alive at the end of this.

"So, what are your first orders?" Daybreak asked. Twilight blinked a few times, her mind feeling rather slow as this all sunk in.

"Uhhh... Um... First we need to fix this place up. Mason? Can you find the ponies you would need to get the walls repaired?" Mason nodded. "Good. Could the carpenter and blacksmith hold their hooves up? Okay, do you know what you'll need to get yourselves up and running here? Make a list of the materials and we'll go from there. As for the rest of you, head home and start seeking out ponies you know that would make good recruits, and do your best to spread the word around. Once we have this place up and running we'll send word to you. And thank you, for giving me- us, this chance."

The ponies started filing out of the room, the sound of discussion passing between them as they planned how to find ponies to join them, leaving Twilight alone with her five friends, and giving Twilight a proper opportunity to snap at Fleur. "Why would you say that!?"

"Because we need these ponies on our side, and if they won't join us to fight for what's right, maybe they'll join us to fight for the Lady."

"So you would abuse their faith just to get them to join us?"

"If that's what it takes, then yes."

"You- You what!? I don't want this to become a war fought for religious reasons! This is- This is- Rrrrrgh!" Twilight growled and headed for the exit.

"Where are you going?" Octavia asked her.

"I am going to explore this keep, and distract myself for a while."

"Want some company?" asked Trixie.

"No!" Twilight snapped, though she regretted it straight away. "No," she said a bit calmer, "I really want to be on my own right now."

Octavia wasn't letting it go so easily. "Is everything alright Twilight?"

Twilight laughed bitterly, "Three days ago I watched a pony melt in a pool of dark magic. Two days ago I was being questioned by some strangers in a dungeon, before being told my leg was ruined for life. Yesterday I had that leg amputated, before being told to make a plan to convince a bunch of strangers to fight the Duke, and today I'm sharing that plan. And to top it all off my leg healed stupidly fast, leaving me feeling like a freak of nature! I'd be happier if it was still scabbed up and hurting, and the idea that it might actually grow back is- is... horrible!"

"Twilight?" Tears were forming in Twilight's eyes as her inner anguish showed itself properly.

"This is too much, and it's moving too quickly. Everypony is expecting so much of me and I can't let them down! I just can't! My emotions are all over the place and I'm terrified that if I stop I'll never be able to start again. So if you'll excuse me I'm going to explore this place in the hopes it'll keep me distracted for a bit longer." She turned and spread her wings, flying up the stairs as fast as she could before they stopped her.

Twilight's plan to distract herself wasn't working. Spectacularly. She had flown to the highest floor of the keep she could get to, and had spent all of a minute exploring before totally breaking down. The last half hour had been spent sobbing in the corner as she tried to calm her turbulent emotions.

The steady clop of hooves approached her, and she was about to yell at whichever one of her friends it was when she noticed through her blurry sight that it was Daybreak. "W-what do you want?"

Daybreak sat beside her, leaning against the cool rock. "Actually, I've come to apologise. I heard the yelling and saw the state you were in when you flew up and... well... I guess I have myself to partially blame for that. When your friends came running up after you I told them you had flown off outside."

"Why?"

"Because I know when a pony needs some space. Thorn's the same when she gets stressed, and I think you have a bit more reason to be stressed than she does. Anyway, I'm sorry for rushing you like this. I should have given you some time to recover after having your leg... you know. It's just that after Trixie spoke to Celestia I sort of panicked, and I thought this was going to happen with or without us, so I thought I had no time to sort things out. Seems a bit silly now."

Twilight tried to rub her eyes, but found herself unable to due to a lack of a free hoof to do it with, only adding to her frustration. Using her magic instead she pulled herself together a little bit, "Is that why you changed your mind about helping us?"

"A little bit, but the others were arguing for it as well. I'll be honest with you and say that I'm still unconvinced, and if I'd been in the crowd I wouldn't have voted for it."

"But you voted to fight, I saw you."

"Because the others trust my judgement. If I hadn't voted in favour of it a lot of the others wouldn't have."

"Then why? Why do that?"

"Because... well, because it can work. The thing is though you were making your plans like you had everything you needed to do it. Whereas what you really had was a room full of ponies willing to trust you. I however, found your plans a little short sighted."

"Sorry, it's just that in Equestria, I've always had everything I needed to do what I'm doing. I've never had to worry about supplies and logistics and stuff."

Daybreak nodded, "I figured as much. Equestria, the land of plenty..." He chuckled to himself, not that Twilight knew why. "I have a proposition for you. I've been doing this for some time now and know quite a few ponies that can get things done. Name me as your second in command and I'll make sure everything gets done smoothly, including getting this place up and running and recruiting ponies. Then you can have a couple of weeks to rest and recover some. Deal?"

That almost sounded too good to be true. "What do you want in return?

"Um... nothing? I'm doing this because somepony needs to do it. I've already worked out the details of repairing this place years ago, and I know a thing or two about organising ponies. If I want something out of this, I want to succeed."

"Alright. If I'm honest I'm not sure how well I can lead this thing anyway. Perhaps it's best if I'm just some kind of figurehead or something."

"Neighsayers never achieved anything Twilight."

"Heh, you sound like Trixie."

"In that case Trixie is a wise if brash and impulsive pony. Take some time, rest, recover, and we'll talk about it more once you're better up to it." He stood and offered a hoof to Twilight to help her up.

Twilight smiled sardonically, "Thanks, but that would only work if I had four legs. You'll probably just pull me over.

"Oh, right." He lowered his hoof and coughed awkwardly, "Sorry."

"It's the thought that counts." Twilight slowly stood and stretched the stiffness out of her body. Perhaps she might have to think a bit more about the sleeping arrangements here seeing as how the floor is absolutely freezing. "I was going to explore this place but I got a bit... distracted. I don't suppose you could give me a basic rundown of it?" Twilight asked as they started heading downstairs again.

"Sure. This here is the storeroom," Daybreak pushed some rotting debris aside with his magic to reveal a hole in the floor, "which used gravity feeds to deliver stuff to the kitchens below us. The next floor down is the biggest by a long, long way, containing the kitchen, dormitories, mess hall, and training area-"

"But isn't that right next to the main entry?"

"Right, keep ponies nearest the exit so they're faster getting out if there's an attack. Below that is the armoury, which is right under the dorms-"

"Why under there?"

"So the heat from the forge would warm the room above. I'm sure you've noticed how cold it is in here." Twilight had to admit that was a simple but clever solution. "Then there's the command room at the bottom. That's pretty much it."

"I don't get why that's at the bottom though. Most other places have it at the top."

"And I can guarantee those places were designed by either a unicorn or a pegasus. The command room is the least practical room here, so why should it get the glory of being at the top? It's only use is to have maps shuffled around in it, and would probably have nopony in it most of the time. If nothing else, earth ponies are practical." Twilight had to concede the logic behind that.

"You know..." Daybreak said, like he was reluctant to say it, "I just want to say for the record now that Fleur wasn't wrong to bring up the Lady to sway the vote."

"Yes she was. I'm here to stop the Duke for the simple reason that he needs to be stopped. I'm not here to do this for the glory of a being that probably doesn't exist!"

"I realise that, but ponies do believe in her, so using her to gain more support is a useful tool. Especially since anypony that believes in her is no fan of the Duke."

Already Twilight could feel this slipping through her hooves, so decided to deal with it by not dealing with it. "Fine, whatever. But if the religious fervor of some ponies starts to alienate others from joining our cause, I will be putting a stop to it."

Twilight settled down and made herself comfortable on the bench she had found in the room away from the others. Now they were back in Neigh Orleans to gather supplies before returning to Puddingarde in a couple days, there was one thing she ought to do before it started blowing holes in her plan; beg Celestia to send supplies when the time came.

She had already activated the speaker stone and was waiting for a reply from either Celestia or Luna. Probably Luna considering it was now in the evening.

"Hello? Twilight?" said a tired sounding Celestia.

"Uh, hi Celestia? Are you okay? You sound tired. If you were sleeping why didn't Luna answer?"

"Luna's still on her mission with your friends, and I don't know when they'll be back."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I can call back tomorrow if you prefer?"

"No no Twilight, it's fine, really. How are you feeling?"

"My leg's healed over already. Only hours after having my leg cut off and the wounds healed already. I feel like a freak."

"I suppose you've never had a chance to really test out your alicorn healing before now."

"Apart from Tirek, no. Even then, containing all yours, Luna's, and Cadence's magic meant I barely got a scratch even after he slammed me right through a mountain. I feel unnatural Celestia, and I hate it."

"I know Twilight, but you'll get used to it."

"I'm not sure I want to get used to it. The idea of my leg growing back is really, really, freaking me out."

"I'm afraid I have nothing I can really say about all this. I've never lost a limb so I can't say for definite whether it will grow back or not."

"I'm curious Celestia, with this kind of healing, can alicorns actually die from injury?"

"Of course they can Twilight, not even an alicorn would survive beheading, or something equally devastating. But yes, we are a good deal harder to kill than the average pony."

"Right. Good, that's good." Twilight shook her head. Why did she even want to know that? Did she need some reassurance that she was still a pony at her core? She sighed, "It doesn't matter. I was actually calling to tell you that Pierre has agreed to form the basis of this rebellion, and... yeah."

"That's wonderful Twilight!"

"Is it though? I can't help thinking that I'm going to get all these ponies killed."

"Ah, I see. Twilight, I'm not sure how to say this to you, but as a leader responsible for ponies in any situation, there's always the possibility that ponies might get hurt or die. I can't tell you how to cope with it, and I won't tell you it gets easier, because it shouldn't. These ponies know the possible cost of fighting the Duke and you should be proud of them for being so willing to put everything on the line for what they believe is right."

"I know, and I am. I'm still afraid though."

"And you have every right to be. I can't tell you how to get through this Twilight, but I will tell you to never stop feeling each loss. As soon as it stops bothering you, you'll be on your first steps to becoming a monster. Each life is precious and deserves to be mourned. Don't take that from them."

"I won't Celestia, I promise."

"Good. I'm so proud of you Twilight. Now, is there something else I can assist with?"

"Actually yes. We're staying incognito for now, but eventually we will have to show ourselves, and I intend to do that by taking Neigh Orleans. Once we do that the Duke is bound to cut us off, so we will need supplies. I was hoping you could send them to me."

"Certainly Twilight, but how?"

"By sea. Once we have Neigh Orleans we can start bringing in supplies by boat-"

"I'm afraid that's impossible. The barrier stops any boats from going in or out."

"I know, which is why I intend to tear it down as soon as the city is taken."

"Very well," Celestia said slowly, like she wasn't entirely convinced. "Do you know what you'll need?"

"Food for the most part. I would ask you for weapons, but you don't exactly have a lot of those. I could also use a couple of your pegasi guards, so if any pegasi do choose to join us we have a method of training them."

"I suppose that's fine, yes. Anything else?" Twilight could hear the scratching of a quill on a parchment. Clearly Celestia was already planning this out.

"There is one thing; fly the biggest Equestrian flags on these ships as you can. Heck, decorate the sails with it if you have to. I want the ponies of Mareitania to see that Equestria is on their side through all of this. Hopefully that will convince a lot more ponies to join our cause."

"Absolutely not Twilight! If the Duke sees us openly supporting an uprising in his country-"

"So what? He already knows I'm here, so he must know you're working against him. You're going to have to show your hoof in this at some point Celestia, so why not do it as a message of hope in the form of supplies for the beleaguered ponies of Mareitania? The only thing better than that would be to show up yourself."

"I don't know Twilight. This seems dangerous..."

"Only if we fail. Besides, the Duke will know it's you sending the supplies because he knows it's me asking for them. There's no hiding this from the Duke so we might as well make a show of it."

"Very well Twilight, I'll trust your judgement in this. Hopefully I can spin this as a mission of mercy if the diplomats from other countries start getting suspicious. You'll have your supplies."

"Great! I'll have to contact you again to let you know when to send them though. No point doing it before Neigh Orleans is taken and the barrier is dismantled."

"Of course not. Are you sure you're okay Twilight? You seem a bit-"

"Emotionally unstable? On the verge of tears one moment, and fine the next?"

"I-uh, wasn't going to say it like that..."

"I'm a bit of a mess at the moment, I admit, but Daybreak, the pony that leads Pierre is going to be organising things for a couple of weeks so I have a chance to relax a bit and recover.

"Do you trust him?"

"I... I do, yes. He's a good pony, and this was his idea, so I'm going to take advantage of it."

"Okay then, so long as you think he's being genuine. If you need anything else, just let me know and I'll do what I can. Goodbye Twilight."

"Bye." Twilight waited a moment before flopping over onto her side. Right now she couldn't touch okay with a hundred hoof bargepole. Everything hurt, and these mood swings were only going to get worse if she added to the pressure already on her. She needed a break and Daybreak was offering her one.

She was about to head back to the others, when a glint of light caught her eye. Nestled in a small nook was a bottle of whiskey. She pulled it out and opened it, recoiling at the smell. "Ugh, ponies drink this for the taste?" She sniffed it again before taking a small sip, "Haaaaaahhhggg! That's just nasty!" she cried even as the warmth started spreading into her stomach. "Mama's moonshine was way nicer than this. Hmm..." As far as she remembered, nopony had taken it away since her operation.

She left and headed for the operating room. If she was going to spend a couple weeks relaxing she might as well start the traditional way, by getting totally steaming drunk.

Author's Notes:

And here is where I apologise for what I think to be a lacklustre attempt at writing. I've been over this chapter again and again but no matter what I try it's never what I want. So screw it, have the chapter and lets get on with this.

27. Hard work holidays

Twilight sat at the table in the command room, skimming through the pile of reports before her. She wasn't sure when somepony had thought it was a good idea to start writing reports because as she was the de facto leader of this outfit it somehow fell to her to read them. That was fine, but between this and the constant noise as the keep was reconstructed around her, the last three weeks off hadn't really been very relaxing.

Not to mention the time she was taking out to train any unicorns that asked it of her, which was a constant uphill struggle considering the sheer lack of magical knowledge they possessed. At the moment she was settling for teaching them how to shoot magic, form rudimentary shields, and how to properly wield weapons with their telekinesis. A skill she was largely having to invent herself based off what she had seen the unicorns in the Canterlot guard do.

Apart from that though, things had been going remarkably well. Recruitment was steady, and their numbers were growing all the time and even after only three weeks they were only just short of roughly six hundred ponies. The walls outside were being repaired in record time meaning that there were plenty of ponies to help with the keep's interior.

Procuring food and other supplies had been a bit more challenging, but Daybreak had been true to his word and was tackling the task with great success. Between him and Fleur, who literally named herself and the filly the heads of under-hoofed acquisitions, they had enough food to keep going and had obtained quite the stockpile of weapons.

Octavia and Summer were assisting with setting up the kitchens and dormitories, which were almost done, while Trixie, not that she knew it, was keeping herself out of trouble. Her offer to teach the other unicorns dark magic had been rejected quite soundly so Twilight had given her the task of creating a name for their movement, a task she had not put any serious effort into.

"Twilight!"

Talk of the devil... "Yes, Trixie?"

"I think I've got a real winner this time!" Trixie slammed a piece of paper down in front of Twilight, and stood there beaming as Twilight read it out loud.

"Mareitania Independent Liberation Front? Why's it independent? Also, isn't that a little too clinical for something you made up? Trixie's Forces of Awesome had a way better ring to it."

"Well, you know, Trixie can't be silly all of the time." Trixie bit her lip like she was desperately trying to keep a straight face. Eyeing her suspiciously for a moment, Twilight read it again and thought about it a moment before sighing irritably.

"Milf? Really?" Trixie burst out laughing and Twilight groaned, "I was really hoping you would take this seriously Trixie, before ponies start calling us the 'army of light,' or 'army of hope,' or even the 'army of the Lady,' or some such semi-mystical nonsense."

"But this job's so boooooring! Can't you give me something more important to do?"

"Why would you expect me to trust you with something more important when you can't even take this seriously?"

"Pleeease?"

Twilight smirked and picked up the paper in her magic, "Although now I think about it, we could use this." She picked up her quill and crossed out the independent, "There, the Mareitania Liberation Front. Perfect."

"But-"

"Nice work Trixie."

"But-"

"Nopony could ever doubt what we are with a name like that."

"It's not-"

"And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of reading to do."

"But that name's stupid!"

"You mean to tell me you aren't putting your best effort into this?"

"Of course I'm not! This job was a pointless gimmick given to me to keep me out of the way!"

"Trixie, there are dozens of other more pointless and less enjoyable jobs I could have given you if that were the case. I actually thought of you as being quite creative, and would have no trouble thinking of a name. This job was meant to take you a day at most, yet somehow you've managed to make it last two weeks, giving me name after stupid name, most of which make rude acronyms! I was thinking of putting you in charge of teaching some of the willing unicorns basic magic afterwards, as long as you kept dark magic out of it!"

"Oh..." An uneasy silence filled the room, and Trixie seemed unwilling to look at Twilight. "So you want me to teach-"

"Some of the unicorns, yes. Only basic things like shooting and shields and stuff. Maybe get them to work on their multitasking with telekinesis so they can work crossbows better, and maybe use your illusions to teach them how to hit moving targets. No. Dark. Magic."

"I can teach the shooting and the telekinesis thing, but I'm not the best at shields, at least, not with my normal magic." It almost sounded painful for her to admit that.

"Then teach them how to shoot, and I'll worry about the shields. Talk to Thorn and she'll run you through the forms and drills I've been using."

"Right, I-uh, I guess I'll go do that..."

"Good." Twilight started reading again before sighing, "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Trixie rubbed her back left leg with the other and lowered her gaze to the floor, "Trixie is willing to admit she might have deserved that one. Serious Trixie is now on the case."

Twilight smiled, "Glad to hear it." Trixie scuttled back upstairs leaving Twilight to return to her reading, but not without first scowling at what was across the room from her. Twilight didn't remember asking anypony to do it, but somepony had decided to make a flag for their cause. The end result was the same golden tree the Duke used for some reason, but with the upper body of the Lady stitched in silver for the body, and bronze for her mane, placed above the tree with her wings coming down and wrapping around the tree at its middle.

Twilight hated it, but most of the other ponies here had gone on about how lovely it was, and so on and so forth, that Twilight had felt unable to reject it. There was also something about the flag that worried Twilight, a row of six stars stitched under the tree in red, sky blue, dark purple, baby pink, orange, and white. Five of the colours she recognised as the colours the Elements had been, which was strange enough as it was, but the sixth was white. If it was following the Elements of Harmony then the sixth should have been a pinky-purple colour, so why white?

Daybreak was supposed to be coming to see her later so she was definitely going to have to ask him about it all. But first, she supposed, she had better read these reports if they were to have anything else to discuss. "I don't remember ponies being so pious before we found Pierre," she grumbled to herself.

She tossed the report on the armoury she had been reading aside and tried to read the next down, but failed because the writing was totally illegible. Not a huge surprise considering the lack of education ponies received, but not particularly helpful when it came to making reports. For all she knew it could be a paper on the mating habits of field mice, or a warning about an imminent attack.

Choosing to believe it was neither of those things she tossed it aside. "Operational readiness," she read aloud off the next report. "This sounds more like it." She turned to the next page, where there were four words in the middle of the page. "We're not ready yet," she read aloud. "I- I don't even... What? Why would somepony even bother to write that?" She crumpled it up and threw it into the corner of the room.

The next report showed a bit more promise, detailing the activities of the city guard, and reporting that they, and probably the Duke, were becoming suspicious of what the very newly minted 'Mareitania Liberation Front' might be up to. Thankfully though, nopony seems to have found out that they were doing anything in Puddingarde, let alone what. Twilight looked at the name at the bottom of the report and smiled slightly. Fleur had written it, which was nice since it was a decent report, but as Fleur had wrote a report it meant she was still avoiding Twilight after her outburst following the vote.

She placed that report to the side and was about to start on the others when her saddlebags started vibrating. Opening it up she pulled Sunset's book out to find she had another letter, the third in as many days.

Hey Twilight, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to explain how the elements work. It's a good thing too, because your counterpart decided to unleash all the magic she had taken at once and turned into a dark alicorn monster, not unlike I had, but with less bat wings and with a horn.

She started tearing our reality apart, creating rifts in reality to get to Equestria to steal its magic, but with what you told me I was able to harness the magic of the elements using her device and stop her after I turned into an alicorn thing too! It was so cool!

She was really sorry for what she tried to do and has decided to transfer here with us in Canterlot High, so when you next visit don't be surprised to see you're already here! Can't wait for you to meet her, you have so much in common already! Until then, good luck!"

Sunset

Twilight shook her head and grinned. Despite knowing what an Element of Harmony was, even though they hadn't been around before she left Equestria, and knowing what would happen if said Elements were taken to a different dimension, Twilight could only wonder why Sunset had no idea how they worked. It’s not like she hadn't explained it when she had turned the crown against Sunset at the fall formal.

At least it had all worked out in the end, even if her otherworldly counterpart had turned into a power crazed lunatic. Hopefully it wasn't indicative of something inherently wrong with Twilights'.

She placed the book back in her bags when she noticed that the speaker stone was flashing. Guess I’m popular today. She floated it out of the bag and placed it on the table in front of her before gingerly answering it as she was far more used to making calls than receiving them. "H-hello?"

"Greetings Twilight."

"Oh! Hi Luna! Haven't heard from you in a while."

"I only returned from my own mission two days prior, and I have reason to contact you, so here I am."

"Uh, reason to contact me?"

"Indeed, but I'll get to that later. Firstly, your friends are all safe and well, and have already returned to Ponyville, along with a great many other ponies."

"What does that mean?"

"This village we found was under the control of one 'Starlight Glimmer,' who was using her magic to steal ponies cutie marks, and was brain washing them into believing it was equality and true friendship they were experiencing, rather than the delusions of a mad mare. I was able to stop her, but due to her actions, and partially my own, the village was heavily damaged. The ponies there wished to learn about true friendship so I suggested they try living in Ponyville instead. I've spent the last two weeks organising their relocation."

"Wow... I never thought that your mission would end up so exciting. What happened to... Starlight? Was it?"

"She was apprehended, and now resides in the Canterlot dungeons until a suitable punishment is decided for her. Quite frankly though, we're not sure how to punish cutie mark theft, and her other crimes alone guarantee she'll be spending a long time in prison."

"How could she steal a pony’s cutie mark?"

"We don't know, and she seems singularly determined to not tell us. It doesn't matter, her magic's restricted so she can't cast the spell anyway."

"That's probably for the best. Has Celestia told you what we've been up to?"

"Indeed she has Twilight, and I'm very impressed by your progress. I will ask though, how is your leg?"

"Growing."

"It is restoring itself?"

“Maybe, it’s only grown an inch or two so I won't say for definite if it'll grow back completely. I can tell you though that it itches pretty much all the time."

"Still though, this is surely a good sign."

"Sure..."

"You don't sound like you agree."

"I'll be honest Luna, I don't like the idea of it growing back, which sounds silly I know, but I can't help but feel like it's wrong. I feel wrong, and I've felt like this since it came off."

"Ah, I understand what you mean."

"You do?"

"I do indeed. As you know, my fall towards becoming Nightmare Moon was not an overnight occurrence. I had slipped into severe depression as my darker thoughts slowly overwhelmed me. Not even Celestia knows this, but on more than one occasion I took a blade to myself and mutilated my body, though to what end I no longer know. Perhaps I was trying to kill myself, or cut the darkness out of me. The point is though that no matter what I did it would always heal itself almost overnight, leaving not a mark-"

"And you felt it was wrong too?"

"I did. In fact it made things worse as I began to think I truly was a monster, because no pony should be able to do that. And because I thought I was a monster, I went out of my way to become one. It seems so foolish now I think about it. I know it might seem odd to you now Twilight, but it’s a feeling you will grow accustomed to."

"Would you still be saying that if it was you growing a leg back?"

"Uh... perhaps not. Hopefully you will feel differently about it once the leg is fully restored."

"I hope so. You said something about needing to contact me?"

"Ah yes, we have wandered rather off topic haven't we? Your brother and Cadence are here, and they have some news to share with you."

"Really!? They're here!?"

"Yes Twilight, and I will allow you to converse with them shortly. There is one thing we need to discuss first though, about how neither Shining or Cadence is aware of what you're really doing in Mareitania."

"So this is just to remind me that I should only say I'm on 'important diplomatic duties.'"

"Actually, no. Well, you can maintain that deception if you wish, but Celestia and I talked about it and we decided that if you wish to reveal the truth to them about everything, you may as is your right as a princess of Equestria. The choice is entirely yours."

"Even though they would probably freak out and demand my immediate return to Equestria? Not to mention the other stuff that would happen along the lines of them hating both you and Celestia for getting me into the situation where I'm a three legged freedom fighter?"

"It is your decision alone whether you return to Equestria, but the other stuff would almost definitely happen, yes."

"So you're basically giving me the opportunity to punish both of you by telling all to Shining and Cadence."

"When you put it like that..."

"Would you like me to tell my parents too? That'd be far scarier I can assure you."

"I'm sure Shining would tell them anyway-"

"Did you and Celestia really think this one through? It's a nice thought, but the only real benefit I would have out of it is the short lived satisfaction of a petty vengeance."

"So you won't tell them?"

"No, not until I'm done with all this and can be there to make sure they don't over react and decide to secede the Crystal Empire from Equestria or something."

Luna sighed with relief, "You are a wise and merciful mare Twilight Sparkle. I was not looking forward to what would happen if you did tell them all. If you would please hold on I shall bring them shortly."

"Okay," she said brightly, though she was really thinking that she had no choice but to hold on. It took a few minutes but eventually she heard the quiet voice of Shining come from the stone.

"So I just speak to the stone? Really? Okay then..." He cleared his throat, "Uh, hey Twily! You there?"

"I'm here Shining! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice!"

"And yours! I didn't realise this diplomatic thing you're doing could take so long."

"Ah, well," Twilight said awkwardly, "this diplomacy thing takes time. I'll be back before you know it. Is Cadence there too?"

"Hi Twilight, it’s so nice to hear from you. I was starting to get worried about you being gone so long."

"Pfft, there's nothing my little sis can't handle, let alone some diplomatic meetings."

