"We've got most of the weapons that Hard Pick promised, and we'll be ready to move when you are. We still haven't found Vines yet though. I think Patches is really worried about her."

Twilight regarded the small cream coloured mare before her that had been sent as a messenger. Patches was keen on sending a different pony each time which annoyed Twilight no end since each one would lack the context the previous ones possessed. "Would she leave the city? I imagine that Patches and Sharp taking control of you away from her didn't leave her in a very good mood."

"I don't know, but Patches doesn't think she'd leave now when the city was about to be freed."

"No, I suppose not." Worries about the missing former leader of the Bitmark rebels wasn't really something Twilight wanted or needed, but the issue had come up more times lately than the upcoming fight. "Your ponies will still be ready to move when the time comes?"

The mare nodded, "Of course."

"Good. Thank you, and let me know if you find her." The mare nodded again and left the small side office the mayor had granted to Twilight during their stay.

Twilight groaned and held her head between her hooves, glancing briefly at Trixie who was sat looking out of the window with a faint smirk on her face. "What are you so happy about?"

"Just looking forward to when things finally get going," Trixie answered, not missing a beat. Twilight wasn't buying it though.

"You're lying to me Trixie. After you escorted Vines out you and Spitfire came back and said that it was unlikely we'd see her again. I'm starting to get suspicious of how accurate that was. Spitfire didn't exactly seem comfortable saying it either."

Trixie pulled herself away from the window, "And?"

"And I think there's more to this than what you're telling me."

"What do you want me to say? She's gone, and like we thought, she's not coming back." Trixie stepped up to the rickety table Twilight was using as a desk, "Are you accusing me of lying?"

"Well, yeah, I already said I think you are."

Trixie's face scrunched up slightly, "Oh, yeah. Does it matter though?"

"Of course it matters! I've got a whole bunch of rebels searching for her because their new leaders suddenly feel guilty, and I want to know if it's a complete waste of their time doing so! You and Spitfire were the last ponies to see her Trixie, and I want to know what happened."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "Fine. We had a little talk, she got angry, yelled at us some, raved about how the mayor was doing this to have his enemies kill each other off, then stormed off. The end."

"You're lying. If she was that angry, and delusional, she wouldn't have gone into hiding the way she seems to have. Tell me what happened."

Trixie turned back to the window, "I just told you."

Twilight teleported behind Trixie and pulled her around so the mare faced her. "Stop lying to me Trixie!"

"What do you want me to say!?" Trixie yelled back, "That I killed her? Is that what you need to hear to make you happy? That I killed her and destroyed her body!?" Trixie's breathing became heavy as she faced down a shocked Twilight.

"You did, didn't you. You killed her."

"What? No! I wasn't being serious!"

"Yes you were! Why else would you specifically mention destroying her body?" Twilight stepped back slowly before letting her rear fall to the floor, "Trixie, how- How could you?"

"How could I? Easily! She was going to betray us to the soldiers Twilight, or worse! I didn't trust her to go quietly so I killed her to save us from whatever crackpot scheme she cooked up in revenge!"

"That's not what I asked you to do!"

"Isn't it!? You asked us to find out whether she was going to be a problem or not. I thought she was going to be a problem, so I took care of it!"

"Trixie!"

"Do you have any idea what she could've done if she'd taken what we've done to the soldiers? Do you have any idea what damage that would've caused? How many ponies she could've gotten killed?" Trixie stalked towards Twilight, forcing the alicorn to stand so she could back off. "If killing her saves the lives of ponies it was worth it! Tell me I'm wrong Twilight! I dare you to tell me I'm wrong!"

Twilight stopped and pulled herself up to her full height. "You're wrong."

"What?" Trixie scowled, "Fuck you Twilight. It's easy to look down at me from your high horse after I've already taken care of the problem! If she had betrayed us to the soldiers and got a whole bunch of us killed you'd be wishing she was dead!"

"I'm not looking down at you Trixie, but you were wrong. We could've taken her prisoner until after the city was freed! Patches and Sharp might've even agreed to it. There was absolutely no reason she had to die."

Trixie gawped at Twilight, not quite able to process what was happening. "What am I to you Twilight?"

"Excuse me?"

"Am I just a tool to you? You've had to use me to kill for you time and time again, and if it weren't for me we would've lost the battle for Puddingarde! I pushed forward when the others couldn't! I helped them break through! I led our ponies to win that battle while you got yourself killed! You wanted me to kill then, but now I take the initiative to kill a single pony I thought to be a danger to us, and I'm wrong? What am I Twilight!? Just some attack dog you unleash at your enemies, only to be chained back up until it's convenient for you to use me again?"

