A timid knock emanated from the door into the control room, a knock that was a good bit louder by the time it had echoed around for a couple seconds. Twilight growled in irritation, lowering her journal before uttering a wholly unwelcoming sounding, "Come in." A grey muzzle poked through the door, followed by the remainder of the head it was attached to. Octavia looked between the room's two occupants; Twilight, who was giving her the stink eye from her position on the bleachers, and Ivory, who was sitting at her desk in the corner, shuffling reports, her ear swivelling towards the door being Ivory's entire acknowledgment of Octavia's arrival.

Octavia swallowed and entered the room, "Uh... Spitfire just delivered a message from Fleur saying that the last of the crystal ponies have been loaded onto the supply ships. She also said that she and the filly will be making their way back here with Daybreak once she's checked things at the orphanage are going well."

"Right. Thank you Octavia."

Octavia bit her lip for a moment, thinking of some way to expand the conversation. "Do you... Do you think Princess Cadence will be able to help them? The crystal ponies I mean. I've never seen ponies so..."

"Broken?" suggested Twilight.

"Quite."

"If there's any pony that can help them it's Cadence. I'm sure things will seem better once they're in range of the Crystal Heart." Twilight regarded the crystal heart from Caverndown propped on a pillow near by. "Or at least the real crystal heart," she amended.

"Right. So... uh... Ooh! Shadow also says her people are almost ready to move out. They just await your orders." Octavia's cheek twitched with a small smile, "It was awfully nice of them to stay and fight in payment for helping the crystal ponies get to Equestria."

"Actually they're honouring an agreement they made before that, but yes, it was nice."

"Soarin also reported back yesterday. He says the diamond dogs have cleared the hidden cavern of leftover soldiers, so we should be able to go and collect some of the ore Fishbait promised us."

"Mmhmm."

"Right, so... Are you and Ivory getting along okay now? We heard the argument from upstairs."

"Yep, perfectly fine."

Ivory finally decided to join the conversation. "I wasn't lying about what the Viscount said his father was doing, even if the information itself was possibly wrong. I'd never even heard of Caverndown until Twilight was trying to destroy my eardrums yelling about it, so I couldn't have warned you." Ivory smiled at Octavia, "Might I ask how you and Summer are getting along?"

Octavia stammered for a moment, "Uh, fine I suppose. She keeps apologising, and promised to never do anything like that again, and I had to promise I would still be friends with her. She also confessed that she's still in love with me, but realises it probably won't go anywhere, even if it hurts." One of Octavia's ears flopped back and she half frowned, half smiled at Ivory, "I did ask Summer but she's being rather coy about it; what did you do to make her realise all this?"

Ivory leaned back and stretched her forelegs before working the kinks out of her neck. "Oh that's simple. I had sex with her."

Octavia's eyes went wide with obvious surprise, "Excuse me?"

Twilight's reaction was slightly more measured. She frowned in confusion, asking Ivory, "I didn't know you were into mares?"

Ivory shook her head, "I'm not, but it's something I've gotten used to over the years, and I thought I could bear to do it for her as a favour." Clearly sensing their hesitation, Ivory tried to explain. "Look, Summer came to me crying her eyes out about what had happened, and it took quite a bit of time to get through to her on what she did wrong. Suffice to say her time on the Hierophant left her more than a little messed up."

"The Hierophant?" Twilight asked.

"It's the name of the boat she was on."

"That... doesn't make sense for a luxury riverboat, like, at all."

"Did I never point out the Viscount's a twit? Pretty sure I did. Anyhoo, once I got her to calm down I tried to get her to understand how consent works, which only made her more upset because she never got that choice before, and she didn't know how to sweet talk a mare into bed so I... thought I'd give her a live demonstration to work from. That and a couple of orgasms cheered her right up."

A semi stunned and embarrassed silence filled the room for a moment. "I'm so glad Trixie isn't around to hear this," Twilight muttered, having worked out almost exactly what the slightly twisted unicorn would probably say.

Octavia stared dumbfounded, "I don't even know what to say... You did make it clear that it was-"

"Only a one time thing, yes."

"Are you sure sleeping with her was the best thing you could do?" Twilight asked incredulously.

Ivory spread her forelegs wide, "Do I look like a psychiatrist!? Especially one used to working with ponies as potentially disturbed as Summer is? All things considered I think she's in a surprisingly healthy frame of mind for a pony with her experiences in life."

Octavia sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, admitting Ivory had a point. "This is probably the least appropriate thank you I've ever given, but, thank you for sleeping with Summer."

Ivory smiled cheekily at her, "Aww, you're welcome sweetheart, but next time, could you have a stallion fall hopelessly in love with you instead?"

A shudder wormed its way down Octavia's spine, "I'd rather not. My experiences with stallions in this country have been less than favourable so far."

"I think I know exactly what you mean," Ivory said in a singsong voice before returning to her stack of reports.

Octavia shuffled her hooves for a bit as Twilight returned to writing in her journal. "Do you mind if I ask what you're writing?" Octavia asked after a minute.

"Not at all." It took several seconds for Octavia to realise that Twilight expected her to actually ask the question. She did so, and Twilight slowly and deliberately placed her quill down before answering. "I've been running some experiments on my alicorn healing."

"Running experiments? How?"

"By cutting herself with a knife," Ivory said from across the room without turning around.

"Cutting herself with a- Twilight! What were you thinking!?"

Twilight glared at Ivory, a glare that demanded to know 'why would you even say that?' Ivory shrugged back, a shrug that aptly conveyed 'if you're going to cut yourself in front of me, be prepared to deal with the consequences.' Twilight turned back to Octavia and huffed, "It's not like I have a huge amount of alicorn subjects to work from is it? Besides, they were only little cuts and I anesthetized myself with magic and sterilized everything before I started."

