Seven ponies stared out over the mass of soldiers outside Puddingarde, none of them fully able to express their shock at the sight. In the distance sat Puddingarde itself, its walls still whole and its barriers holding, but that wasn't to say things were going well in there.

"H-how?" Twilight spluttered. "How could this happen? We've only been gone a week!"

"I guess this was their play all along," Fleur said tiredly. "Attack us while we're distracted and divided."

"But we're not divided! Most of our ponies are in Puddingarde!"

"Maybe they were counting on you taking a lot of them with you to bust me out? I don't know."

"Do they really think I'd be that stupid? That I'd throw so many lives away just to save you?" Twilight quickly realised what she had said and hastily added, "No offense."

Fleur shrugged, "None taken."

"Maybe they just wanted you and me gone," said Trixie. "Or at least just you. Maybe they were counting on us taking a lot longer to save Fleur only to get back here and find this place in ruins. Guess they hadn't counted on you being good at magic and stuff."

"But why only us two?"

Trixie looked sideways at Twilight, the hint of a grin on her face, "You do realise you and me are literally the two most dangerous ponies in this country right? Magically speaking anyway. Trixie has the feeling they're a lot more afraid of what we can do, than what our army can do." Twilight thought of Faust again and how powerful she felt, and silently disagreed with Trixie on them being the most powerful ponies in Mareitania, but did have to somewhat agree with her assessment of the situation.

"Even we can't defeat an army Trixie."

"No, but with the proper support we can do a lot more damage than any ten adepts put together." And that was the baseline of the issue; Twilight and Trixie were powerhouses when it came to magical martial prowess, and even Twilight couldn't deny that as much as she wanted to, even if she disliked the reasons behind Trixie's claim to that distinction.

"Look, it doesn't matter what their plan is, we have to get to Puddingarde." Twilight gently lifted Fleur out of the cart and waited while Mason removed the cart before placing Fleur on his back. "I'm going to teleport us in, and I know this is probably the first teleport for some of you, so hold on."

In a bright purple flash they appeared in Puddingarde, in the safety of the keep. Twilight caught Mason and held him in her magic before he could fall and hurt Fleur. "Get her to Sawbones, now," she commanded once he had recovered. He shuffled off and Twilight looked around, trying to find the nearest pony. It wasn't hard as a large number of them were stood, staring at her as whispers spread around.

"Who's in charge of the defence?" Twilight asked to no one pony in particular.

"Snowbright ma'am," said a mare with a stitched up gash on her cheek. "He's in the command room." Twilight started heading to the command room, but stopped as a small yellow pony blocked her path.

"Still think I'm safer here? Huh?" the filly asked, giving Twilight some serious stink-eye. Summer sat to the side of the filly and shrugged a little sheepishly when Twilight looked at her. "Where's Fleur?"

"Mason's taking her to Sawbones. She's-uh... She's hurt pretty bad, so be gentle with her, okay?"

"Okay. I was actually expecting you to say I can't see her yet and blah blah blah. Then we'd have an argument which would be totally pointless because I'd go see her anyway."

"Filly, there's an army outside and I literally couldn't care less about stopping you right now. As I said though, be gentle."

"Yes ma'am, and... thanks for bringing her back." The filly trotted past them to Sawbones' office while they continued down to the command room with Summer falling in beside Octavia, giving her a quick nuzzle in greeting. In the command room they found Snowbright sat with his head in his hooves whilst in the company of Spitfire, Soarin, Ivory, and a few other ponies that Twilight couldn't really put a name to.

"Snowbright!" Snowbright jolted at the sound of his name and he looked about rapidly until he found Twilight. "What's going on here?!"

"Oh, well, I'm not sure if you noticed, but we're under attack."

"I can see that, but when did they get here?"

"They arrived a couple of days after you left. They tried to attack us as soon as they got here but we held them off. Now they've set up camp and appear to be building trebuchets to bombard us."

"Who's leading them?" Snowbright didn't answer. Instead he unfolded a bloodstained piece of paper and slid it over to Twilight. She picked it up gingerly and read through it as quickly as she could.

Dear Princess Twilight

I've heard that you have a fondness for writing letters and thought I'd do you the courtesy of writing you one myself.

If you are reading this I'm sure you are aware of the forces camped outside your little bastion. I had hoped to have this place razed while you were gone, but I underestimated the tenacity of your defenders and have chosen to bide my time a little by placing it under siege.

However, if you disband your little troupe of merry rebels and surrender yourself and your companions from Equestria, as well as the Viscount's pegasus (at his insistence, not mine,) then we can resolve this whole matter with little unnecessary bloodshed.

Continue to resist and you'll find out why the Dukes' still rule this country. You have a week to decide, although I am aware that you might be longer than that trying to fruitlessly rescue your friend. Hopefully somepony will have the wits to have one of your pegasus deliver this message before the deadline is up.

Signed

Gen. Filigree

P.s. Apologies for the bloodstains. Catapulting severed heads to deliver mail is notorious for making a mess.

Twilight felt sick. Not only had Filigree survived Caverndown somehow, but he had the letter delivered inside a severed head he had flung over the wall. She also suspected that she was meant to get this letter far too late for her to effectively surrender. Not that she would've believed his offer anyway. "H-how long left until his deadline is up?"

"Three days. Nopony here really knows about the offer in the letter about you surrendering, so it's unlikely your ponies here will turn against you to save their skins."