"Yeah, what Shining said!" Twilight guiltily shifted her left leg around inside its sling. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You could get hurt if things go wrong," Cadence said with unknowing accuracy. Now Twilight's leg was really itching. "I mean, ponies aren't always the most reasonable of individuals."

"Oh please Cadence, I'm the Princess of Friendship; if I can't get along with these ponies, nopony can." It's a good job they can't see my face. "Soooo... What's the occasion for getting in touch? Not that I don't appreciate it, because I really do."

"We have something we want to tell you," said Cadence.

"And we didn't want to wait until you got back from Mareitania-" said Shining.

Cadence cut over him, "And Celestia said they had a way of getting in touch with you-"

"So we thought that was probably a good idea-"

"Because we have something big to tell you-" Cadence said, cutting over Shining again.

"We're-"

"As in Shining and I-"

"We're- Cadence, you tell her."

"No, you tell her!"

"Together then."

Twilight's face went flat, not that either of them could tell. "Guys..."

"We're having a baby!" they cheered together.

"Each? But Shining's a stalli-omigosh!Omigosh!Omigosh!" Twilight squealed as her brain caught up. "You're having a baby! Eeee!! That's so amazing! How long has it been?"

"It's still really early days," Cadence told her, "so I wouldn't get too excited just yet, but we couldn't wait to tell you."

"This, is so amazing! I'm gonna be an aunt! I'm gonna be an aunt! Have you told Mum and Dad yet?"

"Yep," said Shining. "Picture in your mind how you think they reacted, then times it by at least three. We're doing the public announcement next week and we wanted to make sure you knew before then. Especially after the wedding invitation... scenario."

"Thanks. Ooh! I'm so excited for you guys! Congratulations! Have you thought of any names yet?"

Shining chuckled, "Not yet Twilight. This bun's got ten or so more months of cooking left to do. We've got plenty of time to think of names."

"Right, of course. Sorry."

"Don't apologise Twilight," Cadence told her. "It's good that you're excited. We can't wait for you to meet her-"

"Or him."

"-Either."

"I just hope I'm back in time for the birth. I'd hate to miss it."

"Uh, how long you planning on staying there Twily? You've already been gone like three months..."

"Hopefully I'll be done long before the birth. There's no way I'm missing that!"

"Uh..." Cadence said slowly, sounding more than a little worried.

"You know what I mean."

"Right. Yes. Good. Whew."

"Seriously though guys, congratulations! And thanks for taking the time to tell me. I miss you guys so much."

"And we miss you too Twily, which means you should get back here as soon as you can, after all, you probably owe us a lot of hugs by now."

"I really do." Hopefully I'll have a full complement of legs to give them with.

"Too right you do. I'm afraid we're going to have to end this now though. We have to get back to the Crystal Empire to get ready for the big announcement and our train's waiting for us. See you soon Twily, love you."

"Bye Shining! Love you too b.b.b.f.f!"

"Take care Twilight, see you soon."

"Bye Cadence! Congratulations again!" The stone went quiet, and for a moment Twilight's sadness at them going battled with her joy at them having a baby. Ultimately, the joy won, and Twilight flew laps around the room, shouting excitedly. "I'm going to be an aunt! I'm going to be an aunt!"

"So I've heard," Daybreak said from his spot lounging against the doorway as he watched her with obvious amusement.

"Gah!" Twilight almost flew into the wall, but saved it and wobbled down into a shaky landing in front of him. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry, but I didn't think it appropriate to interrupt you in the middle of all that. Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks!" Twilight couldn't help grinning again.

"If you want me to come back later..?"

"No no, I'm fine. Life doesn't stop just because I'm going to be an aunt! Eeeeee!!" She retook her place at the table while Daybreak stood across from her, "Ahem, so, first things first." She pointed at the flag, "What the heck is that about!?"

"Nimble Stitch made it. I thought it was pretty good myself."

"But we don't want the Lady on the flag!"

"No, you don't want the Lady on the flag. A lot of the other ponies here like it, and frankly I don't see the problem with it."

Twilight could tell she wasn't going to win that fight, "Fine, but could you at least tell me why it still has the golden tree on it."

"You don't know the legend of the golden tree?"

"Should I?"

"If you want to know why it's on the flag, then yes." Twilight waved a hoof for him to continue, "Long ago, a huge golden tree grew in these lands, and beneath this tree the first ponies awoke, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. The tree grew the most amazing fruit, and the three tribes worked together to take care of the tree. The earth ponies tended the roots of the tree, ensuring it kept growing strong, while the pegasi created rainclouds to water the tree, and made sure the worst weather kept away from it. The unicorns, with their delicate magic, picked the fruit and shared it out equally between the three tribes.”

“However, as time went on the tree began to sicken and die, and the three tribes blamed each other, saying that the earth ponies didn't tend the tree right, or the pegasi didn't water it enough, or the unicorns were too greedy, picking extra fruit to keep to themselves, weakening the tree. Finally the tree died and the three tribes were forever at each other’s throats after that. On a side note, it's said that the tree made one last fruit before it died, containing a magical seed. The Lady apparently came and took it away, though what for nopony knows."

"Okay, but why is it on the flag?"

Daybreak rolled his eyes, "It's a symbol of unity Twilight. All three tribes living and working together for the greater good."

"Then why does the Duke have it?"

"Because it can also be construed as the thing that tore us apart and divided us. Something that the Dukes' were rather into. Hopefully we can restore its true meaning."

Once again Twilight found herself with no practical reason to reject that, although she couldn't help but puzzle as to why the Duchy would adopt a symbol of unity as their flag, no matter however else it might be construed. "Fine, you win, the flag stays. Could you at least tell me what the row of stars is about?"

"They represent the six tenets of the Lady."

"Of course they do..." Twilight sighed bitterly, "What are they then?"

"Loyalty, laughter, generosity, kindness, honesty, and faith."

Twilight went blank for a moment, as her suspicions had, for the most part, been correct. Apart from one thing at least. "Faith?"

"Yep, faith. Faith in a new dawn, a better tomorrow, or even faith in getting a warm bed and a good breakfast." Twilight nodded, as it was at least an acceptable form of faith, rather than the 'thou must believeth in me' rubbish she had been expecting. They could’ve just called it hope to keep it simple. Still though, she couldn't help but wonder how five of the tenets and five of the Elements were the same. There was something bigger going on here, bigger than she could currently make sense of, and it bugged her.

"Couldn't we have just made the flag include the tenets without having the big silver alicorn there as well?"

"Twilight, this is happening, deal with it." So that, apparently, was that. "Besides I didn't come all this way to talk about you not liking the flag. We have much bigger problems."

"Such as?"

"Either the Duke has caught wind of what we're up to, or he's just a suspicious bastard, but he's buying up food from the farms. Surprisingly charitable considering his usual methods, but this does mean that food that was meant to be sold in Neigh Orleans is being diverted elsewhere."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that without the food and supplies that Celestia promised us, Neigh Orleans will be starving in three to four weeks, at best."

"But how can we get the ships in without taking the city first?"

"Hence why I'm here. We need to take Neigh Orleans in the next two to three weeks if we're to have any chance of pulling this off. On a brighter note though, if we can spread the news of what the Duke has done around the city it should mean a lot more ponies would side with us."

"Or make ponies resent us because we gave the Duke a reason to do this."

"Possibly..." Daybreak conceded.

Twilight could feel her heart beating through her chest, "We're not ready! Nopony has had enough training to do this, and I haven't taught anywhere near enough unicorns magic to give us a real advantage."

"I realise that Twilight, but as you said yourself, we need to be flexible to deal with the unexpected. There are no soldiers in Neigh Orleans at the moment, which gives us a decent advantage, but we will still have to contend with the city guard. We outnumber them, just, but they can still pose a threat if we're not careful. We have two weeks Twilight, so make the best of them."

Twilight took a few calming breaths, "Right, two more weeks of training and preparation. Okay, we can do this. I'm guessing you know where Fleur is right now?"

"More or less."

"Right, tell her and the filly to come back here as soon as they can. Between you, me, my friends, and yours, I'm sure we can come up with a decent plan."

"Because we're screwed if we don't?"

"Pretty much."

Author's Notes:

Just a shortish chapter with some guff in, mostly to help me establish a timeline for things in my head. Yes Celestia and Luna are being idiots. It's intentional.

28. Best laid plans

Twilight calmly wrapped the clothing she had been given around herself, its dark purpleish, navy blue colour blending into the gloom of the tunnels beneath Neigh Orleans. All the ponies of the resistance had been given the clothing, which consisted of a hooded cape, a vest, and a scarf to wrap around her muzzle if she wanted, although she couldn't remember when they had agreed on a colour scheme. Sometimes she wondered just how in control of things she was. Not that she really minded as such. If these ponies wanted to take their destinies into their own hooves rather than leave it entirely to her, that was totally fine.

Finally she added the gift the blacksmith Iron Prize had given her; a small dagger, ornate, but no less deadly for it. At first she had no idea what they expected her to do with it, especially since it was designed in the earth pony fashion, to be used in the mouth, but soon came to realise that it was probably just meant as a fall-back should she exhaust her magic.

The problem was though that it was made to be strapped around one of a pony's front legs, held upside-down so you could hold your leg up and pull it out quickly, which was fine for a pony with four whole legs. Instead she had modified the straps to go across her withers and around her chest so the blade was held just in front of her left wing.

There was a knock at the door and Trixie entered, herself similarly attired. "Are you ready yet?"

"Almost." Twilight picked up the scarf and wrapped it around her head, "How do I look?"

"Honestly, you look like you have no idea what you're doing. I know we're meant to be stealthy, but some armour might have been nice."

"I'm still wondering where these came from. It's not like we have the resources to waste on silly uniforms. Perhaps I ought to talk to Daybreak at some point and find out just how much of this he's running."

"Aww, is somepony feeling threatened?" Trixie said in a mocking tone.

"Hardly. If he wants to take this entire thing over and allow me to concentrate on strategy, then he can carry on. Have the teams departed yet?"

"Yep. Mason should have made it to the guards' compound by now, Thorn's ponies should be ready, and Snowbright should reach city hall soon. All they need now is the signal. I can't help but wonder why you're sending Fleur, Octavia, and Summer with them though. Shouldn't they stick with us?"

"Fleur is one of the best lock pickers we have. If we want to break into the city hall quickly and quietly then she's our best choice, and Octavia and Summer would be better off helping Thorn apprehend the off-duty guards."

"Fine. Are we really going to take the off-duty guards from their own homes though? Seems rather like something the Duke would do."

"I know, but unlike the Duke we're trying to keep casualties to an absolute minimum. We've been over the plan a hundred times Trixie, don't you think its a bit late to start criticizing it?"

"Sorry, I guess I'm just nervous."

"Yeah, I am too. Come on, we need to get ourselves into position."

"Actually, our ponies left fifteen minutes ago."

"What? Why didn't you say so? Come on!" Twilight took to the air and flew along the tunnels while Trixie galloped along behind her. They exited by the docks, out into the cool night air, before turning back towards the city center, with Twilight flying much higher to avoid detection. She headed towards the large statue of Duke Ironhoof and swooped down to land next to Daybreak and the filly who were lurking next to the pedestal in the shadows.

"Glad you could join us," Daybreak said cordially.

"Sorry, I got distracted."

"By what?" the filly asked. "Getting dressed?"

"It's not like we wear clothes all that often, and I was thinking about the plan, and you know what? Shush." There was a glint as the light shone off the filly's grin. The sound of hooves started echoing around the square as Trixie approached, the poor mare looking like she was about to pass out from running all the way.

"Stupid *gasp* cheating *wheeze* alicorns!" She collapsed, her chest heaving as she fought to regain her breath. "You could have waited for me!" she wheezed plaintively once she had recovered a little.

"Sorry Trixie." Twilight looked around the square, trying to catch a glimpse of the other ponies that were supposedly there with them. She thought she caught a slight bit of movement from the top of a rooftop, but that was it. Clearly the clothing was a excellent choice for blending into the dark. Finally she turned to Daybreak, "Did you bring the stuff?"

"Sure did." He flipped open the satchel he was carrying, revealing a couple of small barrels of gunpowder. "Flag's over there," he said, pointing to a doorway across from them.

"Excellent." She nodded her head towards the statue, "And the best way to get the gunpowder in there?"

"Ah, well. After considerable deliberation with my companion here," he nudged his elbow against the filly, "we have concluded that there is a significant structural weakness at the rear of the statue."

"Really? Where?"

"Right under his tail." Daybreak grinned as he stifled his laughter.

"You don't mean..."

"Yep!" the filly said happily. "We're going to shove the gunpowder right up his ass!"

Twilight glanced at Trixie who seemed as amused by this as the others, "Is that really the weakest place?"

"Not really, but we thought it was nicely symbolic," Daybreak explained.

"Even though we're the only ones that will see it?"

"Twilight." The filly looked down for a moment before looking back with her eyes in full weaponised puppy mode. "Please... I. Need. This."

"This is the only reason you came with us instead of going with Fleur isn't it? Just to blow up the statue?" The filly's pout grew a little more.

"It was her suggestion after all," said Daybreak.

"Come on Twilight," Trixie said, "now you're just wasting time." Her horn started bubbling with black, purple, and green as she formed a spur of dark crystal about half as long as her body. She pointed it at the statue's rear and let it fly, the crystal punching through the bronze with a clang. Twilight felt herself clench in sympathy even though it was only a statue. "There. Daybreak, do the thing."

As Daybreak and Trixie fed the gunpowder into the statue's newly made entrance, Twilight moved to the doorway of a nearby building to prepare her own part in this. The idea was to destroy the statue, not the surrounding buildings, and it was her job to stop that from happening. She spared one last glance at the statue, and even though it was probably a trick of the light, or her imagination, the statue seemed to look grumpier than the last time she saw it.

She focused herself, and began preparing the spell that would allow her to shield the buildings in the square, but waited until the others joined her before casting it. Daybreak unrolled the last of the fuse up to the doorway she was in, "Okay, ready." Twilight raised her horn and unleashed the spell, causing a shimmering purple shield to quickly spread up the sides of the buildings, protecting them, while also being a bit sound proof because Twilight liked the idea of not losing her hearing.

Twilight had also warned that she wouldn't be able to maintain the shield for long, which was a complete lie seeing how she could almost match her brother's shielding abilities before she became an alicorn, but she didn't want to hang around casting the spell and wasting her energy if she didn't have to.

Daybreak passed a matchbox to the filly, allowing her the honour of blowing up the statue, "This is totally making up for all those birthdays I missed and got nothing for. Viva la revolution!" She lit the fuse and watched as it burned, trailing along the ground before climbing up and in through the hole at the rear of the statue. There was a crump that somehow went beyond hearing, and much to the filly's delight a jet of flame shot out of the statue's rear for a split second before it tore apart in a ball of flame, the head comically sailing off just to smack into the shield.

The shield flared with a hundred bright spots as the shrapnel tore into it, but it came nowhere near failing. After a few more seconds Twilight dropped the shield and they moved to inspect the damage. All that was left of the statue was the blackened pedestal and four smoking hooves, as well as the head, one side of which had been smushed almost flat after its meeting with the shield.

Twilight doused the flames and teleported the flag to her, unrolling it before jamming it into the pedestal. "Well," Daybreak said jovially, "If that doesn't get the guards' attention, I don't know what will."

Fleur squeaked in surprise as the explosion echoed around the city. Even though she had been expecting it, Fleur wasn't too proud to admit that she was tense enough that it shocked her. Even the steely Snowbright next to her had flinched.

Now that the signal had finally gone off all they had to do was wait for the guards around city hall to go and investigate. As predicted, the majority of the twenty or so guards that were reported as being here rushed off towards the explosion, and hopefully into Twilight's trap.

"Show time," Snowbright murmured from beside her before waving to the other ponies around him. Swiftly yet silently they charged towards city hall, the few remaining guards unsuspecting of what was to come, and would remain so as the quiet thunk of crossbows heralded their deaths.

Fleur spared a moment to look at the bodies and whisper an apology before following Snowbright up the steps to the hall. The other ponies kept watch as she attempted to pick the lock, the task taking her only a minute. She pushed the doors open with her magic, allowing two other unicorns to bring their weapons to bear and pick off the two guards waiting inside. Fleur was confused by these ponies; they seemed a lot more effective than most of their other recruits.

Snowbright looked around, checking the coast was clear before issuing orders. "Everypony split up, secure the treasury and records. If there are any more guards, take them out if they resist, or capture them if they surrender. We want this done as cleanly as possible remember." A large amount of the ponies spread out in small groups while some remained to guard the entrance. Snowbright pointed at the two unicorns carrying crossbows, "You and you, you're with me and Fleur."

"Are you sure he'll be here?" Fleur whispered.

"Mayors' residence is in the back part of city hall, always has been." He led the way through the building, the only sound being the gentle padding of their hooves on the carpet. A unicorn in a maid uniform passed the end of the hallway they were in and Snowbright darted around the corner after her. There were some heavily muffled screams and when Fleur went around the corner after him, he was already laying the unconscious but breathing unicorn on the floor.

Another couple of corners led them to the mayors bedroom, where it sounded like a male pony was having a good time while a female pony definitely wasn't. It was a sound that Fleur knew all too well.

Fleur kept an eye out while Snowbright and the two unicorn positioned themselves. Snowbright kicked the doors open and they all entered the bedroom where the mayor was making a young white unicorns life as miserable as possible, with her forehooves tied to the bed head while a young yellow earth pony sobbed in the corner, her front ankles rubbed red raw from rope burns.

"What is the meaning of this!?" the bloated grey and blue stallion shouted, leaving the unicorn alone for a moment to yell at the intruders. His eyes grew wide and his tone quickly changed as he saw how well armed they were, "Please! Please don't shoot!"

"What are you doing with those girls!?" Fleur demanded to know.

"Them? They're just orphans! Is this what this is about?"

"I don't want to hear this," Snowbright growled. He leapt on the bed and in one swift move, punched the mayor and knocked him out. "Asshole. Bind his hooves and take him to his office. If you happen to rough him up while I'm distracted elsewhere, it's fine, I forgive you."

The two unicorns tied the mayor up as instructed and dragged him off, leaving Fleur with Snowbright and the two fillies. Fleur gently untied the unicorn who, while a little bit bigger than the filly, was probably younger, as was the earth pony as well. "Are you really orphans?"

"Mmhmm," the earth pony said as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. The unicorns sobs also subsided slightly, but seemed too preoccupied with rubbing her sore ankles to participate.

"Did he find you in the street and bring you here?"

"No, he brought us from the orphanage. The matron said we had to come with him."

"And who is this matron?"

"Miss Tenderlove. I don't know why she wanted us to come here and- and- She's usually so nice!" The earth pony started crying again and Fleur picked her up in her magic, bringing her over to the bed before hugging her.

"Its alright, I know it hurts. Come on, let it all out." She comforted them as best she could as they held each other and cried. It also meant she noticed that their manes were the exact same cherise colour. "Are you sisters?" she asked when they had calmed down enough.

"Twins," the unicorn answered.

"Okay. I'm Fleur, and the pony glaring at us from the doorway is Snowbright. What are your names?"

"I'm Pickle," said the earth pony.

"And I'm Dolly."

"Wow, your parents picked really nice names for you."

"Actually," said Dolly, "our parents didn't name us."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did they pass away when you were born?"

Pickle growled, "No, they still live up in Stalliongrad as far as we know."

"Huh? But what... Oh. I see."

"Its all my fault!" Dolly burbled tearfully. "If I wasn't a unicorn this wouldn't have happened and we'd still have parents and not be here!"

"Shut up Dolly!" Pickle shouted as she again hugged her sister, "Its not your fault! Its not your fault!" she kept repeating.

They started crying again and Snowbright sidled over to Fleur, "What are they on about?"

"Their parents abandoned them because Dolly's a unicorn. Stalliongrad has real issues like that."

"I know that, but both of them?"

"They're twins and therefore Pickle's been tainted by evil unicorn cooties."

"That's stupid. Why are they here in Neigh Orleans though?"

"I don't know, but tomorrow I fully intend to find out. What about you though hotshot? Since when are you a hard as nails badass?" She only asked to distract herself from the situation and fully expected Snowbright to ignore her. Initially, Snowbright looked away from Fleur and she thought he wasn't going to answer at first as she suspected, but then he spoke, "Guess you'll find out at some point anyway. You know those ponies in the scary ass black armour?"

"How could I forget..."

"Well... I used to be one of them."

"Oh? Wow. What changed your mind?"

Snowbright sighed, "I didn't want to hunt ponies for sport. When I first joined the army I thought it was great, serving Duke and country, and I excelled enough to be picked out to join the hunters. I was so thrilled, and I flew through the training." Snowbright shook his head ruefully, "I can't believe I was so stupid back then. We were assigned to hunt down a mare in the forests around Hoof-ridge, who had reportedly assaulted a guard in Stalliongrad, severely wounding him."

"That sounds a bit below those guys' pay grades."

"I thought so too. I was expecting a simple hunt to capture the unicorn and hoof her off to the authorities in Stalliongrad for punishment, but my comrades didn't agree. When we found her she begged for mercy, said she hadn't done anything wrong. The others just laughed and killed her. I couldn't believe it. I remember staring into her cold dead eyes, the snow around her stained red with her blood, and suddenly, that job didn't seem so great anymore. When we got back to base in High Rock we were told it was just a training exercise, and that we had passed with flying colours."

"You mean..."

"The mare was actually innocent, yes. We hunted down an innocent mare, killed her, and laughed about it for a training exercise."

"Shit..."

"I couldn't take it. I deserted the next week and eventually ended up with Pierre, hoping to do good to atone for it."

"And these other ponies?"

"I've been training ponies like them for years, in preparation for exactly something like this. I've been waiting years to pay the Duke back for what he's done."

Fleur looked to the two fillies who were now quietly holding each other. "Yeah, he really has it coming."

"Yeah." Snowbright stared off into the distance for a second before shaking his head, "Well, the night's still young and there's plenty to do." He stepped aside and bowed deeply, "After you Fleur."

"Such a gentlepony, but I'm going to get these two cleaned up and find them somewhere to wait away from the bedroom while you all get things sorted here."

"I don't like this Octavia."

"I know Summer, I don't like it either."

"Do we really have to take their families prisoner too?"

"If we want this done as quietly as possible, yes. If having their families here stops them fighting back, then it's worth it."

Summer looked around at the ponies below them in the warehouse by the docks they were using as a temporary holding centre, every one of them an earth pony, before looking at the armed ponies that were technically guarding them. "It feels like we're the bad guys."

Octavia couldn't agree more as she watched a mare who was trying to comfort her screaming foal while her partner paced around uneasily. Part of her couldn't deny the suspicion that by trying to keep these ponies from the fighting, they were somehow making things worse. They had explained as well as they could why they were holding them here, and that they would release the families here as soon as they could, but how did it stop them fighting back in the long run? The option to join the rebels was made available, but none seemed inclined to take it.

The warehouse doors thudded open and a few dozen more ponies were led inside. A minute later Thorn joined them on the upper balcony, "There's only a few more groups to come and that should be all of them. It's getting harder to bring them here quietly though. That explosion riled more than just the guards up."

"That was to be expected though."

"Yeah, but when ponies see other ponies being forced out of their homes by armed ponies that aren't city guards, it tends to make them ask questions."

"But none of the guards or their families are fighting back?"

"Not really. Don't know about tomorrow though when we tell them they no longer have their jobs and that we're somehow the good guys despite turning their lives upside down."

"You don't think we're doing this all wrong do you?"

"Don't know," Thorn admitted. "Trying to keep ponies alive is good, but I haven't exactly tried to take over a city before so I don't know. If the Duke was doing this I imagine he would march an army in, kill all the guards, and maybe their families, slaughter a few hundred innocent bystanders, then burn down half the city just for good measure."

Octavia thought back to Prance and shuddered, "Then it's a good job we're not like that."

"I'm scared about tomorrow," Thorn said quietly. "If the ponies here don't accept what we're trying to do then our rebellion is well and truly over before it really begins. Even then, if they do accept it how are we to get ponies to change their ways and accept all ponies as equals? Especially the pegasi."

"Ponies won't like the pegasi being free," Summer said in barely more than a whisper. "The way some of them down there keep looking at me scares me." She wasn't lying either. Octavia found it hard to miss the angry looks and expletive ridden comments about how there was a pegasus there without a collar.

"That part's up to Twilight and Daybreak to handle," said Octavia. "I honestly can't say I envy them."

"Can we- Can we go wait outside Octavia?"

Octavia looked to Thorn for permission since she was technically in charge. "Might as well," Thorn said with a shrug. "If you start hearing screams, I dunno, do something or... something."

They slipped out through the doors that led to a small elevated loading platform over the main doors. They passed as silent witnesses as another group of ponies was escorted into the warehouse before lapsing into what could've been a companionable silence if it weren't for the fact that Octavia was becoming increasingly wary of Summer's behavior towards her after that kiss in the operating room.

"It's strange how quiet it is," said Summer. "You wouldn't think that the city is actually under attack right now."

"That was rather the point though."

"Well yeah, but... I don't know. Seems weird."

"Be thankful that it is quiet, because that means everything has gone to plan." Octavia kept on staring out into the street below, wishing that she could have a view over the city instead. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Summer shuffle a little closer.

"I'm scared Octavia, everything's going to be different after this." Summer again shuffled a little closer.

"It'll be fine Summer, you'll see." Octavia kept watching the street as Summer got even closer.

"But what if it isn't?" Summer lay her head on Octavia's shoulder, "I don't know what to do..."

"Thinking like that isn't going to he-" Octavia stopped as Summer began to nuzzle under her chin, but it wasn't the comforting kind of nuzzle shared between ponies. It was rougher, clumsier, and felt... hungry, or more accurately, desperate. While Octavia was not a wholly experienced mare, she didn't need to think too hard about what it was Summer wanted. What she couldn't work out, was why? Maybe she ought to have a chat with Fleur about this, since she reckoned that Fleur was probably the best qualified out of her friends here.