"So? That's still a stupid thing to do Twilight!" Octavia groaned and rubbed her face as a whole host of complaints and worries crowded her mind, none of which would've been welcomed by Twilight in the slightest. "Was it at least worth it?"

"Most definitely! I was only going to do one to see how long it took to heal. Then I thought to do a deeper one, to see if the times are consistent for healing. Guess what happened?"

Octavia leaned back, suddenly wary of the glint of mad science in Twilight's eyes. "It wasn't consistent?" she hazarded cautiously.

"Not even close!" Twilight cheered. "Despite being more severe, the cut healed five minutes faster than the smaller one."

"But that doesn't make sense."

"It does from a certain point of view. Anyway, I ran a third test, making a big cut and a small cut at the same time and had my best result yet! The big cut healed even faster than the first time by a couple of minutes which could've been down to differences in the size of the wound, but the little cut didn't really start healing properly until the big one was almost fully healed."

"That... makes even less sense. How can you pick and choose what to heal?"

"I can't, but something within me can. And it makes sense to prioritize the worst injuries. Take my leg for example. The wound was healed over in a matter of hours, maybe even less, but the leg is taking much longer to regrow because its not a direct threat to my life."

"Sooo... What precisely does this mean?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's now pretty clear that my healing is magic based, which is great because that means I can replicate it, which I did, or at least thought I did, but it didn't work. There's something else to this. Something I haven't yet discovered, but I will in time."

"Are you saying that we could all be given limb regenerating healing powers?"

"Not entirely. The energy requirements to regrow a leg is astounding, and time consuming to the point it isn't practical to have a bunch of unicorns spend months of their lives regrowing somepony else's bits. Perhaps I might find a way to change that in the future, but not now. I was thinking of a different avenue of research actually. Do you know why organ transplants don't work?"

"Because the unique and individual magic of each pony rejects the new organ because its magic signature is different."

"Right. Its only ever worked with identical twins. I believe that with further research I could use this magic to adapt the magic signature of organs to their new host."

Octavia wanted to be impressed, but previously no pony had been able to overcome the magical rejection problem. "Are you sure you can do that?"

"I think so. This isn't common knowledge so keep it to yourself, but when I fought Tirek I contained the magic of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, to try and keep it safe. Besides how unbelievably powerful it made me, it boosted my healing to the point I was barely getting winded by things that would've destroyed me utterly. My healing was able to adapt itself to use the magic of three other, very different alicorns. If I can find the secret to all this I really do believe I can reverse engineer that adaptation and find a way to beat the rejection issue."

Now Octavia was impressed, "That'd be amazing Twilight, truly amazing. Are you thinking you could transplant wings onto the filly?"

Twilight pursed her lips, wondering how Octavia figured that one out. "She is the reason I started this research after all, so I think its only fair. The problem there is that very few pegasi would give up their wings, even after death, but that's another problem for another time." Twilight picked her quill up and wrote a single word before putting it back down. "Is there something else you wanted?"

Octavia bit her bottom lip until it hurt, not wanting to open the can of worms she was about to. "Twilight... we're worried about you. You've been down here the entire week since Caverndown and, well, yeah, we're worried about you. I realise you're upset, but-"

"Upset?" Twilight interrupted. "Upset!? Upset is finding your favourite kind of cheese is no longer being sold, or that your goldfish died. Killing thousands of soldiers because I could, not because I needed to, but because I could, is slightly above the realms of upset. I'm not upset, Octavia, I'm furious!"

Octavia took a fearful step back as Twilight stood and glared down at her from the bleacher. "Do you realise that what I did in there would probably be considered a serious war crime in literally every other country? But because it's here in crappy Mareitania, I don't get so much as a slap on the fetlock! In fact, I get ponies constantly telling me I did the right thing! Do you have any idea what it's like to be congratulated for your ability to kill thousands!?"

"Nopony made you do it!" Octavia snapped back, not wanting to be intimidated. "You could've just brought Shadow back and left!"

Twilight slumped onto her haunches. "I know," she said in a near whisper.

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because I had a dozen devils on my shoulder telling me to do it, but only half a dozen angels on the other telling me not to. Eliminating your enemy in large numbers without taking losses sounds great on paper, but..." Twilight lay back down and hid her face in her legs, "But horrible in reality. I think the only reason I'm not taking it worse is because a lot of me refuses to believe it even happened, that I could do something like that."

"Twilight..."

"No, I don't want to hear it. I don't want you to tell me how much you all need me, and how important I am to all of this."

Octavia had to resist the urge to roll her eyes and to chastise Twilight for her show of ego there. "No, Twilight, I wasn't going to say that at all. I was going to say that we're all here for you. You don't have to carry these burdens alone."

Twilight stared blankly before chuckling briefly. "Sorry, I'm just too used to others telling me they need me. I'll be alright Octavia, honestly. I just needed some time to myself to get my head straight. I'm sure Fleur would be pleased to know I didn't drink once the entire time, even though I wanted to. I still want to know why she's so against me drinking though."

"I don't know. Maybe her father was an alcoholic or something."

"Maybe." Twilight ran her hoof down her face and sighed. "Anyway, point is that I'll be fine. Fleetfoot should be back later today so I'll have to drag myself out of here to plan the attack on Whiplash."

"I also believe that Iron Prize has almost completed reassembling your armour, so you may want to go see him and try it on."

Twilight snirked, "I'd almost forgotten about that to be honest. Strange to think that was the entire reason we returned to the caverns in the first place."

Octavia shuddered, "Good job too. I hate to think what would've happened had the Duke got there before us. All those crystal ponies would either be slaves or dead."

"And Caverndown would just be another target for our rebellion," Twilight mused. Just as she was about to speak again, the buzzing of rock vibrating on rock filled the room as the speaker stone vied for attention. "And there's the call I've been expecting for the best part of a week. Let me answer this, then I'll go try the armour on, y'know, if you want to stick around."