"Like it'd be that easy," Trixie sneered. "We know what they did to the last rebellion after their leader surrendered. They massacred them."

"Right." Twilight closed her eyes and bowed her head in thought. Surrender wasn't an option, largely for the reason that Trixie pointed out, but also because Filigree wasn't that big of an immediate threat. Starvation was far higher up the list. "How's the food situation here?"

"Acceptable," said Ivory. "After the enemy took Neigh Orleans the pegasi offered to fly the food directly from the ships to here, so there's no shortages yet."

"They took Neigh Orleans?" Twilight sank down and rested her chin on the table, feeling as though all their efforts had suddenly been for nothing. It was more than a little disheartening. "Is Daybreak okay?"

"He's fine," said Snowbright. "I asked Spitfire to go and find him after the attack here. He's hiding in our old hideout with Thorn and some of the city guard. The soldiers weren't very subtle arriving in Neigh Orleans so he had time to get a message out to the rest of the guard telling them to hide their weapons and armour, and thankfully the soldiers fell for it."

"That's a relief." Twilight went back to thinking, no longer finding herself quite so off balance. This was just a problem that needed solving, nothing more. "How do you think Filigree intends to get us in here?"

"As I said, he's building trebuchets, so he probably intends to batter our defenses down with them until he can move his soldiers in."

"Right, so if we destroy his trebuchets we can last a lot longer."

"Well, yeah, but only pegasi can get to them without getting killed straight away, but there's nothing they can do to destroy one of those things. Our adepts could, but we have no way of getting them to the trebuchets without them being killed straight out of the gate."

"If only we had some kind of powerful, flying unicorn or something," Trixie said sarcastically.

"Even I couldn't stop those soldiers from killing me if I get caught Trixie."

"Then do it at night."

"I... Huh..." It wasn't actually a bad idea, but not that simple either. "They could still catch me at night, so I'd need a distraction. Has anypony been in touch with the thestrals?"

Spitfire shook her head, "No ma'am, but we were due a runner from them this week, so I wouldn't be surprised if she saw the army outside and turned back to warn Shadow." A fair assumption in Twilight's opinion.

"Okay, yeah. Spitfire, you and the other Wonderbolts, and any other pegasi you think you need, get out there and find them. We're going to need them if we're going to survive this."

"What about the rest of us?" Trixie asked.

"The rest of us are going to have to hold on and wait, although, if you want you could come with me as I check our defences and stuff?" Trixie sighed but nodded. "Okay. Octavia? I know this isn't your field of expertise, but could you go to Sawbones' office and see how their medical supplies are looking? And check on Fleur while you're there of course."

It was only a short distance to where Sawbones' office was located, but the filly wasn't about to do anything less than sprint to it. She ran as fast as she could, leaving a string of apologies behind her as she bumped into and bounced off the ponies blocking her way.

She spotted Fleur laying on her side on a stretcher outside the office, the new doctor Suture washing her hooves, "Fleur!"

Fleur looked up and smiled as the filly wove her way around the injured ponies similarly placed on the floor. "Hey you," she mumbled once the filly was closer, but frowned as the filly slowed her approach, taking in the extent of Fleur's injuries.

"What did they do to you?"

"You want a list? Or can you accept that it wasn't very nice?"

"They took your horn..." Tears filled the filly's eyes, and Fleur smiled as kindly as she could lest the filly totally break down.

"Hey now, there's no need for that. They didn't take nothing that won't grow back."

The filly stood up on the edge of the stretcher and didn't move, even as her breathing became heavier. "I want to hit you so bad Fleur."

"Um... thank you for not doing that."

"Why didn't you run? Or hide? Why'd you just let them take you?"

"There was no way I was going to get away from them all. Besides, I needed you to get away, so if I could distract them from catching you, that was fine by me."

"But you didn't! They let me go! That hunter knew I was there, and she looked right at me, but did nothing! She let me get away!"

"Oh..."

The filly cringed, "Sorry Fleur, I didn't mean it like that. Thanks for trying to get me safe and stuff."

"Nah, I get it. Totally wasted effort and all that."

"Fleur..."

"It's fine filly. I doubt things would have turned out much differently in any other case."

"Actually, I was going to say you stink." Fleur snorted into laughter, but quickly stopped as it hurt. "Are you okay Fleur?" the filly asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure I could touch okay with a really big stick at the moment, and as for the smell, let's just say that torture doesn't exactly encourage bladder control, and tends to make you a bit sweaty and stuff. That, and what's under this bandage probably isn't too healthy."

"Especially not if you put a bandage like that on it without treating it first," Suture snapped suddenly, entering herself into the conversation. "I am not looking forward to taking that thing off. Whose idea was it to put that on anyway?"

"Fleetfoot's. Was it the wrong thing to do?"

"Yeeessss... but at the same time, no. Wrapping it in a bandage without cleaning it first only gives infection a chance to set in."

"Oh, brilliant." Fleur sighed through her nose, deciding to not dwell on it. "How're my hooves looking."

Suture brushed her mane out of her eyes and sighed, "Not a lot we can do apart from keep them clean. With any luck they should heal on their own if you stay off them. Same for your horn, although I couldn't even hazard a guess as to when you'll get your magic back, if at all. I don't really have any training with unicorn horns as I specialised in pegasi, as I suspect you know."

"That's right, we picked you up from Whiplash didn't we? How'd you like it here so far?"

Suture smiled slightly, "Well, apart from the whole army outside thing, it's wonderful seeing everypony living and working together, especially the pegasi. It really does make me happy to see them able to keep their foals."