"Summer could you please sto-!" Summer cut her off by suddenly darting her head up and kissing Octavia on the side of the mouth. Octavia jerked her head away and Summer tried to follow it, only stopping when Octavia put a hoof on her chest and pushed her back. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"I-I-I only wanted to- to- I-I uh..." Summer stammered, her expression full of pleading and confusion. Octavia didn't know what to say without yelling, which Summer didn't need her to do as the pegasus was still far too timid and sensitive to take it. Instead she decided to deflect it as best as she could.

"Now really isn't the time Summer." She took her hoof off Summer's chest and looked her squarely in the eye.

"B-but-"

"Not. Now." Summer shrank back and moved away from her, leaving Octavia feeling frustratingly guilty about having to do that. She went back to watching the street, noticing at last the glowing blasts of orange magic arcing up into the night sky.

"Oh no... Thorn!"

A group of roughly thirty guards charged into the town square, their armour clattering as they ran. They slowed down as they found themselves confronted by, what was to them three unicorns, a stallion and two mares, one of which had three legs, and a young filly with a surprisingly suggestive grin on her face. If it wasn't for the fact that they were sat in front of the destroyed remains of the founders statue, which had an unrecognizable flag decorating it, and next to two piles of discarded weapons and armour the guards might have admitted they had made a mistake and left again.

The guard leading the group approached the three ponies, "What is the meaning of this? What happened here?"

"We blew the statue up," the filly said happily.

"What? Why?"

"To lure all you stupid guards here obviously."

"How dare you speak to me like that you brat!" The guard brandished his spear, "I'm arresting you all in the name of the Duke!" The guard advanced on the quartet, but was easily pushed back by Twilight's magic. "How dare you touch me with your magic you filthy unicorn-!"

"Alicorn actually." Twilight smiled warmly at the guard. After being all serious about forcing the other guards that had come here to surrender, Twilight had to admit it was nice to mess with these ones a little.

"And what exactly is a alicorn?"

Twilight spread her wings and wiggled them, "Tada!"

"Abomination!" The other guards all brandished their weapons too, suddenly making things seem a lot more serious. The lead guard charged once more, only to again be pushed back by Twilight.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not?" Twilight nodded to Daybreak who waved a hoof and a second later a crossbow bolt shattered off the cobblestones in front of the guard who stepped back quickly. He looked up and around, finally noticing the large number of ponies pointing crossbows at him and his fellows from the rooftops.

"That's why."

"Are those our crossbows? What is this? Who are you ponies?"

So that's where Fleur's been getting all these crossbows. "We are the Mareitania Liberation Front, a working title, and we are here to liberate Mareitania from the clutches of the Duke. Now if you would be so kind as to surrender, relinquish your arms and armour, and enter the concert hall behind us, we would appreciate it. Otherwise we will be forced to open fire on you."

The guards milled around for a moment before their leader dropped his weapon, clearly unwilling to go up against such odds. "Fine, you win."

"Good choice." Twilight picked his weapon up and placed it on the pile as the other guards dropped their own weapons and removed their armour. The doors to the hall behind them opened and Trixie gestured for the guards to move inside.

"Once the Duke hears about this!" the leader said in an extremely open ended threat.

"I hardly expect him to not to," Twilight said, sounding a lot more sure about that than she felt. What the Duke was going to do about this actually had her extremely worried.

The guards entered the theatre and the doors were shut behind them, allowing Twilight to breathe a sigh of relief. "I thought for a moment that they were going to attack," said Trixie.

"Me too. Quite frankly I'm surprised that they've all surrendered without too much fuss."

"They're only city guards, don't expect them to be too brave," said Daybreak as he moved the last of the armour into its pile. "If we were up against soldiers we'd have a much harder fight on our hooves."

"I doubt even soldiers would go up against those odds Daybreak," said Twilight.

"Not in small numbers, but where you find one soldier, you'll probably find a few hundred more not far behind him."

"Is this really worth worrying about right now?" asked Trixie. "Lets just focus on the fact that we've taken over Neigh Orleans without anypony really noticing."

"Until tomorrow," Twilight said grimly. The fact that they had taken control of the city without anypony really noticing also meant that they had to tell the ponies here that it had actually happened. Otherwise all they might notice is a ruined statue and a few less guards wandering around.

"Hopefully, most of the city will remain largely autonomous," said Daybreak. "We're in no position to suddenly have to oversee every little thing that happens here."

"Oh please," the filly drawled sarcastically, "apart from scaring ponies and making life hard for anypony that isn't an earth pony, what does the Duke and his cronies actually do?"

"They do get things done, believe it or not. They might not stick their nose into everyponies business, but they do have to keep the country running to some degree through taxation, enforcing laws, maintaining trade routes and all that." Daybreak frowned as he thought about what he had said, "We suddenly have a lot of work to do, don't we."

"We'll work it out as we go," Twilight assured him. "I happen to know some very knowledgeable ponies who might be able to help us out if we get totally stuck. Besides, from what I've seen, most taxes are either spent on the army, controlling the pegasi, and stupidly expensive riverboats. Almost everything else has mostly been left to ponies to sort out themselves. There's no education system, no hospitals, no decent transport links... Wow... We really do have a lot to do."

"Can we just focus on taking down the Duke?" Trixie said a little nastily, "You can't build a new system until the old one is torn down."

"Actually I'm thinking we can do both simultaneously," said Twilight. Trixie just rolled her eyes and stalked off, clearly uninterested in discussing policy.

"Lets see if this stupid plan works first..." she muttered.

"It's- It's not stupid, is it?" Twilight wasn't exactly a military strategist by any means, but she thought they were doing alright.

Daybreak shrugged, "Considering the situation, yeah, it's not too bad. But lets face it, the Duke totally played us and forced us to act a lot sooner than we should have. If he marches an army in here next week we'd have no hope of holding the city."

"Hopefully they'll still be too busy with what's happening in Prance to rush down here and stop us. I'm sure you've told me this before, but how big is the Grand Army?"

Daybreak tapped his chin as he thought, "At a conservative estimate, about thirty to thirty five thousand soldiers."

"Oh. Wow. That's a lot of ponies." Twilight wasn't about to admit it but she suddenly felt like their little coup in Neigh Orleans seemed laughable.

"Try not to think about it too-" Daybreak's attention was drawn by one of the ponies on the rooftops shouting to get his attention.

"Daybreak! Distress signal from the guards compound!"

"Shit... Twilight?"

"On it. Can you and the filly handle things here?"

"Yes yes, of course," he said as the filly saluted eagerly. "Just take Trixie and go."

"Right. Come on Trixie, let's go!" Twilight took to the air and swooped over Trixie, picking her up with her magic as she passed.

"Putmedown!Putmedown!Putmedown!" Trixie screamed almost incoherently as they gained altitude.

"No time for running there Trixie!" Twilight shouted as Trixie burbled one long continuous stream of screams mixed with expletives as they soared over the rooftops. She angled towards where the shots of orange magic were still shooting up into the sky.

"Twilight!" Twilight looked down to see Octavia and Summer along with ten other ponies running down the street she was about to pass over. "Why are they signalling for help?"

"I don't know!" she shouted back as she glided down to just above the group. Seeing how they were all running Twilight thought to put Trixie down with them, but the mare had curled up into a foetal position and didn't seem to want to move from it.

"You go on, we'll catch up!" Twilight nodded in confirmation before putting on a burst of speed and pulling back up over the rooftops. Once she reached her destination she headed down to where Mason and a large number of his ponies were pushing against the large wooden gates at the back of the compound, the front having been blocked with a upturned cart. She also noticed that Fleur and Snowbright had arrived before she had and were helping to brace the gate.

"What's going on here?" Twilight asked as she gently placed Trixie on the ground, who looked like she was going to kiss it for a moment before thinking better of it.

"They're here!" Mason roared at her.

"They? They who?"

"Those pricks in black armour, four of them. Killed ten of my team before we even had a chance to trap them in here. Poor bastards never stood a chance." Twilight folded her ears back with guilt. She had sent a large number of the unicorns she had trained in magic with Mason, figuring that their magic would be better suited in the close quarters here where crossbows wouldn't be. Apparently she had sent them to their deaths against a foe they couldn't hope to match.

There were shouts from the other side of the gates, and a second later they bulged as the ponies inside tried to break out. Twilight added her magic to the mix and the gates quickly moved back shut.

"They'll get out eventually Twilight," Trixie said, having recovered enough to form coherent sentences. "We can't keep them in there forever."

Twilight bit her lip as she thought about it, her eyes twitching side to side as she sought a way out of this predicament. She looked to her right, noticing that Octavia's ponies were running up the street towards them, an idea that she really didn't want to do forming in her mind. "Archers and Adepts form a line," she commanded. The archers formed a line while the others looked at her funny.

"What the hell's an Adept?" one of the ponies holding the gate asked.

"Magically trained unicorns!" Twilight snapped. "From now on you're called Adepts because its shorter! Now form a line with the archers. Everypony else behind the line and I'll hold the gate."

The others did as she commanded, quickly getting into position either in line or behind her. There was another push against the gate but she held it long enough for the others to get into position. "Prepare to fire, and ignore the ponies in the black armour, you'll only be wasting your energy."

She reversed her efforts on the gates, pulling them open and revealing a large group of guards whom seemed totally unprepared for the gates opening of their own accord. "Fire," Twilight said weakly.

A hale of crossbow bolts and magic blasts cut into the guards, the darkness giving way to a cacophony of almost inappropriately bright and colourful lights as each unicorn added their own individual magic to the attack, along with streaks of black as Trixie lent her own efforts to the bombardment.

Twilight couldn't bring herself to attack as well though, and winced as the wave of raw magic practically pummelled the foremost guards into mush, the guards behind them screaming as the overpowering wave of magic washed over them. Twilight was almost thankful when another hale of arrows put them out of their misery.

Thick silence filled the air as many of the unicorns reeled in shock from the sheer destruction they had just unleashed. Twilight wished she had prepared them for this, but truth be told, she was totally unprepared for this as well. She had never seen magic used to kill another pony since such things were forbidden in Equestria. Even the changeling invasion hadn't been enough to warrant that kind of magic being used.

Four figures sauntered out through the open gates, one smaller than the others, stepping around the bodies like they were little more than inconveniences. "Well well well," said the smaller of the armoured ponies, her voice deep and darkly seductive, "I'm impressed Twilight Sparkle. Our dossier on you said you would choose the none lethal option at all costs. I guess losing that leg must've changed your mind a little."

"What are you doing here?" Snowbright asked, his voice tense.

"My word, is that little Snowy? I always wondered when I might see your traitorous face again. Must be my lucky day. As for what we're doing here, you almost killed one of us and that's not something we take lightly. That and you're apparently trying to take over the city which is somewhat frowned upon by the Duke."

"You don't scare us," Trixie said, full of conviction.

"No? We might once our comrades free the other guards."

"You're bluffing."

The mare shrugged, "Makes little difference to me if you think I'm bluffing or not."

Twilight wasn't about to risk calling her bluff, not now. "Trixie, Fleur, Octavia, Summer, Mason, and Snowbright stay here. The rest of you get to Thorn and Daybreak."

"But she's bluffing!" Trixie insisted.

"And what if she isn't Trixie? We didn't know they were here so there could be more!" The other ponies split up and galloped off to where Twilight had said, leaving the rest to face the newcomers.

The leader of the hunters faced off against Twilight, her intended target very clear, and scraped her hoof on the ground, something which Twilight sorely wished she could do right now. She charged forward and Twilight took to the air, just out of reach as the other hunters sprang forward in their own attacks.

Snowbright took one on while Fleur helped Mason take on another, leaving Trixie, Octavia, and Summer to take on the remainder. Twilight turned her attention back to her own attacker who was pacing around beneath her, "You know, if you won't come down here I'm going to have to go after one of your friends instead. Maybe the pegasus..." She turned and ran towards Summer, stopping only when Twilight landed in front of her.

"Leave her alone."

"Oh please, I'm going to have to kill all of them eventually. No point wasting too much time." She spun around and bucked at Twilight who jumped back just far enough to only feel a breeze on the end of her nose. The hunter turned to face her again and Twilight backed off before really wishing she had all her legs because she couldn't hit with her front hooves decently with only one leg, and she couldn't buck properly either, removing two staples of hoof to hoof combat from her.

Instead she took to the air again, performing a little loop de loop to gain momentum before kicking out with her rear legs. The hunter side stepped the attack, lashing out to catch Twilight in her ribs as she passed. Twilight fumbled her landing, falling onto her side as her leg slid out from under her.

She reached out with her magic and pulled one of the fallen guards spears towards her, holding it point first towards her attacker who snorted with amusement. "Really?" The hunter reached out a hoof and touched the point of the spear, ruining Twilight's hold as the runes on her hooves destabilised the telekinesis field, making her drop it.

Twilight backed off again, her options horribly limited. Even Trixie was having more success as she launched crystal after crystal at her opponent. The crystal crumbled into nothing as soon as it touched his armour, but it seemed to be enough to stagger him. "Why won't you die!?" Trixie screamed at the stallion she was fighting.

Twilight turned her attention back to the pony she was fighting just in time to dodge the right hook aimed for her face. The hunter continued with her momentum, bringing her back left leg up to kick Twilight. Twilight tried to teleport away, but found herself unable to as her horn flickered and died. The kick met her jaw with a meaty thwack knocking her away several meters, and she barely had time to recover before the hunter was on her again.

She managed to get her back legs up under the hunter and kicked her up and away to land with a clang on the cobblestones a few meters away. She rolled onto her hooves as the hunter did, facing off against her once more.

Mason roared, drawing their attention as he smashed his opponent in the face with a heavy hoof, staggering him enough to allow Mason to grab him under the neck and over the back. Fleur dashed forward, and with unerring accuracy stabbed her horn though the left eye hole in his amour.

The hunter screamed feebly and tried to struggle out of Mason's hold but failed. Fleur braced herself and thrust her head forward, scraping her horn on the edges of the hole. The hunter went limp and Mason staggered with his weight as Fleur tried to pull herself free. She eventually did so, flicking a trail of blood over her back and face.

"Shit!" Fleur swore as she rubbed her eyes, "I got blood in my fucking eyes!" Summer helped her while Mason went to assist Snowbright who seemed unable to do much to his opponent due to the armour.

"You'll pay for that!" Twilight could almost feel the rage radiating off her opponent, and took to the air again as the hunter attacked with a scream of anger. She flew over the hunter and lashed out with back right hoof, kicking the hunter in the head. Apparently she wasn't fast enough though because, before she knew it the hunter had grabbed her leg and slammed her into the ground before grabbing her around the neck in a strangle hold.

"Help!" she gasped in a voice barely louder than a whisper. They must have heard her though because a moment later Octavia was wrestling the hunter off Twilight's back long enough for the alicorn to recover. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Octavia returned to the fight against her own hunter, leaving Twilight to fight alone again, which was rather unfair considering her disadvantage. She emitted a bright flash of light from her horn, disorienting her increasingly angry opponent.

"I'm going to kill you Twilight Sparkle! But first I'm going to slowly and painfully kill all your friends in front of you!" the hunter taunted. A pretty weak taunt all things considered. Twilight once again took off, seeing as how she stood no real chance with little effective magic and a seriously off-balance fighting method otherwise.

She dived down, kicking Trixie's opponent in the back of the head before Trixie fired another barrage of the dark crystals she was so fond of. The hunter staggered backward until his rear was to the wall of the compound. Crystals started growing up his legs which he kicked off easy enough, but as soon as he put a leg down they would start growing again. They were just a distraction though, as Trixie cut a line down the wall behind him before pulling it over onto him. The wall broke up as it landed on the pony, but it was obvious that he didn't survive.

There was a crack as Snowbright grabbed the head of the pony he was fighting and vaulted over his back while Mason held the hunter's rear. That hunter too slumped to the ground, his head facing almost one hundred and eighty degrees to where it should be.

"It's over," Twilight said to the remaining hunter as she landed amongst her friends in front of her. "Surrender, and you'll be treated fairly."

"Never!" The last hunter seemed almost feral as she charged at Twilight. Trixie jumped to defend Twilight and grabbed a chunk of the fallen wall, raising it and bringing it down on the back of the hunter. Whether it was intentional or not, she brought it down on the middle of the mare's back with a horrible crunch.

The mare fell, her rear legs trailing uselessly out behind her, but she kept coming, dragging her body along the street towards Twilight. Twilight scrambled back, but the mare just kept coming like she was possessed. Twilight picked up the chunk and smacked the mare around the side of the head, "Stop!" Twilight begged, but the mare just kept coming.

Twilight slammed the chunk down onto her head, but even though it slowed the hunter considerably, it didn't stop her. Survival instinct took over and Twilight slammed the chunk down onto the mares head again and again, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" she cried with each hit, "Leave me ALONE!" She kept hitting the hunter with the chunk, even when it was obvious that it was no longer necessary; the hunters helmet was severely bent out of shape and blood was leaking out of the gaps.

She didn't stop until Fleur grabbed her head and forced Twilight to focus on her, "Stop Twilight, she's gone. It's over now."

Twilight collapsed into Fleur's legs and burst into tears, "I didn't want to! I didn't want to! Why wouldn't she stop!?"

Fleur held her and gently rocked back and forth, "Shh... It's alright Twilight, we know you didn't want to. It's over now."

"I didn't want to..." The others headed into the compound, checking the mostly intact guards for survivors. Fleur stayed with Twilight though, comforting the alicorn as best she could. Twilight rubbed the tears out of her eyes, "I'm a monster."

"I killed one of them too Twilight, we all did. Are we all monsters too?"

"No."

"Then you aren't either. This is war Twilight. Ponies are going to die."

"But I don't want to kill ponies," Twilight murmured, entirely without conviction.

"And you think the rest of us do? Apart from maybe Trixie that is. Twilight, I know this is the first pony you've had to directly take the life of and its a shock, but you really need to pull yourself together. I've never killed anypony either, and now I'm here literally covered in the blood of a pony I've killed and I'm not freaking out!"

"But Celestia taught me that every life is precious, and should be preserved. I'm the Princess of Friendship Fleur! I shouldn't be killing ponies!"

"You think Celestia's gone through her entire life without killing anypony? Because that's incredibly naïve if you do. Before they found the Elements of Harmony how do you think they solved their problems? Why do you think they found the Elements? Because they found the one thing they couldn't kill! Heck, even the death penalty was still being used until a couple hundred years after Nightmare Moon's banishment!"

"But-"

"No buts Twilight. You need to pony up and realise there is no way around this! Why do you think Celestia and Luna attacked Sombra's empire?"

Twilight wasn't sure why Fleur would ask that of all things, "To save the crystal ponies from death and enslavement, and to protect Equestria."

"Exactly. You want to save lives and free the pegasi? Then fight this war, because the killing will never stop until the Duke is gone. Now seriously Twilight, pony up. You're starting to embarrass yourself."

Was it really that simple? Take lives to save more lives? No, if she thought like that then she was just as much of a monster as those she was fighting, even with altruistic motives. But Fleur wasn't wrong, as Celestia's hooves were hardly clean of blood. Maybe it was as simple as doing what is right, even at the cost of lives. Maybe even at the cost of herself. Even though she hadn't done it or seen it, she knew that Sombra had been utterly annihilated by the crystal heart, and she didn't feel a shred of remorse. When she fought Tirek she had wanted to destroy him, burn him into ashes and bury him. Why should fighting these ponies so bent on following the commands of an evil pony like the Duke be so different in her mind?

Because most of them are just doing a job and are in fact completely redeemable, was the answer she came up with to her annoyance. But she did feel different about it now. If those ponies wished to redeem themselves and join her then she would hardly stop them, she only had to give them the chance.

She still felt like crap about it though.

Twilight got up and rubbed the last of her tears out of her eyes, "Okay Fleur, you're... You're right. I guess we better get back to work."

"Hey Twilight!" Snowbright exited the courtyard towards them with a glowing black rock under his leg, "I found an anti-jump stone. What do you want me to do with it?"

"Can you turn it off?"

"Uh-nope, these things are permanently on. You can contain them in a lead lined box though."

"Do it then. Who knows when something like that might come in handy. At the very least it'd be interesting to study. I'm heading back to Daybreak, so you guys keep working here and I'll send you some help as soon as I can." She didn't wait for a reply, instead taking to the sky as soon as she could. She flew around the city, checking the city hall and the warehouse on her way. All seemed quiet so clearly that hunter had been bluffing.

The square seemed quiet too, with many of the ponies no longer on the rooftop. She circled downward, landing in a heap by the statue as her tired front leg crumpled under her weight. "Ow."

"Twilight! You're alright!" The filly ran over and jumped on her, reminding Twilight of just how bruised she was.

"Yep, just peachy. The others are okay too. Is everything okay here?"

"All quiet," said Daybreak. "Did you beat them?"

"Yeah, they're... dead." The word felt horrible to say.

"Ah, I thought I recognised the haunted look on your face. First pony you've killed?"

"First pony I've killed with my own hooves."

"I'm hardly speaking from experience here, but it'll get easier Twilight."

"It shouldn't be easy, and I hope it never becomes easy."

"Okay, what I should've said then was that it should get easier to cope with." Twilight snorted.

"So wait..." The filly looked around the square, "That's it then? We won."

"Mmhmm."

"Huh. That was kinda underwhelming."

"We're not done quite yet."

Author's Notes:

I've come to realise that until now all I've planned are plot points; everything else is made up as I go and I'm horribly whimsical when it comes to throwing random stuff in, (as an example Summer was added because I randomly wished I had brought Coco Pommel along for this rather than Octavia because I thought it'd be funny to have Trixie treat her like a doormat, and it kind of grew from there.) Anyway, now I'm actually having to write those plot points into chapters I'm like hur-durr, I don't know what I'm doing! I'm already prone to doubting myself over my writing so when I really think I'm writing complete bollocks, I'm inclined to think it's true. It's kinda hard, especially when I don't exactly enjoy criticism either, due to deep seated emotional reasons. (Constructive criticism only peeps!)

Right, well, I think that's enough self depreciating brain dribblings out of me.

29. Freedom flighters

Once again Twilight flew over the streets of Neigh Orleans, pondering the small mystery of why there weren't more ponies around. You'd think that after an explosion and a supposedly hostile coup that somepony might have noticed.

Perhaps ponies here were used to ignoring things, or had taken the Ponyville route of thinking where a hundred foot tall, red and black magic stealing centaur was merely brought up as a note of concern in a town council meeting, but her new castle was a topic of hot contention due to its violation of several planning codes.

Twilight laughed to herself as she remembered that. It was about to reach boiling point when Princess Celestia had quietly entered the meeting and very calmly told everypony to stop being silly. Nopony ever questions Princess Celestia, and it was never mentioned again, leaving Twilight wishing she could solve disputes so easily just by having so much presence it was almost overwhelming.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hoof she quickly found herself flying past where she was meant to be going, the one place that would still have a large number of ponies in; The Rising Sun, centre of the Neigh Orleans rumour mill. If some pony told you something down the pub, it had to be true.

She banked back around and headed down to the entrance, surprising several ponies outside it, and for once since losing her leg, managing to pull off a tidy landing. Ponies gawped at her and she politely smiled at them before heading inside. Not in the mood to dodge around ponies, many of the building's inhabitants found themselves being picked up and moved aside as she made her way to the bar. "Greenson."

The large green stallion nodded in greeting before heading out through the back of the bar, Twilight teleporting to the other side of the bar to follow him. "I trust everything went well?"

Twilight blew out of the side of her mouth for a moment before answering, "Yeah, more or less. Thing is though is that nopony in town really knows it happened."

"And that's where you want me to come in?"

"We plan on having a meeting in the city centre tomorrow at midday to properly reveal ourselves. If you could start spreading news of it and what happened around I would greatly appreciate it. We'll be going around announcing the meeting before it happens so don't worry thinking we're relying solely upon you for this, but the more positive rumours going around the better."

"You can count on me."

"Good. Thank you Greenson." She left the room and teleported back across the bar, ignoring the stares as she went. She left the building and was about to take off again when she heard Greenson shouting to be heard over the noise.

"Oi! You lot! Listen up! Those freedom fighters I told you about liberated the city! There's a meeting in the city centre tomorrow at midday, so spread the word!" A ragged cheer went up from the ponies inside and Twilight almost choked. That was how Greenson spread rumours? I knew I should have built a printing press instead of relying on this. And then teach more ponies to read... Choosing to put it out of her mind she took to the air and headed back to the city centre. To tackle her next task she was going to need a little help.

Daybreak looked up and followed Twilight with his eyes as she came in to land, "How'd it go?"

"Do you actually have any idea how Greenson spreads rumours? Like, at all?"

"He shouts it to a bunch of drunks and lets them do all the leg work. Trust me, we know. It does seem to work though."

"Well, it better. Have you seen the filly? I think I might need her for my next job."

"She went into the concert hall for some reason. Probably to antagonise the prisoners or something."

"And you let her!?"

"I seem to remember this thing where we're trying to build a free country or something..."

"That- You- I-!" Twilight groaned in defeat and stomped off as best she could, leaving a chuckling Daybreak to his own devices. She pushed the doors to the concert hall open and poked her head into the main auditorium, thankfully finding everything to be quiet as the captured guards lounged on the audiences seats under the watchful eyes of the ponies in the balconies.

She also caught the bizarre sound of what she could only describe as a pony farting rhythmically into a metal tube of some kind, and it seemed to be coming from behind the curtains at the far end of the hall. She ducked her head back out of the room and headed around to the back of the stage, the music, if you could call it that, getting louder as she got closer.

She wasn't fully prepared for what she found, and cocked her head quizzically at the strange sight of the filly trying to play a sousaphone that was at least twice the size of her, and rather than carry it around, she sat in the middle of it as it rested on the floor. "Wha- What are you doing?"

The filly stopped blowing the little tune she had been playing since Twilight had got there and looked up, "Oh hey Twilight! I'm playing a... whatever this thing is."

"It's a sousaphone, and why are you playing it?"

"There's this really fat pony with the guards who kept pacing around, and I thought it'd be funny to follow him around playing this-" She played the little tune again, pa pa pa-pum-pum-pum-pum-pum, pa-pum-pum-pum-pum. "-but this instrument is kinda too big for me and crazy heavy so I had to stay here and hope it had the same effect."