Octavia smiled and nodded, "I'd be delighted to."

Octavia retreated to the other side of the room, idly skimming through whatever paperwork took her fancy while Twilight answered the pony trying to contact her. "Hi Cele-" she started to say before a masculine voice blared at her.

"Twily!"

Twilight's face creased up in confusion, "Shining? What are you doing-"

"Twily! Come home right now!"

"Uh... no. I haven't finished my duties in Mareitania yet."

"Knock it off Twily. We worked it out and Celestia confessed. Cadence and I both know what you're doing there! Please Twily, come home."

Ah... "Is Cadence there too?"

"No, she's preparing things for the refugees arrival, but that's besides the point. Twilight, you need to come home."

"No I don't. What I need to do is stay here and see this finished. Don't bother trying to change my mind Shining, I'm staying."

Shining growled in the back of his throat. "Fine, then I'm coming to help you!"

"Don't be ridiculous Shining. Cadence is pregnant and she needs you. Besides, I know you'd only try to push me into the background to keep me out of danger."

"Of course I would! A war is no place for-"

"A nigh immortal alicorn princess?"

"I was going to say you."

Twilight sighed and rested her cheek on her hoof, "Shining, I'm not sure how to say this to you, but there is nothing you can say that is going to make me come back."

"But- But- But Celestia and Luna lied to us! Surely you're not okay with that!"

"I lied to you too Shining!" Twilight half yelled back.

"But Twily..."

"Shining, stop. I'm a big girl now, and I can make my own decisions. Celestia never forced me to come here, so you can't hold this against her. She's also given me ample opportunity to return home as well. Besides, out of the two of us I'm probably the safest here. If you came here and got hurt, I- I couldn't live with myself!"

"Twily, please..."

"You didn't have any objections when I was pit against Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, or Tirek, so why now?"

"Because this is different! You're- You're killing ponies Twilight! My sister isn't a killer." A pit formed in Twilight's stomach, a pit which threatened to consume all her composure. How was she supposed to tell her brother that not only had she killed, but the total was well into four figures.

"Yes, I am. I've killed ponies Shining, and there's no way I can take that back."

"H-how many? A few? Five? Ten?"

"Too many by far, and that number will only get b-bigger." Twilight wanted to cry, but held it back, knowing that hearing her cry would only make things harder for Shining.

"This... This is all Celestia's fault! I'm going to... Going to..."

"Do nothing. Celestia already feels awful about this, believe me. Shining, I really can't keep talking about this, so can you trust me when I say I'll be absolutely fine and I'll hopefully see you soon. Now please, put Celestia on, I need to speak with her."

Twilight waited, unable to make out the words as Shining yelled at something as loud as he could. Then there was a whistling sound that Twilight suspected was the sound of the other stone being thrown. Then a slam, as of doors being very violently closed. Thirty seconds later a weary sounding Celestia spoke. "Hello Twilight."

"So I guess the cat's out of the bag now?"

"Actually the cat's been clawing its way out of the bag for a few weeks now. I've been trying to keep those supplies I'm sending out to you a secret, but frankly there's no realistic way to do so. The ambassador from Griffinstone waltzed into day court last week demanding to know where these shipments were going. I tried to divert the issue, but all they have to do is have the ships shadowed and the jig is well and truly up. The incoming arrival of a couple thousand crystal ponies wouldn't have helped matters either."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can do; go public. Fighting an uphill battle to keep this quiet wouldn't help at all in the end. I'll keep your part in things quiet though, saying that we're just sending supplies to assist the uprising there as a mercy mission, but I'm afraid your friends are going to hear about it, and since I get the feeling you told them where you are, I'm sure they might make the connection."

"Well that's going to be an awkward conversation. And I guess Shining and Cadence would've worked it out anyway."

"Quite. So, what would you like me to do? Or would you rather have me let them work it out in their own time?"

"I'm sure that'd go about as well as it did with Shining and Cadence. No, have them come to Canterlot and tell them, then have them use the speaker stone to talk to me since I'll probably have to convince them to not come charging in here. Preferably as soon as possible, while I'm not too busy."

"Actually Twilight, to keep things simpler, I'll go to Ponyville and talk to them. It'll also give me an excuse to avoid your brother for now. Expect to hear off your friends before the day is out. Farewell Twilight."

"Okay Celestia, I'll talk to you later. Bye." Twilight pushed the stone aside before pressing her head against the cold stone of the bleacher. "Fan-bloody-tastic."

Octavia crossed the room back towards her, smiling sympathetically. "I'm sure that could've gone worse. I guess that means Vinyl will work it out as well. Hopefully she'll have then sense to stay quiet.

"Is it going to be a problem? I could get Celestia to get in touch with her if you want?"

"You might just have to do that," Octavia sighed. "And maybe Fancy Pants for Fleur if she told him where she was going. And heavens knows who Trixie might have told."

Twilight grunted and stood up before stretching the stiffness out of her limbs. "It just couldn't be easy could it? Lets go try that armour on; I have a sudden and pressing need to distract myself."

It took best part of an hour to get the armour on, as Iron Prize adjusted bits as he went. Twilight had to admit he'd done a fantastic job putting it back together, and what she was wearing so far fit like a glove, and was barely noticeable it was so light.

"Right, now your other leg." Twilight hesitated, not particularly wanting to get the leg out since it was looking extra freaky at the moment.

"I'd rather not..."

Iron Prize shrugged, "Tough luck I'm afraid. If this leg's going to grow back as everypony keeps telling me it is, then I'm going to have to see it. Now come on, stop being shy." Twilight reluctantly removed her leg from its sling and closed her eyes as she held it out.

"Wow Twilight!" Octavia gasped, "It's almost fully grown!" Which it more or less was, apart from the keratin of the actual hoof. In Twilight's mind, seeing her leg without the hoof part of her hoof was freakier than regrowing the leg ever was. "It probably won't be much longer now."