"Yeah. If a lot more ponies could see it like you do I imagine we'd have a lot more ponies supporting us."

"Hopefully everypony will see it that way some day." Suture dropped her cloth into her bowl of water before picking it up and placing it on her back. "I'll be back with Sawbones in a bit to take a look at your leg, but first I'm going to have to find something to disinfect it with. Maybe some honey if I can find some..." Suture wandered off, deep in thought, leaving Fleur and the filly to catch up in relative peace until Octavia arrived.

"I didn't realise there were so many injured here," she said as she wound her way through the injured.

"And this is just the injured," the filly said. "There's quite a few dead too. There were a lot of ponies out training when the first wave of soldiers came, and although the vast majority made it in through the gates before the soldiers hit them, it was still a few minutes until the adepts could get a shield up to stop the crossbow fire."

"We got quite a few of them too," Summer added.

"True, but that doesn't change the fact that we're trapped in here does it?" the filly said sharply. Summer frowned, leaving the filly to sigh and feel guilty. "Sorry. I'm just... I'm stressed, okay?"

"'S okay. I'm kinda wishing we could all build a big thunderstorm or something and blast those soldiers to pieces."

"Good heavens," Octavia exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

"In Equestria maybe," said Fleur, "but we'd have to be pretty desperate to get Twilight to agree to that."

The filly shrugged, "I'd say this is pretty desperate."

"Ahem." They looked over to the pony interrupting them, only to find it was Sawbones. "I'd hate to see what kind of injuries that could incur. Now then Fleur, we are going to have to get that bandage off you and that burn cleaned. I sincerely hope you're ready for this as it's not going to be pleasant."

"Is it going to be as unpleasant as having it done in the first place?" she asked sweetly.

"I-I-uh..." Sawbones spluttered. "Well, I should hope not."

"Then get on with it."

"R-right." He shooed the others aside and sat down next to Fleur. "Does it hurt?" he asked, ignoring the sound of disgust from the filly.

"Yes, but not as much as I thought it would. My skin does feel kind of tight though." She bit her bottom lip and looked away as he started to unwind the bandage, occasionally wincing as a bit of crusted flesh pulled away with it. "Octavia, could you take the filly somewhere for a bit?"

"Of course," said Octavia, who felt slightly relieved that she was being given the chance to go as well. "Come along filly."

"B-but I wanna stay here with Fleur!"

"You can see me later filly," Fleur hissed. "Get outta here." The filly acquiesced, and dragged herself away with her head low. Summer started to go with them but halted as Sawbones stopped her.

"Actually, if you could stay until Miss Suture gets back I'd appreciate it."

"Um... okay?"

"You'll be fine Summer," Octavia reassured her. "We're going to go find Twilight and Trixie if you need us."

They waited until both Octavia and the filly was gone before continuing. Straight away Fleur grit her teeth and growled. "Oh Celestia this feels so wrong," she whimpered as Sawbones continued to unwind the bandage.

"Not as bad as I thought this'd be," Sawbones mused to himself. How right he was could be attributed to personal opinion as the vivid red, and angry looking burn lines spiralling around her leg certainly didn't look very healthy. Sawbones then started to brush the leg down with a wet cloth, removing a lot of the burnt skin with it. "I hate to say it but this is going to leave a lot of scarring because of how deep these burns go. Not even your hair could hide this."

"I think that's what she wanted when she did it," Fleur mumbled, moving her head again so she didn't have to see it.

"Summer my dear, could you keep washing this while I find out where Suture's gotten to?"

"Okay." Summer took the cloth in her hooves and slowly wiped it down Fleur's leg. Neither of them said anything to the other while she worked, but Summer couldn't help but want to. "I'm sorry," she said after a few awkward moments.

"For what?"

"I'm sorry if I'm... hurting you..?" Summer said, not entirely sure what she was apologising for herself. She resumed cleaning and started humming to herself when Fleur said something too quiet to hear. "Hmm? What did you say?"

"I said I'm sorry. After we saved you from the boat I kind of ignored you, and I was glad Octavia made the effort so I didn't have to. I thought you were being weak, apologising all the time, like you were apologising for simply existing. I was being unfair though, and couldn't have been more wrong about you, and I was starting to realise that even before this. You are so strong to have gone through what you have and still be a good pony."

"It's okay. I mean, you could've just left me on that boat and thought nothing of it. So even if you thought all that about me I don't mind because you're still the pony that saved me and I'll always be thankful for that."

Fleur could feel herself blushing, "You're a wonderful pony Summer. I hope you remember that."

"As long as I have ponies to remind me of that, sure." She wiped the rag down Fleur's leg again, "I'm not really hurting you though, am I?"

"I... I don't know actually. It does hurt, but it's the kind of pain you get when you're drunk, if you know what I mean. It feels like it should hurt, but it doesn't. My leg does feel kind of hot though."

"Oh."

"Sorry. I guess you know full well what I mean."

"I never had anything like this done to me. This is far worse."

"Worse than what you went through for years? I find that hard to believe."

"I think it's like your burns. It hurts at first, but as it goes on it stops hurting so much. You just become... numb after a while. That probably sounds wrong. I wish I knew better words to talk about it."

"No, I know what you mean. I almost gave up when I was their prisoner. They weren't even questioning me or anything. Just torturing me, and it just became easier to do what auntie wanted."

"Auntie?"

