Night had well and truly fallen by the time Twilight flopped into a landing at Puddingarde. Unsurprisingly most ponies were asleep, but most of that lack of surprise was countered by Twilight almost tripping over the filly as she galloped into the keep. "Gah! Filly!"

"What the hell Twilight? What did I do?"

"You-! Uh... Oh I don't know. Why are you awake?"

The filly shrugged, "I haven't been able to sleep much for the last week. My scars are all... tingly and it feels weird. Did your healing thingy do something to them?"

Twilight pursed her lips, "It's possible I suppose."

"I really hope it stops soon." The filly yawned then paused as she realised something, "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be up in Whiplash? Wait, did we win?"

"We won, but it seemed a little... off, somehow. I've come to get more reinforcements, as well as have a talk with Seeker. Have you seen her?"

"That pony, zebra, whatever, could stand in the middle of an empty room and I'd struggle to see her. That mare just exudes stealth when she wants to. Saying that though, I know she's around here somewhere. Why do you want her anyway?"

"Because I need up to date intelligence, and I need to apologise for not reading her reports."

"They're still down in the command room if you still want to read them."

"I-" Twilight sighed through her nose, "No, you're right, I'll go and catch up on them. If you see Seeker could you tell her I'm looking for her?"

The filly yawned again and stretched, "Sure, but I'm gonna try going to sleep again so, y'know, I might not succeed."

"Of course. Sleep well filly." The filly waved sleepily at Twilight and stumbled back towards the barracks, while Twilight, not much more awake herself, made her way down to the command room. As the filly had said, those reports were still there, totally unread. Feeling guilty for neglecting them, Twilight stifled a yawn and picked up the first one.

"Hey! Wake up!"

"I'm awake!" Twilight yelped as a hoof jabbed her hard in the ribs. She jerked up, then carefully peeled away the piece of paper that was stuck to her cheek by her drool. Twilight blinked and rubbed her eyes as they were being very uncooperative, showing her a black and white blur. It was still a black and white blur after, but it at least looked a bit more like Seeker. It also allowed Twilight to see how angry Seeker was.

"Finally decided to pay attention to my work have you? Humph, it's about time."

Twilight rubbed her eye again, "I'm sorry Seeker. I've just been hiding from things while I got my head together after dying." Twilight really hoped Seeker would buy that as an excuse. It also still didn't feel any less weird to say now she was starting to come to terms with her immortal condition.

"And I appreciate that, but I don't do this just for it to sit in a pile down here! You didn't even ask if I had anything for you before racing off to Whiplash."

"I had Fleetfoot's reconnaissance, but you're right, and I am sorry." Twilight sorted through the stack of papers, "Do you have anything in particular you think I should know?"

"You wouldn't find it in there. I stopped bothering to write reports since none of you were bothering to read them. And there are a couple of things I think you should know."

Twilight sat down neatly and made sure to show she was giving Seeker her full attention, "I'm all ears."

Seeker rolled her eyes, "Very well. First, the Grand Army has started doing something to the unicorns in and around Prance. We haven't learnt much, but we do believe they are forcibly dehorning every unicorn they can find."

"What? That's horrible! Why would they do that?"

"It removes their potential to join us and learn magic," Seeker stated simply. "A brutal yet effective method of evening the odds against them in future."

Twilight thought about it, but couldn't see any effective way to counter that particular issue. They'd just have to take their lumps and hope that the unicorns being treated like that might encourage some to flee south, working in the rebellion's favour if they joined. Still, she felt sorry for those affected. "Anything else?"

"There's an usual weather pattern formed around Prance, but you'll have to ask Fleetfoot about that since as a pegasus she would know a lot more about it than I."

"But you think it might be important?"

Seeker shrugged, "Weather doesn't exactly happen by accident. There must be a reason it's happening." Seeker searched through the reports for a moment, "Then there's this." She slid a piece of paper with a single word on the cover. Ironhoof.

"Ironhoof? Isn't that the name of the first duke of Mareitania? How is that relevant?" Twilight flipped the front page over. Inside were a list of various occurrences in which the name was brought up, but nothing solid suggesting what it might be until she reached the word power. "Power? What does that mean? Are they trying to produce electricity or something? Because that sounds unlikely."

Seeker shook her head, "I do not know. I've been hearing whispers about Ironhoof for a few weeks now. At first I thought nothing of it, but as time went on I became more concerned. I do not know what it is Twilight Sparkle, but I doubt it could be anything good."