"I'm hoping it'll be back in time for the attack on Whiplash," Twilight said while carefully looking away. "Frankly I'm tired of having to fight with only three legs." Twilight kept looking away, listening to the noise of the other blacksmiths working as Iron Prize attached the armour to her leg, except the hoof guard for obvious reasons.

Once he was done she donned the helmet using her magic, settling it around her horn and ears. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, having been made for somepony else, but the rest of the armour was almost perfect. A little padding for the helmet and she'd be ready for anything.

"I've used the same material those nasty pegasus collars are made from to hold it all together," Iron Prize explained, not that Twilight or Octavia remembered asking him, "so don't be surprised if the straps stretch out a little bit. If you think it's getting loose bring it back to me and I'll do what I can. Also, if you could stop throwing those collars away so I could salvage them for the straps I'd appreciate it."

Twilight nodded vaguely, turning around on the spot, trying to look at herself. "When we go get that ore from Caverndo- ahem, the caverns rather, we'll get our ponies to raid where the collars were made for usable bits." She did a little jig on the spot, the armour barely making a noise as she bounced. "What is this armour made of? It's so light!"

"Honestly? I don't know." Iron Prize reached out and tapped the plate covering her left shoulder. "It's like no metal I've ever encountered before. It's very strong too, so it's a good job I didn't need to alter any of the pieces. I wish I could get more of it. It'd be the perfect material to make armour for the pegasi."

In a fit of almost perfect timing, Spitfire walked in followed by a grubby Fleetfoot. Spitfire saluted, and opened her mouth, but didn't get a chance to say a single syllable before Fleetfoot shoved her aside and ran over to Twilight, her eyes lit up with childlike wonder. "Dude! Is that thunder-iron!?"

Twilight frowned, "Thunder-iron? I've heard of it, but I don't really know what it is."

Fleetfoot seemed shocked, "You don't know what Thunder-iron is? It's only like one of the rarest and hardest to make metals ever!" Twilight and the others stared at her blankly. "Okay, so it's not the rarest and hardest metal to make," she admitted, "but its close!"

"So what is it?" Octavia asked.

"Well, you know what sky-iron is?"

"I believe that's iron that's been made by pegasus hooves and infused with pegasus magic so it doesn't fall through clouds."

"Right, and it's also pretty light. Thunder-iron is refined sky-iron, and is super tough to make as you have to make a giant thunderhead and channel all its lightning into your pot of sky-iron to burn out all the impurities and melt it. Then you have to pour it into a mould while it's still molten, because it can't be shaped like normal metal, so if you mess your mould up, you've wasted a whole lot of thunder-iron. Seriously, I'd sell a kidney for just a necklace made of the stuff, and you got a whole suit of armour? I'm soooo jealous!"

It was quite amusing to see Fleetfoot gushing over some metal, and Twilight couldn't help but be curious as to how Fleetfoot knew so much about it, so she asked.

"My grandad was the last pony to make thunder-iron in Equestria. It took him a week to build a thunderhead big enough to make enough to fill a coffee mug."

"What do you mean 'last pony?'"

"Well... on his final attempt he botched channelling the lightning, and it hit him instead of the sky-iron. All they found of him was a small lump of charcoal, and after that nopony else tried. Well, that, and making giant thunderheads just to melt a small pot of metal came into conflict with the weather planning office, so while its not illegal, you have to go far from civilization to make it."

"And how did you know this armour was thunder-iron?"

"Oh that's easy, you can tell by the little swirls in the metal." Twilight lifted a leg and squinted at the metal. Although somepony had polished it within an inch of its life, there were indeed little swirls in the metal. How Fleetfoot had spotted that from the doorway was anyponies guess. Pegasi really must have amazing eyesight. "Thunder-iron tends to keep moving around until it solidifies, leaving little patterns in the metal."

Octavia gestured for them to stop talking, "Hold on. Essentially you're saying that pegasi made this armour."

Fleetfoot nodded slowly, suddenly unsure of what Octavia was getting at, "Yes... An alicorn could of I suppose, but they'd probably go for enchanted metals which give other benefits on top of being tougher."

"Not what I was getting at. We have claims that the armour was made for the Lady during the last rebellion. But if what you say is true it was made by pegasi, who couldn't have possibly made it. The ones we freed didn't even know how to make cloudcrete, let alone something like thunder-iron."

Twilight suddenly twigged on to the point that Octavia was trying to make. "Right! So the armour couldn't have been made for her. In fact, considering the state of pegasi here for the last thousand years it's more than likely that this armour predates the exodus!" Twilight suddenly frowned, "But there are no alicorns recorded as definitely existing in pre exodus Mareitania, besides the Lady who's a myth, so why make a suit of armour for an alicorn?"

Fleetfoot hmm'd and rubbed her chin in thought. "May I look at the helmet?" Twilight removed the helmet and passed it to Fleetfoot who sat and squinted at it. "Ah!" she exclaimed suddenly, "The decoration around the hole for the horn was added later, meaning the hole was probably made much later as well. This armour was made for a pegasus."

Twilight took the helmet back and squinted at it. "How could you tell?"

"If this was genuinely made for an alicorn, the helmet would've been made with the hole, and the decoration would've been part of the helmet as well, whereas that's been put on later. It's also in a slightly different style so somepony else made it, not the original craftspony. The golden tree on your peytral was probably attached at the same time."

Twilight groaned. Although it was of little consequence to the grand scheme of things, the mystery surrounding the leader of the last rebellion got just a teensy bit deeper seeing as how she was able to get her hooves on an ultra rare suit of thunder-iron armour originally made for a pegasus.

"Any ideas who it might have been originally made for? Octavia asked, looking hopefully between the others.