"The pony torturing me wanted me to call her auntie, and in return she called me her 'favourite niece.' Oh Celestia, this sounds so messed up..." Fleur's breath caught in her throat, and as much as she tried to fight it she started crying again. She was surprised when Summer sat on the edge of her stretcher that gently hugged her so as to not touch her leg, but also run a hoof down Fleur's mane.

"It's alright Fleur, I know. They used to make me call everypony master, or mistress." Summer shook her head, "Never again." She kept stroking as Fleur cried it out, only stopping as her tears turned into small hiccups.

"I-I'm sorry, that was... Thanks." Fleur wiped her eyes with the back of her unburnt leg and settled back down into the crib. "How come I've never seen you cry?"

"I used to, back when I-uh... started my-um... yeah. But they'd only laugh, or some of them enjoyed it if I did, so I stopped. Now I can't seem to cry even if I want to."

"It's things like that, that make me want to ask Celestia to melt this country into a plain of glass. Fucking Mareitania."

From her vantage point on the wall overlooking the plains in front of Puddingarde, it was hard to gauge just how many soldiers there were out there. Easily ten thousand if not more if she were to hazard a guess. Twilight kept her worries to herself though, not wanting the nearby defenders to pick up on it. At the same time though, she didn't quite have the confidence Trixie had.

"This is pathetic. Even with this many soldiers they failed to crack this place."

"If this place wasn't built on a cliff they might have."

"Then thank Celestia that Puddinghead... senior, or whatever his name was, had the brains to do such a thing."

"This was built long before Celestia was even born, but okay."

"You know what I mean." Twilight did, but didn't much care to discuss it. Instead she focused on the line of ten catapults that had been erected in a row across the plains, in perfect striking distance for them, but woefully out of reach for most of her forces.

"We need to take those trebuchets out as soon as possible," she said, interrupting Trixie as she was about to start again. "If we can take those out we can survive a lot longer in here."

"So... what? You're just going to blow them up?"

"I couldn't do that on my own. Or I could, but it'd be taxing and could leave me a bit defenceless. Actually I'm betting those things are made of wood, and are probably quite flammable."

"So you're just going to have some pegasi hold torches to them? Is that it? Seems like a good way to get a lot of pegasi killed."

"No, nothing like that. What we need is some oil or tar or something like that. Flammable liquids of some description that we can get on the trebuchets and really get them burning. Hmm..."

"And you're going to fly around with that much oil are you?"

"No, we'll need some way of delivering it... Of course we'll have to find that much oil first."

Trixie looked sideways at Twilight, "You mean like lantern oil or something?"

"Yeah, that'd be perfect."

"Surely there must be places in Neigh Orleans with a fairly decent supply of lantern oil then." Twilight didn't know, and the one pony that might was stuck hiding underground in Neigh Orleans.

The clip clop of hooves on stone heralded the arrival of Octavia, who was being followed by a very morose filly. "Should I be worried about what you two are up to?"

"Probably not," said Twilight. "We're trying to figure out ways to take down those trebuchets, and we have half an idea, but we don't know where to get a lot of oil or something similar." Twilight stared off into the distance for a moment before shaking her head to snap out of it. "How's Fleur?"

"They're treating her leg now, but don't ask me how." Twilight thought of the methods they used to fix her own leg, and hoped that wasn't what they intended for Fleur.

"And the medical supplies?"

"Drat! I knew I forgot something!"

"It's fine, there's not a lot we can do if they do run out."

Octavia half-smiled, "You make it sound hopeless like that."

"No, not yet. We just need to buy ourselves more time by taking those trebuchets out."

"And so you want to pour oil on them and burn them? Where would you even get so much oil?"

"That's just it, we don't know, and one pony that would is trapped in Neigh Orleans."

"You mean Daybreak?" Twilight nodded. "Then why don't you fly in and find him," Octavia suggested, squinting at Twilight funnily for not thinking of something so obvious.

"I suppose we could. We still need a way to get that oil onto the trebuchets."

"Can't you just carry it in your magic?"

"I don't think that's the best idea. We need some water skins or something to put it in so we can pour it out over the trebuchets, then set fire to them. Problem is, where do you even find that many water skins?"

"How about bottles?" the filly piped up. "Bottles are easy enough to get a hold of."

"She's right," said Trixie, "and we wouldn't have to pour the oil back out of them, we could just throw them at the trebuchets so they break and splash the oil on the wood!"

"Okay," Twilight said slowly, warming up to the idea, "we still need to find a lot of bottles though."

"We could always go visit Mama?" said the filly. "She had loads of bottles."

"I really don't think Mama would give us bottles to do such a thing," said Twilight.

"Who said we had to ask her?"

Twilight thought about it, but quickly decided not against that idea. "I think I'd rather stick my face in an anthill than steal off her."

"An anthill would probably seem like a mercy compared to what she could do," Octavia said in agreement. "Perhaps Daybreak would have an idea on where to get bottles as well."

Twilight thought about it and gave one final nod. "Okay then, I think we have a plan, but we'll have to wait until it's dark before we go anywhere."

"Are you going on your own to Neigh Orleans?" Octavia asked.

"I'll have to fly there so I can only take one or two ponies."

"In that case, is it okay if I stay here?" Octavia ground her hoof on the stone, "I'm not sure I'm really of much use right now."

"That's fine. Trixie? How about you?"

"Flying?" Trixie gulped. "I'm... urrgh... Fine, I'm in."