Twilight tried to imagine it, but the idea didn't seem funny to her. "I don't get it... How do you know how to play that thing anyway?"

"I'm not about to claim to be some kind of musical prodigy, but I can whistle a mean tune so this couldn't have been much harder."

And there was that same lack of sense that Twilight had to deal with all too often. She decided to ignore it and press on, "Never mind. I need your help with something."

The filly jumped out of the middle of the sousaphone and gave Twilight a mock salute, "Whaddya need o' captain my captain?"

"What? Ugh." Twilight sighed irritably at the filly. "You'll know when we get there, but first we need to pick up Summer."

This time it was the filly's turn to look confused, "Summer? What the bloody hell do we need her for?"

This time Twilight had two other ponies accompanying her as she flew, on this occasion heading out of Neigh Orleans to a location a couple of miles upriver. Since she wasn't sure where she was going, other than she would know it when she saw and apparently smelled it, she wasn't rushing, allowing both the filly and Summer to enjoy themselves a bit first.

"WOOHOO!!" the filly yelled with unbridled joy. Once she had worked how to position her legs to force herself into barrel-rolls there had been no stopping her, leaving Twilight at a loss as to how she hadn't thrown up yet.

Summer's reaction to the flight was much more measured, with her eyes closed as she enjoyed the wind in her mane. She also had her wings spread in the perfect gliding position. Not that Twilight had told her, yet, but she was actually carrying her own weight. All Twilight provided was the thrust.

"Summer?"

Summer wobbled at the intrusion into her quiet before opening her eyes, "Um...yes?"

"What if I told you I'm not actually carrying you right now?"

"What!?" Summer started kicking her legs and flapping her wings in a panic and dropped a couple of meters before Twilight retook her weight.

"At least I wasn't, anyway."

"Sorry."

"No-no! Don't be! I was rather impressed you were holding yourself on your own wings actually. Especially since you haven't been taught how."

"Oh! Well-uh, I didn't know I was doing it. Is that bad?"

"Its very good actually. If its alright with you, I could teach you how to fly when it's a bit quieter?" Twilight could almost feel the filly grumbling under her breath.

"Um, I guess so, maybe. Yes?"

"Great! Obviously we can't do it now, but soon."

"Then you'll be a real pegasus!" the filly said in a chipper yet highly sarcastic tone. "Oh boy!"

"Filly, I know you're jealous, and I can perfectly understand why-"

"Oh can you now?"

"-but its not fair to keep Summer grounded if she doesn't have to be, or want to be."

The filly rolled her eyes, "Yes I'm jealous. How can you expect me to not be? Honestly though, I'll get over it once I move onto being jealous of her for being able to fly."

"That... was a joke right?" The filly shrugged. "Okaaay." Twilight looked down and spotted something lit up on the side of the river, figuring that it was what she was looking for. "Ah ha! I think we're here."

"Here where?" The filly asked, "You still haven't told us what we're doing out here."

"We're here to free the pegasi, and hopefully convince them to at least help us."

"And you had be all secretive about that because..?"

"Because I didn't know how either of you would react to doing this and I didn't want to have to drag you out here every step of the way, as it were."

"That doesn't even make sense? Why would we be against it? And if we were against it how would dragging us out here help in the slightest?"

"I didn't say you'd be against it, but I don't know how much you would want to help me convince them to join us."

"Have you been getting enough sleep lately?"

"Yes, plenty-"

"Passing out doesn't count." Twilight winced guiltily. She had been drinking a bit lately she had to admit, but she didn't think anypony else had really noticed.

"I'm fine, I just didn't want to risk the chance that you might say no to helping me, alright? I'm sorry!"

"Okay! Chill your shit Twi! Yeesh." Twilight landed by the compound, which had the same caged over and walled design as the one in Stalliongrad, before heading around to the entrance of the guards quarters. The filly covered her nose with a hoof, "What is that smell?"

"Shame, despair, fear, hopelessness," Summer listed off quietly.

"Smells like bad diets and poor bathroom facilities to me." The filly took a few steps as she thought, "So yeah, shit. It smells like shit."

Twilight pushed open the door and was pleased to see that the fighters she had despatched an hour earlier had done their jobs and apprehended the guards. "Any problems?" she asked.

"No ma'am," a masked unicorn answered.

"Good." She looked around the guards quarters and spotted a bowl of apples and pears. She wasn't sure why they would have a bowl of such things, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Put them in one of the mobile cages, and stick them with the city guard once you get back." Twilight picked up the fruit and headed for the heavy iron door which she suspected led to where the pegasi lived.

She was about to open it when the filly stopped her, her expression unusually serious. "Twilight, have you really thought about this? The pegasi refused to fight for the last rebellion, so I'm not sure why you think you can convince them."

"Firstly, I'm not asking them to fight for us, and secondly, should I need it I have an offer to make them that nopony in their position should refuse."

"Wait, so if you're not asking them to fight, what are you asking them for?"

"You'll see."

"Great, again with the secrets. You're with me aren't you Summer?"

The blue pony tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought, "I think the pegasi should be able choose what they want. That rebellion just wanted them to be slaves of a different kind." Twilight could've hugged her.

"Exactly! I'm not demanding anything, and if they refuse what I ask, then so be it." Twilight pushed the door open and walked through. She found herself stepping into the enclosure and into a layer of cold mud that almost reached her ankles. At least she hoped it was mud. The place reeked of backed up plumbing to put it politely.

Apparently hers and the others actions had not gone unnoticed because a large number of pegasi were standing in the enclosure, watching her with dull yet curious eyes, while more still peeked at her through the doors of the rough wooden huts they pegasi lived in. One blue mare in particular caught her attention, watching them around the edge of one of the huts. Twilight almost felt ill at how skinny and bony she appeared.

Twilight swallowed nervously, all her mentally pre-prepared speeches suddenly forgotten, "Uh, hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm the leader of the Mareitania Liberation Front, a working name, and I'm here to inform you that you are now free!" Twilight smiled at them, but the smile tapered off as the pegasi stared at her like she had grown an extra horn. "So-uh, any questions?" There was a groan from the filly as a mare in the front raised a hoof, "Yes, you in the front."

"Are you going to give us orders or can we go back to sleep?"

"What? No! You're free now, you don't have to take orders from anypony!" A stallion in the back raised a hoof, "You."

"So if we don't have to follow orders, we could go back to sleep and you couldn't stop us?"

"Uh... If that's what you want, then yes, I suppose. I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say here. I'm setting you free. I'm going to remove your collars and wing binders, open those gates, and let you out so you can go where you want and do what you want, as long as you don't go near places still controlled by the Duke that is."

"Why?" asked a mare.

"Because he will try to recapture you and make you a slave again. Obviously that won't be a problem once we defeat him, but until then I would recommend sticking around Neigh Orleans. Well... I wouldn't go into Neigh Orleans as such because ponies there might get a bit funny about pegasi walking around at first. Summer here has to wear a cloak when she's in public to avoid problems."

"Boy, you are really selling this whole 'freedom' thing aren't you..." the filly hissed out the corner of her mouth.

"I'm sorry," Twilight whispered back, "I don't know what to do! They're just standing there like they don't know what freedom is!"

"That's because they don't you dolt!"

"Why do you have a horn and wings?" asked a pony from the crowd.

"An excellent question! I'm an alicorn, which is a mix of unicorn, earth pony, and pegasi traits-"

"Are you going to be our new master?"

"What? No! You don't have a master-"

"Is the earth pony filly our new master then?"

"No! Nopony is-"

"I AM NOT AN EARTH PONY!!" Twilight and the pegasi all took a step back from the filly. She ripped her clothing off as fast as she could and threw it in the mud, "Ask me how I got these scars! Go on! Ask!" She stomped angrily through the pegasi, the crowd splitting to make way for her, and stopped in front of the skinny blue mare. "I bet she could give you an answer!" And she probably could. The mare's wings were crooked and broken, having not been set before healing.

"You had a flying accident?" Or not.

"No! Wait... Oh, right, well that's awkward... What I was trying to say is that the guards in Whiplash cut my wings off!"

"Filly, I don't think-"

"Shut up Twilight!" The filly returned to Twilight's side and turned to face the pegasi, "Listen up! You are now free. This means you don't have to work for your food and be kept in these shitty conditions. We will remove your collars and wing binders, open those gates and let you go. Or, I do believe Twilight there has a proposition for you."

Twilight stared blankly for a moment as the pegasi all turned to face her, "Hmm? Oh yes! I lead a group of freedom fighters, trying to liberate this country from the Duke, and one of our goals is to free the pegasi from slavery. I'm not asking you to fight for me, although any volunteers will be welcomed, but I am asking that you continue to manage the weather, and maybe do a few other small things, like deliver messages and such. In exchange you will be given proper food and you'll be allowed to build cloud homes in a safe location."

"Your feathers will no longer be clipped and you will never have to wear those awful collars again. If you want though, you may walk out those doors and go choose your own path, and I'll wish you all the best if you do." She plucked an apple from the fruit bowl and walked through the pegasi to the skinny mare, offering her the apple. The mare watched it cautiously for a few seconds before taking it in her mouth and devouring it. "At the very least I hope you'll consider it. The choice is entirely yours."

The pegasi all bunched up and Twilight could hear them whispering, although she couldn't make sense of the actual words. She was rather surprised though when a large number of them started raising hooves in what was clearly a vote. Twilight hadn't expected them to use the old earth pony system of democracy. The pegasi of old had lived under a rigid military dictatorship, so Twilight expected them to still utilize that methodology to some degree. Apparently though, the pegasi and earth ponies had swapped systems. She couldn't help but wonder what system the unicorns might use if they were still able.

As one the pegasi turned to face her again, and a creamy coloured mare with a vivid blue mane pushed to the front, "If it frees our brothers and sisters, we'll help."

Twilight's eyes almost sparkled with happiness, "You will!? Wonderful! Thank you so much!" She slipped her knife out of its sheath with her magic and floated it over to Summer, "Summer, start cutting off their binders while I take care of the collars," Summer took the knife in her mouth and nodded, "Filly, go raid the guards quarters for as much decent food as you can. It's a long flight to Puddingarde and they'll need to fuel up."

"On it." She stopped by her discarded clothing and picked it up before sighing and throwing it away, "Why did I have to throw it in the mud? You do have the key thing for their collars right?" Twilight closed her eyes as her horn started to glow. A second later there was a pop and the key appeared from thin air, "Right," the filly groaned, "the cheaters method."

Twilight beckoned a young mare over, taking a moment to shred her binders with her magic before unlocking the collar. The collar slipped off the mare's neck and fell into the mud, leaving behind a bare patch that the mare rubbed, regardless of the fact that she was spreading mud all around her neck, "It's off! It's really off!" The mare tackled Twilight into a hug, "Thank you so much!"

"Heh, you're welcome. Feel free to take a piece of the fruit from the bowl." The mare did so and practically danced off. Twilight smiled as she watched her before turning back to find herself looking into the grey eyes of the cream coloured mare from before. "Oh, hello. Are you the leader of these pegasi?"

"I'm not the leader no, but I speak for them because I'm the eldest here."

"But you hardly look much older than myself."

"Eldest doesn't mean old. Pegasi don't live for long living like this."

Twilight suddenly felt ashamed, "I'm sorry, I never meant to insult you."

"And you didn't." The mare stood quietly watching the other mare happily munch on her fruit as Twilight undid her collar, before kicking it away. "So this is really happening then? You're really going to free the pegasi?"

"I intend to, yes. It'll take time, as we're also having to fight the Duke and we've only really just started our rebellion, but yes, I hope to make all the pegasi free."

"Not everypony will like it though. Plenty of ponies hate the pegasi for some reason or another even though we've done nothing to them."

Twilight waved a stallion over, finding that Summer had already removed his binders. "I know," she said as she started unlocking his collar, "which is why I'm having you live in a safe location. Maybe someday you'll be able to build your own cloud cities again." The collar fell off and the stallion walked away, rubbing his neck, "I mean, if you want to."

"And go back to doing the weather for food like the old days? Isn't that why ponies hated us in the first place?"

"No, this'll be different. Once we've sorted everything out you'll do the weather in exchange for a wage, rather than food. You'll have to buy the food. That'll put you on even hoofing with other ponies who have to do the same, like in Equestria."

"Equestria? That place is a myth, like the Summer lands. A tale to keep the young ponies hopeful of something better."

"Actually Equestria is very much real, and I happen to come from there. You don't need to die to get there either, you can just fly there."

"Oh? And are all the ponies there like you?"

"Oh yes, we're all pretty nice ponies in Equestria-"

"No, I mean with the wings and horn and things."

"Oh, in that case no. There are only three others like me; Celestia, Luna, and Cadence."

"Celestia? Now I know you're pulling my leg."

"Look, uh... What's your name?"

"Windy Rush, but I prefer to be called Rush."

"Okay then, Rush, I don't know how to convince you that what I'm saying is true, but at the very least I'm being serious when I say I want to help the pegasi. If that isn't enough, then I don't know what is."

"You do that, I'll believe anything you say."

Twilight barked a single laugh, "Hah! Deal. Now go get yourself something to eat and get your people ready to move out. It's an hour's flight from here to Puddingarde, I think, and I know flying is difficult for you all with your wings clipped so I don't want to wear you out too much."

"But what about Drip Dry? She can't fly with her wings like that."

"I'll carry her. It'll be fine, I promise. I don't suppose I could ask you why you all agreed to join us?"

Rush grinned at her, "Always trust a pony with wings. If you had been a proper unicorn or an earth pony asking what you did, the answer might've been very different."

Not the answer Twilight had expected, and not one she particularly wanted either seeing as it hinted at a strong if highly justified dislike of ponies without wings. At least her hunch about bringing Summer and the filly as backup had been spot on. "Fair enough, now go eat and rest up. We'll be heading out as soon as possible."

Twilight did one last check before they left. The guards were loaded into one of the wagons, and what little food there was had been eaten by the pegasi while the less than pleasant slop the pegasi usually ate was being left behind. All the pegasi had been de-collared and unbound, and they were watching her in anticipation of leaving.

"Right, Filly, when you get back to Daybreak tell him what we've done and that I'll be back in the city as soon as I'm done at Puddingarde."

"Yeah, yeah. How come Summer gets to go with you and I don't?"

"Because Summer is going to help me get all the pegasus settled, which requires a gentler touch than yours."

"Hey! I can be gentle! But yeah, sure, whatever." The wagon started moving off and the filly scampered after them before jumping onto the back, sitting in a prime position to annoy the captive guards.

Twilight turned to Summer who was talking to Rush, "Are we ready?"

"I think so," said Summer, "but some of the pegasi are nervous about flying from the compound."

"Why?"

"They're not used to the idea that they can fly where they want," Rush told her. "Even I'm afraid if I'm honest. I keep expecting my collar to trigger, and I'm not even wearing one!"

"Okay then, we'll stay low, but you'll just have to get used to it."

"I know, but it's still scary."

Twilight walked over to the pony now known to her as Drip Dry, "Are you ready?" The mare nodded and Twilight took to the air before scooping her up with her magic. She was slightly horrified to find that the mare possibly weighed less than the filly. She also picked Summer up and gained a bit of altitude before waiting for the others to catch up. Apparently this wasn't going to be a quick journey.

Twilight waited until everypony had caught up, taking a moment to prepare a spell she had never had cause to use before. "Watch," she said to Rush before firing a blob of light at the compound. It landed in the centre of the compound and appeared to do nothing for a moment before growing in size. It started twisting around, tearing the walls and buildings down before dragging them into its centre.

Eventually it ended, leaving a pile of rubble and twisted metal as the only proof that anything had ever been there. Twilight sighed happily, as doing that had been extremely cathartic, and most of the pegasi seemed happy about it too. "What was that?" Rush asked.

"Clover the Clever's oscillating gravity well. I've never been allowed to use it before because it's dangerous, but I figured now was as good a time as any. Now, follow me and we'll soon be in Puddingarde."

They weren't soon in Puddingarde. Contrary to Twilight's optimistic hopes, the pegasi were actually incredibly slow, for pegasi anyway, not that she could blame them, and they required a great many breaks. Then there were the unexpected breaks where one of the pegasus would start freaking out because they kept expecting to get shocked.

That was fine though, if a little tiring because carrying two ponies for that long was hardly childs play even for an alicorn. Fortunately it gave Twilight time to think over how she was going to utilise the pegasi. It had never occurred to her just how much thought went into planning the weather, and while it was hardly beyond her to organise the weather teams, Twilight had to admit she didn't know what weather was meant to be used when. Who decided in Equestria when it was supposed to rain, or the sun shine? Did the pegasi consult the farmers as to what their crops required and work around that? Or was it instinctual?

Twilight gave up in the end, figuring that Celestia might be able to help her figure it out if one of the pegasi here couldn't. She had then moved on to thinking about something she hadn't noticed until she was taking the collars off; most of the pegasus there had no cutie marks. She had asked the filly why, but had got a non-committal shrug as an answer.

The answer had come to her eventually, mostly due to how obvious it was. Pegasi with weather related talents had their marks, but anypony with talents unrelated to weather wouldn't have had the chance to discover what their talent actually was. Maybe now though they would.

Eventually, in fits and starts, they did manage to reach Puddingarde and many of them seemed excited as they landed in the courtyard outside the keep, looking around with childlike wonder. It wouldn't occur to Twilight until some time later that due to the sheltered lifestyle the pegasi endured, anything beyond doing the weather and living in their compounds was completely new to them. Even the idea that they could fly without restrictions was a whole new concept to them, one that they had probably only heard of in stories.

"So, welcome to Puddingarde."

"Is this supposed to be our new home?" Rush asked.

"Yes and no and sort of temporarily." Rush gave Twilight a well deserved funny look. "Ahem, I mean you'll be staying in here temporarily. Once I have things a bit more organised I'm hoping to start building cloud houses around the mountaintop, so you don't have to share living space with the unicorns and earth ponies here since I know that might make you uncomfortable."

"You never said anything about living with horn heads and mud ponies," Rush growled, though Twilight could detect a hint of fear too.

"The ponies living here are good ponies who want to help you. What did you think the rebellion was composed of if not unicorns and earth ponies? You're the first pegasi we've freed."

"I think that maybe its something you could have at least mentioned."

"I'm sorry! I'm from Equestria where there are no tribal divisions! Pegasi live side by side with horn heads and mud ponies, as you call them, which I will thank you to not do or did you forget?" Twilight sat down and tapped her horn. "Tribal slurs won't be tolerated." Twilight sighed, realising that she was being far too aggressive, "I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can hope to spend the rest of your lives without seeing or talking to other kinds of pony. You'll have to learn to accept them as much as they'll have to accept you being free. As I said, it's only temporary. Soon as we can we'll start working on building cloud houses for you. To be honest you could start tomorrow if you wanted."

"Sure," Rush said, "if somepony shows us how."

"You mean you don't know how? I thought they were just made of clouds?"

"Normal clouds would fall apart within days and nopony knows how to made cloudcrete anymore."

"Cloudcrete?" Twilight hadn't heard that name before, but figured that was what pre-exodus pegasi called building quality cloud. She also figured that she really ought to catch up on learning about her pegasus abilities beyond flying. "Okay, so maybe you can't start tomorrow, but I know some ponies who could tell us how to make building quality clouds. Please don't turn your back on this Rush."

Rush eyed her before sighing heavily, "I wasn't going to, but I don't want to stay here if ponies start treating us like slaves, or acting like they're better than us."

"They won't. One thing we make sure of with our members is that they aren't tribalists. You do your job and I'll make sure as best I can that the other ponies treat you with respect and as equals. Who knows, you might even grow to like some of them. For now though I guess you best follow me."

Twilight led them into the keep, finding it to be almost completely empty, although that was to be expected. The only ponies left behind were the blacksmiths, carpenters, and other noncombat ponies, such as the jolly looking pale blue and black maned earth pony mare approaching her now, "Hello Nimble Stitch," Twilight said a little icily. Twilight still hadn't forgiven her for creating that abomination of a flag.

Nimble Stitch smiled warmly, completely ignorant of Twilight's ire towards her, "Welcome back Twilight, I see you brought guests."

"Uh, yes, I did. If you could see to getting them something to eat and organise somewhere for them to sleep, preferably separate from the others, I'd appreciate it. Summer will be sticking around for a little bit to help them settle in, so if you have any problems give her a message and I'll come back to help as soon as I can."

"Of course Twilight, if the Lady wills it, so shall it be." Nimble Stitch noticed Drip Dry standing near Twilight and covered her mouth with a hoof, "Oh you poor dear! This won't do at all! Come along at once and lets get you all a nice hot meal." Nimble started heading into the keep, although Rush looked to Twilight for confirmation before moving. Twilight nodded and Rush and the other pegasi followed after the earth pony, leaving Twilight and Summer alone. As much as Twilight hated the religious connotations that the rebellion had picked up, she had to admit there was an advantage in that not one follower of the Lady she had found was tribalist in the slightest, accepting all ponies without like or dislike.

"Are you really leaving me here?" Summer asked with a whimper. Twilight remembered that the pegasus hadn't really been away from the group since they had saved her.

"Only for a little bit. Until the pegasi get used to the idea that ponies here aren't going to hurt or abuse them, things are going to be a bit tense. I only want you to show them how things work and stick around until things are settled. After that you can return to Neigh Orleans. You remember the way, right?"

"I'm not walking there on my own! What if somepony sees me? What if I'm captured or-or-or-"

"Alright-alright-alright! I won't make you do that. Instead, how about you go help Nimble Stitch with the other pegasus and I'll head down to the command room and catch up on my paperwork for a couple of hours, then we'll go back together?" Summer seemed a lot happier about that. "Okay then, see you in a little bit." Summer trotted off after the others, leaving Twilight to slowly make her way down to the command room. She was surprised that somepony had installed a door in the time since they had left for Neigh Orleans, which was nice because it gave her something to slam before collapsing into a heap.

Twilight was exhausted both mentally and physically, having reached her limit for dealing with things when she smashed that hunter's head in with a brick. The fact that she had managed to bury her grief over that and keep going in a fairly normal manner was a miracle in her opinion. Exhausted as she was it didn't take long for her to slip into a deep, if uneasy slumber.

Twilight was dreaming, or at least she was fairly sure she was. Her first clue was reappearing in the streets by the guards headquarters in Neigh Orleans, the bodies of the dead guards and 'them' still laying where she last saw them. The second clue was having full possession of all her limbs again. At first she had been horrified at being here again, but with that strangely lucid dream logic that sometimes occurred, the horror faded.

A thick fog filled the air, blocking Twilight's view up and down the street, the only sign of life being a light glowing balefully through the thick miasma. Not really wanting to stick around where she was she headed through the fog to the light, but only found herself approaching the place she had left.

Or not quite. The bodies were in different positions to last time, and appeared less injured even if they were still deceased. Twilight spotted another light through the fog, and feeling she had little recourse, headed towards it. Again she found herself in the same place, the bodies this time in the right places, but were just hollow suits of armour.

"You know Luna, if you're there I think it's safe to come out now..." Twilight said out loud, hoping for some kind of answer. None came, and Twilight found herself feeling increasingly anxious. With little else to do she headed to the next light, only to find herself again in the same place, this time with the bodies dismembered with the innards strewn about.

Twilight sprinted past the gory scene, and the next, each with the remains of the dead in different states and positions. Twilight kept sprinting, her panic growing with each new scene of death she found, "Help me Luna, please!" she begged breathlessly.

She skidded to a halt, the street before her empty and pristine. Twilight sat, taking a moment to regain her breath despite not being winded in the slightest, when a scraping sound caught her attention. She looked around and jumped when she saw an armoured figure walking unsteadily towards her, his neck broken with his head cocked upwards in an unnatural angle.

She backed off, only to bump into something behind her. She turned and found herself staring into the single eye of another hunter, the other glowing with a dull red light. "Get away from me!" She lashed out with her magic and the apparition dissipated into black smoke before reforming again.

She backed off as another figure shuffled into view, walking on legs that were clearly broken, his bones cracking and popping with every laboured step. "What do you want with me?" Twilight asked desperately, but they remained unspeaking.

The scraping sound Twilight had first heard came closer, and Twilight was able to make out the fourth hunter, dragging herself along the ground, her rear legs useless with a trail of blood being left behind her. A stream of blood also dripped out the nose of her bent up helmet, adding to the streak of red she left in her wake.

"Go away!" Twilight attacked again and again, but every time the apparitions just reformed a second later. They surrounded her, pushing her back against a wall, coming closer and closer. She sent out a shockwave of energy, decimating them, "Leave me alone!"

It wasn't to be though. The hunters reformed and the mare cocked her head quizzically at Twilight, "Oh Twilight, we'll always be with you." Twilight sat down against the wall and moved to cover her eyes with her hooves, but stopped, staring with disgust at the blood covering them.

"LUNA!!" A shining beam of moonlight pierced down through the fog, shining directly down onto Twilight before growing in size, obliterating the hunters, the fog, and even the street in its light.

"I'm here Twilight," Luna said as she gently spiraled down towards Twilight. She landed and lifted a foreleg, inviting Twilight into a hug which the smaller alicorn gladly accepted. "It's alright Twilight, I'm here now," she whispered into Twilight's ear.

Twilight sobbed into Luna's shoulder for several minutes, crying out more of her pain before pulling away and wiping her eyes, "What took you so long," she joked weakly, noticing they were again amongst the purple and red clouds of Mareitania's broken dreamscape.

"My apologies Twilight, but apart from how careful I must be in the dreamscape here, there is also the problem that you appear to be slumbering in the belly of a mountain. Your own mental traumas did lend their difficulties to the situation as well."

"I'm in Puddingarde," Twilight said, unsure of what to make of the 'mental traumas' comment.

"I suspected as much. Rock is quite the obstacle for a conscience to pass through, which I why I suspect I was oblivious to the existence of Caverndown. Anyway, I suspect something must be amiss if your dreams are so dark."

Twilight looked away and hugged a leg around herself before answering, "I killed them Luna, I killed ponies. Now I'm a monster as well as a freak."

Luna appraised Twilight for a moment before responding, "You are also a good deal too hard on yourself Twilight Sparkle. I realise you wish to be a good pony, but just because you've taken a life of another doesn't mean you're suddenly a bad pony. Especially when the pony whose life you took was already drowning in the blood of innocents."