Twilight winced, and not just from hearing Trixie echo Faust's words concerning Sombra. The room felt darker as Trixie raged at her, and she knew she was going to have to tread very carefully. "I don't think that Trixie, at all, but you're wrong about how you dealt with Vines. There was other options we could've taken rather than kill her, but you went for the easy option. Can you blame me for this Trixie? Back in Puddingarde you made me promise to stop you if you went too far, but now you're defending the murder of a pony that had no need to die. How am I supposed to know what counts as too far if you don't?"

Trixie narrowed her eyes, "Are you saying I've gone too far Twilight?"

Twilight shook her head slowly, "Maybe? Even though your method was incredibly heavy hoofed, your intention was decent, trying to save ponies lives, so I don't know." Twilight was slightly shocked at what she was saying. Was her own moral compass so horribly skewed that she was defending the murder of a pony? Or was she just making excuses for Trixie? Or making excuses to avoid conflict with her? Twilight wasn't sure any more.

"You're kidding me right? Now you're trying to tell me that I was right to do it? What the fuck Twilight?"

"No Trixie, you were wrong to kill her, but if doing so saves ponies lives then maybe it won't have been a total waste."

Trixie shook her head and sneered at Twilight, "You can't do it, can you? You literally can't bring yourself to tell me I'm totally wrong because me being right works out for you!" Trixie turned away in disgust, opening the door to leave. "You're spineless, you know that?" she said before slamming the door shut behind her.

Twilight slumped into her seat behind the table and ran her hooves down her face. "I don't know what you are Trixie," she said to herself in the now overwhelming silence of the room.

Spitfire pushed the door to Twilight's office open, "Reporting for duty ma'am..?" Twilight was sat at the table with her head resting on her forelegs, her eyes half lidded and despondent. Spitfire entered the room cautiously, unsure what to expect. "Twilight, ma'am? Is everything okay?"

"I really wish this room had a drinks cabinet." Twilight's voice was muffled by her position. She raised her head to look Spitfire in the eye, "Why didn't you tell me what Trixie did Captain? You can't seriously tell me you agreed with her?"

Spitfire folded her ears back guiltily, no longer able to meet Twilight's accusing stare. "Begging your pardon ma'am, but I don't agree with what she did."

"Then why not tell me about it?"

"Honestly, because Trixie scares me a lot more than you do."

Twilight lay her head back down on her forelegs, "I think she scares a lot more ponies than I do."

"I'm willing to accept whatever punishment you decide ma'am."

Twilight pushed herself up, stretching her neck and back into some semblance of normal after being sat like that as long as she had. "That won't be necessary Captain. To punish you I'd have to punish Trixie, and I don't think there's any way I could actually do that. Bear in mind though Captain, I won't be so lenient a second time, to you or Trixie."

"Understood."

"You may report Captain."

Spitfire saluted, "Yes ma'am. I left our pegasi a couple of miles outside the city where they should be hidden. All they need is your order."

"Very good. I-"

"They do have some concerns though."

"Oh? Such as?"

"These ponies we're working with aren't part of the front, and don't obey the same rules. Some of the pegasi are worried about these ponies taking potshots at them on top of what the soldiers might do."

"I see. A valid concern I suppose. I'll bring it up when we see Patches later. Anything else?"

"None related to the mission. They're more worried about freeing the pegasi here once the battle is over."

"As soon as the fighting is over you have my permission to liberate the pegasi."

"Understood."

Twilight stood and stretched again, "I guess this is it then, the time has come." She cast the spell to hide Spitfire's wings as she led the way out of her office and into the mayor's. He took one look at Spitfire and clasped his hooves together, "I see. I guess I better warn my guards to prepare themselves."

"Are you sure you don't want to lend their help to the fight? It would look a lot better to the rebels if you did."

"I wish I could, but I don't trust for there to not be any little accidents that might get them killed and put me in a very vulnerable position. Don't try and change the deal Twilight. I supply the weapons and organise the city to aid your rebellion, and you help the rebels here to free the city."

"I'm not trying to change the deal. Get your ponies inside the gates. The attack will begin in a few hours once the pegasi have had a break from flying here."

"Very well, I will await your return." They left him, Twilight slightly peeved that his armed, armoured, and trained guards were going to be sat inside the safety of the city hall while she was left to fight an army with a bunch of questionably skilled ponies. The receptionist didn't acknowledge them on their way out, as expected, even when Twilight waved a wing at her, and they stepped out to find Trixie sat on the front steps, a strangely melancholic expression on her face. It quickly disappeared as soon as she realised she was no longer alone.