"Great! How about you filly? You fancy stealing a load of oil and bottles?"

"Nah. I'm going to stay here with Fleur. Wouldn't be as much fun without her anyway."

"Alright then, guess it's just you and me then Trixie." Twilight breathed in deeply and released it slowly, feeling her spirits lift slightly. As plans go it was hardly the worst they'd come up with.

"Daybreak? Daybreak, are you there?" Twilight peered into the darkness of the old Pierre hideout, not seeing a single sign of life. Of course a lot of that could be because ponies were possibly asleep, but it wasn't that late yet.

She crept on through the dark passages, the only light being that emitted by her horn, or so she thought until a light shifted in one of the rooms and Daybreak came into sight, a light glowing on his own horn.

"Twilight? What are you doing here? Not that I'm not glad to see you're alright."

"I'm looking for you actually. I need your help."

"There's a line I've heard all too much. What can I do for you Twilight? Actually, first I want to know how you got here. No, wait, first I want to know if Fleur's okay, seeing as how you're back from saving her and all."

"Fleur's... alive, and will recover, but they weren't exactly kind to her. I won't tell you everything, but she's lucky we got her out as soon as we did. As for us being here, we flew. Seems the soldiers of the Grand Army still haven't learnt the merits of looking up once in a while."

Daybreak shrugged, "They've never needed to, and what do you mean by we?"

"Trixie's here too. She's just taking a moment to get over the flight here." There was a second of silence, during which a faint whimpering echoed down the passage. "She'll be fine."

"Right, of course. Then there's the matter of what you need my help with."

"I don't know how much you know about things at Puddingarde, but they've built a load of trebuchets to take our walls out with. I have a plan to destroy those trebuchets, but I need a large amount of oil, or some other kind of flammable liquid, and a lot of bottles."

"I'm really not sure how those two things go together."

"We put the oil in the bottles, throw them at the trebuchets, breaking the bottles and splashing the oil over the trebuchets before setting fire to it."

"Is that so..." Daybreak looked thoughtful for a moment, and Twilight was about to ask him what he was doing when he asked "Have you ever knocked a lamp over and broke it?"

"No. Why?"

"We were pretty poor when I was a kid, and rather than buy a proper lamp my mother made one out of a jar, a lamp wick, and paraffin. Used to stink like hell. Anyway, one day my father knocked it over and smashed the jar and the resulting fire nearly burnt the house down."

"Sooo..?"

"So, put a burning wick or something in the bottles before you throw them and boom! Instant fire, although there is a small chance of it not catching fire."

"The idea has merit, but we still need paraffin, or whatever, and bottles."

"There's a supply yard down by the docks that should have a couple of drums of paraffin we could borrow, and not far away is a whiskey distillery that should have loads of bottles we could-"

"Also borrow?" said Trixie as she wobbled towards them. "Quit beating around the bush and call it what it is Daybreak."

Daybreak sighed, "Hello Trixie."

"Hi," Trixie said back curtly. "If we're going to nick a bunch of whiskey bottles, why don't we nick the whiskey too, and use that instead of whatever you were going to use?"

"Huh... Hadn't thought of that."

"That's because Trixie is brilliant, and you aren't." Daybreak rolled his eyes.

"Actually Trixie," Twilight interrupted, "the whiskey might burn out too quickly, and go out before the trebuchets catch fire."

"What if..." Daybreak said slowly, "What if we mixed the paraffin and whiskey together?"

Twilight thought about it. It didn't take her long. "That might just work."

"Excellent!" Daybreak rubbed his hooves together, "Let me go get Thorn and let's get to work."

According to Daybreak there was only a minimal presence of soldiers in the city. Most of them were sunning themselves on the plains outside Puddingarde, waiting for the order to massacre the ponies within.

While in the long term that was bad, in the short term it made it much easier to sneak around the city, have Trixie unlock the padlock to the supply yard, and enter with nopony none the wiser. Finding the two big barrels of paraffin had taken a little longer since they were inside a shed inside the yard, and Twilight's guilt over stealing was going into overdrive.

"Pony up Twilight," Trixie sneered. "If you feel that bad about it you can always come back later and compensate them for it."

"I don't know," said Daybreak. "That much oil and whiskey wouldn't be cheap..."

"Do you guys even hear yourselves?" Thorn hissed.

"Quiet," whispered Twilight. "I'll worry about that later. Let's just grab the oil and go." She allowed Trixie to open the shed and lit the interior with her horn, seeing two big barrels inside. She lifted them out and realised they had one more problem; transporting all this stuff they were taking.

"There's a cart over there in the corner," Thorn pointed out after Twilight mentioned her concern. Thorn was gesturing to a big, four wheeled cart that was sat in the shadows under an awning. "Will that do?"

"It's kinda big," Twilight said slowly. The cart had clearly been designed for a pony much larger than herself, and she doubted her ability to pull it, let alone fly with it. She pulled it over with her magic and lifted it a couple of times to test its weight, finding it to not be as bad as she thought. "How far is it to the distillery Daybreak?"

"Not even ten minutes walk from here."

"Hmm... Okay. I'll secure the barrels while you find some lamp wicks or something to put in the bottles." She left them to it as she lifted the barrels into the cart and secured them in the front with some rope before hitching herself up to the cart. This also gave her a couple of minutes to sit calmly and think about what exactly it they were making here, and whether she should be worried.

The others returned with various bits of cloth and rope-like wicks to use. They scrambled into the cart and Twilight pulled them to the gate with surprising ease, although that didn't stop Daybreak from asking her if she wanted him to pull it.