"Yeah..." Twilight read through the report again, but its contents didn't give her any more of a clue than the first time she had read it. "I guess we'll find out at some point." She stood and stretched, pausing when she remembered she had been sleeping. "What time is it?"

"About ten in the morning, give or take."

"Crap! I should be heading back to Whiplash by now! Who's in charge of our ponies while Snowbright's in Whiplash?"

"A pony named Top Knot I believe, although I really think you ought to know that. He is in the training ground if you wish to find him."

"Right, thank you Seeker. And I'm sorry for neglecting your work lately. I don't suppose you could do me a favour and ask Script to fill in for Ivory's old job. Ivory's around here somewhere so tell Script to ask her if there's anything she should know."

"As you wish."

"Thanks Seeker." Twilight galloped hard up the stairs, hoping to get some reinforcements organised and moving out within the next couple of hours. Instead she found Fleur and the filly sat near the top of the stairs, waiting for her.

"See!" The filly said triumphantly as Twilight skidded to a halt, "I told you I wasn't hallucinating!"

"I didn't say you were. I just couldn't think of a reason why she would be here."

"I-"

"She feels guilty for not reading Seeker's reports." The filly smirked cheekily at Twilight, "Seems our great leader has been neglecting her duties a bit."

Twilight waited to see if they were done. Neither said anything further so she took the opportunity to speak. "I know I haven-"

"That's not the only thing she's been neglecting," interrupted Fleur.

"Celestia damn it Fleur!"

"She could've at least washed the blood off her before coming here." Fleur raised her nose and sniffed disdainfully.

"It's not that bad." Twilight looked down at herself, seeing the dark patches in her coat where blood had seeped through the gaps in her armour. Then she raised a hoof to her cheek, realising that it wasn't drool the paper had stuck to. "Ew. Alright! Fine, I'll have a wash."

"Actually, we've already run a bath for you." Fleur led her back to the barracks to the washroom, where a tin bath full of water was waiting for Twilight. She begrudgingly muttered a thank you before slowly climbing into the bath and easing herself down into the water.

"Ah, that's the stuff. Now, was there a point to all this?"

Fleur shrugged at Twilight, "Not really. We just felt like having some fun with you. The filly mentioned that you came back for reinforcements, so we've already asked Top Knot, who Snowbright left in charge, to start getting some together for you. We've also loaded up a cart with some of Luna's bombs, since they could be useful for something."

Twilight thought to the defences that she had left the others building back in Whiplash. They could be useful if the Grand Army brought siege weapons. "Okay. I guess I should say thank you, so... thank you."

The filly beamed a smile at Twilight, "You're welcome!"

"But," Fleur continued, "they won't be ready to move until later this afternoon. So, in the meantime, could you help us with something?"

"I suppose I could. What do you need?"

Fleur picked up a cloth in her hoof and dipped it into the water before wiping it down Twilight's back. "It's kind of sensitive," she whispered into Twilight's ear. "I think somepony's been giving us fake information about this Ironhoof thing. I know you just spoke to Seeker about it, and I want to know what you think."

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"Because she might be in on it. I don't think she is, but I want to be careful."

Twilight wanted to sigh, but didn't as Fleur might think Twilight was dismissing her concerns. "Alright, but I don't know what you want as she didn't know anything about it."

"I thought as much. Either she's hiding stuff, or somepony is managing to pull the wool over her eyes."

"How do you know about this anyway?"

"Because I hear things too?"

"You mean you were eavesdropping?"

Fleur held her forehooves an inch apart, "A little, but only because I'm concerned. I actually heard it being discussed between two of Seeker's ponies. They didn't seem to know what it was either, but they think it's something big. How does something big stay so secret?"

Twilight couldn't stop herself from sighing that time, "Alright, so, on the off chance you're not just hoping to find a conspiracy where there isn't one, what do you want me to do about it?"

"I want you to help me investigate, obviously."

"In the space of a few hours? I have to get back to Whiplash with reinforcements Fleur!"

"Luna and Trixie are there right? I'm sure they'll be fine. I'm also pretty sure you can trust this Top Knot to get your ponies up there, and you can fly there, so I don't think you need to walk with them. They'll be fine."

Trixie adjusted the black cap she had found in the control room, and cracked the riding crop she'd strangely found in one of the guards lockers. "Come on you lazy curs, dig with your backs!"

Octavia walked up behind Trixie, having been watching the debacle for some time, "How exactly does one 'dig with your back?'"