"Are we finally doing this?"

"We are," Twilight confirmed.

Twilight gave a friendly nod to Thorn as they entered the Bitmark rebels hideout. She had been left there to try and espouse some of the Liberation Front's ideals into the rebels concerning various matters, although that had been largely wasted effort seeing as how they were more interested in tracking down their former leader.

Twilight had expected there to be more ponies at the meeting, but could only call it fair that there wasn't when it had hardly been planned for a certain time. She did raise the issue with Patches, and had received the explanation that the leader of each little group was at the meeting, and would pass the plan on before the attack.

"It helps to keep our numbers hidden."

"That's fair I suppose. Do you trust these ponies to get the job done?"

"Of course!"

"Then I think we should get this meeting started." She unrolled the map of the city that the mayor had procured for her, studying the various points on it that the rebels had marked as decent ambush points. A lot of the last few days had been spent studying the patrol routes of the soldiers throughout the city, each one noted down with routes and times.

The plan was to take down as many of the soldiers patrols in as little time as possible in the hopes of rapidly thinning out their numbers. Once that was done a concerted effort would be made to draw the remainder of the soldiers not on patrol into a trap in the city. The rebels only hope of winning this battle was in their ability to strike rapidly, and without warning. Ambushes would do a lot of the work, but it wasn't foolproof.

"That's what the pegasi are for. Any soldiers that get missed by your rebels will be caught by them. I realise it's highly unlikely that no soldiers will make it back to their camp, but the less the better as it'll mean they won't know the location of all our ambush points, or how many we are."

"And you trust the pegasi to be able to catch what we cannot?"

Spitfire raised her nose slightly, "They'll follow their orders."

"Actually the pegasi have their own concerns." Twilight understood Spitfire's attitude to that question, but there was a time and place. "They're worried that your ponies mightn't be so careful with their aim when they're around, if you understand what I mean."

"I understand. Let's just say your pegasi have permission to enact revenge if any of my ponies get sloppy with their aim." He pointedly glared at some of his ponies.

"Patches, that is hardly an adequate solution," said Twilight, although she could almost feel Trixie being pleased with it.

"It's the only solution I have. A little incentive to check their aim is all these ponies need. I know Thorn has been trying to get us to treat all ponies equally, and Sharp has been all over that seeing as how she had a cousin who was taken away because she was a pegasi. Honestly, I think more of our ponies are more worried about Sharp being on their case than anything else."

"Where is Sharp for that matter?"

"Out making some last checks before the attack, making sure all our ambush points are well stocked with arrows and suchlike. Should I assume we're getting no further help from Hard Pick?"

"You should. He still has concerns that you're going to betray him once the soldiers are defeated."

"More fool he then. I have no interest in running this city, so you can assure him he's safe from us as long as he does his part once this is over."

"Didn't Vines want you to take control of the city?"

Patches shrugged, "Perhaps. If we ever find her again I might ask her."

"You aren't still going to be searching for her during the attack are you?"

"No, no. I've told our ponies to stop looking as she clearly doesn't want to be found." Twilight could feel Trixie's eyes boring into the back of her head, daring Twilight to tell him the truth. As much as the lie burned at her she couldn't reveal the truth. Not now, and more than likely, not ever.

"Right. If there's nothing else I think you should start getting your ponies into position."

"What about you? Where will you be?"

"I'll be flying with the pegasi, while Thorn and Trixie will be at the two biggest crossroads, there, and there." She pointed at the two sets of crossroads on the map that formed a line from the soldiers encampment to the bridge over the river. They were also where more than a few patrols crossed each other. "I'll make the signal when it's time to start the attack."

"Of course. May the Lady be with us all."

"Urgh..."

"I'm sorry about earlier," Trixie said quietly. Twilight hadn't been expecting her to say anything since Trixie had been silently sporting a strange little smile for the last couple of hours they had spent in Carter's base of operations, and it took her a second to realise that anything had been said at all.

"Hmm?"

"I said I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to lose it at you."

Twilight stopped what she was doing and lowered her head slightly, "What did you mean to do then?"

"I don't know... Maybe try to make you realise that maybe I was right to do what I did."

"So this isn't an apology for what you actually did?"

"Snrkt, no, of course not. But I know you don't think of me the way I was accusing you of."