"Don't worry, I got this. Trixie, I want you looking out for any soldiers that might stop us. Kill them if you have to."

"Yes ma'am," Trixie said happily, making Twilight's skin crawl a bit.

"Thorn, you watch our rear. Daybreak... uh... I'll need directions. Other than that..."

"Sit here and look pretty, gotcha."

"Okay then." Twilight widened her stance and braced herself to pull, "Let's do this." She threw the gates open with her magic and forced the cart into motion, sending Daybreak flying off his hooves.

Twilight hadn't really had much cause to test her earth pony traits since she was gifted them, and she knew that as an alicorn she should be stronger than pretty much any earth pony you could name, save a few notable examples. That still didn't prepare her for how easy this felt, and she found herself enjoying the feeling, and the sound of her hooves echoing on the road, right up until the first trio of patrolling soldiers tried to stop them.

A cold shiver ran up Twilight's spine as Trixie launched a volley of dark magic at the soldiers from over her, quickly cutting the soldiers down. There was a thump from the cart as she ran over the legs of one of them.

"Left!" Daybreak shouted suddenly. Twilight started to turn but suddenly found that high speed carts weren't quite as cooperative as slower paced carts. She had to hold the cart onto the road as she turned, muttering a string of apologies as its three inhabitants were thrown sideways.

"Fucking hell Twilight," Thorn muttered, having felt the worst of it at the rear of the cart. Twilight didn't stop though, and kept following the directions that Daybreak gave her, thankful that he was giving them in a slightly more timely fashion than the first one.

They turned right to find another trio of soldiers stood in the road. One of them raised his crossbow and fired, only to have the arrow land in the wood of the cart behind Twilight after she ducked it. Fear bloomed on the soldiers face as he realised just what he was up against as Trixie's magic obliterated him and his companions.

"There, that building up ahead," said Daybreak, prompting Twilight to slow down. She stopped to give Trixie time to unlock the gates, during which she looked at the sign. 'Buckard distillery, est,' it said, leaving Twilight confused as to why there wasn't a date after the 'est.'

Trixie threw the gates open and Twilight pulled them in, much to the astonishment of the elderly security guard watching. Twilight felt Trixie preparing her attack, rather than heard it, and quickly threw a shield up around the stallion. "Trixie!"

"What? He's just some old stallion."

"We do not kill civilians! Ever!" Twilight shouted, even as the first wisps of her amnesia spell formed on the tip of her horn. She caught the stallion as he crumpled to the ground and held him as she unhitched herself from the cart. "You really do worry me sometimes Trixie."

"You said kill anypony that might try to stop us!" Trixie whined.

"I said to look out for any soldiers that might try to stop us, and to kill them only if you had to!"

"Did you? Oh, well, details, details." Twilight glowered at Trixie as the unicorn opened the door of the distillery and entered. She followed, looking for somewhere reasonably comfortable to place the old stallion. That's when the smell of bourbon hit her, and to her mouth began to water much to her shame.

"Hey, over here!" shouted the not too distant voice of Thorn. Twilight found a chair and left the stallion in it before looking for Thorn, finding her with her father beside a half covered over cart full of crates. Crates full of bottles of amber delight. "We could pour half the whiskey out and use these."

"What?" Twilight felt horrified at such a waste. Then she felt bad for feeling that way, right before getting annoyed that this was getting to her so much. Apparently being a sober pony was a lot easier when not stood in a distillery. Maybe Fleur wasn't as wrong as Twilight had thought. "I-I-uh... um... okay?"

"There's a whole load of empty bottles over there," said Trixie as she trotted towards them, pointing a hoof back over her shoulder.

"Great!" Twilight yelled, making Trixie jump in surprise. "Let's use those!"

"Twilight? Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine. Absolutely tip-top."

"I suggested pouring the whiskey out of the bottles," said Thorn. "I don't think she liked that very much."

"I should think not," Trixie said disdainfully. "Sacrilege. And this is bourbon, not whiskey, you heathen."

"There's a difference?" Thorn said brightly.

Trixie narrowed her eyes, "I don't even know you."

"Lets just get on with this," Twilight groaned. "The smell of this stuff is really getting to me."

"How do we even know this stuff will burn?" Thorn continued. Trixie answered her by pulling a crate open, picking out a bottle and opening it, drinking a quick mouthful before pouring some on the floor.

"Twilight, would you mind?" Twilight lit the puddle with a spark, the flames low but definitely there. "I think it'll do."

"Right," said Twilight, more to get her mind off the booze than anything else, "I'll go get some empty bottles while you guys take some of these crates outside." They set about their task, and Twilight set about hers, locating the empty bottles Trixie had found. When she got outside she found the others discussing something. "What's going on?"

"Trixie wants us to make the... whatever we're calling these things, now, so we can burn those trebuchets tonight."

"Tonight? Really?"

"Sure! You fly over the trebuchets and we throw these things at them. The cart will protect us and it'll all be done with. It'll also save a lot of room in the cart. Think about it."

"I was hoping the thestrals would provide a distraction for us."

"Why? We only need to fly over and throw bottles at easy targets. Why do we need a distraction?"

"We don't..." Twilight said thoughtfully. "Okay then, let's get these made and we can finish this tonight." She picked up an empty bottle and paused.

"What?"

"I'm just wondering what the best ratio would be of oil to whiskey-"

"Bourbon!"