"Probably one of the noble families in Pegasopolis," Fleetfoot suggested. "Maybe even Commander Hurricane's family, although that might be me being overly romantic."

"It's probably been sat in some earth pony's collection up until it was used by the last rebellion," Twilight thought out loud. "I don't suppose you saw any inscriptions while you were working on it?" she asked Iron Prize.

"'Fraid not. The pony that made this didn't even leave his signature on it, which is unusual for a piece of art like this."

"Great, more mysteries I'll probably never get an answer to. Fine, doesn't really matter anyway." Twilight thought about it a bit longer, hating that there was far too much going on in the past that left her with an abundance of mysteries. Better that she focus on the here and now. "Fleetfoot, you got as much intel as you could?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm not too sure about what goes on inside the facility because I couldn't get that close, and it has a roof over the one part, but I think I got everything else covered."

"Good. Go wash up and get something to eat while we wait for the others to get here from Neigh Orleans, then we can get to planning. Spitfire, could you go find Rush and Shadow and bring them to the meeting? I imagine having somepony with inside knowledge of the breeding facility will be useful, and frankly, I'd rather not rely solely on the filly. I have some ideas for the thestrals as well."

The command room was considerably more subdued compared to earlier, despite having a great many more ponies inside it. The quiet susurrus of whispered conversation passed to and fro between ponies, a large subject of which was the two dusky, bat-winged ponies. One was sat near the back, while the other was holding a notebook as she sat at the front in the front, both of them doing their best to grit their teeth and bear all that was said about them. Twilight and Fleetfoot were quietly talking in the corner at Ivory's vacated desk, while Ivory herself had chosen not to participate in the meeting, reasoning that the less she knew, the more ponies might be inclined to trust her.

Twilight really didn't want to do this. Now that they were onto the subject of closing down Whiplash she couldn't help but be paranoid that there was going to be some... thing that'll make this whole situation into a giant clusterfuck of badness. It didn't help that she had forgotten to include scouting out the areas around the town and facility to expose any hidden surprises in Fleetfoot's mission. There could be a whole encampment of soldiers not twenty minutes march from Whiplash and they wouldn't be any the wiser.

Then there was what went on inside the facility as well. The facility consisted of a large, circular central building, with four blocks jutting off it like the spokes of a wheel. The four blocks used the caged over, yet open air design of the smaller pegasus labour camps, with the difference that the pegasi's rooms were built into the walls much like a prison, and there were multiple floors to them, but the central building was roofed over, obscuring its inner workings. All they knew about it is that it housed the incinerator used to dispose of deceased pegasi. Twilight was hoping either Rush or the filly might fill in the gaps in their intel.

Figuring that they better get on with it sooner rather than later, Twilight and Fleetfoot broke out of their two pony huddle and moved to the centre table. Twilight's horn glowed as she formed a basic three dimensional image of the facility, render entirely in purple, which was enough to get the rooms' attention.

"Right, thank you all for coming-"

Shadow held a hoof up, "I was promised tea and biscuits if I came."

"I was joking!" Spitfire growled from across the room.

Twilight blinked and quickly decided she didn't want to know. "As I was saying, thank you all for coming. Hopefully together we can make a plan that doesn't involve getting a whole bunch of us or pegasi killed." Twilight wasn't sure if she was joking or not, and Rush sure didn't look like she appreciated it.

"Annnyyyyway... the facility consists of five components; four blocks and the central hub, which we're going to have to take control of simultaneously if we're to pull this off. If our intel is right, this block-" the block she was talking about glowed a little brighter, -"is general housing for adult pegasi." She moved to the next block, "This is the nursery for newborns and their mothers. The next block is used to house the fillies and colts under the care of a few nannies once they're weaned-"

"They take them away from their mothers?" Octavia asked in shock.

Rush nodded, a grim expression on her face. "It stops the kids getting too attached to their mothers. The only foals allowed to stay with their mothers are the next generation of breeders."

The filly's eyes bulged. "That's why I was allowed to stay with my mother!? Oh fuck, I think I'm gonna throw up..." Fleur hugged the filly to her side.

"You're also wrong about the mixed adults thing," Rush continued. "The males are regularly swapped out to prevent inbreeding, and the males and females have to be kept separate to discourage the males from doing anything... unplanned."

"Oh great," Trixie moaned, "it's the 'r' word again."

"Reproduction?" Soarin suggested meekly.

"Close, but no cigar."

"No!" Rush said suddenly. "No pegasi would do that to another pegasi!"

"Then what do you mean by 'unplanned?'" Trixie said snidely.

Rush just shrugged, "Even pegasi have sex for fun."

"I can't believe we're talking about these ponies like they're animals," Thorn muttered loud enough to make sure she was heard.

"Hey!" Twilight shouted suddenly. "I know this is hard but we're going to have to remain objective if we want to get through this. Now, this final block is for preteen to young adult pegasi, from where they'll be shipped off to wherever they're needed." Twilight highlighted the central hub of the building, and also added a tall chimney to the magical model, having forgotten to do it earlier.

"This is the place we know least about. We know it houses an incinerator for cremating the dead, but that's it. We also suspect that its operated by ponies from the nearby town if what we heard is correct, meaning that our attack will be taking place on a day the incinerator isn't lit to lessen the number of civilians there. I was hoping you could fill us in on what else is there Rush."

Rush ran a hoof through her mane, umming and ahhing as she tried to think. The filly came to her rescue, sniffling as she did. "There's a doctors office there, I think. I remember going there to have my wings measured a few times because they were..." she sighed deeply, "they were too small. Then there's a room full of records next to it where they record who's had a foal with who and all that stuff. That's all I really remember of that bit, apart from the smell."

"What smell?" Twilight asked.

"Burnt bodies. I didn't really know what it was until I smelled it again when I was escaping Prance during the fighting." Twilight, and probably most of the ponies in the room, shuddered.