Twilight sighed to herself. She had a list of things to say, yet no idea how to say them without being outright accusatory. "Trixie, I have literally no idea what's going on in your head these days. Not forgetting the fact that you murdered somepony-"

"With a justifiable reason."

"-You keep flying off the handle at me, ask me to promise to stop if you go too far, fly off the handle at me again, apologise, and repeat. I don't want to be harsh Trixie, but there is something wrong with you. I don't know whether it's the dark magic, or your response to what's going on around us, but it isn't healthy."

"Don't get all psychological at me Twilight. How is anypony supposed to be normal through this sort of stuff? Don't try and tell me you consider yourself the picture of mental health."

"No, I don't. Funnily enough I consider Summer and the filly the most mentally healthy out of the six of us, because while we're getting worse, they're getting better."

"That's some deep stuff Twi."

"I'm serious Trixie!"

"You can hardly blame Fleur though. I mean, what happened to her is bound to mess anypony up."

"More than dying!?" Twilight slammed her hooves over her mouth. She hadn't intended on saying that, and was mortified that she had.

"Perhaps," Trixie said diplomatically. "Come on then miss psychiatrist, what's wrong with me?"

"Apart from your possible schizophrenia?"

"Oh please, I have no memory lapses or hallucinations or anything like that. It's not schizophrenia."

"How do you know that?" Twilight blinked a few times, "No, really, how do you know that?"

"I'm not totally devoid of knowledge Twilight."

"Even if it's not that there's still something wrong with you..." Twilight trailed of as Trixie's horn lit up with her normal pink magic. A second later a piece of armour appeared from thin air and dropped to the floor with a crash that made Twilight's ears ring.

"Sorry, sorry. Please continue."

"As I was saying-" Clang!

"Sorry!"

"I really think that-" Broing!

"Sorry."

"Trixie, is now really the-" Crang!

"I am so sorry."

"If you didn't want to talk about thi-" Grong!

"I mean it, I am so sorry."

"Trixie..." Twilight caught the next piece that appeared, "If you don't want to talk about it, fine. I just want you to know that the next time that you murder somepony with no justification, that'll be one of the points I consider 'too far.'"

"Pfft, says you. If you meant that you would've stopped me already."

"I mean it Trixie. Honestly, if we were in Equestria right now you'd probably be arrested and institutionalized so hard you wouldn't realise you were in a straight jacket until you needed to scratch your nose. As it is though, we're here. Now get ready. I'm going to go check on the pegasi. If they're ready we'll get started." Twilight teleported away in a flash, leaving Trixie alone.

"Oh please Twilight, even I can tell you're as scared of me as the rest of them."

Twilight started walking straight out of her teleport, quietly fuming at Trixie's... Trixie-ness. Even she knew she was putting off the inevitable with Trixie, and hoped that her threat would be enough to curb Trixie's impulses for now.

The mass of colourful bodies lounging in the trees above her was all the clue she needed to know she had found the pegasi at the place where she had left their cart lodged in a tree. "Spitfire?"

"Up here ma'am." Twilight spread her wings and flew up to where Spitfire was sat on a branch wearing her armour, save for her helmet. "Are we ready to go?"

"Actually I was here to ask you that."

"We're ready for anything ma'am, don't you worry. I've already split us up into groups to cover the different ambush points and the areas around them."

"Good. In that case we should get into position."

"Up an' at 'em ponies!" Spitfire shouted at the rest of the pegasi. "We've got a whole mess of soldiers out there needing a reminder of why pegasi aren't pushovers. What do you say to them?"

"Never again!" the pegasi shouted as one.

"You're damned right!" Spitfire slapped her helmet onto her head and clipped the muzzle guard in place. "Lead on ma'am."

Twilight flew up and over the city, the pegasi following behind her. Since a few hundred pegasi wouldn't be hidden very well as they got into position, they had ended with splitting up into their groups and following Twilight in. Twilight admitted that the pegasi's attack would seem like total chaos if you didn't appreciate that pegasi worked better on the move.

She braced herself, watching the city below as the first patrols marched into the city. Curfew had started so the streets would be mostly devoid of civilians, but Twilight had accepted that more than a few accidents might happen in such tight quarters. Hopefully Trixie wasn't one of those accidents.

The soldiers spread out into the poor part of the city, bunching up into their individual patrols as the smaller patrols from the day filtered past them to return to their encampment. Twilight nodded to herself as the time came.

With a burst of speed she dived down as fast as she could, pushing herself like she rarely did. The wind screamed in her ears, but it still wasn't enough so with a little burst of magic she added to her velocity, and a second later the air boomed and a purple, six pointed star burst across the sky behind her. It served twofold, first as a signal, and second as a distraction.