"I don't know what to think any more Luna. I just want this over with one way or another."

"At the cost of yourself?"

"If that's what it takes."

"Come home Twilight."

Twilight's head shot up and she stared at Luna, "What?"

"Come home. You've started an insurrection now and they can continue the fight without you. Come home, because this isn't worth it if it costs you your very being."

"You can't be serious! I can't quit and go home now!"

"Then believe me when I say you must learn to forgive yourself for these actions you are forced to make. If you cannot, then these feelings of yours are only going to get worse." Luna pulled Twilight into another hug, but straight away it felt too forceful. Twilight looked up into Luna's eyes, noticing a dangerous gleam to them. "Although I must admit Twilight, I do enjoy the little playground of horrors your mind is becoming."

"Luna?" Luna suddenly pushed Twilight away and staggered back, shaking her head and twitching her eyes from side to side, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly. She suddenly stopped and stared transfixed at Twilight.

"I need to go." And like that, she was gone.

"Twilight? Twilight please wake up!" Twilight mumbled something incoherent and cracked an eye open to look up into the concerned visage of Summer. "Oh thank goodness! I was really worried about you."

"Worried?" Twilight's voiced cracked, and she blinked a few times, her eyes puffy and raw like she had been crying.

"You were screaming and crying and you wouldn't wake up no matter how much I shook you." Twilight raised a hoof to her face, finding the fur on her cheeks to be damp.

"I'm fine," she said in what was her most blatant lie of the day. "I was just having a nightmare."

"You were also screaming something about Luna." Twilight's eyes shot fully open, Luna! Suddenly more concerned whether her fellow alicorn as okay, Twilight rolled onto her hooves, intending to find the speaker stone to contact either Celestia or Luna, but remembered that she had left it with her belongings in Neigh Orleans.

She sighed and sat back down again, prompting Summer to look worried again. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I just have a lot on my mind. Actually, could I ask you something?" The pegasus nodded, "You remember when you killed that diamond dog right?"

"Of course."

"Did... Did that not bother you?"

Summer looked away from Twilight, refusing to meet her eyes, leaving Twilight thinking that Summer wasn't going to answer. "I don't know," she said eventually. "I don't really think about it much."

"You don't feel guilty?"

"A little bit, but he was a bad pon-er... person. He was hurting Octavia and trying to catch her, and he hurt the filly as well."

"But what if he hadn't done those things?"

"Then I wouldn't have had to attack him." Twilight thought about that and found herself smiling a little. It was funny where inspiration came from sometimes. Luna said to forgive herself for her actions, and like Summer, she only killed the ponies trying to kill her. Perhaps she was being too hard on herself.

"Okay, thank you for that Summer. That was... surprisingly insightful." Twilight got up again and stretched, her legs and back popping with the motion, reminding her slightly of the nightmare. "What time is it?"

"Um... The sun came up maybe an hour ago?"

"What? Oh dear, we're supposed to be in Neigh Orleans by now!" Twilight started looking for her belongings, once again remembering they weren't there. Instead she started heading upstairs before remembering one little detail that had slipped her mind, "How are the other pegasi doing?"

"They're okay I think. Nimble Stitch was taking good care of them and I think they like her, even if she was trying to teach them how to use a knife and fork," Summer puffed up her feathers and spoke in a pretty good imitation of Nimble's voice, "like 'civilised' ponies."

Twilight snorted, "Yeah, that sounds like something she might do. I just hope she doesn't offend them." They left the keep, the dawn light hurting Twilight's already tender eyes, "So you think they'll be okay if we leave them here?"

"Mmhmm."

"Then let's get going." Twilight scooped Summer up in her magic and headed towards the distant sight of Neigh Orleans.

Author's Notes:

I'm bored, so have a chapter.

Just a quick note. I've recently bought a new laptop, and frankly, for the amount I spent on it they could have included office with it. I'm not the best at grammar so if you start noticing more grammatical errors its because office is no longer here to save me from my worst mistakes.

30. In the business of freedom

Twilight was surprised to find that the square had been cleaned up in the time she had been gone, with the piles of weapons and armour cleared away along with the scattered remains of the statue. She deposited Summer on the ground and landed before heading over to the concert hall. The unicorn standing guard spat out his cigarette and stood to attention as she approached, "Ma'am."

"At ease soldier. Is Daybreak around?"

The guard relaxed and returned to leaning against the doorway, Twilight taking note of how tired he looked. "No ma'am, he's at city hall with some of your friends. He said you should head over there and get cleaned up as soon as you could."

"Cleaned up? But I'm not that dirty." She looked over herself; her hooves were caked in mud, her clothes were filthy along with her sling, and she had specks of blood on her, the origin of which she didn't want to think too hard on. "Okay, point taken."

"Is Octavia there?" Summer asked.

"I believe so ma'am." Summer looked to Twilight in an obvious hint that she wanted to get going.

Twilight nodded before addressing the soldier again, "Thank you. I'll try and get Daybreak to organise some shifts once the meeting is over, let some of you get some rest."

The guard smiled, "Thank you ma'am." Twilight took off again, dragging Summer along behind her as she flew towards city hall. She landed at the entrance, paying attention to the blood stains at both sides of the door, casting a spell to remove them before entering.

"About time you got here!" a haggard looking Daybreak said as soon as she entered. "Where have you been?"

"It took longer to sort the pegasi out than I thought," Twilight said, not wanting to reveal she'd also had a little nap in the intervening time. "They're at Puddingarde now, being looked after by Nimble Stitch."

"Good, that's one less thing to worry about."

"What's all the other things?"

"Well there's the fact that some ponies decided it'd be fun to start looting once news got out that the city guard were out of action, which Trixie put a stop to."

"You let her sort out something like that?"

"She's good at getting ponies attention, but don't worry, she was gentle." Twilight could only imagine what he meant by that. "Then there's the big speech you're supposed to give in a couple of hours. I also have to work on keeping the city running as normal using ponies who have no idea how to do such a thing while trying to sort out giving some of our ponies a break. Too many problems, not enough solutions."

"Do you want help? Have you considered asking the ponies that normally work here?"

"Funny enough a lot of ponies didn't turn up for work today, so yeah, help would be nice, but you need to get yourself washed up and looking presentable. I've already got Octavia helping me out going through the treasury while Trixie is out on the streets with the soldiers I've had to put on patrol, and Snowbright and Mason are still working at the guards headquarters so they're busy. Once the speech is over we can hopefully release the captured guards and their families, freeing up a lot more ponies."

"Where's the treasury?" asked Summer.

Daybreak pointed down a hallway to the right, "Down there, second on the right around the corner." Summer hurried off, clearly eager to get back to Octavia. "While you're getting cleaned up you might want to check in with Fleur."

"Why?"

"You'll see." He gave her directions upstairs which Twilight followed, finding herself in an overstated bathroom filled with more marble than necessary. Fleur was also there, head hanging over the sink as she scrubbed her horn with a brush.

"Hey Fleur," Twilight said to her. Fleur seemed confused for a moment, pausing before returning the greeting.

"Hi Twilight." She said nothing more and returned to her scrubbing, the bristles scratching along her horn. scritch scritch scritch.

"You know, your horn looks perfectly clean Fleur."

"Mmhmm." Scritch scritch scritch.

"If you do that too much you could leave marks. I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that."

"Mmhmm." Scritch scratch scritch.

"Is something wrong Fleur? You're acting weird."

"I'm fine Twilight." Scritch scritch scritch.

"Are you sure about that?"

"I said I'm fine!" Twilight stepped back, but not far enough to miss the spray of spittle that came from Fleur who was now staring at her, her eyes full of hurt and anger. Fleur snapped her head back to the mirror and continued scrubbing her horn, more forcefully than before.

Twilight took the brush in her magic and gently wrestled it away from Fleur's own magic, Fleur having a snowball's chance in hell of stopping the alicorn from taking it. Twilight dropped the brush next to the sink and sat next to the now slumped over Fleur. "Talk to me Fleur."

"I killed him Twilight, stabbed him in the eye with my own horn. I-I-I just did it, without thinking, but now the fighting's over I can't stop thinking about it. I'm t-trying to be strong, for you, but I look at my horn and all I can think of is his blood on it. I... I close my eyes and all I can hear is his screaming as I killed him. I know he was trying to kill us, so I don't know why I feel this way!"

Twilight hugged the distraught unicorn, albeit awkwardly due to the leg issue, "I know Fleur, believe me I know."

"I'm being stupid..."

"No, you're being a pony. You're not a killer Fleur, so its okay to be upset when you're forced to do so."

"Ponies around here don't seem to have a problem with it, and I'm from here so why does it bother me so much?"

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works Fleur. I know ponies here seem to accept it, but I'm sure even the worse kind of pony here still gets upset the first time they take a life."

"I'm sorry if I made you feel this way before. I'm such a hypocrite for telling you to just get over it."

"Actually I've come to realise that I am being too hard on myself. I'm not going to say you're being too hard on yourself, because I have no right to, but you were right in that I needed to pull myself together."

"Which you did. Now I'm the one falling to pieces instead."

"Which you're allowed to do, but you can't let it consume you like I almost did. I wish it was otherwise, but these are bad ponies who would kill us and probably take satisfaction from it. I may not like it but I don't intend to let them kill me without a fight, even if it hurts me to do it. After all, we're only ponies."

"I know that Twilight. I'm just being a bit of a diva, getting in a strop because I got blood on my beautiful horn." Fleur swept her mane to the side and pouted.

"Heh, liar. Besides, your horn is now one hundred percent blood, brain, and eyeball goop free."

Fleur snorted a bitter laugh, "You know, if I had said something like that to you a few hours ago you wouldn't have been very happy."

Twilight shrugged and grinned, "I never said I'm not a hypocrite." Twilight suddenly looked serious and turned Fleur's head so she could look her in the eyes.

"You know, if you're about to kiss me, that's in extremely bad taste."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Are you on top of this Fleur? I know you lot keep going on about how much you need me for this mission, but has it never occurred to you that maybe I need you guys just as much?"

Fleur sighed and nodded, "Yeah I'm okay. I just need to clean my horn a bit more."

"Fleur..."

"Kidding, kidding." Fleur sighed, "Mostly. But yeah, I'm on it." Fleur hugged Twilight and after a few moments managed to pull herself away from the mirror to get dressed back into her uniform. "I really wish Nimble had taken my measurements better," she grumbled.

"You were measured!? I didn't even know these uniforms existed until I was given one to put on."

"Really? Huh. They were my idea actually. I got it after I mistakenly stole a cart full of cloth."

Twilight pulled her vest off over her head, "What were you trying to steal? Wow I can't believe I said that like it's normal."

"I thought it was full of food. It was my first day on the job, and I might have been a little ambitious."

"'Head of underhoofed acquisitions,'" Twilight said with a chuckle. "I couldn't believe it when that one crossed my desk."

"Yeah, well, I was going to bring it up with you but I thought you were still mad after the whole 'for the Lady' stunt I pulled."

"I was kinda mad, yes, but not to the point I wasn't going to talk to you. I couldn't stay mad at you anyway, you're too damn cute for that."

"Oh? Tell me more." Fleur fluttered her eyelashes at Twilight who groaned as she realised her mistake.

"No-no-no! I meant the other kind of cute, as in like a cat or a dog is cute! I mean, I realise how you might have misinterpreted what I said, due to how easy it would be to do so, but that's not what I meant at all!" Twilight's cheeks burned with how much she was blushing. "I'm going to shut up now."

"You're cute when you babble."

"Not listening."

A mare Twilight didn't recognise poked her head through the door of the sitting room she inhabited with Fleur and the two young fillies Fleur had found the previous day, "Ma'am, it's almost time."

"Thank you. Tell Daybreak we'll be there in a few minutes." The mare left again, returning to Twilight her chance to resume pacing with nerves.

"I refuse to believe that a princess is nervous about speaking in public."

"I'm not afraid of public speaking Fleur, I just haven't had a chance to work this all out. If I could make some cue cards or something I'd be better, but I'm having to make this up as I go."

"And I think you're overthinking this. We're all going to be out there with you, so relax Twilight, you'll be fine. You'll also be late if you don't get out there. I'm going to take the girls and head off since we have to walk there and stuff."

"Okay, I-uh... I'll see you in a bit then." Fleur left and Twilight sat down hard. Wasn't she allowed to be nervous about announcing that she was about to drag the entire country into a civil war? Not even a teensy bit? If she totally honest with herself, making this announcement was more nerve-wracking than the war itself since so much hinged on her not messing this up. She couldn't even do the breathing exercise Cadence taught her to calm down thanks to her leg. Or could she?

She wriggled her leg out of her sling and held what there was of her leg to her chest, before stretching it out as she slowly exhaled. She stopped though as the end of her leg jiggled weirdly, and against her better judgment she looked. The end of her leg was flatter than it used to be, and when she touched it with her magic she could feel lots of hard lumps that moved around slightly.

"What the..? Is this supposed to be my ankle?" A cold shiver moved down her spine and she put her leg back into her leg as fast as she could, "Gross-gross-gross-gross-gross-gross-gross-eww!! Now I feel even worse! Stupid alicorn body!"

Deciding that dwelling on that was probably the last thing she needed to do she dragged herself outside and took to the air. This at least was one definite advantage of recent events; the ability to fly around unhindered, even if a number of the ponies below her hated her simply for having wings.

Twilight put such negativity away, instead focusing on the thousands of ponies gathering in the square. She headed straight for the statue, figuring that a grand sweeping entrance probably wasn't going to be appreciated by the ponies around here.

"About time you got here!" Daybreak snapped as soon as she landed. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know, thinking, stressing, pacing, and thinking some more. Freaking out over my slowly regrowing leg and some other stuff. Why? What have you been up to?"

"Much the same, but without the regrowing my leg part. Do you know what you're going to say to these ponies?"

"Sort of, but how well it's going to go down is open to debate." Twilight looked up, seeing that the sun was high in the sky, indicating that it was probably roughly midday, "Right, no time like the present..."

Trixie leaned in and grinned, "Surely, from a purely physical perspective there is no other time but the present?"

Twilight's mouth flapped a few times before she shook her head, "Nope, I'm too busy to get dragged into that right now." She spread her wings, and with a couple of flaps made her way to the top of the statue pedestal. She looked over the crowd, taking in the throng of thousands ponies before her and noticing the overwhelming ratio of unicorns to earth ponies there was here. She cleared her throat and cast a quick spell to amplify her voice before speaking.

"Excuse me, could I have your attention please!" She waited a few moments for the noise to die down and for as many ponies as possible to turn their attention to her. "I'd like to thank you all for coming today. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am the leader of the Mareitania Liberation Front. I'm sure that by now you've heard the rumours that we have taken control of this city away from the Duke. These rumours are completely true."

Excited chatter rippled through the crowd, and Twilight waited for it to quieten down before continuing. "Our eventual goal is to liberate all of Mareitania from the Duke, because, to be frank, his madness, and the madness of all the Dukes needs to end. All ponies should be free and equal, earth ponies, unicorns, and even the pegasi. I know some of you have strong feelings towards the pegasi, so for now they will not be living amongst you. But make no mistake in thinking that they, or any other pony kinds, are beneath you. Any and all tribalism will not be tolerated. We. Are. All. Equal."

Twilight couldn't help but notice that a lot of ponies seemed uncomfortable receiving that little tidbit of news, but she persevered. "As for the meantime, life should continue as normal for a great many of you. With the removal of the old guards we will be implementing a new guard, and anypony that wishes to apply for a position will be able to do so. Once we feel it is safe enough, we will release the old guards and their loved ones from our custody."

"What about the ones you killed!?" a mare screamed from the crowd. Twilight couldn't help but sigh.

"Believe me when I say I wish we could have spared them all, but those guards that were killed chose to side with the unicorn hunters within the city." Many unicorns seemed worried by the mention of those ponies, leaving Twilight confused at just how well known 'They' were within Mareitania. She sure wished somepony had told her about them before their first meeting outside the caverns. "I regret each and every death that happened last night, and I know that they were only fulfilling their duty, but sadly their deaths were unavoidable in the situation."

"What about us though!?" a stallion yelled from the crowd, "There's no food!"

"We are aware of the food situation, and I wish I knew why the Duke would do something like this. Rest assured though that food is on its way, and it'll be here once the barrier to the ocean has been demolished in a few days time."

"You're giving us food?" a mare asked hopefully.

"Some food will be donated to certain charitable institutes within the city, but the majority will be sold through the usual traders as soon as possible. I wish we could give it all away for free, but doing that would irreparably damage the economy." Several 'boo's' drifted into Twilight's ears, and even Twilight had to admit what she said didn't sound great even if it were true.

"Lastly, I implore you, the citizens of not only Neigh Orleans, but of all Mareitania, to join us in our struggle. Surely none of you wish for a return to the horrible, murderous methods of the Duke? If you want to join us in the fight against the tyranny of the Duke please talk to any of the ponies in our uniforms. All we ask is that you believe in freedom and equality for all. For those who don't wish to join us, I ask that you keep your peace in the hopes that one day you will understand what we're trying to do. Thank you." Worst speech ever...

Twilight glided off the pedestal and landed by her friends, where Trixie immediately criticised her. "Trixie really doesn't think these ponies care about the economy. They just want free food."

"I know, but that doesn't make what I said less true. Besides, we need the money we get from selling these supplies to the traders to sell on. Nothing will actually change from how they normally get food."

"You will be keeping an eye on the traders to make sure they're not inflating their prices?" asked Fleur.

"Of course." Twilight looked back to the crowd, and was pleasantly surprised to see a large number heading towards them and the other ponies around her, asking to join. "Nice to see that speech moved some of the ponies here."

"Yeah, well," Fleur shrugged, "some would join just for kicks. Anyway, if we want to keep everypony fed and supplied you better get that barrier torn down asap."

"Yeah..." Twilight stared off into the distance for a moment before coming back to. "Right, I'll need quite a few unicorns, so Fleur, Trixie, you're coming with me."

"Not this time," said Fleur. "The filly and I are taking these fillies back to the orphanage and finding out what exactly is going on there."

Octavia suddenly perked up, "Uh, do you mind if I join you? I have something I wish to discuss with you." Her eyes twitched towards Summer, "Privately. Twilight? I don't suppose you have something Summer can do?"

"Bluh? Uhhh... Um. Ooh! I could take her for a flying lesson! Summer?"

The pegasus's eyes widened and she grinned happily, "Yes please!" Twilight smiled back, but did feel a slight pang of guilt when she saw the filly's face.

"Perfect!" Octavia exclaimed, "Lead on Fleur." Fleur let the two fillies lead the way while Octavia and the filly followed behind, leaving Twilight with Trixie and Summer.

"Right, I guess we're going to need some boats for this."

Trixie gasped mockingly, "You mean to tell Trixie that Twilight Sparkle can't walk on water?"

Twilight thought back to her training she received from Zecora when she was, ironically, trying to stop Trixie. "Actually Trixie, yes I can, but I don't need to," she ruffled her feathers, "when I got these. The boats are for you and the others."

Trixie look like she wanted to say something, and attempted to a few times before begrudgingly admitting defeat. "Touché. I guess you really know how to shut Trixie up."

"You seem to be referring to yourself in the third pony a lot again."

"Am I? Trixie hadn't noticed..." Twilight pulled a face in the hopes Trixie might catch on, "Ahem, I mean, I hadn't noticed. Shut up."

Twilight grinned, but forced herself towards other, more important things, "Daybreak? I'm going to need some boats."

"Why? Can't you walk on water?"

"You heard that, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"So," Fleur said questioningly as she followed behind the three fillies who were chatting between themselves, "what's on your mind?"

Octavia's face screwed up as she tried to think of the best way to put it, "It's about Summer. She keeps acting rather peculiar towards me."

"You're going to have to give me a bit more to work with here."

"Right, sorry. Um... how to say this... She keeps trying to kiss me, and I'm fairly sure she wants to-uh, take it further if you know what I mean."

Fleur snorted with laughter, "Really? Good grief Octavia! I suspect that means she's attracted to you."

"I know that!" Octavia blurted a bit loudly, blushing when some bystanders turned to look at her. "I just don't understand why when I've never given her any indication that I like her in such a manner. And I wouldn't anyway since I'm not into mares."

The filly cocked her head back over her shoulder and gave Octavia her most malicious grin, "What? Not even if she offered to play with your hooves?"

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Octavia spluttered, but it was very obvious from her blush that she knew full well what the filly meant.

"No? That's funny... You sure seemed to enjoy that pony whipping your hooves when we were taken prisoner, and don't deny it, I saw the snail trails down your back legs after."

"Shut up filly!"

"And I'm still wondering when you're going to use those stockings you picked up in Prance as bandages..."

"I swear to Celestia filly! If you don't shut up I'm going to tie you to a brick and throw you in the river!" Octavia was almost glowing she was blushing that hard.

"Promises, promises." The filly cantered forward a few steps to narrowly avoid the kick Octavia directed at her rear.

Fleur fought to hide her amusement, "Calm yourself down Octavia, everypony has their own little quirks and fetishes. I for one enjoy spanking."

"But doesn't that hurt if its done too hard?"

"Maybe? I don't know. None of the stallions seem to complain."

"Excuse me?"

"Anyway, this is getting totally off topic. How about you tell me exactly what's going on to make you think she has the hots for you so bad." Octavia did so, starting with the kiss in the operating room, and ending with Summer almost forcing herself on Octavia the previous night, along with some other observations she had made of Summer's behaviour towards her. Fleur let out a long, slow whistle, "Yeah, she got it bad for you."

"And I could live with that if I was able to let her down gently, but she's so sensitive! I could also live with it if I knew why she was being so forceful towards me. I really don't want to hurt her Fleur, but I can't have her forcing herself on me. Who know where she draws the line for what's too much?"

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes. As much as she liked Octavia, Twilight, and Trixie, sometimes their naivety got on her nerves. Even the filly was more savvy on some subjects than they were. "What did Summer used to be Octavia?"

"Well, a slave I suppose."

"More specifically..."

"A sex slave?"

"Yep. How did you think her... lets call them... clients, treat her? Do you think they bought her flowers and a drink first?"

"Of course not! They just forced themselves... upon... her... Oh." Octavia groaned and hung her head, "I am such an idiot."

"You sort of are. That poor filly hasn't been shown an ounce of genuine affection in her entire life, beyond what little her mother might have given her. You're the pony she's closest to so I'm not surprised she's trying to reciprocate those affections, but she's doing it in the only way she really knows how. She's never been shown love before so she sure as hell doesn't know how to show it to somepony else."

"But what am I going to do?"

"Tell her straight that it's not going to happen. Obviously you have to be a little tactful about it, but you can't let things keep going like this." Octavia nodded sadly. That was one conversation she wasn't looking forward to.

Twilight stood in her little rowing boat with Trixie and Summer and stared at the barrier, all two miles of it, arching out into the ocean. It must have been one hell of a project when it was being constructed, and very impressive seeing as how the barrier was easily over a thousand years old. Even when the barrier joined with the bank of the Mareissippi it continued up out of the water and joined with a wall that merged into the mountains on either side.

"Still think we can tear this thing down so easily?" Trixie asked. Trixie wasn't about to admit it but part of her wanted to see Twilight to give up without even trying.

"I never said it was going to be easy. I just hadn't expected it to be so big if I'm honest. We don't need to pull the whole thing down though, just a gap big enough for ships to get through." She kept propelling the boat towards the barrier until it bumped up against the massive rocks it was composed of, the smallest of which was easily as big as ten ponies.

"So then," Trixie gestured at the barrier and smiled at Twilight, "get to work." Twilight swallowed and focused her magic on a rock at the top of the barrier, lifting it clear. Problem was that now she didn't know what to do with it.

"Any ideas?"

"Launch it out to sea?"

"I suppose that's an option..." She steadied herself and prepared to throw it. That was her first mistake. Or second if you consider thinking of throwing it as her first. As she threw the boulder the opposite force pushed the rowing boat back a dozen meters in the space of a second, tipping Twilight out while the boulder only clipped off the top of the barrier, dislodging more boulders which tumbled down the other side.

Twilight surfaced to the unsurprising sight of Trixie laughing her ass off while Summer quivered in the rear of the boat. "Please don't do that again," she whimpered.

"Trust me, I have no intentions of trying that again. Can't believe I thought that was a good idea." She teleported back into the boat and shook herself mostly dry, enjoying Trixie's outrage as she flicked water all over the unicorn. "So, any other suggestions?"

"Can't you harness the power of the sun to vaporise the barrier or something?"

"Harness the power of the sun?" Twilight stared incredulously at Trixie, "Is this that stupid 'Sol Invictus' rubbish? Because I can tell you now that it's really not true."

"Which is exactly what Celestia wants you to think," Trixie stated. "It's no secret that she's the most powerful of all the alicorns."

"She's no more powerful than the rest of us! The only real difference is her thousand years of experience. If Luna hadn't been on the moon then she would be just as good. Now can I have a serious suggestion on what to do with these boulders."

"Can't we do what they're doing?" said Summer, who was pointing across the river. Twilight turned to see what Summer was looking at, which turned out to be the other unicorns who were passing a boulder from boat to boat before dropping it on the banks of the river.

"Oh," Twilight muttered, "I guess we could do that." She picked up a boulder and moved it towards the riverbank, depositing it in the shallows. She was about to pick up another when the telltale sound of dark magic made her wince.

"Don't give me that face," Trixie growled, "its the only way I can lift these damn boulders." Trixie hefted a boulder the size of a small cottage into the air and moved it to where Twilight had left hers. She grinned darkly before picking up another and repeating the process.

"This is it," said Dolly after stopping outside the door of a large and semi dilapidated building. It was a good job too because outwardly there was no indication of this building being any different to the others around here.

"Yeesh, talk about your fixer-upper," the filly muttered before following after the two younger fillies as they headed inside. The interior was little better, and possible seemed colder than outside. It also smelled terribly of damp.

"Do you know where Miss Tenderlove might be?" Fleur asked the two fillies.

"She might be in her office," Pickle told her. "We can take you there but we're not going in. There's no way I want to see her ever again." She led them to a room at the back of the building, "In there."

