Twilight didn't know what to do, which was a feeling that had gotten pretty old over the last few months. This did however have the novelty of being a new kind of old in that she'd never been under siege before.

The retaliation for destroying the trebuchets had been pitiful. The soldiers were disorganised and had hurled more insults than anything else, and had been easily chased off. Twilight was hoping this lack of organisation was due to Filigree having been taken out or incapacitated.

She knew how sieges worked in theory. The enemy camped outside your position and either starved you to death, battered your defenses into rubble with siege weapons and charged in, or waited for you to run out in a blaze of glory and essentially throw yourselves on their weapons.

In this case though, the pegasi were still ferrying supplies from the boats docked outside the entrance to the Mareissippi, which was a long flight for them, but they were happy to do it for the ponies that had freed them. They had plenty of food to last the siege, and they had destroyed the trebuchets for now, meaning the enemy had no way to force their way inside.

This did leave them in the unenviable position of a stalemate, and Twilight suspected Filigree was at as much of a loss of what to do as she was. He had almost no options beyond building new trebuchets, which she could destroy again, and she had very few options save running out to meet the enemy in said blaze of glory. The thing was, with their adepts and pegasi, she wasn't totally unconvinced they could do it. As soon as the rest of the pegasi and the thestrals returned that was.

In the mean time she left Trixie to keep an eye on things outside while she went to think of what to do next. A flimsy disguise for running away to stress and fret. Instead she found her hooves leading her towards the infirmary, where Fleur was deep in conversation with Seeker and the filly.

"Hey Twilight," Fleur said as she noticed the newcomer's arrival.

"Hey Fleur. How're you feeling?"

"Like somepony dipped my leg in acid, scraped my skin off, then sprinkled it with a mix of salt and lemon juice. And I have a headache, and my mouth's a bit dry."

"Is it really that bad?" Twilight asked earnestly.

Fleur smiled slightly, "No, not really. I just have a lot of time to think of stupid overblown answers. My head is aching though."

"Your magic is probably in flux after having its method of release removed. I know this isn't something you really want to hear, but your magic... uh, not being too powerful means your headaches won't be as bad as somepony like myself or Trixie"

"You can say it Twilight, the only difference between me with a horn, and me without, is that I could poke things with my horn."

Twilight coughed awkwardly, "Yes, well... I didn't just mean physically when I asked how you are though."

Fleur lost her smile and sighed. "Always the tricky question. I'm still pretty shook up by it. I close my eyes and I can hear my own screams, and smell the inside of my cell, and the smell of my hair and flesh burning. I try to think of nice things and all I can hear is the mocking laughter of 'auntie.' I sleep and end up dreaming I'm back there, and I wake up screaming. I want to get up and do something to distract myself but every step is agony until my hooves heal. Even then I run the risk my hooves cracking around the holes they left, so the idea of walking is scary. Put simply Twilight, I am not in a good place."

"Which is why I want to send you back to Equestria the first chance I get."

Fleur's eyes shot wide, "What? Twilight, no! You can't do that!"

"I can and will Fleur. You could get the proper medical care you need in Equestria. The best available since I'll pay for it myself if Celestia doesn't. You can take the filly with you, and Octavia wants to go as well, meaning that Summer would likely go too. You're not safe here Fleur. Please, go home."

"And leave you here with the psychopath!?"

"The who?"

"Trixie, Twilight."

"Trixie isn't that bad."

"Yet." Twilight couldn't think of a counter to that one. "I'm not going back Twilight, not until we're finished."

"Yeah!" the filly cheered in agreement. "You're not breaking the gang up!"

"Gang?"

"Damn right! The... um... stupendous six? Sorry, that was awful."

"Yes it was dear," said Fleur. "But she's not wrong; we aren't leaving."

Twilight shook her head sadly. "Octavia said you'd be stubborn about this."

"Did she now? And why is she so keen to leave I wonder?"

"Because she's a cellist lost in a world of blood, death, and suffering, and she's starting to crack."

"Really? She's always been so... steady. I didn't think anything could phase her."

"Everypony has their breaking point Fleur."

"Even you Twilight?"

"Yes," was Twilight's frank answer. "I can't give up though."

"Won't Celestia let you?"

"I won't let me Fleur. Both Celestia and Luna have asked me to return to Equestria more than once, and each time I refused."