Across the city ponies hidden in the upper floors of carefully chosen buildings opened fire on the distracted patrols, swiftly and mercilessly cutting them down. They were joined soon after by the pegasi who swept down into the streets at breakneck speeds, cutting down any soldiers the opening volleys may have missed, which was quite a few of them as the untrained rebels weren't the best shots.

Twilight swept down into the main square of the city, which was bisected by a large crossroads. Black blasts of magic rained down on the soldiers from the corner of one of the buildings, showing that Trixie had entered into the attack. Twilight didn't hang around long though as she swooped across the square, blasts of magenta magic making short work of any soldiers standing in her path.

Spitfire followed closely behind her, rolling left to drag one of her hoofblades across the neck of a soldier that Twilight had missed in a move that almost decapitated him at the speed she was flying. She rolled back into position behind Twilight and followed her as she banked sharply to fly up the street towards the next crossroads where Thorn was situated.

As anticipated the soldiers had scattered and had run to the edges of the streets in the hopes that the buildings would provide them with some cover. Things went quiet as the pegasi weren't able to fly so close to the buildings, but they were only keeping the soldiers pinned until the ambushers could find new positions. As soon as the pegasi were clear they opened fire again, along with blue blasts of magic from Thorn as she put her adept training to use.

Thinking that Thorn had the situation handled Twilight banked hard left towards the industrial area by the river. Setting up ambush points had been harder here as the more open layout of the buildings gave few hiding spots to shoot from, while the buildings gave plenty of places to shelter from arrows.

A exchange of arrows was taking place between some soldiers that had taken shelter in the open doors of a warehouse, and some of the Bitmark rebels that had been given a spot on the roof of the building opposite. "Loop back around!" she shouted to make sure Spitfire heard her, "I'll take care of this!"

Twilight pulled Swordy from the ether and surrounded herself in a shield, practically crashing into the soldiers that were sheltering there. Before they could begin to recover she swung her blade down, slicing one of the limbs of a crossbow before removing the limb of the pony holding it, stabbing the soldier in the chest as he fell.

While Swordy was occupied she unleashed a concussive wave at the two soldiers to her left, sending them crashing into the wall hard enough to leave dents, and definitely hard enough to kill them. The remaining two soldiers took one look at her and decided to try their luck with the arrows. Instead they were cut down by Spitfire as she came back around.

Spitfire looped out over the river and wheeled back around to come to a hover in front of Twilight, "I didn't see many soldiers in the streets. Living ones anyway. I think we might have cleared most of them back here."

"Then we should start focusing our efforts towards the main thoroughfare and back towards the encampment." She waved at the ponies on the rooftop, gesturing for them to head in that direction. "Let's join the pegasi for a few more sweeps and then see what's going on."

"Yes ma'am!" Spitfire fell into place behind Twilight as they sped down the streets. The pegasi had been thorough in their work and they only saw a few soldiers as they sped through the city, even up the streets you could barely fly through without your wingtips brushing the sides.

A group of four soldiers huddled in the entrance of the alley they were currently traversing, totally unaware as Twilight and Spitfire came up behind them until Twilight has killed two of them with shots of magic. The remaining two turned and snapped shots off at her so she tucked her wings and dropped into a running landing. Spitfire banked to the right to dodge around Twilight then twisted in the air to take out the soldier on the left while Twilight finished the other.

Twilight pushed herself back into the air, waiting for Spitfire to fall back into place behind her. A trio of pegasi whipped along the street below her, barely meters off the ground as they flew towards a couple of stragglers. "I think we should head back to-" The piercing call of a horn drowned her out and cut her off, echoing around the streets. "What was that!?"

"I don't know," Spitfire admitted.

"We need to find out. Come on!" Twilight led them back to the main square, not bothering to stick to the streets. As they flew she caught glimpses of soldiers running in the direction of their encampment, giving Twilight reason to believe that the horn was calling a retreat. Unfortunately for the soldiers, fleeing from their hiding spots also returned them to the mercy of the pegasi who easily caught up to them.

Twilight landed in the square, her keen eyes catching the sight of some pegasi amongst the bodies of the soldiers. Apparently the fight hadn't been as one sided as she had hoped. Trixie ran out of the building she was using to ambush from and dashed towards Twilight. "What's going on? Where're all the soldiers going?"