"-Oil to bourbon, for this to work."

"I was thinking roughly a third bourbon to two thirds paraffin," Daybreak suggested. "Maybe even a quarter whis- bourbon."

"Sounds good to me," said Trixie as she started to decant the paraffin and bourbon into the empty bottles. The four fell quiet as they worked, none of them making a peep up until Trixie suddenly started laughing.

"What? What is it?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"Doesn't anypony else find this really weird?" Trixie laughed.

"I think the fumes have gone to her head," muttered Thorn.

"Actually I'm fine, thank you miss snarky. I'm just saying that we get back from busting Fleur out of High Rock, find Puddingarde under siege, Neigh Orleans back under enemy control, and here we are running around stealing paraffin, bourbon, and empty bottles. It's fucking bizarre, and truly one of those moments where you have to sit down and wonder 'what has my life become?'"

Twilight sighed, but it couldn't hide a snort of laughter. "Trixie, I've been wondering that most days since coming to this country."

"Well that didn't take long," Trixie said cheerfully as she placed the last crate of the bottles containing their hastily concocted yet hopefully volatile mixture. "And a couple for the road," she added, placing a few bottles of unopened bourbon in a bag which she placed reverently into the cart.

"Are you sure we have to come?" Daybreak whined. "I've never flown before..."

"Yes you have to come," Twilight insisted. "The more ponies throwing bottles, the faster we get this done. I'd also like to point out that this is your rebellion as well, so your help in ensuring its survival is appreciated."

"In other words dad, get in the fucking cart." Thorn shoved him towards the rear of the cart, pushing him relentlessly until he was firmly inside it.

"Fine, I'll play your games, but I insist on seeing the manager the moment this is over."

Thorn looked to Twilight, seeing that the alicorn was raising an eyebrow so far it was in danger of touching her horn. "I think the manager's fine with it." She jumped up into the cart and sat beside her father, followed shortly by Trixie.

"Are you sure you can make this fly?" Trixie asked nervously as Twilight hitched herself to the front of the cart.

"Of course I am," Twilight lied with the utmost confidence. If she were to be honest she would say this had a fifty percent chance of maybe working, which is to say, it would, or it really wouldn't. Technically a team of maybe four pegasi could pull this comfortably through the air, and Twilight wasn't sure one alicorn counted for that much. "It'll be fine, you'll see."

"Wait!" Thorn shouted before Twilight could start her attempt to get them airborne, "How do we light these things?"

Twilight 'hmm'd,' slightly, annoyed that she would forget such a crucial detail. She cast her sight about until she gave up trying to find something. "How about I teach you a fire spell?" Her horn glowed and a small flame danced about in the air before her.

Trixie's horn glowed black and a dark purple flame, bigger than Twilight's and tinged with black that shimmered in the heat it made, floated in front of her. "Nah, I'm good."

"How the hell do you make something like fire look creepy?" said Daybreak, his voice filled with both amazement and disgust.

"Eh, just a knack I guess."

"How long have you been able to do that?" Twilight asked, pretty sure that Trixie had never done it before.

"Dunno, never done it before."

"What do you mean 'never done it before?'"

"Just that. I needed to know how to make fire, and boom, suddenly I know how to make fire."

"That's not normal Trixie!"

"Maybe not for you."

"I-! Aargh! Whatever! I don't have time for this." She spent a few minutes teaching Daybreak and Thorn how to conjure their own flames, Thorn with far greater success than Daybreak who managed a tiny little flame that went out when Trixie blew on it. "Just keep practicing while we're flying. You'll get it."

"You just got to put more power into it dad."

"Y'know I was perfectly fine living my life without magic before."

Trixie pulled a wick out of one of the bottles and held it up in front of him. "Focus the fire you're making on the wick, rather than trying to make it outright." He did so, and the paraffin and whiskey doused wick quickly burst into flame. "There we go, good enough."

"Great!" Twilight exclaimed. "Let's go!" He would be a bit slower lighting his bottles but Twilight wasn't about to complain as she spread her wings and tried to fly up, only for the harness to completely wind her as the cart barely moved. "Eheheheh... That was just a trial run," she said as her cheeks glowed red with embarrassment.

"Sure it was," said Trixie, not believing a word of it. Using her magic, Twilight levitated the cart into the air and kept it up as she started to fly. Slowly she lessened her hold on the cart and was pleased to find that it stayed behind her as she built momentum. Landing would be another thing, but that could wait.

"Hah! I knew I could do it!"

"You mean you weren't sure?" Twilight could feel Trixie scowling at the back of her head.

"Of course I was sure. One hundred percent! I just wasn't sure how flying with this much weight would work."

"How could you not know that!?"

"You know its not even been a year since I magically sprouted wings Trixie! I think I'm allowed a little leeway in that department!"

"You magically sprouted those wings?" Thorn asked in disbelief. Twilight wasn't sure how to explain the concept of ascension to a pony, especially when she wasn't a hundred percent sure on the reasons behind it herself.

"It's a long story," she said. "I'll tell you later when Puddingarde isn't in danger of being overrun." They returned to half-heartedly trying to teach Daybreak how to conjure a flame, even though it proved almost impossible in the wind, leaving Twilight to pull the cart. She pushed herself a little harder, trying to coax a bit more speed out of her wings, her thoughts turning to Puddingarde now she lacked distractions.