"Oh really?" Fleur said a little sarcastically before her brow creased with thought, "Hold on, did we get to come home in those situations? Did the filly and Summer get to come with us? Would we just give up on the mission?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Twilight answered simply.

"And you refused?"

"Yeesss," Twilight said slowly, becoming wary of where this was going.

"Then you can be sure as hell I'm going to refuse too." Twilight sighed in annoyance as the filly whooped.

"You can't fight, Fleur," Twilight stated.

"What? Is that all I am now? Another piece of fodder to throw at the Duke?"

"You know that's not what I meant!"

"Then kindly tell me what you did mean Twilight."

"You're crippled until you heal Fleur, and even then it would take months if not years of therapy to get you back to fighting fit. You're just putting yourself in danger staying here. If you go home, you'll be safe, the filly will be safe, and Summer and Octavia will be safe."

Fleur shook her head stubbornly, "Don't care. I'm not stopping Octavia from going if she wants, but I'm staying. That's final."

"You know, there's very little you can do to stop me from putting you on a boat Fleur."

"Are you truly willing to invite the misery I would inflict upon you if you did that. I could ruin you for life!" Fleur growled.

"Yours or mine?" Twilight asked sadly, "Because there's only one winner in that race. But fine, since you feel so strongly about it, I guess I won't make you leave."

"Good. And, as proof that I'm not totally useless I have a proposition for you involving Seeker."

Twilight looked to the zebra that had been sitting there quietly while they argued, "You do?"

"Yes. As I'm sure you know, Seeker is a Night Maiden, and since I'm sure you know more about those than I do, I won't have to explain it. Now, do you think this siege could've been avoided if we had known about it before it happened?"

"Probably not. Ten thousand soldiers tend to do as they please."

"Uh..." Fleur's brained jammed up as she processed that. "Okay, fair point, but would you agree that we could have softened the blow if we had known."

"I suppose so."

"Excellent! Now, I know Daybreak's doing his best, but he's overstretched as it is on his duties. What I'm proposing is that Seeker takes over on gathering intelligence, and starts her own little group of spies dedicated to that sort of thing, like our own little branch of Night Maidens, only with ponies, and probably some stallions. Also earth ponies for infiltration purposes, along with some pegasi for scouting. Sooo... nothing like the Night Maidens at all really."

"That does sound useful," Twilight admitted, "but I can't help but wonder what the catch is."

"Catch? What catch?"

"That catch that most zebras live in a society based on bartering, so if she's agreed to this, you must have offered her something pretty good."

"I see you know zebras well," said Seeker.

"Actually my main encounters with zebras have been a with a shaman called Zecora, who works for free."

"Ah yes, such is the shaman way, but they cannot put a price on the good they do. The rest of us however, can."

"What do you want Seeker?"

"The cost of my services would be decided fully by the Council upon my return to Zebrica, but would largely work through favourable trade agreements. As for myself, all I ask is for free reign to do what I must here. I will need some volunteers of course."

"Of course." Twilight nodded to herself as she thought it over, struggling to find a downside to the agreement. "I'm guessing that since you want trade agreements, you're acting on behalf of your country and not yourself?"

"That is correct." Twilight knew that trade agreements wouldn't hurt Mareitania once it was liberated, and with the country now open to ocean traffic, easily done. A reliable information network did sound good, and as there was little in the way of downsides she felt that refusing would be a very stupid thing to do indeed.

"Alright, we have an agreement. I know in bargains of this size there would be a customary exchange of gifts, but..." Twilight spread her empty hooves.

"I too have nothing to give, but I think in this case we can invoke kejeli."

"Kejeli? What's that?"

"Kejeli is what we do when we have nothing material to offer, so instead we exchange a promise."

"Okay, so how do we do that?"

"The heads of both parties involved kiss normally."

"Kiss!?" Twilight almost choked as Fleur and the filly snorted into laughter. "Isn't there any other way?"

"There is, but as neither of us have sons or daughters, nor can make the other pregnant, a kiss will have to do."

"What!?" Twilight started to sweat. "Uh... uh... okay. Um..." Twilight stood in front of Seeker and pursed her lips before closing her eyes tightly. She edged her face closer to Seeker's.