"I think they're retreating," Twilight told her, "Which is the exact opposite of what we want." Twilight thought for a moment, watching a formation of pegasi as they raced across the square. "Spitfire, have your pegasi perform one last sweep then tell them to have a break. Preferably sticking to the rooftops. We're going to go and see what's going on with the soldiers. Come join us once you're done."

Spitfire saluted and dashed off to carry out her orders while Twilight picked Trixie up in her magic and flew them to the tallest building overlooking the encampment outside the city. The soldiers were abuzz with activity, but it was hard to discern quite what they were doing.

"This is strange," Trixie remarked. "They're not building up for a counterattack or anything."

"How can you tell?"

"Well... I can't. But I do think that organising a counterattack wouldn't look so... chaotic." Trixie wasn't wrong. The soldiers were a mess, many of them running back and forth to their almost empty supply carts. It took both ponies a couple of minutes to figure it out, but eventually they came to the conclusion that the soldiers were packing up as fast as they could. They were leaving. "Should we attack them? While they're distracted?"

"No, there's still too many." While they had taken out a significant chunk of the enemy, there was still a lot more of them than they had the hopes of defeating in a straight up battle.

The gentle tap of hooves on the building let them know that Spitfire had joined them, along with Rush. Spitfire flipped her goggles up and unclipped one side of her muzzle guard, warily watching the soldiers. "They're leaving, aren't they." Twilight nodded to confirm her suspicions. "Should we try to stop them?"

"We'd lose too many, but, that doesn't mean we can't make life hard for them." Twilight was about to drop off the edge when two ponies stepped out of what appeared to be the command tent, a mare dressed in slightly nicer armour than the typical soldier, and a stallion bearing light armour and saddlebags. The mare threw a piece of paper into a burning brazier, while the stallion started running out of the encampment and away from Bitmark.

"That must be a messenger. Spitfire, Rush, I want those saddlebags."

"On it!"

"Trixie, wait here." Twilight stepped off the building, the fall giving her momentum to arc up out of her dive. She watched Spitfire and Rush chase after the messenger for a second before turning her attention to the encampment. Destructive blasts of magic rained down from Twilight's horn, all of them aimed towards the carts that the soldiers were loading their supplies into. Some of them tried to return fire at her, but it wasn't nothing she couldn't easily dodge or deflect with shields.

She reduced the last of the carts to a smouldering wreck and set her focus on something else; the pony leading them. She spotted her shouting orders to her ponies to try and salvage as much as they could from the wreckage of the carts, impressing Twilight with how calm she was under such pressure.

The mare lost some of that calm as Twilight dived down and scooped her up in her magic, carrying her to the rooftop where Trixie was waiting. "Put me down! Put me down! Putmedown!!"

Twilight obliged, but only once she had reached her destination, placing the grey-purple mare gently on the roof of the building and locking her hooves into place with some of her crystal magic. "What's your name?"

The mare focused on a spot somewhere above Twilight's head. "Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five," she intoned.

"O-kay... What's your rank?"

"Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five."

Twilight rolled her eyes and looked at the mare's shoulder, finding the bars of a captain there. "Right, Captain Sweeping Strike, I want to know why you're leaving Bitmark."

"Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five."

"If you answer my questions I will return you to your troops alive and unharmed, as well as allow you all to leave without further attacks on you."

Trixie jerked her head back in surprise, "Really?"

"Yes, really. So how about it Captain Sweeping Strike, one zero eight two five? That's surely worth answering a few questions?"

"Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five."

Trixie rolled her eyes and trotted over to the edge of the building, "I don't think they liked you taking their leader like that. We got soldiers incoming."

Sweeping Strike smiled smugly at the spot above Twilight's head," "Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five," she purred.

"Trixie, step back from the edge." Twilight broke the crystals holding Sweeping Strike's hooves and lifted the mare over the edge of the building, swiftly catching the soldiers' attention. "You break in here, I drop her. You fire at me, I drop her. You do anything at all, I drop her." Sweeping Strike squirmed as she looked down at the ground forty foot below her. "And if you don't answer my questions, I drop you."

"Alright! I'll tell you what you want to know! Just don't drop me!"

"Why are you retreating?"

"Because we haven't received any supplies or reinforcements since we got here! Rather than fight you and lose I ordered a retreat!"

"Why haven't you received any supplies?"

"Because of your bat-winged freaks!"

Twilight let the insult slide. Spitfire and Rush returned and Spitfire tossed the saddlebags to the floor. "They're empty."

"Damn. What of the messenger?"

"He won't be running anywhere very fast for a while."