Trixie shrugged, "Heck if I know. I'm just randomly shouting things at them as encouragement."

"How is any of what you're shouting encouraging? Especially if it doesn't make sense?" She gestured at the ponies who were erecting a barricade, "They're not even digging!"

Trixie cocked her head slightly, "Welcome to the military."

"That doesn't make sense either!" Trixie grinned at Octavia until the grey mare started to feel uncomfortable and decided to leave. "Sometimes Trixie, you are just too damned weird."

Once Octavia was gone Trixie adjusted her cap again, "I love my job."

Twilight sunk into the water and blew bubbles through her nose. While she wanted to help, she really didn't think that Fleur was onto anything. They weren't wrong that she wasn't strictly needed to oversee every little thing, and the enemy did seem to know an uncomfortable amount about their activities sometimes so perhaps it mightn't hurt to humour her in the possibility that she might be right.

"Alright, I'm in, but you're going to have to get us started."

"I already have. I've dropped hints that there might be a spy in our midst, and that we're close to working out who it is."

Twilight's faith in this plan diminished as soon as she heard it. "I'm pretty sure Seeker would've mentioned the rumours concerning a spy in our midst Fleur..."

"Uh..."

"So either she didn't hear of any rumour because your attempt to spread it around was..."

"Laughable?" The filly suggested.

"I was going to say unsuccessful. Anyway, either she didn't hear of it, or-"

The filly hooked her legs over the edge of the bath, "Or she's the spy!"

Twilight withheld her irritation at being interrupted, "Or that, in which case, we're probably not going to catch her because this is her world we're dipping our hooves into." Twilight smiled weakly at Fleur, "So, was there more to this plan?"

Fleur blushed, suddenly feeling very silly. "Yeah, we were to hold a 'secret' meeting outside by Trixie's fortress of solitude to discuss what to do about this spy. Then I was going to ask one of the pegasi to watch the meeting and see if anypony was spying on it."

"And then catch them in the act?"

"Exactly!"

Twilight held her breath for a few seconds, before exhaling slowly. "Fleur, if this works I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"That you will never try your hoof at espionage again. Firstly, the pony supplying information from the lands still held by the Duke isn't in Puddingarde to be caught, and wouldn't send us anything if he was a double agent. Or he might send us false information, whichever. Secondly, you're painting yourself as a target doing this. And thirdly, yes there may be a spy in our midst, but they aren't going to be the one giving us the information on Ironhoof in the first place, so this doesn't help us with that problem in the slightest!"

"But I thought they could be working together against us!"

"Or maybe, there's nothing to hear about this Ironhoof thing to begin with!"

Fleur looked to the side and pouted, "I thought you'd be more supportive of this."

"Me? You didn't even know I was going to be here! The idea that you were considering doing this on your own is... unthinkable! You could get yourselves killed!"

"Fine!" Fleur restrained herself, and sat down with a growl, "Fine. You're probably right. But I still think that we need to find out more about Ironhoof since it keeps cropping up."

Twilight settled herself back, a twinge of guilt worming through her mind for shouting a Fleur when she was only trying to help. "That I can agree with. Maybe we should have another look at Seeker's report."

The report didn't seem to be any less of a jumble than the last time she read through it, but a kind of sense did seem to start creeping into it. Scattered through the report was information on requests made for coal, oil, and metal. There wasn't anything specific to focus on though, other than the location for these deliveries were all from places in Stalliongrad, to a place in Stalliongrad.

"Sounds like they're making metal there," said Fleur. "Hardly worth making something of since they make most of their steel in Stalliongrad anyway. Maybe they're expanding because of the war? I mean, there was some construction work going on up there when we were there. I know we didn't really make much of it then, but who knows what it is now."

"Maybe. Doesn't seem like that's worth making a codename for. I get the feeling we're not going to find out sitting around here though."

"Are you suggesting we go to Stalliongrad?"

"I am."

The filly counted on her hooves for a second, "But it could take us weeks to walk there!"

Fleur made an estimation of her own, "A week and a half actually, if we took a straight line over the countryside and didn't hang around. I get the feeling Twilight has something faster in mind."

Twilight did, but there were complications called Fleur and the filly. "I could probably fly there in just under a day if I went on my own, but if I have to take you it would take twice as long, having to drag that cart along."

"Oh..." the filly said with disappointment. Fleur wasn't quite so easily deterred.