"Thanks guys. I promise I'll get to the bottom of why she would do this."

"Hah!" the filly laughed, "Good pun!" She wilted under the combined weight of all their glares. "Bottom? Of why she's making them... y'know..." She hung her head with shame, "I'm an awful pony."

"Zip it filly." Fleur waited a few seconds for Dolly and Pickle to run off before knocking. Silence. Fleur knocked again, but there was still no answer. She placed her ear to the door and raised an eyebrow at the sound of snoring coming from within. "There's definitely somepony in there..."

"Should we just go in then?" asked Octavia.

"I guess so." Fleur turned the handle in her magic and pushed the door open to the sight of a pale pink unicorn with delicate yellow curls slumped over a desk while cuddling an empty bottle. "Oh for goodness sake." She was about to shake the pony awake when she noticed the dried remains of tears on her cheeks.

Suddenly feeling unsure about the situation she changed tact and pulled the bottle out of the unicorn's grip before shaking her gently. "Miss Tenderlove? Wake up please." The unicorn groaned and blinked a few times before looking up at her new visitors.

"Oh! Oh I'm sorry. Just give me a second." She took a moment to rub the remains of her tears away before trying to put on a brave face. Then she focused on the filly, "Ah... I'm afraid that if you were hoping to leave her here I'm not sure we really have the room."

"Nah, that's alright, she can just sleep in a cupboard or something," Fleur joked, though none of the others appreciated it, least of all the filly.

"Hey!"

"Joking, joking. Actually we're here to bring Dolly and Pickle back. Care to explain why they were in city hall being stuffed full of the mayors... Well, stuffed full of the mayor?"

"Fleur!" Octavia protested while Tenderlove folded her ears and shrank back, the beginnings of fresh tears building in her eyes.

"Are- Are they alright?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"As fine as they could be given the situation," Fleur answered. Tenderlove looked away and Fleur felt herself soften at the sorrowful expression the pink unicorn wore. "What's going on? Why were they there?"

"I'm sorry!" Tenderlove cried, "It's all my fault! I never wanted them to get hurt!" Fleur looked to both Octavia and the filly, both of whom shrugged with confusion, not knowing what to make of the situation.

"Then why were they there?" she reiterated as calmly as possible.

"T-to make money for the orphanage..."

"You whore these kids out!?"

"No! Never!"

"Then why were they there!?" Fleur glared at Tenderlove, determined that she wasn't going to leave until she got an answer. Tenderlove must've picked up on that because she wiped the tears out of her eyes and tried to pull herself together.

"Please, let me explain. I was fifteen when I started this place, but I needed money to make it work so I asked the mayor. He wasn't interested in the slightest so I begged him, saying I'd do anything." She sighed, "He took me at my word. He... used me, and gave me some money to get this place started, but the money didn't last long, and every time I had to ask for more he- he-" She rubbed a fresh tear away. "It was worth it to me because I had given the orphans of Neigh Orleans a place where they were safe, even if I had to give myself to the mayor to get it."

"But then you got older," the filly sighed.

"Filly!" Octavia scolded, "Don't be rude."

"Actually, she's right. That bastard mayor started demanding that I let him use some of my charges if I wanted more money, and I-I-I didn't know what else to do..." She hung her head and sobbed, "Dolly and Pickle were just the latest... I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I swear I never wanted any of this to happen! I just want to look after my kids."

Tenderlove burst into another round of tears, sobbing openly as they looked at her. Fleur's anger completely died on her. She had come here ready to hate this pony and drag her out into the light, exposing her crimes to all. Instead all she had was a hollow feeling. "It's alright Miss Tenderlove, we understand."

"Y-you do?"

"I do, and I can tell you now that things are going to change. I'll get you your funding and then you can do this properly."

"But the mayor! He'll never agree to this!"

Fleur held up a hoof, "The mayor is no longer a problem."

"He isn't? How?"

The filly sniggered, "Boy you really missed a lot while you were drunk off your ass."

"What are you thinking Fleur?" Octavia asked.

"I'm thinking that I am sick of the young having to suffer for the mistakes of others. There are far too many orphans in Mareitania with nopony to look after them, so I'm going to do what I can to fix that."

Twilight stood in the center of the boat, directing Summer as the pegasus wobbled through the air around them. "That's it Summer, that's it! You're doing great! Remember not to angle your wings too much or you'll lose altitude."

"Who'd have thought she'd have it in her," Trixie said from her spot lounging in the back of the boat, watching Summer fly past again with a lazy eye.

"All pegasi know how to fly at some level, and Summer said that she did use to try flying before her captors stopped her. It's more like she's remembering how to fly rather than learn it." Twilight smiled as she watched Summer bank around and head for the boat, but the smile quickly faded. "You're coming in too fast Summer, slow down!"

"I can't!" Summer missed a beat of her wings and dropped towards the river with a shout. Thankfully Twilight had managed to catch her in her magic before she got drenched. Twilight deposited her in the boat, Summer's wings sagging by her sides. "Sorry Twilight, my wings hurt and I'm tired."

"It's fine Summer. Your wings haven't been used much so they will wear out quick until you build some strength in them. Have a drink and a rest and then maybe you can have another go." Summer nodded and drank greedily from the canteen Twilight offered to her before curling up in the bottom of the boat and falling asleep a few minutes later.

"Wish I could fall asleep that easily," Trixie grumbled.

"As horrible as it is to say, she's used to sleeping in boats."

"I think there's quite a bit of difference between this and the big ass thing she was on before."

"Okay, yes, granted, but there's also the fact that she hasn't slept in some time. You've been up just as long, surely you must be tired?"

"A bit, but not as much as you'd think, which is strange because the Great and Powerful Trixie does like her beauty sleep."

"Trixie, can I ask you something?"

"As long as it doesn't involve maths."

"Doesn't any of this bother you?"

"Moving rocks? Um...no?"

"Uh, okay, I might not have been very clear then. I mean the fighting, and hurting ponies. Killing them..."

"Well... no, not really. We're not all as pathetic as you are when it comes to this."

"Not wanting to kill ponies isn't pathetic!" Twilight bared her teeth, but Trixie didn't even move.

"Not what I meant. The only ponies I actually want to kill are the Duke and his missus. Maybe the Viscount too. Anypony else dying is just an unfortunate byproduct of them getting in Trixie's way."

"And that's it? Death to anypony standing between you and the Duke? What's wrong with you Trixie? You weren't like this before."

"Before what? Before I found that my entire family had been burnt alive as an 'example?' The problem is that you don't have the right motivation Twilight. You want to help ponies, which is noble and all, but killing ponies is kinda counterintuitive to that. Look at Fleur, she wants to tear the Duke down, and killing doesn't bother her. Don't really know about Octavia though."

"Actually it does bother Fleur." Twilight shared what had happened in the bathroom in city hall earlier in the day. "Leaving you as the only pony with no issues about killing."

"Apart from Octavia."

"I can hardly expect her to be okay with it Trixie. You're the only pony who doesn't have a problem with it, and I think I know why."

Trixie sighed and rolled her eyes, "Here we go..."

"This dark magic is changing you Trixie, and not for the better."

"Blah blah blah... What proof do you have that its changing me?"

"How about that?" Twilight pointed to the tip of Trixie's horn, which had discoloured even further since Deal Good's defeat, having picked up a slight orangey tinge.

"Huh... I hadn't noticed that. But that is hardly proof of the radical psychological changes you think I've gone through."

"I also think your horn's slightly bent."

"Things happening to my horn is the hardly the issue! They are just minor side effects! If you don't have anything else to say then I suggest you shut up. I need this magic to fight the Duke, and surely that's more important than anything else? Or is it that you're jealous? You're no longer the special snowflake with amazing magic? You hate having to share the limelight with another pony who's just as good at magic as you!"

Twilight sighed sadly. Clearly there was no reasoning with Trixie over this. "Sombra was driven mad by the use of dark magic. He enslaved the entire Crystal Empire and sought to spread his darkness throughout the land."

"So naturally that's exactly what I'm going to do? Get real Twilight."

"No, but after the alicorn amulet I thought you'd be more wary of the corrupting influence of dark magic."

"Totally. Different. Thing. I'm done discussing this Twilight. Let's get back to work."

Fleur stormed up the steps of city hall, part of her happily noticing that the blood stains were gone, and asked a pony where Daybreak was. She was directed to the mayors office, and stomped the entire way there, her resolve making her be altogether too brusque with ponies that were technically on her side. She threw open the doors to the office, stepped in, and bellowed, "Daybreak!"

The was a swoosh of paper as the unicorn bolted upright, "I swear I was just resting my eyes!"

Fleur watched the cloud of paper he created floated back onto the desk. "What?" she asked, having been completely thrown off track.

"Nothing!"

Fleur shook her head and tried to regain her focus, "Whatever. I need something from you."

"Yeah? You and everypony else within a mile of this place!" He groaned and rubbed his eyes, "What is it you want Fleur?"

"I need funding for the orphanage in town."

Daybreak stared at her like he was waiting for the punch line, "Uh... no? Or rather yes, but not right now."

"Why not now?"

"I've had ponies going through the treasury records, and not once is there any mention of the treasury funding any orphanages. I'm trying to do a hundred and one things here Fleur, so I'm afraid your request is going to have to wait its turn."

Fleur narrowed her eyes at Daybreak before smiling sweetly, "Of course, what was I thinking?" She walked toward the desk and rested her elbows on it before cupping her chin with her hooves. "Tell me Daybreak, how big are you down there?"

"I really don't think that's appropriate Fleur."

"Big enough to satisfy your wife though?"

"Well, yeah, but that's hardly the point. What is this Fleur?"

"What do you think, handsome?"

"That you're offering to scratch my back if I scratch yours."

"Oh? And how should I do that?"

"I don't know, but it sure seems like you're offering to have sex with me..."

Fleur giggled, "Ooh you are a cheeky one aren't you. She then slammed her hooves down on the desk, "You're also completely wrong! What I'm offering you is the chance to continue satisfying your wife because I won't have to geld you because you gave me what I asked for."

Daybreak held Fleur's glare, "I'm pretty sure there's laws against this kind of extortion. And if there isn't I'm sure as hell going to make some."

"Daybreak..." Fleur said dangerously.

"Alright! I don't know what we have spare right now, but I'll get it some funding as soon as I can. In the mean time I can probably donate some of the incoming food if it makes you feel better!"

"You're a darling Daybreak." Fleur flounced out of the office leaving a muttering Daybreak behind.

"Crazy fucking mares with their crazy... craziness!"

Fleur continued around the corner and stopped when she found the others there, including Tenderlove, with Octavia giving Fleur her most disapproving glare, "I hope that's not how you intend to treat all our allies?"

"Of course not. Just the ones holding the purse strings."

"You did it then?" Tenderlove asked hopefully, "You got the orphanage funding?"

"Not at the moment, but you will be getting some food donations in the meantime."

"That's wonderful! As long as the children are fed I can wait for anything else!" The mare gave Fleur a hug, which Fleur returned rather awkwardly since she wasn't expecting it. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Fleur gingerly patted the unicorn on the back, "That's quite alright. Now hadn't you better be heading back to look after your kids, and maybe have a talk with Dolly and Pickle?"

Tenderlove's face fell slightly, "Yes, of course. Thank you so much for this. You've made a real difference in the lives of so many young ponies."

"Oh, I haven't even started yet."

"Isn't this going to let a whole load of salt water into the river?" Trixie asked, a little randomly.

"Well... yes, of course it is."

"Isn't that going to like, kill the bayou?"

"It might do..." Twilight admitted. "Hopefully the bayou is far enough away to survive it. Besides, the benefit outweighs the cost." Twilight looked at Trixie out the corner of her eye, "Since when are you so concerned about the environmental impact of doing this?"

"Oh I'm sorry! Is Trixie not being monstrous and evil enough for you?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it. What I meant was that even I hadn't really thought about it until you said, and I overthink everything."

"Really? I thought Twilight Sparkle would've been all over the environmental impact of doing this."

"And she would've- Ugh, I mean, I would've been if not doing this was really an option. Anyway, if you really think about it, all we're doing is returning the river to its natural state before the barrier was made. Frankly I'm surprised that the river isn't actually full of mud seeing how it has nowhere to go."

"You know water can pass right through the barrier, yes?"

"Yes, I know that, but mud and silt would sink to the bottom and build up. I guess the current is just strong enough to push it through. Although the barrier might have something to do with why the river's so wide here..."

They continued working, moving boulder after boulder, the gap they were making becoming large enough to fit at least three reasonable sized ships through side by side. "I wonder what's on the other side?" Trixie mused quietly.

"What? You mean like heaven, or the Summer lands, or whatever you prefer to think of as the afterlife?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, "No Twilight, the other side of the barrier..."

"Oh. Right. We could have a look if you want?" Trixie nodded and Twilight started moving the boat with her magic, propelling it out through the hole they had made. To their pleasant surprise, golden sandy beaches stretched up the coastline on both sides.

Trixie let out a low whistle, "We could have been lounging on a nice sunny beach all this time? I feel like I've been cheated."

"There'll be no lounging for anypony yet, not until we get this barrier down."

"Oh come on! Its wide enough already!" Trixie pouted, "I'm sure sunning myself on a beach will make Trixie less evil..."

"That's possibly the worst argument I've heard towards needing to sunbathe, but y'know what? Fine." Twilight pushed the boat towards the beach, forcing it up onto the sand before jumping out. "Do what you're going to do Trixie. I'm going to keep working on the barrier."

Trixie lay down and stretched out on the golden sand, "Can do boss lady." Twilight took to the air and studied the barrier from above. Trixie wasn't wrong in that the gap in the barrier was wide enough for their purposes, although Twilight fully intended to make it wider in the future. The problem was depth.

"Maybe I need to see this from a different perspective." She formed a shield around herself, trapping her in a bubble of air, and dive-bombed into the water. Unsurprisingly, it was dark. Even her light spell was barely able to pierce the gloom a few meters ahead of her, but it was enough to see that the barrier wasn't dismantled enough vertically to let ships pass safely.

She started moving boulders again, but soon gave up as her bubble of air would soon run out. Instead she came up with a far more radical solution. Shockwave spells were powerful, if indiscriminate, and that was above water. Nopony had really studied the effects of them being used underwater, but Twilight suspected the spell would be either less effective, or more. She was about to find out.

This time she prepared ahead by anchoring herself into position with her telekinesis, before shrinking her shield so her horn was outside it. She readied the spell and cast it, an unstoppable wave of magic and pressurized water smashing into the barrier, almost breaking apart the boulders facing her. Unfortunately though some of the force bounced back, breaking her anchor and busting her shield which wasn't prepared to deal with the force.

Twilight tumbled through the water, losing all perception of up and down as the water swept her along. She hit something, the shock forcing the last of her air out of her lungs. Black started creeping in around her vision, and in desperation she teleported towards the light in the hopes of breaching the water.

She made it, and Twilight desperately gasped for air as she tried to stay afloat. "Note to self, don't cast shockwaves underwater." She slowly became aware of somepony yelling her name, somepony that sounded a lot like Trixie.

"Twilight! Twilight! Are you alright!" Twilight levitated herself out of the water before setting herself down on the surface, her legs shaking. Rather than attempt to walk on the turbulent river, she attempted one last teleport and found herself nose to nose with Trixie. "Gah! Celestia freaking damn it Twilight! Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry," Twilight wheezed as she sagged down onto the ground. The ground was sandy... "I'm on the beach? How'd I get here?"

"I don't know! You did whatever stupid thing you did, made a huge wave that's now sweeping out to sea somewhere, then appeared at the surface like, twenty seconds later! What the hell did you do Twilight!?"

"I cast a shockwave spell, hoping to knock the bottom of the barrier out."

"In that case I think you succeeded." Twilight quickly turned to look at the barrier, the hole they had made now being twice the size it had been previously. She also guiltily noticed the other unicorns having to help each other back into their boats. "Bravo."

Twilight groaned and rested her head on the sand. Once again she had acted without thinking and others were paying the price. She thanked Celestia that nopony had been really hurt this time. "I guess we should be getting back to the others. I imagine that Daybreak probably wants a break by now."

"Great idea, as soon as you find our boat."

"Why? What happened to it?"

"Some maniac made a tidal wave and swept it out to sea."

"Trixie! Why didn't you say so? Summer's in there!" Twilight dried herself off and flew away from the beach. Thankfully it didn't take long for her to find the rowing boat on the now relatively calm sea, and she flew down to it, only to find Summer still sleeping in the bottom. At least until Twilight landed in it.

"Mmmm? Oh, hey Twilight, is it time for more flying?"

"Not exactly." Summer blinked a few times and got up, stretching and flexing her wings before something very important occurred to her.

"Twilight, w-where are we?"

"Heh, kind of a funny story that. Also, congratulations on leaving Mareitania."

Twilight staggered into city hall, her misadventures at the barrier having taken their toll. Trixie didn't seem exhausted in the slightest to Twilight's annoyance, while Summer was practically bouncing with happiness. They were directed towards the mayors residence where Fleur and the others were already waiting for them.

"Gosh Twilight," said Octavia, "You look absolutely exhausted."

"Don't cast shockwave spells underwater," Twilight mumbled before collapsing onto an empty sofa.

"Um... okay? Shouldn't be too difficult for me to not do that."

Summer bounded over to Octavia and bounced on the tips of her hooves while fluttering her wings slightly, "I flew Octavia! I flew!"

"Really? Bravo Summer! I'm so happy for you!"

"Speak for yourself," the filly grumbled.

"How was she?" Octavia asked Twilight, carefully choosing to ignore the filly.

"Pretty good actually. She just needs to keep practicing and building the strength in her wings." Twilight sat up to look at the others, observing how displeased the filly appeared to be. It was actually quite cute seeing her sitting there, pouting with her forelegs crossed, but the annoyance was probably well founded. Maybe it was time she started looking into how alicorn regeneration worked.

"How about you guys?" Trixie asked, ignorant of the thoughts starting to percolate in Twilight's head, "Get up to much?"

"A bit," said Fleur. "We were formulating plans to take care of the orphans around Mareitania, but then we got tired and gave up. Other than that I returned those fillies to the orphanage and extorted Daybreak into giving them some food and money. Then we went and got all our stuff from the underground."

"Crap!" Twilight swore suddenly, "I should probably go help Daybreak."

"I wouldn't worry about it. They released the guards and their families earlier, so Thorn is up there covering for him while he gets some sleep."

"What about our ponies? Did he set up a rota so they can get some sleep too?"

"I think so. He said something about getting the new guard recruits working as soon as possible to give our ponies a break. I'm sure that could backfire spectacularly, but we don't have a lot of choice at the moment."

"Oh, okay." Twilight slumped back down, resting her chin on the armrest. "Did you say you got our stuff from the underground?"

"Yep, although I'm sure Celestia can wait until you've had some sleep," Fleur said, having guessed what Twilight might be after.

"It's not Celestia I need to speak to."

"Hello Twilight."

"Celestia! Is Luna there? I really need to talk to her!"

"I'm afraid Luna isn't seeing anypony at the moment, not after whatever it was that happened."

"Is she okay?"

"She's a little shaken, but she assures me that she's fine." There was a pause, followed by a sigh, "What happened Twilight? I've asked Luna but she won't tell me."

"I don't know what happened. I was having a nightmare about... something," Twilight didn't feel ready to share with Celestia the fact that she had killed somepony yet, "and Luna stopped it. We were talking about it when she said something weird, something about liking what my mind was becoming." Twilight also felt that what Luna had really said could stay between the two of them. "Then she went all twitchy and panicked, said she had to go, and vanished.

"I see..." Celestia said quietly, leaving Twilight guessing at just how much she knew, or at least suspected. "Are you sure there's nothing more you can tell me?"

"Celestia, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not going to break Luna's trust by talking about this when she doesn't want to."

"Very well, I won't ask you to. Perhaps instead we can talk about business? I assume your plan went well?"

"More or less. There might have been a few hiccups along the way, but we've taken the city, freed the pegasi, and made a hole in the barrier, so all we need now are those supplies."

"They should be there shortly. I'm not nautically inclined, but even I know it only takes little more than a week to sail from Las Pegasus to the southern point of Mareitania. I've already ordered for more ships to be dispatched, so hopefully you will be well supplied with food. I've also organised a little something for you, to help you with your mission"

"A little something? Like a surprise? What is it?"

Celestia giggled lightly, "Oh Twilight, I would've thought your time with Pinkie Pie would've made you a little more appreciative of how surprises work. You'll find out in good time."

"Fine..." Twilight growled, "Now if you'll excuse me Celestia, I need sleep. Badly."

"Of course Twilight. I'll suggest to Luna that perhaps she ought to talk to you about what happened since neither of you wish to discuss it with me." Twilight was no expert at reading ponies, but even she could tell that Celestia sounded a little hurt.

"Okay then. Bye."

"Goodbye." The stone fell silent and Twilight slumped over onto her side, not even bothering to climb into the bed next to her before falling asleep.

Author's Notes:

Happy belated holiday y'all! Hope your day wasn't as boring as mine was. (I will never understand how my sister in law managed to undercook those roasties so badly.)

31. New recruits

It was in fact three days before any ships were sighted. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but with the ships continued absence the citizens of Neigh Orleans were beginning to get restless, doubting the rebel's word on whether the food was coming or not. Thankfully those doubts could now be alleviated.

That still didn't stop Twilight from pacing as best she could up and down along the riverfront where the ships would be docking. At the moment there were only four relatively small ships, which could contain quite a lot of food, but enough to feed everypony? Not likely. Hopefully the rest of the ships weren't far behind.

A great many of the city's inhabitants had turned up to watch the coming of the ships, which had initially made Twilight wonder whether any of these ponies had jobs, but it worked in her favour because the more ponies that saw the big Equestrian flags flying off the masts, the better. However, even Twilight felt inclined to question what else the Mareitanians saw when the first ship docked.

The gangplank thudded onto the stone of the dock, and a few seconds later a large grey and black griffon in an almost comically large hat walked down it. This drew the attention of a large number of the ponies here, ponies that hadn't even heard of griffons, let alone seen one. This would prove to be an education for a great many ponies here today, though Twilight would be hard pressed to say what that education might have been in beyond zoology.

Twilight boggled at the griffon for a moment before remembering that she should do something, and treat it like it's perfectly normal, which in all honesty it was to anyone outside of Mareitania. "Good to see you captain..?"

The griffon removed his hat and bowed. "Captain Blackbeak, at your service," he said before returning his hat to its rightful place.

"Blackbeak? But your beak's orange."

"Tis a family name."

Okaaayyy... "Very well, good to meet you captain, though I had expected to see you a little sooner than this, I have to admit."

"Ah well, my apologies Princess, we might have been here sooner if it weren't fer that freak wave what hit us a few days ago. Knocked us off course it did, as well as damaged my ship." Twilight could feel Trixie's eyes boring into the back of her head.

"Its quite alright captain, though if you could avoid calling me princess I'd appreciate it."

"Whatever you wish, your Majesty." Twilight huffed for a moment, but the grin on the captains beak told her enough to not fall for his bait.

"Call me ma'am if you must. Royal titles are out for me at the moment." There was a thunk as the second ship pulled alongside the dock, "I trust you can get these ships unloaded?"

"O' course we can." The griffon stuck two claws in his beak and let out a shrill whistle, getting the attention of his very multi-racial crew. There was mostly ponies of all kinds, but Twilight could see a minotaur, a donkey jenny, a couple more griffons, a few goats, and an ambulatory cloud that was probably a sheep of all things, and that was just the first two ships. On the others she could see a few zebras thrown into the mix as well as a tall Saddle Arabian mare and a diamond dog or two. Oh, and a cow. Twilight was seriously debating whether Celestia had done this on purpose. Was this her surprise?"

She waited for the captain to yell a bunch of nautical themed nonsense before attempting to regain his attention. "So, captain, you seem to have a real mixed bag of crew members."

"Oh aye, and I wouldn't trade any of them for all the tea in Canterlot. I hope you don't mind my asking, but did something happen to your leg?"

"Yes, something did happen to my leg." Twilight silently stared at the griffon, daring him to say more. Thankfully he apparently knew the skill of keeping his beak shut.

"Alrighty then your ma-uh, ma'am."

"Did Celestia send anything else? I was expecting some additional help."

"Ah yes. Them. Not sure what you want them for, 'specially the stallion. Cretinous landlubber threw up all over me ship, ate a bunch of pies, then threw up everywhere again. Its gonna take weeks to get the smell out of the cabins. Give me a minute and I'll see if I can't locate your missing crew." The griffon leapt back onto his ship with a couple flaps of his wings, leaving Twilight on her own since the others were trying to explain to Summer and the filly that there were far more than just ponies out there.

"But they're just stripy ponies!" the filly complained.

"Do you have any idea how racist you're being right now?" Trixie teased the filly.

"No! No I don't!"

"Why is she so tall?" Summer asked, pointing at the Saddle Arabian.

"Because... Because ponies from Saddle Arabia are..." Octavia answered lamely.

"But why?"

"Just because."

"Oh. Okay then." Summer fell into a thoughtful silence for a few moment, "Why's that cow thing only got two legs?"

"Because he does Summer!"

"At least he isn't just a stripy... whatchacallem, cow." added the filly. Twilight did briefly wonder how this country had dairy products despite the lack of cows. Then she decided that she'd rather not know.

Fleur looked at the both of them, "So the half lion, half eagle things don't bother you at all?"

"Well yeah, but I don't know how to describe them. What's a lion?" the filly asked.

"Oh for goodness sake."

Twilight cocked her ear, half listening to the others conversation, but remained waiting for the captain's return. While she was waiting she watched a dozen or so pegasi take off from the ships and start dipping weights on ropes into the river, probably in an attempt to measure it for depth so they could bring larger ships in.

Eventually a captain did return, but it really wasn't the captain Twilight was expecting. Walking down the gangplank, with heavy duffle bags slung over their backs, were the three premier members of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. They stopped in front of Twilight and saluted, "Wonderbolts reporting for duty ma'am."

At least I don't have to correct them on the title thing. "Uh, I'd salute back, normally... I-uh... What are you doing here?"

"Ma'am? We're here to assist you on your mission."