"You know," Fleur said to the filly in a stage whisper, "if I was a stallion I'd probably have a raging boner right now."

"Nope!" Twilight danced back from Seeker, causing both Fleur and the filly to burst into further laughter. She looked at Seeker, afraid that she had insulted the zebra, and was surprised to see her smiling with her head cocked.

"Fleur said you were easy to tease."

"W-what? You planned this!? Damn it Fleur! What if I had actually kissed her!?"

"That's the best part! It'd be a win-win for me whichever you did! If you knew anything about zebras Twilight, you'd know they're surprisingly liberal with that sort of thing, so Seeker wouldn't have minded."

Even though they hadn't kissed, Twilight wiped her lips. "I hate you so much. What the hay is kejeli then?"

Seeker's smile widened, "It is my peoples word for mockery."

Twilight sighed theatrically, "Of course it is. So, do we actually need to seal this agreement, or can I go and burn with shame now?"

"We do, but you'll be glad to know a hoofshake will suffice." Seeker held out a hoof and Twilight shook it, surprised at how firm it was. "And it is done. I shall get started at once." She left, and Twilight turned to Fleur.

"I really hope you enjoyed that."

"I did," Fleur chuckled, "I really, really did.

Twilight made her way down to the command room, her cheeks still glowing red, and ushered out the other occupants to give herself some privacy. The time had come to have the most awkward conversation of all. It was time to talk to Celestia and Luna.

She activated the stone and waited for one of the princesses to answer, and due to the time of day it wasn't a surprise when Celestia finally did. "Hello Twilight. It's so nice to hear off you after so long. I was beginning to get worried."

"Yeah, I have quite a lot to tell you, but I would like to have Luna here to hear it as well."

"Of course, I'll have one of the guards summon her." Twilight knew that would take a while, and resorted to making smalltalk with Celestia, picking up any gossip from Equestria that might be of interest. The only bit that was, was the news that a popular movement was growing to send military support to the rebellion.

"They do know that Equestria doesn't have a standing military, right?"

"I'm sure they think I have one hidden somewhere. Probably in the same place I keep the other thousands of things I hide from ponies."

"So in the Canterlot archives then? Wouldn't it be a bit cramped in there? I don't remember seeing an army the last time I visited."

"Didn't I tell you? They're also invisible so you might have missed them. Hmm... I haven't fed them for a couple of weeks... I might want to do something about that." A door opened and the sound of hoofsteps drew closer, "About time Luna, I was beginning to wonder."

"And a wonderful morning to you too, sister. Emphasis on the 'morning.' One of these days I'm going to have to issue a royal decree about only waking me early in emergencies. Even then it'd be bound to happen at least once a week."

"I seem to remember a sleepy pony missing an entire changeling invasion once. Not to mention their niece's wedding. Twice."

"So completely soundproofing my room wasn't the best idea I've ever had." Luna coughed to cover her embarrassment, "Good morning Twilight, I trust you are well?"

"Good morning Luna. I do have quite a bit of news to tell you, so you may wish to get comfortable." She recounted the events of what had happened since they had last talked, a lot of their concern going towards Fleur. "I was hoping you could send a qualified doctor or nurse or something, as some of the ideas these ponies have about medicine is... questionable."

"I shall see to that personally," Celestia reassured her. Twilight did want to tell them about the siege, but didn't as she suspected they might freak out a bit, and she didn't want to involve them until she was sure she couldn't fix it herself. She was sure they'd find out soon enough when the ships got back to Equestria with the news.

"There was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about. While I was in High Rock I found something... I found the Lady."

"The Lady?" There was a brief whispered conversation between Celestia and Luna. "Do you mean physically or spiritually? Have you converted to their religion?"

"No! I mean physically! The Lady's real! Except she's not called the Lady, she's called Faust."

"Faust?" Celestia repeated the name as she mulled it over. "Why do I get the feeling I know that name?"

"What was she doing in High Rock?" Luna asked while her sister was distracted.

"She was a prisoner, kept in a secure, magic proof cell in the mountain."

"The Dukes of old could subdue an alicorn? I find that hard to believe."

"The Dukes had nothing to do with it. She was put there before the exodus, by the order of Princess Platinum."

Luna scoffed, "Her subduing an alicorn seems even more unlikely."