"What if you shrunk us into those things you turned us into when you rescued me from High Rock? Then you could carry us in your saddlebags or something?"

Twilight hmm'd to herself, "Possible I suppose. More than possible since I don't really want to go on my own. I will have to make some other preparations before we go since I don't fancy flying all the way back either. Could one of you go and find me a small stone while I go and talk to Top Knot?"

Fleur walked into the command room, walked up to the table, and unceremoniously spat a stone out of her mouth onto the table, which Twilight stared at blankly while Fleur attempted to scrape the taste of dirt off her tongue using the back of her hoof.

"Is this how earth ponies feel every day?" she asked. "I don't remember having to do stuff like this before my magic kicked in."

"Sucks, don't it," the filly said with enough accusation to make Fleur blush with embarrassment.

"Sorry filly." Fleur cleared her throat, "I'm guessing from the way I passed Top Knot on the way here that everything's sorted to your satisfaction?"

Twilight shrugged, "I think so. Hopefully it won't take us too long to get what we're doing done so I can get back. I know I don't need to be there, but I don't like leaving them like this. I'm also not too sure about you two coming with me since your leg is gammy and your horn's bust, and the filly is, well, a filly."

The filly groaned and rolled her eyes, "Don't start this crap Twilight, we're coming. Quit being a martyr and let ponies help you."

"I have no problem with fully grown and uninjured ponies helping me!"

"You do realise I'm fully grown for my size, right?"

"Huh?"

Fleur gently laid a hoof on Twilight's shoulder and gave the mare a warm smile, the warmth of which was unravelled in seconds by what she said next, "Shut up Twilight, we're coming. The filly won't be noticed by anypony, and I'll probably give those Stalliongrad ponies warm fuzzies by missing most of my horn."

Twilight held her hooves up in surrender, "Alright, I just wanted you to be sure." She picked up the stone and cleaned the slobber off it with the corner of Fleur's cloak which she had tossed on the table while she was waiting for Top Knot. "Yes... no fractures in it... this'll do nicely."

Fleur placed a hoof over the stone, "Not that I wish to question your methods, but why exactly did you ask us to go and find you a stone?"

"So I can make a teleport beacon. That way I can long distance teleport us back here rather than fly all the way."

"And you didn't think this'd be useful earlier?"

"Not really," Twilight said plainly, throwing a spanner into Fleur's argument that she was building up. "I have to get to a place to leave a beacon, so not totally useful until now. I can think of a few occasions were I could've used one, but they weren't really worth it."

"Oh." Fleur wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or not, so settled for saying "Okay then," as sullenly as she could.

"They're also only good for a single use, and I'd rather not have to keep making them." Twilight sketched out a chalk circle similar to her enchanting circles, then carved a spiral rune onto the stone. She placed the stone into the circle and fed her magic into it. A moment later the rune lit up purple, "There, all done."

"You made it sound like that was hard," Fleur said sarcastically.

Twilight blushed, "For your average unicorn, perhaps. Anyway, I think that's everything, so let's go." She tipped the contents on her saddlebags into a small wooden chest that she kept down there for more delicate items, and locked it. She then crammed Fleur's, hers, and the filly's cloaks into her bags. "So, who wants to go first?"

"Me-me-me!" The filly squealed excitedly. She bounced on the spot, barely able to contain herself while Twilight prepared her magic. Twilight cast the spell, and the world started growing around the filly as she shrank. She stopped, barely bigger than a kitten. "Cool!" she squeaked.

"That's not what you turned us into at High Rock, whatever they were called. Can't say I was really paying all that much attention at the time."

"You mean a breezie?" Twilight shrugged. "If I turned you into one of those I'd probably break you if I crammed you into a saddlebag, so I'm just going to shrink you instead. I'm also afraid I'm going to have to take your bandage off."

Fleur bit her bottom lip, "If you have to..." She held out her leg and let Twilight unwind it, her eyes clamped shut as if she were in pain.

"Fleur?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you even wearing a bandage any more? It's almost totally healed."

A spike of anger shot through Fleur's chest, "You think I enjoy looking at it? At what that bitch did to me?"

Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but quickly thought better of it as she had been much the same when her leg was gone. She couldn't really be that much of a hypocrite, especially since she was able to fix her problem. "I guess not. Sorry Fleur, I wasn't thinking."

"It's fine." Fleur stood stock still as Twilight shrunk her, her only movement being a few shivers. Last time she'd been shrunk she'd been in a lot of pain, and she kept expecting it to hurt again. Thankfully it didn't, and she looked around with wonder as the filly bounced over to her and uncomfortably looked her in the eye.