Rush continued where the filly left off. "There's also the guards quarters and where they eat and stuff in the middle bit. Then there's the pits."

"What are those?"

"The pits are... The pits are where they put you if you fight back too much. They're a bunch of little holes in the ground, with heavy metal covers, big enough to stand and lie down in, but that's it. They keep you in them in the dark, opening it up once a day to hose you down and throw some water and food in, then put the lid over the top and leave you there on your own in the dark, staying cold and wet until the next day."

"You sound like you have experience with these pits," Fleur observed.

Rush nodded and hugged herself. "I hit a guard once for being too rough with one of my friends. After they beat the crap out of me they shoved me in a pit. I was begging for mercy after three days." Rush looked at the floor, "They kept me there for two-" Rush's voice cracked, and even a half blind pony could see the haunted look in her tear filled eyes. "Two weeks," she finished, shivering.

Before Twilight even realised she was doing it she walked over to the mare and sat beside her, wrapping a comforting wing around the distraught mare. "Is there nothing else you can think of?"

"Wouldn't there be a thingy to make the collars work?" Summer hazarded.

Rush nodded. "Yeah. Its got a thing that turns it off as well, so if the pegasi start a big fight then they can turn the collars on all at once."

"That could be a problem..." Potentially a big one since several hundred convulsing pegasi would hardly not be. "Do all the pegasi there wear collars?" Both Rush and the filly shook their heads.

"I never wore one while I was there," the filly said.

"They only put them on you once you're too big to slip them off over your head," Rush explained. At least that was slightly better than all the pegasi wearing collars since that much voltage would be lethal to a young pony. It was still probably lethal to the not quite so young ponies though, which presented a problem.

Twilight paced around the table as the inklings of a plan started to form in her mind. "Okay, we're going to have to split up into four, no, five teams. Trixie, you and I are going after the mast to stop them from activating the collars. Rush? I'm not asking your people to fight, but if you alone came it'd be very useful."

Rush nodded slowly, the speed increasing as her enthusiasm grew. "Yeah, I'm in."

"Great! You and... Snowbright can lead the team to break the adults out. Uh, are the nannies with the toddlers pegasi or earth ponies?"

"Pegasi," Rush confirmed.

"Good. Um..." Twilight hadn't really figured on the large amount of children being involved in this plan, and was struggling to think of ponies best suited to deal with them. And failing. "Spitfire. You, Soarin, and Fleetfoot are taking the older fillies and colts. Octavia. You, Summer, and Thorn can handle the newborns and their mothers while Fleur and the filly take care of the toddlers." None of them even tried to hide their disappointment. "Daybreak, we're going to need a way to transport roughly four hundred young and newborn foals."

Daybreak waved a hoof languidly, "Oh please, give me a challenge why don't you?"

Shadow held up a hoof. "Uh, yeah, uh, what are my people supposed to be doing in all of this?"

"You'll stay outside, keeping an eye out for any unsuspected surprises, and buying us time to get out if anything does happen. Once we're away you're to head out and harass the Duke's forces as we discussed." Twilight was happy to see that Shadow was at least pleased with that.

"How many guards are there?" Snowbright asked.

"We don't know," Twilight admitted. "Fleetfoot couldn't count them all, and the patrols are nearly constant so there must be somewhere around a hundred guards in there at least. I'm proposing we take around four hundred of our ponies with us to be sure, and to speed up the evacuation." Snowbright didn't push the issue so Twilight assumed he was satisfied with the answer.

"So we're not bringing all our forces?" Daybreak asked. "How are we supposed to hold the town afterwards?"

"We're not," Twilight said with a slight shake of her head. "The Duke is too well established that far north, and we'd have no hope of holding him off if he retaliated. We're going to free the pegasi then leave again. That's it."

"But what if the Duke takes it out on the townsponies?" said Fleur. "We can't just leave them there!"

"He wouldn't," Snowbright said before Twilight had a chance. "There'd be absolutely no benefit to him doing so, and it would damage his major shipping port on the Mareissippi. That should be enough to stop him from acting out against them." The answer seemed to satisfy Fleur, but it was clear she still had something on her mind.

"Any other questions?"

Mason cleared his throat, "What am I gonna be doing?"

"You can work with Daybreak on the evacuation, and probably be in charge of that on the field since I suspect Daybreak won't be joining us."

"I have an allergic reaction to arrows," Daybreak confessed. A small rumble of laughter echoed around the room. "I suspect you'll need some more of those keys to unlock the collars?"

"Yes please. I know we picked up a few more when we shut down the Neigh Orleans pegasus camp, but more would be useful." Twilight looked around for any more questions but couldn't see any. She ended the spell forming the model of the facility and smiled at the ponies around her. "I'll try and have some individual plans formed for each group before the attack, but if everypony's okay with what we have so far I declare this meeting adjourned. If Script, Shadow, Rush, and the Wonderbolts could wait a moment I'd appreciate it.

Most of the other ponies filed out of the room, although Twilight was surprised to see Fleur and the filly waiting behind. Script politely cleared her throat, clearly wanting Twilight's attention. "Sorry. Did you take many notes?"

"I'm afraid not. It all became rather shocking to hear all that, and I may have forgot." The elderly thestral looked so downcast that Twilight couldn't help but be sympathetic. "I know I'm too old to fight, but surely there must be something an old bat like me can do?"

"We could use a record keeper. Somepony to record all we've done, so that even should we fail at least our efforts will be remembered."

Script brightened up, "Of course! I won't let you down."

"I didn't think you would." Twilight's expression grew sombre, "I know I should've said this sooner, but I'm sorry about your brother."

Script smiled, although it did seem a little fragile. "That's quite alright dear. I suspected such a thing might happen when he... did what he did. He was too stuck in the past, and too stuck in his ways to ever change. Don't you worry about me deary, I'll be fine."

Script departed, only to be replaced by Shadow. "What do you want me for?"