If the Duke won here, it would mean the death of the rebellion, as there was no way they could recover. Ponies would hear about them being crushed and would definitely think twice about joining any rebellion ever again. The Duke's policies would probably get worse, and even if he were to die and relinquish his rule to his son, there was no way things would improve after Ivory abandoned him, and they 'stole' his pegasus. If anything he could be even worse.

That and other thoughts crowded her mind until they reached the plains outside Puddingarde, the plain dotted with fires as those soldiers not sleeping tried to keep warm. The fires also provided enough light to spot the idle trebuchets by. Twilight really didn't know why they used such primitive siege weapons. Sure they were effective, but surely they could have come up with something better than trebuchets throwing rocks, and ballistae. At least they were nicely flammable.

"Get ready. I'm going to fly low to give you a better chance of hitting them. Remember to pace yourselves. There's no point using all the bottles on the first few and running out." She swooped down nearer to the ground and slowed herself down to a running speed, which left her very exposed should the soldiers catch on and get shooty, so she prepared herself to cast a shield the moment the soldiers caught on.

"Hah! Got it!" Trixie said triumphantly.

Thorn groaned, "We all did Trixie."

"Yes, well, I got it betterer." Twilight rolled her eyes and looked down between her legs to see parts of the trebuchet burning from what they had thrown at it. Hopefully the rest of the wooden structure would follow suit and catch fire.

They did the same for the next few trebuchets, the majority of the soldiers still unaware of what was happening, while those that were aware seemed undecided between getting more help, putting out the fires, or attacking the ponies responsible. Many of them chose a preference for attacking the ponies responsible and Twilight used the shield she had prepared, protecting both herself and the bottom of the cart from the arrows.

Part of her was slightly bemused at where those soldiers thought the arrows that missed her were going to land. In fact, part of her wanted to laugh maniacally at how easy this was.

They flew past the last trebuchet, the crash of broken glass and the whomph of the liquid catching fire signalling that the last of the trebuchets had been set alight. She circled around, seeing that the first trebuchet was really starting to burn, the dry wood powerless against the flames, and the soldiers equally powerless to put them out.

"We still have a load of bottles left," Thorn said from behind her. "What do you want us to do with them?"

"I have an idea," said Trixie, her voice hard. A moment later a bottle sailed through the air to land on one of the tents. The bottle broke and spilled its flaming contents down the side of the tent, the canvas quickly catching fire. A few seconds later a mare ran out screaming, her tail on fire. "That's right! Fucking burn!" Trixie threw another bottle, but Twilight quickly caught it and extinguished it. "What the hell Twilight?"

"We are not burning ponies alive Trixie!"

"Why not? They burnt my parents! Or did you forget that?"

"Of course I haven't!" yelled Twilight, who slightly had. "But we're not going to sink to their levels Trixie!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because we're better than them Trixie! That's why!"

Trixie growled and went quiet for a few seconds. "You better think of something good to do with these, or I'm just going to keep throwing them!"

"Okay, I will." Twilight turned to give herself a better view of the soldiers encampment. By now most of the ponies here were awake, and shouts echoed into the night as they watched their siege weapons burn. The fire Trixie had started in the tents was also spreading, and ponies were feverishly pulling the intact tents down and away from the flames to prevent it spreading further.

Twilight looked away from that and spotted the large tent in the distance, which she surmised as being the tent belonging to General Filigree. There was one tent she wouldn't mind burning to ashes, not least because it might help them to destroy any intel that might have been in there.

"Okay, I have an idea, but I'm going to have to drop you off at Puddingarde first."

"Why?" Daybreak asked suspiciously.

"Because I'm going to set the cart on fire and throw the entire thing at Filigree's command tent."

"And how is that better than what I was doing?" Trixie scoffed.

"Because I don't expect him to be in there when I do it!" Twilight flew towards the keep, slowing her pace down to a trotting speed and flying parallel to the front wall. "Go! Jump!" The others jumped out, although Trixie took a moment longer due to having to grab her bottles of bourbon first.

Twilight pumped her wings, pushing herself to build up speed as she flew towards the command tent. As she flew she broke a few of the bottles with her magic and set the spilled fluids alight, giving the cart a flaming tail as she flew.

She slowed again as she neared the command tent and swung the cart beneath her, spilling its contents onto the tent before bracing her rear legs against the wood and kicking down as she tore the harness off her. The flaming cart barrelled through the sky and crashed into the tent, the barrels of paraffin breaking open and forming a massive fireball as their contents ignited.

Twilight rode the massive thermal high into the air and lazily glided back to the keep, her wings aching from their exertions. She stumbled into a landing and walked over to where the others were watching the show along with a large number of other ponies. Ponies started cheering as they noticed her return, and she was glad nopony could see her blushing.

"I suppose that was alright," Trixie said with as straight a face as she could. It didn't last though, and a smile quickly grew on her face. "I guess we showed them, huh."

"No, we just slowed them down a bit." Twilight really didn't want to be the negative one, but as they might have stopped the trebuchets from attacking, there were still plenty of soldiers out there, commanded by one ticked off general. All they might have done was kick the hornets nest.

"Get everypony prepared for battle. This isn't over yet."

Author's Notes:

Yep, ponies have invented petrol bombs, so beware.

I'm off to Buck-con this weekend, along with other things, so thought I'd stick a chapter up quick because the soonest I'll be able to otherwise is in a week. Also, don't be surprised if this chapter has more mistakes than usual since I only quickly skimmed over it because the season finale of Walking Dead is on in like five minutes, and no way am I missing that.