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.