Twilight waved Rush and the Wonderbolts forward to join the conversation. "We're going to be having a large amount of pegasi arrive here soon, and we're going to have to house them. Shadow, I was hoping you and your people could help build homes for them as you outnumber our fliers significantly, and you have a couple of weeks spare now. We could really use the help."

Shadow stared at her flatly. "Seriously? Ugh, fine, whatever. I'm still wondering why I'm in charge of the other thestrals."

"Because I trust you, and the other thestrals do too if they're happy to let you be in charge. Now then, Rush, Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. With this many pegasi due to arrive I think it's time we progressed our collection of cloud houses past a cloud village, and into a cloud town. Can you do that?"

"Well, sure," Spitfire said thoughtfully. "Depends how you want us to do it though."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Do you want an open design like Cloudsdale? Or a simpler, yet more defensive design?"

"I don't know. What do you think Rush? It's your home after all."

The pegasus shrugged lazily, "I don't know what Cloudsdale is, but it sounds nice."

Soarin grinned and rubbed his hooves together, "Alright then! One New Pegasopolis coming right up!" Fleetfoot elbowed him in the side, but couldn't beat his enthusiasm down. Even Twilight had to admit she liked the sound of it, and if they could make a mobile cloud city like Cloudsdale it would help in the future for weather production. Although for obvious reasons it would have to stay in one place for now.

"If you think you're all up to something like that, then sure. You might have to leave me out of it though as cloud architecture isn't something I've read up on a lot."

"Pfft," Soarin said dismissively, "it's clouds! Seriously, anything goes."

"Then I will leave it in your capable hooves." They left, discussing various plans between them, leaving Twilight with Fleur and the filly. "So, how'd you think it went?"

"As well as could be expected," Fleur replied smoothly, "given the lack of knowledge we have on that place. I'm really not sure what Fleetfoot was doing for nearly two weeks to have come up with so little."

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of making plans based on vague information," Twilight admitted. "Anyway, you two look like you want something."

Fleur grinned saucily, "Oh Twilight, you know us so well. We were hoping we could head to Prance as soon as we're done with Whiplash, since we'll only be a few days trot from it."

"Uh, are you sure?" Twilight said with a hint of worry. "We have no idea what you'd be walking into. I was planning on having the Wonderbolts scout it out once we have things more settled and secured around here."

"We're sure," the filly confirmed. "I want to know what it's like there now. I know a back way into the city so we should be able to get in and out without too much trouble. Please Twilight! Pretty please!"

Twilight groaned, not really wanting to tell them that she thought it was a bad idea, but at the same time she wasn't actually their boss so she had no right to stop them. "Alright, but if things are too dangerous there, or if you can't get in through your back way, you come straight back. What you want to do is crazy, and I don't want you risking yourselves for nothing."

"You're the best Twilight!" the filly squealed.

"Thanks Twilight. We only want to spent a week there at most, to get the lay of the land. Once we know enough we'll come straight back."

"I'm going to hold you to that. You guys are far too useful to just let wander off," Twilight said half jokingly.

"Aww, keep sweet talking me like that and I might just ha-" A band of purple magic snapped around Fleur's muzzle, cutting her off midsentence.

"Don't ruin the moment Fleur. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask, why do you have such a problem with me drinking? I mean, I've really wanted to this last week for obvious reasons, but I haven't because I don't want to disappoint you. I think I at least deserve to know why."

Fleur rubbed her muzzle after Twilight released it, if only to buy herself a little time to explain this. "You're a smart mare Twilight. One in a million if you miraculously sprouting wings is any indication, and I don't want to see a mare like you throwing yourself away to a drinking problem. I'm sure you've heard of my former party lifestyle, and no, I won't deny it, but at the same time it was so... empty. I'd wake up in the morning with plans on how I was going to get wasted that night, and there are entire weeks where I don't remember a thing. Then I got to know Fancy Pants and he slowly got me out of the habit, showing me there was more to life than drinking myself to oblivion. Now I barely drink at all."

"So you were trying to drink your past away? Is that it?"

Fleur shook her head and shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know. While being a model gave me everything I wanted, it also introduced me to a lot of other things, and for a while I lost myself. And now, when I see ponies making the same mistakes I did, I hate it."

Twilight wasn't about to argue that hers and Fleur's reasons for drinking were very different, seeing as how Fleur had actually opened up on something about her past. Instead she decided to try something different. "Fleur, I'm not going to make promises to never drink again, but I will do my best to keep it to a minimum. To be honest, I'm not feeling that same urge to drink as I did after this, "She wiggled her leg in its sling,"so you probably won't have to worry too much."

"Alright. It's probably unfair of me to walk all over you saying 'no you can't do that' anyway, so if you drink occasionally, I won't stop you. But... if you take it too far I will totally be a bitch about it."

"Deal. Now if you'll excuse me Fleur, filly, I'm going to wait here for the most awkward conversations of a lifetime. Oh, and by the way, I suppose I better tell you that Celestia is having to go public about her support for our rebellion.

"Excuse me!?"

It had taken fifteen uncomfortable minutes to explain the situation to Fleur, which was plenty of time for Fleur to give Twilight an ear-bashing as to why it would be bad if ponies in Equestria found out she was leading the uprising. Twilight understood this point entirely but reasoned that there would be steps taken to avoid that. Fleur argued that those steps would fall far short of what was needed to make sure it stayed quiet because Celestia was far too soft. Twilight had to admit Fleur was probably right about that. In the end they talked it out and came to the conclusion that even if the whole world knew, they still had a job to do, so it made little difference.

Then Twilight waited. She waited for two more hours until the little stone before her vibrated. She hadn't even had a chance to say 'hi' before Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"How could you do this to us!?" the pegasus all but screamed. Twilight winced and folded her ears back.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't want to!"