"She ordered her father's attack dog to do it, in Faust's words."

"And who is this 'attack dog?'"

"Sombra."

"Sombra!?" Luna exclaimed. "He was a servant of King Bullion? How did we not know this!?"

"I don't know Luna," said Celestia, "but I am curious as to how he powerful he was even then to force Faust into submission."

"I don't think he could," said Twilight. "Even trapped in a magic proof cell, and bound by rune warded braces, I could feel how powerful she was. More powerful than any of us, maybe all of us."

"Then how could he defeat her?"

Twilight took a deep breath, "She surrendered. She was pregnant at the time, and feared for her child, so she surrendered."

"Pregnant?" Luna said with interest. "Do you know who with?"

"I do. It was Celestia."

"What!?" Twilight winced at the volume of Celestia's voice. "That's not possible! Platinum was our mother!"

"That's not what Faust said. She said that Platinum stole you off her-"

"Then Faust is a liar! Tell me Twilight, if she is truly our mother, then who is our father?"

"Your father was Starswirl the bearded-"

"That's ridiculous!"

"Luna's father was Sombra." A deathly silence fell, and Twilight felt sick with nerves at how Celestia was taking this.

"I won't hear any more of these lies." Twilight sagged and pushed the stone away. The talk had gone about as well as she had expected it to. She was so put out by it she hadn't realised the stone was still working until Luna's voice emanated from it.

"I apologise for Celestia. She always was terribly enamoured with our mother. Huh, I guess I shouldn't really call her that any more."

"And you're okay with this?"

"I have no love for Platinum, just as she had no love for me. Celestia was always her golden girl, her sunshine, and she was the one that had all Platinum's attention, learning statecraft, and etiquette, and all the other terrible things that being a royal demanded."

"What about you?"

"I was left to my own devices, and learnt tactics and combat from the guards, as well as magic from Starswirl alongside Celestia, which Platinum hated. I never truly thought that Platinum was worthy of being called a mother, and now you've confirmed that for me. You should've seen her face when Celestia told her that she and I would rule together as equals." Luna chuckled, "Priceless."

"But what about Sombra being your father?"

Luna sighed, "I suppose it does explain a thing or two about myself, such as my affinity for the darkness, amongst others. I wonder if Sombra knew? I suppose he must've if he got Faust to conceive me."

"Actually, he... forced himself on her, while she was helpless. I don't think he knew or cared that she fell pregnant with you."

"The unwanted spawn of Sombra, and a child of rape," Luna said in a flat tone. "Truly my lot in life is improving today. I wonder why Platinum took me as well?"

"I think Platinum did it out of mercy, towards both you and Faust, as Faust made it very clear she didn't want you, even if she named you."

"Huh, some mercy... Still though, she allowed Faust to name us? I don't understand Twilight, why would Platinum do this?"

"I think Platinum knew that the three tribes would unite at some point, and she wished to present Celestia as a neutral party to rule all three."

"A neutral party that had been raised by Platinum... To ensure unicorns receive favourable conditions in her court I assume?"

"That, and to ensure her influence continued long after her death. Or at least that's what Faust seemed to think."

"Platinum always was a scheming old cow. Bah, fie on her and her underhooved methods. I didn't miss her when she died, and I shan't miss her any more now."

"I'm sorry to dump all this on you Luna."

"Tis fine Twilight. Truly you have given me much to ponder. Perhaps I should start with where Faust is now?"

"Still locked up beneath High Rock."

"You left her there? That is... unexpected of you Twilight. Explain yourself."

"She's... insane, Luna. She wants to wipe the world free of what she thinks of as Platinum's taint. She would burn Equestria down to improve it in her view. Equestria and the world, starting with you and Celestia."

"Ah... Well there goes any hopes of her being a better mother than Platinum. I applaud your decision to leave her be for now, but I will ask what you intend to do with her after?"

"I'm not doing anything, I... I can't. I'm going to leave what happens to her entirely up to you and Celestia. Of course that assumes that Celestia acknowledges her existence."

"I'll talk to her Twilight, she'll come around. Besides, her father was Starswirl, so she has nothing to complain about. As for me, I think I'm done with the entire concept of parents after this."

"Luna, who did Platinum say your father was? Why would Celestia ask that of all things?"