"Okay, head back to the others and tell them to keep back. We don't want this to turn into a full on battle if we can avoid it." They saluted and left, and Twilight turned her attention back to her captive. "If the bags are empty, that suggests he brought you a message. What was on that paper you burnt?"

"What paper? I didn't-aah!" Twilight let the mare drop a couple of inches. "Regrouping orders!"

"Regrouping orders? But you only just gave the order to retreat. Are you trying to lie to me?" Twilight let the mare drop a little further this time, and a small trickle of urine leaked from the mare's uniform as she screamed. Twilight felt awful for doing it, but pushed on.

"I'm sorry! Please don't drop me! I got the orders two days ago! We were ordered to leave the city once we had eliminated the insurrectionist threat, but then you attacked so I ordered the retreat now-ow-ow!" The mare blubbered loudly, her fear stripping away all her defiance from earlier.

"Two days ago?" Twilight mused. "I guess news of the loss at Puddingarde must've got back to the Duke sooner than I thought... Hmm... Where were you supposed to regroup?"

"P-Prance..." The mare hung her head, "We were ordered to regroup with some of our other forces at Prance."

Trixie groaned, "Prance... Why is it always Prance?"

"Because it's a strategically valuable location that is easily defendable if need be," Twilight said curtly.

"Well yeah, I get that. I'm just saying is all."

Twilight softened her expression and smiled gently at the sobbing mare. "Thank you for cooperating, and I'm sorry I had to do this. Since you answered my questions I'm going to keep my promise. You have half an hour to get your troops organised and to get out of here. I can't make no promises past that. I'll take care of your dead too." The mare nodded weakly. "I'm going to lower you to the ground now, okay?"

"Okay... Thank you..." Twilight lowered the mare down to her soldiers, and very gently placed her on the ground. She kept watching as the mare headed back to the camp, her head low and her tail tucked between her legs. Only once she was out of sight did Twilight allow herself to break her composure.

"That was horrible," she said, sitting and rubbing a hoof across her eyes. "I seriously hope I don't have to do that again."

"Really? I thought you were bluffing."

"Of course I was bluffing Trixie!" Twilight snapped. "You didn't seriously think I wasn't?"

Trixie shrugged, "I don't know? I wouldn't have been."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Twilight sighed and hauled herself back onto her hooves. "I think we need to get back to Puddingarde."

"Shouldn't we finish up here first? I'm still gutted that the fight didn't last longer." Trixie pointed at the soldiers, "Are we really letting all those soldiers just walk away?"

"Yes we are, because I promised. They'll either make it back to Prance, or if they're unlucky, run into the thestrals along the way. Stay here and keep an eye on the soldiers. Signal us if they do anything other than leave."

"Uh-huh."

"I'll be back in a bit." Twilight left and made for the main square, finding the rooftops crowded with quite a few pegasi, and the square itself filled with quite a few of the Bitmark rebels, as well as quite a few civilians that were coming out of the woodwork now the brief skirmish had ended.

Thorn jumped as Twilight landed next to her, Patches, Sharp, and Spitfire. "Twilight! What's going on?"

"I've given the soldiers a chance to retreat in full. At the same time, Patches, or Sharp, can you get your ponies set up in some positions overlooking the soldiers camp. I don't want them to attack, but just to be ready in case the soldiers do decide to try something."

Sharp nodded, "I can do that."

"Good. Spitfire, since those soldiers are gone for the moment I want you to go and free the pegasi here. I'm putting you in charge of getting them back to Puddingarde."

Spitfire saluted happily, "Yes ma'am."

"Patches, we're going to see the mayor." Rather than fly she trotted, partly to not have to carry Patches, and also to have a look at the city. Twilight couldn't begin to hazard a guess at how many ponies the enemy had lost. A lot less than a thousand certainly, but still a lot. What made it even harder to count was the increasingly large amount of civilians out in the streets.

Patches grunted a sigh and kicked a pebble, "I wish Vines could've seen her way to working with the mayor. We could've done this much sooner if she had."

"I'm sure she appreciates what we've done," Twilight said in a clipped tone.

"I hope so. So, I guess this means you want us to go and join the rest of you now."

"It does. Sure the battle ended a lot differently than any of us expected, but it still ended how we wanted, right?"

"You're afraid we're going to back out, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid of both you and the mayor backing out. Normally we do things ourselves rather than work with others and hope it works in our favour."

"Oh yeah? Well you don't have to worry about us, we'll do our part. I also imagine you'll be having quite a few more recruits from around the city, given time."