"But I never asked for Wonderbolts! Uh, not that I'm not glad to see you of course, but this is rather unexpected. Did Celestia send you?"

Spitfire glanced back at the others with her for a split second, "Yes ma'am. She also told us to give you this." She reached back, pulling a letter out of her duffle bag with her mouth before holding it out for Twilight. Twilight tore the envelope open and read it as fast as she could, hoping this might all make sense afterwards.

Dearest Twilight

Surprise! I was going to have some confetti burst out of the letter but I have no idea how Pinkie Pie makes it work without incendiaries. This is actually the third letter I've wrote to you this evening. The others never survived the process.

I suppose if you're reading this then you've already met your new recruits to your mission. I know you only requested some of my Royal Guard, but I felt that the Wonderbolts might be far more effective at training others. It also means that Rainbow Dash will be fulfilling one of their roles in their absence as her duty as a Wonderbolts reserve.

They have been fully briefed on everything they might need, and they will follow your orders to the letter. Use them wisely Twilight.

I must admit that I wish I could see your face right now, especially if you're doing that cute little frown you get when you're confused. (Twilight made a mental effort to stop frowning.) A lot of me wishes I could see any look on your face these days because it means I can see your face at all. You are sorely missed.

Sincerely

Celestia

"Was she drinking when she wrote this?" Twilight wondered out loud, though a little too loud judging by the way Spitfire was looking at her. "Ahem, right, well, yes. Uh, I'm assuming that if you've been fully briefed about your mission, then you know what happens to pegasi in this country?"

"Yes ma'am, and we're ready to do our part. Show us those recruits and we'll get them into shape in no time."

"Good to hear, good to hear. I don't suppose you could tell me what you know about weather management, or making cloudcrete as the pegasi here call it."

"I'm not sure I understand ma'am."

"The thing is we've only freed one small group of pegasi so far, and not one of them has volunteered to fight for our cause, meaning you have nopony to train. However, we do have a need to build cloud homes for them, but none of them know how to make building quality clouds. That and nopony here knows how to plan weather out properly."

"Begging your pardon ma'am, but we were sent here to train pegasi and fight. Princess Celestia never said anything about weather planning and building homes."

"I like to think you were sent here to follow my commands. I realise this isn't what you were expecting, but right now we have a lot of pegasi to house and a weather system to plan. You'll get your chance to fight soon enough. Besides, you only need to teach them how to build cloud homes, not do it for them. Once they know how to do it themselves they can carry on without your instruction."

Spitfire saluted again, but not without Twilight noticing a slight slump in Fleetfoot's stance, "Don't worry ma'am, we'll get it done."

"Excellent, thank you Captain." Twilight looked towards the others, "Uh... Octavia, Summer, could you come here a moment?" The two ponies did as she asked, and Twilight had to smirk at Octavia raising her eyebrows upon noticing the Wonderbolts. "Could you two escort these ponies to Puddingarde please. And Summer, once you're there, could you introduce them to Windy Rush They're going to help the pegasi there build their own cloud homes."

"Are we meant to come back after?" asked Octavia, looking at Summer out of the corner of her eye. Twilight wasn't sure what to make of that entirely.

"Not immediately. If you could stay there to keep an eye on the pegasi and our new recruits from the city for a few days I'd appreciate it." Octavia sighed but nodded, while Summer smiled happily. Octavia took the lead and started walking, while the Wonderbolts saluted Twilight again before following after the earth pony.

Twilight groaned and took a seat next to Fleur, who quickly noticed her dour expression. "Problem?"

"Yes. No. Maybe. I'm not sure why Celestia would send the Wonderbolts of all ponies. They haven't exactly proven their reliability over the last few years, and they've only just got here and they're already questioning my orders."

"And? They're a bunch of stunt fliers, what did you expect?"

"The Wonderbolts are supposed to be a military body of elite fliers, answerable directly to the princesses, so I kind of expect them to be disciplined and respectful. I don't expect them to salute me half a dozen times while questioning my orders, simply because my orders aren't exactly what Celestia said they would be."

"Give them a chance Twilight. You don't expect discipline out of us, so why do you expect it of them?"

"Discipline out of you guys? I'd rather try herding cats. The thing is though is that you guys are my friends so I don't expect discipline out of you, whereas they are highly trained military specialists that are meant to follow a rigid chain of command. A chain of command that I myself am actually quite high on."

"Relax Twilight, as long as they do as they're told I don't see what the problem is. They'll come around, and if they don't, use some of that 'Princess of Friendship' charm on them and they'll be putty in your hooves."

"Yeah," Trixie interjected, "or if that doesn't work, demote Spitfire and replace her with Summer."

"How is that supposed to help?"

"I didn't say it would help, but it would probably be funny."

Twilight shook her head and hauled herself to her hooves, "Right, I'm off. Things to do, ponies to see. You know how it is. Do you guys have anything to do?"

"Not really," said Fleur. "Now that we've taken the city we've hit a bump in our role of heads of underhoofed acquisitions, since we'd be stealing from ourselves. So... yeah, we're at a bit of a loss."

"And I should probably be at Puddingarde helping to train the new unicorns, of which we have so very many," Trixie added.

"So... you're here because..?"

"Because nopony told me to go there. That and I didn't know if you needed me or not."

Twilight grunted a sigh, "Trixie, could you head to Puddingarde and help train our new adepts please?"

"Sure! No problem Twilight!" Trixie jumped to her hooves and trotted away swiftly, probably hoping to catch up to Octavia, Summer, and the Wonderbolts.

"You know she only does it to annoy you."

"If that was supposed to make me feel better you fell just a teensy bit short of the mark."

"Sorry. I guess the filly and I are with you then Twilight."

"Okay, but I'm hardly expecting anything too important to happen." They headed off, but stopped when they realised their third member wasn't following them.

"Filly!" Fleur yelled.

"Huh? Oh! Coming!" The filly galloped to catch up with them, "Sorry, I was kinda distracted by the stripy ponies."

"You mean the zebras," Twilight corrected her.

"Whatever, they still look like stripy ponies to me. Why are they stripy anyway?"

"It's camouflage."

"Camouflage? Really? How in the hay is that supposed to work?" For once Twilight found herself totally unable to answer.

"Good afternoon Daybreak, Thorn," Twilight said pleasantly as she entered the mayors office in city hall. "What's the news?"

"Hey Twilight, Fleur, and filly-"

"'The' filly. The 'the' is important. I don't just call you 'break, do I?"

Daybreak sighed, clearly not in the mood, "Can I call you 'the' for short?"

"No you may not."

"That's too bad, because for the duration of this meeting that is exactly what I'm going to call you, the. Anyway, the news is that nothing much is happening. The city is quieter now we got food coming in. The Duke is quiet, and until we train all these recruits up to scratch, we are quiet."

"You mean we still haven't heard of anything at all from the Duke?" Strange as it may seem, the Duke's lack of response to their taking of Neigh Orleans worried Twilight almost as much as the idea of ten thousand soldiers turning up on their doorstep.

"Nope. Of course that doesn't mean much since we can't tell what's going on in a lot of places. Too bad no pegasi agreed to join us, because they would make for excellent reconnaissance. Speaking of, did your ponies arrive on the ships?"

"Sure did. I've already dispatched them to Puddingarde to help the pegasi set up their cloud homes and organise the weather."

"That's good. Are you sure there's nothing we can offer the pegasi to convince them to fight for us?"

Truth be told, Twilight had been thinking about this a lot, and frankly, if the liberation of their kind wasn't enough of a reason, then what was? That wasn't to say that Twilight didn't have something they could try if needed, but not yet. "Maybe after they've had a few weeks to recover from their ordeals they might think more towards helping the rest of the pegasi, but right now I'm thankful they agreed to keep doing the weather."

Daybreak nodded, "Of course. So then, mighty leader of our noble cause, what's our next move?"

"I don't know. What do we need apart from training our ponies, building up our supplies, and hoping the Duke leaves us alone long enough to do both those things?"

Daybreak cocked his head to give Twilight a look, "We still need a plan Twilight."

"Yeah, I know, and yes, I got a few ideas. If we're going to stop the Duke then we're going to have to divide his attention. Prance is already doing a good job of that so I propose we do something similar, though hopefully less devastating, in the other towns and cities around Mareitania."

Thorn snorted a laugh, "And how do you intend to do that? Walk into somewhere like Bitmark, yell 'everypony riot,' and hope that works?"

"No! No riots! No, I want our ponies to cause enough trouble that the Duke puts as many places under martial law as possible, thus dividing and weakening his forces. To do that our ponies can recruit from the populace of wherever they are and do whatever it takes to get noticed."

"And if the Duke ignores the problem?"

"Then we take the town or city, and we grow in strength while the Duke looks weak."

"And if he decides to raze a town or two?"

"Then we hopefully evacuate as many ponies as possible before that happens, which will still add to our numbers with any luck."

"Okay then, so a town comes under martial law, then what for the ponies in that town?"

"That I'll leave to the discretion of the ponies there. They can either carry on what they're doing, attack the soldiers there using guerilla tactics, or simply try to nick as much of the army's supplies as they can while laughing their merry asses off."

"I like this plan already," the filly said, grinning hugely.

"Quiet 'the,' the big ponies are talking."

"Fuck you sooo much Daybreak."

"I don't know Twilight," Thorn said with concern. "This sounds like it'll take too long, for a chance of nothing gained."

"That's the best part!"

"Excuse me?"

"Okay, it's perhaps not the best part, but it'll only take a couple hundred of our ponies to do this, so even if they fail, we haven't gained anything, but we haven't really lost too much either. So while they're doing that, the rest of us can focus on bigger things. Admittedly we'll have to give up some of our best ponies to carry this out, but we have far bigger numbers to work with now."

"Alright," Daybreak said with a nod, "I think this is a pretty good plan actually. I wish Snowbright and the others were here to add their own ideas to it. I would suggest we leave extremely loyalist places like Stalliongrad alone for now though."

"Agreed," said Twilight, "and Prance too until we truly know what's going on there."

"Might I ask what your plan was if Twilight didn't have one?" Fleur asked.

Daybreak shrugged, "To be honest, I've been too busy keeping things going to think about plans. That's Twilight's job. I probably might have come up with something similar but I would've divided up our forces to do it, leaving us a bit weak if the Duke retaliated. Using locally formed militias to do the work does leave us free to concentrate on other stuff."

"Like what though?" said Thorn. "If we're not the ones doing what Twilight's suggesting, are we all just sitting around drinking tea and eating biscuits instead?"

"Not at all," Twilight said a little smugly. "While that's all going on I intend to raze the pegasus breeding facility in Whiplash to the ground in a month's time."

"I really, really, like this plan."

Fleur turned to look at Twilight, the alicorn feeling increasingly sheepish the longer Fleur did it. "So, this meeting wasn't going to be about anything important, hmm?"

"In my defence I didn't know we would be talking about this."

"And the fact that you want to take down Whiplash in the next month?"

"Is something I thought of on the way over here actually."

The filly scoffed at Twilight, "Do you think you can tell us these things when you think of 'em?"

"What? Aren't my thoughts allowed to be private for at least ten minutes before I go sharing them around?"

"The does have a point Twilight." A small smile formed on Daybreak's face as the filly growled at him. "I'd rather you come up with these ideas with us. What makes you think we can do it?"

"I don't know if we can, but by then we'll have an army of sorts to do it with, while having an entire month to plan the attack out. A plan that begins with scouting the place out and gathering all the information we need to do this properly."

"Then it's a good thing I already have informants in Whiplash isn't it." This time it was Daybreak's turn to look smug. "I had a feeling we'd be going after that place sooner rather than later. One learns to anticipate."

"That's a good start, but I'll still want some pegasi to perform some aerial reconnaissance before that, to make sure there are no surprises. Guess that'll be a nice new job for our newest pegasus recruits."

"We could also ask the pegasi you rescued as much as you can about the place," suggested Fleur. "Heck, we could even ask the filly seeing as how she knows more than the rest of us put together."

"Oh no you don't," the filly said as she shook her head. "Or rather you could, but I don't know how much I could tell you seeing as how I was still pretty small when they kicked me out."

"Anything helps," Fleur reassured her, "no matter how small."

"There's no rush anyway," Twilight told them. "Until we know for sure what the Duke is planning we shouldn't go spreading our attention too much. I for one, refuse to believe he's just going to let us take Neigh Orleans without some kind of retaliation."

"He does seem to taking his sweet time about it," Daybreak agreed. "Makes me think he's planning something different to what we might think. It seems unlike him to not do something."

"I'm sure we'll find out in all due time," Twilight said, simply shrugging away her concerns. "Until then I guess I better go see about sorting all this food out." She turned and started heading off when Daybreak stopped her.

"Not so fast Twilight. Thorn and Fleur can sort that out: you're staying here to help me."

"Help you? Help you with what exactly?"

"Everything! You're the princess from Equestria; you probably know more about running a country than any of us ever will, so I think it's only fair that you actually do some of that for once rather than gallivanting off and leaving me to do it! Especially since you're the most literate pony I know."

"But I've hardly been a princess for very long at all! In fact I've probably spent more time in Mareitania than I've spent being a princess in Equestria!"

Daybreak rested his hooves on the desk and pressed them together, "And?"

"And..." Twilight sighed in defeat. "And nothing."

Fleur bumped her hip against Twilight's, "I'll catch you later. Come on Thorn." The three ponies left, leaving Twilight to her new role as bureaucrat.

"Where are we starting then?"

Daybreak lifted a heavy ledger in his magic and placed it in front of Twilight, "By sorting out the taxes of this place, and creating a new, fairer system."

"What was wrong with the old one?"

"Basically it involved making all the poor ponies pay through the nose while many of the wealthy, well connected earth ponies didn't pay a single marc. So basically we'll need to start from scratch." Twilight nodded enthusiastically, but couldn't help but think, where's Luna and her abacus when you need her?

The silence around the six ponies walking to Puddingarde was almost heavy enough that if it wasn't for the sound of their hooves on the gravel road, and Trixie humming to herself, you might suspect you had gone deaf. And it had been like this the entire way, right up until Fleetfoot decided to open her big mouth.

"Why the hell are we building cloud homes?" Trixie snorted into quiet laughter when she heard Fleetfoot's lisp.

"Stow it Fleetfoot," Spitfire said without even looking. The blue pegasus grumbled but otherwise fell silent again, but having been given an opening, Octavia decided to take it.

"I'm not sure what your orders are exactly, but building cloud homes is important right now since the pegasi here don't know how to do it themselves."

"But why is it so important?" Soarin asked, "Couldn't they just live on the ground like everypony else?"

"Not really. Have you been told about how the pegasi are treated here?"

"Yeah, of course." Fleetfoot cleared her throat, "They're kept as slave labourers, forced to do the weather. Sure there's a lot about them being mistreated, and having to wear shock collars to keep them in line and have their wings clipped, and its all a bit shitty, but that shouldn't mean they get that kind of special treatment."

"And that's all they told you about the pegasi?" Trixie asked before whistling a single, low note. "Prepare yourselves for an education." They went on to tell the Wonderbolts all they knew about the pegasi and how badly they were treated, including Summer's and the filly's own individual stories. It took a while, and as more and more details were shared the Wonderbolts became increasingly disgusted. Even the cool and stony faced Spitfire wore a frown.

"Day-um," Soarin said quietly, "I know the briefing said things were bad for the pegasi, but it never said anything like that. I still can't believe they cut their wings off sometimes... I'd rather die than have my wings cut off."

"They didn't tell us either," said Octavia. "They let us discover the truth the hard way."

Fleetfoot looked to Spitfire, "Why would they miss all that out of the briefing?"

Spitfire sighed and hung her head slightly, "I don't know."

"Would you have believed it if you had read it?" Octavia asked.

"Heck no!" said Fleetfoot, "I hardly even believe it now! Even with one of the ponies you were talking about walking right next to us! By the way Summer, if you want us to give you extra flying lessons I'd be more than happy to give you some."

"Thanks, but I'm happy having Twilight teach me in her own time. She's says all I need is to keep practicing to build up the strength in my wings."

"Oh, okay then. We could teach you a few wing strengthening exercises though, if you want?" Summer looked to Octavia who nodded in agreement, leading Summer to smile and nod at the Wonderbolt. "Cool. We'll get you flying like a pro in no time."

"So you don't feel so pissy about having to help build cloud homes now?" Trixie asked the three of them.

"No way," said Soarin, "I'm happy to do it now. I imagine they hate earth ponies and unicorns so it makes perfect sense. Hell, I'll build them their own cloud city if it helps."

"No," Summer said quietly, "I-I don't think they do hate other kinds of pony. Well, some might, but they're just scared that even though they're free, they'll still be treated like slaves. I mean, I have as much reason to hate other ponies as they do-"

"If not more," Trixie added.

"-but I don't."

"Besides," Octavia interjected, "it's not just about giving them somewhere away from other kinds of pony. Its about giving them their independence back, and to give them their own identity other than as slaves. Strange as it may sound we're trying to rebuild the pegasus nation as much as free Mareitania."

"Hold on," Trixie said in confusion, "I thought we were trying to build a unified nation of some sort."

"Of course we are, but even in Equestria pegasi have their own cities. I also believe they have some of their own laws, isn't that right?"

"Some, yeah,"Soarin said in agreement, "but they apply to all ponies and whatever in cloud cities, not just pegasi."

"Ah, I see. My mistake. Still though, my point stands in that we're trying to give back to the pegasi at least some of what was taken from them."

"How do you know all this Octavia?" Trixie growled, "I don't remember any of what you're talking about!"

"Because you're more concerned with taking down the Duke rather than thinking about what comes after."

"Oh that's right! How could Trixie forget she's a evil, violent, and unprincipled pony with absolutely no concern for anypony but herself. How foolish of her!"

"That's not what I said!"

"Hmmph! May as well be."

"Trixie, I swear you're just being difficult on purpose!"

"Of course I am. Can you even imagine what'd it be like if I was doing all this by accident?"

"Trixie, I swear to Celestia..."

"Sooo..." Trixie continued, feeling like she had annoyed somepony enough for now, "What's in the bags?"

"Some personal effects, our combat uniforms, and our weapons," Spitfire answered tersely.

"Combat uniforms?" Trixie sniggered openly, "Hate to say it but those blue gimp suits you wear aren't exactly the height of personal protection."

"Those are our show costumes," Soarin explained. "Our combat uniforms are a good bit more... What's the word? Robust?"

"And your weapons?" Trixie went on to ask.

"Pegasus hoof blades," Spitfire said. "They're two short blades you can attach and detach from your front legs to use while flying," she went on to explain after noticing that Trixie clearly had no idea what she was on about.

"I thought you'd have been all over those wing-blade... things." Trixie shrugged, "Guess not."

"Those things are crazy hard to use properly," Soarin told her, "and are about as dangerous to yourself as to others. Sure they're effective, but all the same, no thanks."

"Okay, fair enough. So how do these hoof blades work?"

"I could give you a demonstration once we get to... wherever it is we're going," Soarin offered.

"Puddingarde," said Octavia. "It's an old earth pony fortress built long before ponies left for Equestria, during the ancient tribal wars. You'll see it soon enough." True to her word, it wasn't much longer until they spotted Puddingarde in the distance. Soarin whistled, impressed with what he saw.

"You're saying earth ponies built this like, what? Two thousand years ago?"

"Indeed."

"But I always thought that earth ponies back then were kinda, you know, backward. Or at least they were compared to the unicorns and pegasi at the time."

"Twilight says that the terms of the treaty that ended the wars wasn't exactly kind to the earth ponies, and they lost almost everything, including their technology, if you could call it that."

They kept heading towards the fortress, taking in the sight of all the new recruits being put through their paces. Apparently there was now so many of them that training had moved from the courtyard in front of the keep to the plain outside to accommodate all the new arrivals.

"Right," Trixie said cheerfully, "guess I better go see what they're teaching these new Adepts." She headed off to where a large bunch of unicorns were having the various spells they'd be learning demonstrated to them, while Octavia continued to lead the Wonderbolts into the fortress.

"What are Adepts?" Fleetfoot enquired.

"It's what we're calling unicorns trained in at least the basics of combat magic," said Octavia. "We don't really have ranks or whatever you might call them, since we're still fairly new at this, but if we were to do that Adepts would be the best defined one at the moment. The others would be archers I suppose, then the rest are trained with spears and pikes and things like that."

"You mean you haven't set about clearly defining different roles in your army?" Spitfire seemed disgusted by the lack of organisation.

"Until less than a week ago there were barely six hundred of us, and little more than raw recruits at that. Excuse us if we haven't thought of a name for every rank and role yet, because until now there's only been two ranks; the ponies in charge, and everypony else." Spitfire grumbled to herself, but didn't argue further.

They entered the keep, which by all descriptions was in the throes of organised chaos, and sought out at least one pony who had at least a minute to tell them where to find the pegasi.

"Nimble Stitch!" Octavia called out, having spotted the earth pony hurrying along with a stack of blankets on her back.

"Octavia! Thank goodness! You could have warned us about all these ponies coming to join us! Lady knows how I'm going to find enough blankets to bed all these ponies down!"

"Start a sleeping rotation, every eight hours, so you only need a third as many beds as you have ponies," Spitfire said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh... I-uh, I see... I suppose we could make that work."

"Nimble Stitch, meet Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot." Octavia pointed to each respective pony, "They're the pegasi from Equestria that are going to help us build the cloud houses."

"Oh!" She dropped into a small curtsy, "Of course. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"We're looking for Windy Rush," said Summer. "Have you seen her?"

"I do believe she's in Sawbones' office with Drip Dry the poor dear."

"Thanks!" They left Nimble Stitch to bustle off while they headed towards where Sawbones had set up shop in a small room off the dormitories. They pushed the curtain aside and entered, finding Drip Dry laying on her front on an examination table while Sawbones studied her wings. Rush was off to the side, watching him carefully. "Hi Rush!"

"Hello Summer," Rush responded, but didn't take her eyes off Drip Dry.

"What's he doing to Drippy?"

"I'm trying to learn about pegasi, or more specifically their wings," Sawbones answered instead, "but I'm not making much progress. Which is a shame because I really would like to help poor Drip Dry here."

"May I?" Fleetfoot stood up by the bed, and at a nod from both Rush and Drip Dry, felt her way along Drip Dry's right wing. "Hmm... The ulna and radius are crooked... Did you have an accident?"

"Y-yes m-ma'am. My wings got t-tired, and I fell and b-broke my wing." Fleetfoot could feel the pegasus shaking as she tried to speak, but could only hazard a guess as to why.

"And it was never set properly," Fleetfoot murmured to herself. She moved onto the left wing, her face developing a frown as she moved Drip Dry's wing around. "The humorous seems like it was broken, and healed at a twist, but that's not the sort of break you usually get from a fall. Did something else happen to you?"

Rush spoke up, saving Drip Dry from having to stutter her way through an explanation, "The guards did it after she broke her other wing. Thought she deserved a matching pair. Then they were going to let her starve rather than help her."

Fleetfoot felt sick, "Fuck..."

"We shared our rations with her, kept her going, but it was still lucky we were saved when we were. She wouldn't have lasted much longer." Rush gave them a moment to let that sink in. "So, can her wings be fixed?"

Fleetfoot levelled a hoof, "Yeeeessss... But it'd take major surgery to re-break her wings and set them back properly. Not a problem in Equestria, but from what we've been told, Mareitania doesn't have anything near that kind of medical care available. Maybe once this is all over you can take her to Equestria and get it fixed there."

Rush nodded solemnly, while Drip Dry rested her head on the table and whimpered. Sawbones though, was far more curious about the new arrivals. "You know a lot about pegasi and their wings?"

"Sure! I'm technically the Wonderbolts field medic, but with the amount of times that Soarin's hurt his wings I probably would've picked it up anyway."

"Heeeeyyyy..."

"Excellent! I don't suppose you could draw me a diagram of the wing structure, so I might have a better chance of learning about this."

"Sure, no problem. Just find me a paper and pencil and I'll do what I can." While Fleetfoot was distracted, Summer took the opportunity to introduce Octavia and the others to Rush.

"Rush, this is Octavia, my friend I was telling you about, and these are Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. They're gonna help you build cloud houses."

Rush immediately perked up, "Really? That's great! Being underground like this is really starting to get me and the others. Do you really know how to make cloudcrete?"

"We do," said Spitfire. "They had us learn before coming out here. We were also meant to be teaching any pegasi who want it, how to fight."

"Nope," Rush said immediately. "Right now, none of us want to fight, and there's nothing you can do to make us."

"You could still learn how to fight for self defence?" Octavia suggested. Rush paused, and Octavia was fairly certain that she could almost hear Rush thinking as they waited for her to say something.

"Alright, but that doesn't mean we have to fight for you."

"Of course not. This would be purely for your own benefit. For now though you should concentrate on building your homes. Why don't you show Spitfire where the water supply is and she'll get you started on how to make cloudcrete." She stepped aside to allow them to pass, but stopped Soarin when he went to follow them, "Actually, I'd like to talk to you, if possible?"

"Captain?" Soarin said to Spitfire.

"Carry on Soarin, she clearly knows what she's doing. Both of you can catch up to me when you're done." She slid her duffle bag off onto the floor, "Do you mind if I leave this here?"

Sawbones waved her off absent-mindedly, "Yeah, sure, no problem." Spitfire left with Rush, followed slowly by Octavia, Summer, and Soarin, who was looking at Octavia in a new light.

"So, that was pretty gutsy for a cellist to suggest they learn to fight for self defence. I probably wouldn't have thought to do that."

Octavia twitched an ear, "You know I'm a cellist?"

"Sure, as Wonderbolts we get invited to loads of fancy shindigs, and I know I've seen you playing at some of them. You're very good by the way."

Octavia could feel herself blushing, "I'm glad you like it."

"Still though, I have to wonder what you're doing here of all places."

"Because I'm an earth pony, in an earth pony dominated country," Octavia said with a sigh. "The idea was that since I'm well versed in upper class behavior, I would be able to fit in with the upper class ponies here. Truth be told though, being an earth pony has been of far more use than any level of sophistication I might possess. Literally any other earth pony could've done this. Not that I regret coming here or anything!" she added quickly, just in case Soarin was thinking she did.