"She never said who our father was. I did often wonder, and often asked, only to be dismissed in anger. I suppose now I have my answer, though not in any form I expected. I guess Faust never told her who Celestia's father was either."

"And you're okay with you and Celestia being half-sisters?"

"Twilight, a millenia spent on the moon didn't diminish my love for Celestia, so this has no chance. Please don't point out the obvious flaws of me being Nightmare Moon at the time. Huh... Nightmare Moon... I guess that whole episode makes a little more sense now. I best be off to drag my sulking sister out of her bedroom, so take care Twilight, and farewell."

"Bye Luna." Confident that the conversation had truly ended this time, Twilight pushed the stone away again. She felt awful. Celestia had never said anything to her like that that before, and she hoped it never happened again. At the very least she could claim that having this talk was one less thing to do.

Twilight had stayed there a while longer, wanting and wishing that the world could forget about her for a little while longer. It wasn't to be though as a knock at the door signalled the end of her peace.

A dark grey head with a unkempt black mane over cat-like eyes poked itself into the room. "Hey boss."

"Hello Shadow, thanks for coming."

"Oh, you know, any time." She fully entered the room, followed by a large number of other ponies, including Twilight's friends, minus Fleur and the filly.

"I guess it's time to figure out how to get out of this?"

"Yes, it is," Snowbright said sternly, "since we aren't doing a whole lot of liberating trapped in here."

"Alright then." Twilight sat up and put on her best princessy face in the hopes that ponies might think she knew what she was doing. "I'm open to suggestions, just so you know."

Trixie spoke first. "The way I see it, the only way to win is to get out there and fight them head on. Enough pussy-hoofing around. It's time to get serious!"

"You do realise they outnumber us at least two to one, right?" Snowbright looked around the room, "Right?"

"Maybe they do," said Trixie, "but between the pegasi, thestrals, and adepts, I believe we can beat them. All we need to do is increase our odds a little."

"And what if they send for reinforcements?" asked Daybreak.

"They can try," said Shadow. "I've ordered some of my ponies to stay out there and intercept any soldiers, supplies, and messengers moving in and out of the area. We've effectively isolated them here."

"Okay then. Nevermind."

Snowbright smacked a hoof on the stone table, "That still doesn't solve the problem of all those soldiers out there. Unless we're hoping to cut them off to the point they surrender, because I find that unlikely to work as they'd leave first, only to come back with bigger numbers."

"Then we have to get out there!" Trixie shouted back. "It's the only way!"

"I don't know," Daybreak said thoughtfully, "I quite like the sound of a counter-siege to chase them off."

"You heard Snowbright," said Trixie. "They'd only come back with bigger numbers. We have to beat them here and now."

Twilight seriously regretted asking for ideas. She was hoping for useful insights and suggestions, not a repetitive argument. "Stop," she said quietly, only to be ignored. "Stop!" The others turned to her in surprise. "I am not going to sit here and listen to you go around and around on this. We need a decisive plan to get us out of this, or let's face it, our rebellion is over."

Snowbright raised an eyebrow at her, "What do you suggest then?"

Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "For too long the Duke and his ponies have either seen us as weak, or just outright ignored us. Whiplash changed that, and us breaking Fleur out of High Rock would only reinforce the idea that we aren't weak. What we lack in numbers we make up in so many other ways. As far as I'm concerned though, taking us seriously isn't enough. I want him to fear us, and what we represent."

"Well that's nice and all," said Trixie, "but it's not really a plan."

"Seriously," agreed Snowbright.

"It sounds to me like you're siding with Trixie," Daybreak pointed out.

"I am."

"You are?" Trixie said brightly, a happy grin on her face. "Sweet!"

"But I think she's going about it wrong because the enemy do outnumber us," Snowbright reminded them, like there was a possibility they had forgotten what was outside. "We need to absolutely rout them for this to work, and so we'll have soften them up first. Shadow, how do you feel about leading your ponies on a night-time attack on their encampment? Take out as many as you can?"

Shadow seemed unsure. "You mean kill as many of them as we can? While they're asleep? Really?"

"I'm not saying to kill ponies in their sleep, although if you do that's entirely up to you, but attacking them in your element would give you a big advantage, and would seriously weaken them while throwing them into confusion."