"I hope so." Twilight cut through the chain holding the gates to the city hall shut, and swung them wide open before following the path up to the building itself. The mayor's guards watched nervously as she pushed the doors open and trotted past the perpetually disinterested assistant still at her desk, and up to Hard Pick's office.

"Gaah!" he yelled as Twilight slammed the doors open, and she cringed as she hadn't meant to do it quite so hard. "Twilight? You're back already?"

"Sorry." Twilight coughed and straightened up slightly, "The fighting's over."

"It is? That was fast."

"Their leader called a retreat and they're leaving the city."

"Oh. That's good, right?"

"For your city certainly. Now for your part in all this."

"I know, and I swear I'll keep to what I said. I'll start a recruitment drive to encourage ponies to join you, and start sending what supplies I can your way."

"Good. I'm going to have to leave as soon as possible because something's come up that I really need to know about. I'll be leaving Carter here with you for now to help you get the city back into working order."

"Of course."

"I'm also going to have to leave you in charge of clearing up the dead. We'll reclaim our own, but the rest are yours. I'll instruct Carter to take down the names of their fallen as well."

"I understand." Hard Pick stood and breathed in deeply, releasing it slowly. "I can't believe this day has actually happened. We're finally free from the Duke!"

"I wouldn't say it's over until the Duke is beaten," Patches reminded him.

"No, I suppose not, but it's an excellent start. You leave this with me Twilight."

"Alright. Goodbye Hard Pick."

"Until next time Twilight, and thank you."

They left the building and stood at the top of the steps on its front for a moment. "I think that's everything. I'm going to leave you in charge of getting your ponies to Puddingarde, since Thorn's father would fruitlessly try to murder me if I left her here. Can you do that?"

"Sure. It might be a few days before we set out, but we'll get there."

"Good." She held out a hoof to shake with Patches, "See you soon Patches."

"Likewise." She left him to make his own way back to his ponies while she made the trip to reclaim their mode of transport, stopping by the pegasus compound on the way. They had already freed the pegasi of their collars and were in the process of helping the weak or injured ones.

"Spitfire?"

"Over here ma'am!" Spitfire waved at her from the guard building attached to the compound, having been interrupted by Twilight while she and the others raided the place for decently edible food. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not unless you tell me there is. Are the pegasi here all okay?"

"They seem to be. There's none with broken or missing wings so there's nothing we can't handle ourselves."

"That's good news. Uh... I'm afraid I'm going to also put it on you to gather the fallen pegasi as well. I know there's not that many, but I'm sure you don't want to leave them."

"Don't worry ma'am, I'll get it done."

"Thank you Spitfire." Twilight exited the building and stood watching as her pegasi helped the newly freed pegasi, a faint yet genuine smile gracing her features. She wanted to stay longer but eventually tore herself away to go and pull their cart out of the tree she had left it in and make her way back to the main square.

She found Thorn organising ponies to clear up the bodies, and Twilight watched as more bodies were brought into the area. A dozen pegasi lay in their own area of the square. A dozen too many, but had the soldiers not retreated it could have been worse. For a free Bitmark, and sixty or so liberated pegasi, maybe she should be thankful for it being what it was.

"Twilight?"

Twilight stopped watching the dead and turned to find Thorn behind her. "Sorry Thorn, I'm just thinking. Did you tell them to do this?"

"I didn't know what else to do, so I thought I'd get started on clearing up. Was that wrong?"

"Not at all." She saw a pony search a soldier for their tag, reading it out to a unicorn with a scroll and quill. She was glad that they were doing it properly. "I'm afraid it's time for us to go."

"Us? As in you and Trixie?"

"Us, as in you, me, and Trixie. I'm not having your father fretting because I left you here, not when I have other things to worry about."

Thorn pouted, "Fine. I'll go grab our things if you want to go get Trixie." Twilight had forgotten about that, so had no issues with letting Thorn do so while she flew over to Trixie's position.

"Any problems?"

"Nope," Trixie said boredly. "They packed up and left with minutes to spare. Are you sure it was a good idea to let them go?"

"If we had a thousand of our trained ponies and adepts I might have considered finishing it. With what we have though, untrained, underequipped, and overenthusiastic ponies like these, not so much. Don't worry Trixie, I'm sure you'll get your chance."

"Assuming Shadow doesn't wipe them out."

"I think she wouldn't be quite so brave as to attack that many at once. Now come on, we're leaving. The sooner we get back to Puddingarde and find out what's going on, the better."

Author's Notes:

Next chapter might be a smidge longer than usual because I am really not happy with it so far. Knowing my usual method though, I'll just say screw it and post it so I can move on.