"Nah, I get it. So, why did you want to talk?"

"I was hoping to see those weapons of yours, to see how good you are with them." Octavia realised that what she had just said almost sounded like she was flirting, and blushed again, which only added to Soarin's grin. "Your hoof blades! I want to see your hoof blades!"

"Tease." Soarin kept grinning as a crimson cheeked Octavia led them outside, towards where Trixie was trying to teach a stallion how to shoot with his magic.

"Just think of it as trying to punch something, but with your mind! Point your horn at the target, get a feel for your magic, and punch! If punching doesn't work for you, try to imagine it as sneezing with your horn at something." Octavia snorted and rolled her eyes, but the joke was on her as a moment later the stallion shot a blast of magic at the wooden training target, actually breaking a chunk off the side of it. "Nicely done. You need to work on your aim a little, but you got some good power behind that. You go and keep practicing." The stallion left, and Trixie turned to Octavia, "What?"

"Punch with your mind? Sneeze with your horn? Is this really how you teach magic?"

"The basic stuff, yes, sort of. Not all magic is numbers and formulas. Not that these woefully under-educated ponies could understand such things. Anyway, how can Trixie assist you?"

"I was just wondering whether you wanted to see how the Wonderbolts weapons worked?"

"A chance to see Soarin's weapon? Don't mind if I do."

"At least she says it on purpose," Soarin said as he nonchalantly looked up at the sky.

"Just get it out already!" Octavia snapped, right before she groaned and blushed again. "Great! Now I can't stop saying stupid things! Thank you, very much."

Soarin grinned at her but relented, placing his bag on the ground before rummaging around inside it. He pulled two sheathed blades out, each about half the length of his foreleg, and started strapping them around his rear end and back legs.

While he was doing that, Trixie pulled out his helmet, complete with muzzle guard and goggles. "This looks a bit badass," she said as she twirled it around.

"As I said, the combat uniform has a bit more substance to it." Soarin finished by strapping some kind of brace that went around his front legs before taking off and hovering above them, "Okay, need to be flying to do this." He reached back with his forelegs to the sheaths, and with a click the blades attached themselves to the bracers at the back of his hoof before he pulled out two thick, yet pointed blades, the flat of the wickedly sharp blade resting against the back of his hoof.

Trixie nudged Octavia, "Look how big his weapons are!"

"Shut up!" Octavia hissed back at Trixie before talking to Soarin. "So the blades stay clipped on to your forelegs?"

"Yep, and the only way to take them off again is to..." He reached back again and slid the blades back into their sheaths, and twisted his legs out, pushing the blade holders against a nub on the sheaths, before pulling them away free of the blades. "It stops unicorns from stealing them off you in combat."

"Which is totally the last thing I'd do," Trixie said with a shrug. "Why are they so thick?"

"So they don't snap. It makes more sense when you see them in action."

"And when can we see that?"

"You could see it now if I had some kind of training dummy."

"Give me a minute." Trixie headed off, but returned very soon after with a straw dummy shaped like a pony floating along behind her in her magic, followed afterwards by the ponies she stole it off. "Will this do?"

"Absolutely!" Soarin took off again and flew straight up until he was a good height above them. There was a glint as he withdrew his blades again, and he dove down towards the dummy. About a dozen meters above the dummy he changed his position so he was leading with his rear hooves, having them land in the middle of the dummy's back, almost flattening it with the impact. A split second later he brought the blades down, plunging them deep into the base of the dummy's neck before pushing off with his back legs, launching himself back into the air.

In total, the attack took about six seconds from start to finish, much to the approval of the ponies around him.

"Do you have to lead in with your rear legs?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah, you have to do that to absorb the landing, and it helps you to take off again. If you lead with your front legs you risk breaking either your blades or your legs, and you won't be able to take off as fast after, leaving you open to attack. Of course that's only if you're ambushing from above, the rest is just kinda brawling."

"Hmm..." Octavia tapped a hoof rhythmically as she thought, "Are these weapons exclusive to the Wonderbolts?"

"No, not in the slightest."

"So you wouldn't mind if I borrowed yours to give to our blacksmiths to make more?"

"I'll probably have to ask Spitfire first, but it shouldn't be a problem. Speaking of, I better go find her." The stallion slipped the weapons off and tucked them into his bag, which he slung over his back before heading back to where Spitfire might be.

Trixie waltzed over to Octavia and laid a leg across her back, "Of all the ponies I might consider to be sneaky and under-hooved, you were the last. I'm proud of you Octavia."

Summer tapped Octavia on the shoulder, "So... are the pegasi fighting with us or not?"

"Not, at the moment, but at least they'll be somewhat ready should they change their minds."

Twilight groaned and rubbed her forehead, "No Daybreak, we can't do that."

"Why not? It's not like they can't afford it!"

"Because all these wealthy ponies you're trying to levy this forty percent tax on are all earth ponies. If you try what you're insisting on, it looks like an attack, not only on the wealthy, but on earth ponies as well. We can't afford to look biased for, or against anypony."

"I can't help it if all the rich ponies are earth ponies! If there were rich unicorns they'd get the same deal."

"I know that. You know that." Twilight gestured to herself and Daybreak before pointing at the window to the city, "They don't know that! As far as they're concerned it'd be a tax on earth ponies! It's going to be hard enough to get them to pay taxes at all when they're not used to paying any. We have a higher risk of them trying to undermine and sabotage us if we do what you say."

"But we need the funds if we're going to do this Twilight."

"Not at the risk of alienating the wealthy and possibly driving them to fight against us. Even paying a ten percent tax on their earnings fills a lot of the gaps. Besides, between what's in the treasury, the twenty percent tax rate, and the proceeds from selling the food Celestia sends us, we have more than enough to cover our needs."

Daybreak groaned with exasperation and rested his head on the desk, "I should never have let you help me with this."

"And I'm glad you made me! What you wanted to do could damage us a lot more than it could help us! Maybe in the future you can introduce bigger tax rates to ponies earning over a certain amount, but right now-Yah!" Twilight yelped as the door to the room was slammed open, permitting the hurried entrance of Thorn, Fleur, and the filly.

"Dad! We got a problem!"

"Bigger than tax laws? It must be serious..."

"Is it the Duke?" Twilight asked.

"Sort of. We got a runner from Whiplash-"

"Isn't that convenient..." groaned Daybreak.

"Will you shut up Dad! This is serious! We got a runner from Whiplash saying that there are soldiers there, loading up on the Viscount's river boat for an attack here!"

"An attack from the river? That's a suicide tactic! Who's leading this attack?"

"The Viscount is, since its his boat and all..."

"Ah, that explains it. He won't go anywhere if he can't do it in comfort. Still though, that boat's built to carry maybe six hundred passengers at a squeeze... This makes no sense! Only an idiot would fill a boat like that with soldiers and attack from the river!"

"Maybe he intends to land his troops upriver and attack from land?" Twilight suggested.

"Possible, but that still gives him hardly any troops. Two thousand at most if they really, really pack them in. Did the runner say how long until they get here?"

"They were still loading supplies when he left, so it might be another few days until they get here."

"Okay, get a message to Puddingarde saying to get as many combat ready troops here as soon as possible. By the time they get here hopefully Twilight and I will have formulated a plan."

"Actually Daybreak, you're going to have to do that on your own." Twilight stood up and shook off the numbness from sitting too long.

"Why? What the hell are you going to be doing?"

"If those soldiers get here its going to be a slaughter on both sides, and I'm not losing what we've gained to an idiot attack like that."

Fleur looked at Twilight with obvious concern, "What are you thinking Twilight?"

"I don't know exactly. Not yet anyway. In all seriousness though I could just blow a hole in the boat and sink it. It's probably best you prepare for the attack anyway, just in case I don't come back."

"You're going after that boat on your own!?" Fleur yelled, "Don't be so stupid!"

"I'm going to be flying there Fleur, and we can't afford the time taking other ponies with me will cost. Now if we had some pegasi, that'd be great."

"Twilight..."

Twilight hugged Fleur, dragging the filly into it as well, "If I'm not back in three days, or y'know, if the soldiers get here, and I don't..."

"Don't say things like that Twilight!" Despite her usual cool exterior, tears were starting to form in the corners of Fleur's eyes.

"Okay then, I won't. Take care of each other, however this goes." She turned and left, leaving the rest of them to exchange worried glances.

Except the filly that is.

"I don't say this often, if ever, and I probably won't say it again, but sometimes, Twilight is really fucking cool."

Author's Notes:

Updates might slow down a little due to phone issues. Or they might not. Depends on how the new phone is.

Also, happy new year for tomorrow everyone.

32. Drowning your troubles

In the dim evening light, Twilight lay on the bank of the Mareissippi, casually rolling the speaker stone under her good hoof, trying to think of what to say to Luna when they spoke.

Thankfully it wasn't as if she didn't have the time. In her rush to avert the imminent attack on Neigh Orleans, Twilight had sped off only to find that the Viscount's riverboat was still in Whiplash having some of its bulkier interior items removed to make extra room. Frankly this suited Twilight just fine, because the amount of soldiers they fit onto the boat was irrelevant to the plan she had concocted. If anything, the more the merrier.

It had also given her a day to refine her plan, choose the best spot for it, set it up, find a spot just south of Whiplash to spy on the boat, spend a couple of hours writing down her observations on alicorn regeneration in her journal, and wait until dark so she could talk to Luna. The whole thing had left her in a surprisingly good mood, a lot of which could be attributed to the fact that it was only her in danger.

Figuring that now was as good a time as any, Twilight placed her horn against the stone, and charged it before waiting for a reply. She didn't have to wait long before the quiet voice of Luna drifted out of the stone. "Hello Twilight."

"Hi Luna. I'm guessing Celestia must be having an early night if you've got the stone."

"No, she is still awake, but she felt it best to give us some privacy so that we might talk."

Twilight was glad that Celestia was feeling so tactful. "Good, because I want to ask you what happened the other night."

"I suspected you might." There was a long, drawn out sigh before Luna spoke again. "The truth is Twilight, I don't know what happened. You were upset, and I was only seeking to comfort you when suddenly, I... I felt her."

"Her? Her who?"

"The nightmare, Twilight!" Luna said, exasperated, "I felt Nightmare Moon!"

"B-but how!? You said the negative energies of the dreamscape here couldn't bring her back!"

"And they cannot." Luna sighed again, "I'm not sure how to say this Twilight, but it was you."

"Me? How could it be me?"

"You bear memories of Nightmare Moon, both from the night that you vanquished her, and somehow from the night she was banished to the moon by Celestia. Your memories of her, binds you to the part of me that is her. I'm not going to say this makes perfect sense, but your anguish on that night is something she would have enjoyed, and in the dreamscape, the past and present are meaningless. There is only what is, and the boundary between ponies are blurred, if only slightly.

"What are you saying Luna? Are you saying that my pain that night somehow empowered Nightmare Moon?"

"No, or at least I don't think so. If the past and present are one in the dreamscape, then it stands to reason that my past and present are one. While I sought to comfort you, the part of me that will always be Nightmare Moon relished in your pain. She became excited enough to... create an echo of herself within me. Add to that the negative energy the Mareitania dreamscape is rife with..."

Twilight rubbed her head in confusion, "Luna, this makes no sense. So you're saying that my pain, combined with my memories of Nightmare Moon, which connects me to you or her or whatever, created an echo of Nightmare Moon within you? That's not even logical!"

Luna laughed a single, bitter laugh, "Logic has no place in dreams, hence my difficulty in explaining this."

"Does this mean you're always Nightmare Moon now?"

"No! I will never be her again! But she is part of me, and in the dreamscape that becomes a little more prevalent."

"Okay, okay... Are you alright Luna?"

"I assure you that I am fine, though I will confess that I am shaken by the experience. I also confess that the idea of walking within your dreams makes me... nervous, at least while you remain in Mareitania."

"I understand, and you don't have to walk in my dreams if it helps."

"Thank you Twilight, I appreciate the gesture. But what of yourself? You were most distraught when last I saw you."

Twilight sighed through her nose, "I'm... doing okay I suppose. You were right when you said I was being too hard on myself, and I've come to terms with what I've done, and what I've yet to do."

"That is good to hear. While I may have been driving Celestia slightly loony with my secrecy, I wasn't about to discuss this with her until I had talked it over with yourself."

"Yeah, she did seem to be a bit miffed that I wouldn't talk about it either. Are you going to talk about it with her? Please say you are."

"Most certainly. I think she deserves to know as much-" The scream of a horn cut over her, as finally the riverboat began its journey towards Neigh Orleans. "Good heavens Twilight! What was that?"

"A riverboat horn, and my next objective."

"Pardon?"

"The Viscount is planning to launch an attack on Neigh Orleans from the river, and has just set off from Whiplash to carry it out. I intend to stop him."

"That seems like a rather ambitious tactic for that wine guzzling buffoon. Surely though, such an attack would only be effective if carried out upon an unsuspecting foe. Am I to believe you are quite prepared for the attack?"

"I'm not sure what preparations have been made in the city, but I'm hoping that won't matter because I'll have stopped the Viscount long before he gets there."

"Will you indeed?" Luna said with a hint of amusement. "You're a better princess than you know if you're willing to put yourself in such dangers before others. What are you planning to do?" Twilight told Luna her plan, the elder alicorn laughing as the younger explained it, "I do wish I could be there to see this. Good luck Twilight, and farewell."

"Thanks Luna, talk to you soon." Twilight tucked the stone back into her bags and sat waiting, watching as the riverboat passed her by, its paddlewheels churning the water. Soldiers were out on the decks and filling the balconies, and Twilight couldn't help but wonder if that was because there was no room inside. The boat also seemed rather low in the water compared to last time she saw it.

Lamps slowly flickered to life on the balcony over the bow, illuminating the river before the boat. They certainly failed to illuminate the alicorn that flew along the riverbank, swiftly overtaking the boat.

Twilight hummed a happy little tune to herself as she did some final checks on what she needed for this plan to work. Despite everything, and despite what she was about to do, she couldn't help but be cheerful. Sometimes it just felt good to take somepony down a peg.

Unfortunately though the boat was still as slow as ever, and she had to wait a couple of hours until it reached her specially selected spot on the widest and deepest part of the river. To her expectations, and slightly to her disappointment, it was steaming its way right down the middle. Ego was a terrible thing.

She took to the air, keeping low to scoop up a large quantity of water in her magic, before shielding herself and heading towards the rear of the boat and above it, where the smoke would hopefully keep her concealed, and the shield hopefully keep her from suffocating. She split the massive orb of water into two, and fed them down into the chimneys, the smoke quickly replaced by clouds of steam as the water extinguished the fires powering the riverboat. The paddlewheels slowly ground to a halt, and Twilight flew back to the riverbank to collect what she needed for the next part of her plan.

It had taken a few hours, but she had managed to find four anchors, four hooks, and four sturdy pieces of rope. To each piece of rope she had tied an anchor at one end, and a hook at the other, creating what was hopefully the perfect tool for the next part of her plan. She approached the boat from the rear, barely keeping above the surface of the river. Thankfully the soldiers all seemed too distracted by what she had already done to pay too much attention elsewhere, so she was free to attach the hooks along the stern and drop the anchors into the river. The ropes stretched out as the current slowly moved the boat away from her, and one of the ropes must have found purchase sooner than the others as it quickly became taut.

There was a loud crack, and the hook ripped itself off the boat, taking a decent amount of what it was attached to with it. Twilight was barely able to dodge out of the way as it sprang back towards her and sunk into the gloom of the river.

Thankfully the other ropes held, but the noise of the rope tearing a chunk out of the boat, combined with the sudden lurch as the other anchors forced the boat to a standstill was enough to draw the attention of the soldiers to the rear of the ship. Not that it mattered to Twilight much because she was about to make one hell of a dramatic entrance. At least for her standards.

She flew away from the boat, keeping just above the river, before flying up into the sky and diving back towards the boat. Along the sides of the boat were eight lifeboats, four on each side, suspended by winches. These were her target as she swept down and along the starboard side of the boat, blasting them to pieces, before circling back around and doing the same on the other side. She could hear the shouts of the soldiers panicking as her bolts of purple destruction rendered the rowing boats into splinters.

Once they were destroyed to her satisfaction she flew back to the bow of the ship, or rather the balcony overhanging it, and forced the two lights illuminating the river to spin around so they were shining back on the boat and blinding the soldiers, while giving her a nice pool of shadow to hide in. A few crossbow bolts pinged off the lights, and Twilight quickly teleported up above the wheelhouse while the soldiers continued attacking the lights.

Eventually the soldiers figured out that they could turn the lights back around, and were surprised when their assailant had vanished. Twilight teleported back to the balcony, between the lights, before temporarily teleporting away again to avoid the hail of crossbow bolts flying towards her.

"I want to speak to the Viscount!" she shouted after teleporting back again. She formed a shield to deflect the few errant bolts that were fired at her while the rest reloaded. A spear wielding soldier charged her, but hardly got near when he found his spear forced downwards, jamming itself into the decking. "Please?"

Things were strangely awkward for a moment until one of the soldiers decided to challenge her verbally. "And why would he want to talk to you, abomination?"

"The leader of the forces opposing you in Neigh Orleans? I'm pretty sure he'd like to talk to me," she said, pointedly ignoring the 'abomination' part. "If you like I could keep blowing holes in the ship until you get him?" she added sweetly.

Something about her tone must have struck a nerve in the soldier addressing her, because he swiftly turned and issued an order to summon the Viscount. Twilight tapped her hoof while she waited, almost appearing to be totally oblivious to the large number of weapons pointed at her.

"Sooo... are they feeding you enough?" she asked in an attempt to break the silence. Not one of the soldiers made a sound, although she was pretty sure she could see a couple of subtle shakes of a few heads. "Okaaaayyy then... do they at least pay you enough?" A few more of them shook their head.

"Silence, beast," the one soldier hissed at her.

"You know, I think there should come a point in every pony's life when they learn that calling others beasts and abominations, is just plain rude," Twilight said grumpily, but she took his point and stayed quiet until the Viscount arrived.

"You!" the Viscount screamed as soon as he got close enough to see her, "You stole my pegasus!"

Twilight folded her ears back, the Viscount's weirdly deep voice already grating on her. "No I didn't," she quietly replied.

"Yes you did! Father told me it was you! You were at my party, and you stole my pegasus!" Clearly the Viscount had an amazing grasp on the idea of priorities.

"Did he also tell you I'm the one that shielded you and saved you from that assassin?" Twilight half shouted back. Judging from the Viscount's expression, it was clear that little factoid had been omitted.

The Viscount recovered valiantly though, "An assassin you are now in league with! And that still doesn't give you the right to steal my pegasus!"

Twilight spread her wings before rearing up and stomping her hoof, her eyes turning white and glowing, "I never stole her off you because she was never yours to be stolen off! She is her own pony, and have no right to say otherwise!"

"I have every right!" the Viscount shouted back, impressing Twilight with his show of backbone. "This is my country! Mine! And if I want to own a pegasus, I shall!"

Twilight sighed bitterly, her eyes returning to normal. "This isn't getting us anywhere. The fact is that I'm here to stop you from getting to Neigh Orleans. Go home and tell your father that his attack failed."

"My father has nothing to do with this attack." Twilight's eyebrows raised slightly, but she managed to hold back her surprise. "He seems content to let you have Neigh Orleans," the Viscount continued, "but I will not let you take our sovereign territory so easily! Soldiers! Open fire!" Twilight rolled her eyes and teleported away again, the spot where she had been standing becoming considerably more spikey from all the crossbow bolts sticking out of the wood.

She teleported back, taking care to flatten the arrows around her first. "You're just wasting your arrows doing that. Tell me Viscount, are all your servants still on board?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question."

"Fine, I'll humour you. There are no servants on board. If there were I'd probably be a lot happier since Ivory's services are lacklustre at best!" To prove his point, Ivory Spire, the Viscount's personal servant, stepped out onto the deck wearing a highly scandalous maid outfit, which didn't match her frown in the slightest. Twilight couldn't help but notice that a lot of the soldiers were now looking at the white unicorn instead of her.

"Hello Twilight," Ivory said politely.

"Nice to see you again Ivory," Twilight said back.

"You've met?" the Viscount asked.

"We did, darling, at your birthday party."

"And you didn't tell me!?"

"You never asked."

The Viscount growled before delivering a backhoof to Ivory's muzzle, sending her sprawling onto the deck, "I will deal with your insolence later!" Ivory looked to Twilight, begging with her eyes, giving Twilight a vital prompt to act.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" She teleported Ivory behind her and raised a shield over the both of them, deflecting the few arrows that some of the more nervous soldiers fired at her.

"You return her this instant!" the Viscount screamed, spraying flecks of spittle over the shield.

"No, I'm done with this." Twilight cast a voice amplification spell, making sure as many ponies on-board heard her as possible, "If you take all your armour off you can easily swim to shore, especially if those that can swim help those that can't. Do that and you'll all be fine."

"What are you talking about?" the Viscount asked demandingly.

"I'm here to stop you getting to Neigh Orleans. I think I've done that so it's time I left."

"Hah! You're a fool Twilight Sparkle! All I have to do is cut the ropes and dry the engine room out and we'll be moving soon enough."

"And you're a fool if you think I hadn't thought of that." She pointed her horn at the floor and unleashed a single blast of magic that was roughly the size of a hoof. It punched through the decking, through the floor below, and through the hull of the ship before slamming into the riverbed. She steadied herself as the boat lurched from her attack upon it, and she smiled disarmingly at the Viscount, "Consider yourself on a timetable." She scooped Ivory up in her magic and was about to fly away when she remembered something, "Oh, and Viscount?"

"WHAT!?"

"I am not Celestia's pet." She flew away, easily avoiding the few arrows that whistled through the air near her. She angled towards the riverbank and set Ivory down before landing beside her. "Are you alright?" she asked the unicorn after spotting a small trail of blood running out of her right nostril.

Ivory reached a hoof up and wiped it away, the smear of blood invisible on the black stocking she wore. "I am now, thanks to you," she said, smiling slightly.

"Does he often hit you?" Twilight had to admit that Ivory's lack of reaction was a little disconcerting.

"Occasionally, but ever since his father told him that you and your friends were at his birthday party, he has become increasingly insufferable, and-" She hitched her skirt up and pulled her neckline down, showing a collection of bruises and vivid red marks, "-violent."

"I'm sorry!" Twilight squeaked. "I never thought-" Ivory silenced her by pressing a hoof to her lips.

"It's not your fault Twilight, honestly. I've had far worse off him before now." They both turned to watch the soldiers swarming off the sinking ship, discarding their weapons and armour before jumping into the murky water. Unlike what Twilight had suggested though, it was a free for all, and two or three bodies were already floating downriver having been drowned in the crush.

Twilight didn't let it get to her though. She had given them a way for all of them to survive, and it wasn't her fault if they totally disregarded her advice. "He doesn't really have any serving ponies on there does he?"

"No, he wasn't lying when he said it was just me."

"And he doesn't have any more pegasi on there?"

Ivory shook her head emphatically, "No no no! I would've told you straight away if there was. He's still determined to get his old one back yet."

Twilight snorted dismissively as she kept watching the sinking boat, paying particular attention to a speck of brown that was getting nearer to the stern. "The Viscount can swim can't he?"

"I have no idea," Ivory answered airily.

"Great..." Twilight lazily flapped into the air and headed back to the boat, grabbing the Viscount in her magic. He screamed at her, but she wasn't in the mood to dignify it. She roughly dumped him on the riverbank with the few soldiers that had made it there so far. "That's twice," she said before flying away again.

Rather than return to Ivory though, she returned to the boat and teleported straight into the ballroom, which was half filled with water. Wrapping an air bubble around herself, she dived into the water and made her way to where she remembered the bar to be. Finding it, she looked around for a minute before finding what she was seeking; two cases of Sweet Apple cider.

She took them and was about to leave, when out of the gloom a fully armoured soldier drifted towards her and tapped her shield, making her scream. "Celestia fucking damn it you... you..." She sighed as it seemed a bit unfair to scream at the pony that was dead because of her. "Sorry," she said quietly before teleporting her and the cider back outside.

"You went back to save the cider?" Ivory asked incredulously, cocking her head as Twilight flew back towards her.

"No, this is just an afterthought. My friend Applejack makes this, and it seems only fair that I reclaim it in her name."

"Uh-huh. And the Viscount? Why save him? Or at least you could have captured him?"

"Because I need him alive and free."

"But he's your enemy? Why?"

"Firstly, if he wants to lead military campaigns against me, great! Because if this is the best he can do, this'll be easy. Secondly, I just completely shamed and humiliated him. Me, on my own, taking out his personal riverboat full of soldiers without losing a single pony on my side. I want him to take that back to the Duke."

"Hmm... That's actually quite devious. The Duke already thinks his son is weak minded, and this only proves it. I'm glad I convinced the Viscount to launch this attack now."

"You did what!?" Twilight couldn't believe what Ivory had just said. "You could've got a lot of ponies killed if the attack had gone to plan!"

"I have faith in you Twilight, and you presented an opportunity for me to finally escape the Viscount. Besides, the Viscount is no military leader if he thought filling his riverboat with soldiers and sailing into Neigh Orleans was a good idea. You know, if you had waited for the Duke to die your job would probably be a lot easier."

"Maybe, but I hate to think what this country would end up like with that twit in charge. I still can't believe you would do that though."

"I am sorry Twilight, but you saw the bruises. I did my best to stack the odds on your favour with this attack by leaking news of it, but still, I am sorry."

"I suppose I can't complain too much since you just gave me an easy victory." She watched as the rear of the boat lifted out of the water slightly. "I think it's time we got out of here. Are you taking that... outfit... off?"

"That depends on two things."

"And those are?"

"Are we flying back?"

"I was planning to, yes."

"Then I'll keep it on to stave off the wind a little. Secondly, I can't reach the buttons on the back."

"Why don't you use your magic to take it off?"

Ivory pulled her mane away from her horn, revealing a pencil thick gold band around the base of it, "Its not just for show. I've had it on since I met him... seven years ago, I think?"

"For crying out loud..." Twilight muttered. "In that case, why put the buttons where you can't reach with your hooves?"

"Because it stops me taking it off until he says I can."