"Okay, sure, when you put it like that instead of making seem like cold blooded murder, it sounds a lot better."

"Great!" Trixie said gleefully. "Then once the enemy is in complete disarray, we charge out and catch them when they're not ready. Hopefully by the time they can even think about mounting a defence we'll be on them."

"Too risky," said Snowbright.

"Excuse me?"

"I said it's too risky. We have to run down a winding ramp and cover quite a bit of distance for that to work. If those soldiers are worth the marcs they pay them, they'd turn your charge into a shooting gallery."

"Can't we use adepts to shield the ramp?" Daybreak half asked, half suggested.

"That would leave the adepts at the back of the charge when they should be near the front," Snowbright pointed out. "We could use the fliers to keep them distracted, but we could lose a lot of them in the process."

"Unacceptable," Twilight stated clearly. "I'm not willing to throw the lives of so many pegasi and thestrals away like that. We'll have to think of something else." Octavia tentatively raised a hoof, which Twilight almost had to roll her eyes at. "Yes Octavia."

"I-I'm not sure whether this is possible, but Summer said something earlier about creating a big thunderstorm to destroy our enemies. Fleur said that's illegal in Equestria, but we aren't exactly in Equestria... so..." Octavia ducked her head, "Nevermind, forget I said anything."

"That would be a hell of a distraction," said Trixie.

"Apart from the fact that we'd be caught up in it as well," Snowbright argued. "Would that even be possible anyway?" They all looked to the Wonderbolts, and Spitfire shrugged back.

"Possible, but as Snowbright says, not a good idea. You can aim one big lightening strike, but not multiple strikes without something to attract it, so you'd have as much a chance of hitting your own ponies as you would theirs." There was a chorus of 'oh's' and other sounds of disappointment, and they were about to return to planning when Spitfire said, "A tornado might work though."

"What's a tornado?" Daybreak enquired.

"A giant vortex of wind that's incredibly powerful and dangerous," Twilight supplied mechanically. The majority of her brain was still trying to comprehend using one as a weapon.

"Alright..." Daybreak said slowly. "Now define 'vortex.'" Twilight did one better by creating a moving display of one on the table. "That doesn't seem very dangerous." She then placed a miniature figure of a pony next to it for scale. "Oh boy..."

"How does this help us though?" Snowbright asked, not seeming particularly impressed. Twilight shrank the tornado and made a mock up of Puddingarde and the surrounding areas, with thousands of little dots representing the enemy. Then she ran the tornado up the middle of it, and the room fell silent while she shivered.

"Can you actually do that?" Thorn asked first.

"Not like that, no," said Spitfire. "We could hold it for a while, but once it sucked up the soldiers' weapons... well, you might as well fill it with razorblades. We'd have to pull out once we hit the enemy, and the tornado would dissipate after thirty seconds or so, at most."

"That'd still take out a hell of a lot of their soldiers," Trixie said, slightly awed. "Soon as the tornado dies we could charge right up the path it left in a nice arrowhead style thing, and put me and Twilight in the lead to do some real damage."

"More than that tornado could do?" Snowbright spat. "I'm making it very clear now that I don't agree with this." A murmur of voices spread around the room, agreeing with him. "Twilight?"

Twilight blinked a few times before gathering her wits back together. "Hmm?"

"Do you agree with this?"

"I-uh... I don't know. This would give us the opening we need to finish the enemy..."

Snowbright looked at Twilight with disgust, "You can't seriously agree with this?"

"I don't!" Twilight retorted. "Or at least I don't want to, but I don't see any other way to do this without wiping ourselves out in the process."

"We'd still have to take General Filigree out as well," said Thorn. "If he could rally his troops after that we'd be stuck."

"Could he really do that?" said Trixie. "Is he even still alive after what Twilight did?"

Thorn nodded and sighed, "He is. He was spotted with his personal guards a couple of hours ago."

"Great... Still though, what's the worst he could do?"

"Call a retreat," said Snowbright. "If he retreats with his troops back to Neigh Orleans, it's going to be a bloody mess getting him back out, and we wouldn't be able to use ridiculous tactics like this."

Trixie shrugged, "So we take him out then."

Snowbright barked a single laugh, "At the far side of that army? Good luck."

"You didn't see what his guards can do Trixie," said Shadow. "Those are some scary bitches."

