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.