"Didn't what? Want your friends with you? Didn't want us to help you? We're your friends Twilight! You don't do that to your friends!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack shouted. "She hasn't talked to us in months, and the first thing you're going to do is yell at the poor girl? Celestia told us why we couldn't go!"

"I don't care! I want to hear Twilight's reasons why we couldn't go!" There was a short but expectant silence, "Well?"

"I wanted you to come! I really did! But Celestia said it'd be better if you stayed in Ponyville. And she's right... The things they do to pegasi here are- are terrible! If something happened to you or Fluttershy I'd never forgive myself! And Rarity as well! The things that happen to unicorns here are almost as bad! Trixie almost got herself dehorned just for throwing a tomato!" The others gasped in shock, all except for Rainbow.

"Yeah, that's another thing. Trixie's good enough to go with you, but not us?"

"Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy tutted, "That's not fair and you know it. Celestia and Luna picked the ponies that went with her." Rainbow grumbled but didn't argue.

"How about you Twilight?" said Rarity. "Are you alright?"

"I... I think so," Twilight lied while shaking her head. "Lets just say I'm probably not the same pony I was when I left Ponyville."

"I'm sure you're still the same Twilight you ever were," Rarity said warmly. "We do miss you, you know, very much so. Pinkie's already planning the welcome home party."

"Yep! And I'm instigating a Ponyville wide ban on Quesadillas. I promise you there won't be one of those scrummy cheesy delights in sight the whole time!"

"Uh, thanks Pinkie."

"We're also going to have to throw an extra party because you missed Fluttershy's birthday!"

"Oh no, you don't have to do that Pinkie," Fluttershy protested feebly.

"Of course I do!"

"Actually," Twilight interrupted, "I'm probably going to have missed more than just Fluttershy's birthday by the time I get back. My own included."

"Just how long are you planning on spending out there? I suppose I could condense all the missed birthdays into one big party, but that'd make it seem less special..." Pinkie trailed off into her own inner party maths.

"You know, we could come out there and and help you," Applejack suggested. "If what Celestia says is true we'd be perfectly safe in whatsitcalled, Puddingarde."

"No! No you can't come out here!"

"What?" Rainbow Dash screeched. "Why not!?"

"Because its not safe! There's a war on, and I want you guys to be safe."

"Twi, I don't even need to be the Element of Honesty to tell you ain't being straight up with us. C'mon sugarcube, why don't you want us there?"

Twilight swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "I've... I've killed ponies," she confessed. "Lots of ponies. I wasn't lying when I said I'm not the pony I used to be. The thought of you guys coming out here and doing the things I've done, it makes me feel sick. The thought of any of you with blood on your hooves, it's not right. Please, stay in Ponyville, where it's safe." Twilight shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable backlash.

"It's okay Twilight," Rarity said after a few moments. "We know you're at war, so we can't truly expect you to do that without taking lives. If you're waiting for us to forgive you then you'll have to keep waiting because there's nothing for us to forgive you for. Celestia told us all about that awful Duke and what he's done, so believe me when I say we understand, and we appreciate your honesty in telling us.

"Than-" Twilight's voice broke, and tears flowed freely down her face. "Thank you," she said in a near whisper. "Promise me you'll all stay in Ponyville where it's safe."

"Of course darling, I promise." The others did too, even if some needed prompting.

"Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy said warningly.

"Alright, fine. I promise. Yeesh."

Twilight rubbed her tears away as best she could. "Thanks guys. I miss you all so much."

"An' we all miss you too, so get back here as soon as you can, y'hear me?"

"I'll try." Slowly, and with no small amount of reluctance they said their goodbyes, leaving Twilight in the suddenly oppressive silence of the command room. She tried to compose herself, but failed as the dam had well and truly burst at this point. She was still sobbing half an hour later when Trixie gently tapped at the door and poked her head in.

It only took Trixie to take one look at Twilight to see how upset she was. "Hugs?" she suggested.

Twilight nodded weakly. "Hugs," she half said, half blubbed. Trixie crossed the room and wrapped her legs around Twilight's withers, the alicorn in question dripping gummy tears down Trixie's shoulder and back.

"You know, ponies might question why you're in charge if they see you like this."

"Do you remember me asking to be in charge?" Trixie admitted that she hadn't. "Then excuse me if I don't care right now."

It took a while, but she managed to stop crying. Whether that was because she had run out of tears was another matter, but it did give her a chance to pull herself together. "Thanks Trixie," she said as she cast a spell to clean the gunk she left in Trixie's hair away.

"Oh, you know, anytime. But don't make a habit of it."

"How are you feeling? I'm only asking because the way you were acting in Caverndown was scary. You seemed barely in control at one point, yet here you are comforting me and giving me hugs."

"I'm okay I suppose. Trixie might have gotten carried away in Caverndown, she admits, but the fact that we were fighting as hard as we could while still getting pushed back was... frustrating."

"Well, alright. Just, take it easy. It's scary seeing you like that, and I'm scared we're going to lose you to it some day."

"Oh please, Trixie is well on top of it. If this is about to turn into a 'convince Trixie dark magic is bad' thing, then you can stop right now."

Twilight snorted with faint amusement. "'Dark' magic. The clue is in the name. And no, I'm not going to ask you to stop. I just want you to be careful."

"And Trixie will be. After all, I intend to see this through until the very end."

Author's Notes:

One of those chapters where I write a bunch of stuff, then wonder why I wrote it. Oh well, no turning back now!

And now for my two cents on the whole 'Princess Flurry Heart' thing. OMG Hasbro! Build some fecking suspense for once in your short, toy making lives! That, and either pony pregnancy is really short, lasting around two to three months at a guess, (and there I was saying ten months in a fit of scientifically accurate equine knowledge) or Cadence has been up the duff since hers and Shining's honeymoon after a Canterlot wedding. If so, damn they kept that quiet.