"Twilight could do it." Twilight jerked, and felt a lot of expectant eyes on her. "Twilight?"

"I... I guess so..." She was getting increasingly wary of how dark this plan was becoming, and she didn't want to be the pony that was blamed when ponies questioned it. "I don't agree with the tornado though, even if it's the plan that preserves the lives of most of our ponies."

"You said you wanted the Duke to fear us," Trixie reminded her.

"Not for this! I want him to fear us for our skill, courage, and tenacity, not our ability to wipe out ponies like it's nothing! This is worse than what we did in Caverndown by a long way!"

"How so?"

"Because we'd be choosing to do this instead of just reacting. To take that extra step towards the line where we become worse monsters than those we're fighting! I-I can't seriously be expected to say 'yes, lets go murder all those soldiers' in a way they have no hope of defending themselves against. It's not fair!"

Trixie narrowed her eyes and glared at Twilight. "Fair? You want this to be fair? Should we go ask Filigree to put half his troops on the sideline so we can have a fair fight? Should we ask the Duke to consider fair treatment for pegasi and unicorns? Was it fair when they burnt my family!? Fuck fair! Fair's going to get us killed for no reason, other than for your stupid sense of righteousness!"

"Not just hers," added Snowbright.

"Oh whoop-de-do! Snowbright only kills when it's fair! I guess that's pretty ballsy for an ex-hunter to admit to. Or is that just it? Couldn't handle it then, can't handle it now?" Snowbright vaulted onto the table and dove at Trixie, whose horn came to life with her dark magic as she braced herself, a cruel smile on her face. Just as quickly a purple aura gripped the two and locked them into place. "What the fuck?"

"What is wrong with you Trixie?" Twilight placed Snowbright on the ground, but didn't release him. "Why are you getting so wound up about this? Enough to start a fight for no reason?" Trixie must've seen something in Twilight's expression, as the magic on her horn dissipated a second later.

"I'm just trying to win this Twilight. Even you can tell this is the best way to get through this with as many of our ponies as possible."

"No Trixie, I can't tell if this is the best way to win this. I can tell you this is the best way to kill a lot of soldiers, but that's it."

"That sounds the same as winning to me."

Twilight shook her head, "Is it though? Where does it stop Trixie? If we do this, where do we draw the line? Are we going to win all our fights with these kinds of tactics? I don't want to be like that, and you shouldn't either." She released Trixie and Snowbright, who at least had the sense to not dive back into their fight.

Trixie rolled her neck, "Fine then. Since the diaper babies in this room can't decide on decisive action to ensure our survival, I suggest putting it to a vote. Those in favour of using the tornado and preserving the lives of our ponies, raise a hoof." It was slow, but more and more ponies raised their hooves until over half the room had a hoof up. Trixie smiled at Twilight, though it was cold and completely humourless, "And that, I think, is that."

Author's Notes:

I'm sure you were expecting action in this chapter, but who wants that?

Anyway...Buck... I'll start by saying this isn't a rant against Buck itself as the organisers did a fine job of things, but more against the other people that went. I live in a small town where I'm the only brony I know of, so going with others wasn't really an option. I actually went to meet other people, and boy do I wish I hadn't bothered. For all the vaunted friendliness of bronies I failed to encounter any of that despite my best efforts. Admittedly I had a laugh on Saturday night at the art corner, but that was it. The next day those same people I had a laugh with didn't even want to know, which seemed to be the theme for the whole weekend. If you're there on your own, don't expect that to change.

Even at the quiz where we were separated into teams of 5-8 I ended up next to a 30+ stone pain in the ass who had a big go at me because on the question 'what's in a margarita' (the drink), I wrote tequila, which was right, whereas he was going on about how it was a Caribbean drink and contained rum. No, it's Mexican, and contains tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. Even when the answers proved me right he managed to piss me off further by saying 'well I could have been right.'

That was the last event before the closing ceremony, so provided a wonderful send off. (I did get an honourable mention in the art contest for my slightly nsfw rarity which cheered me up a little.) I went there to meet people. I left feeling very disillusioned by the whole thing, and it really got me down for a few days. Seriously people, wtf?

In conclusion, going to cons on your own sucks, and I'm not going to be doing that ever again. Rant over.