"Hey, why'd you make her the same size than me?" the filly asked about Fleur.

Twilight paused in rolling up Fleur's bandage, "Why would I leave her bigger than you? Does it matter?" she asked as she tucked the bandage into a saddlebag.

"No, but..." She grabbed Fleur in hug around the neck and licked Fleur's face, "She's so adorable like this! I could gobble her right up!"

"Ack! Twilight! Help!"

Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled as she separated the two miniature ponies, placing one into each of her saddlebags. "I guess that's it then, let's go to the second worst place in Mareitania."

"What's the first?" asked the filly.

"High Rock," Twilight and Fleur said together.

Fleur poked her head out of the saddlebag she was residing in, having again lost the internal battle to not look out of the bag at such a height, against her pressing need for fresh air since the bag was rather odious. The wind tore at her mane as she gasped for air, "Gah! Twilight! What have you had in these bags? They stink..." She trailed off as her curiosity grabbed her by the muzzle and forced her to look down... and down... and down some more. "Dear Celestia! Why do I have to look every time!?"

"I know Fleur! Isn't this awesome!" Predictably the filly didn't possess any of Fleur's reticence as far as the altitude was concerned. Sometimes it was as much as Twilight could do to stop her from falling out of her bag.

"Awesome is hardly the word I would use." Fleur's stomach burbled uncomfortably as she watched the land below slowly crawl by, unable to stop herself from looking down. Looking up was just as bad though. "How long have we been flying?"

"Roughly eight hours," said Twilight. "We're about to pass Prance, I think. We'll stop for another break once we're past."

"Hey! Isn't that High Rock over there?" the filly shouted. In the distance on the horizon to their right was the towering spire of High Rock, beaten in height only by the mountains behind it. Fleur shivered, glad she was in the bag facing the opposite direction. It did give her a view of Prance though, rivalled only by Twilight's as it crawled below them.

"What is that?" Around the city, starting just outside its walls, was a circle of dark clouds stretching for a few hundred yards in all directions save for a narrow strip for the road leading up to the main gates. "Twilight?"

"I don't know Fleur. Hopefully Fleetfoot can tell us once we're back." Fleur nodded sullenly. Whatever it was could hardly be good news.

Twilight's flight was becoming increasingly erratic as they neared their destination. Stiff, tired, and increasingly cold and achy wings were hardly the best for flying on as the chilly night air sapped their strength, but she soldiered on, not wanting to stop so close to their goal.

The lights of Stalliongrad twinkled below them, and she coughed as she breathed in a lungful of thick, smoke laden air. "Eck! I don't remember the air being so foul here. Hold on, I'm going to teleport us down to the ground." She visualised the abandoned building they'd hid in for the brief few days they had been here, so long ago at the beginning of their journey, and with a grunt of effort they appeared inside with a flash.

"Aww," the filly whined as Twilight stumbled into a landing, her wings deciding to give in now they were close enough to the ground. She tried to fold them, but even that level of cooperation was beyond them for the time being. She slid her saddlebags off and lay down to catch her breath as Fleur and the filly crawled out of them.

"Any chance of being made normal sized again?" Fleur asked hopefully. Twilight complied without saying anything, her horn glowing for a moment as she restored them to their proper sizes. "Thanks Twilight. Filly, could you grab that bandage and help me put it on please?"

It took several minutes to fully wind the bandage around Fleur's leg and secure it. She didn't think she would ever understand how that nurse, Red Heart, could do it so quickly using just her hooves, when she struggled even with the filly helping her.

"There," she said, satisfied that her leg was hidden away again. "So, what do we do now Twilight?" Silence. "Twilight?" She turned to Twilight, finding that the alicorn had fallen asleep where she lay, her wings splayed out to her sides. Fleur quirked a smile and she pulled Twilight's cloak out of her saddlebags, placing it over the sleeping pony, "Sleep well."

The filly trotted over to a window and placed her hooves on the crumbling ledge to have a look outside. "What now Fleur?"

Fleur joined her, wrinkling her nose as she was reminded of the foul air outside. "I don't know, but I would like to know what's making all this smoke. It's never been like this around here before."

"Maybe they're doing more stuff here, to help with the war effort?"

"'More stuff,'" Fleur repeated. "Yes, I definitely suspect that 'more stuff' is going on."

"Alright! Sheesh! You don't have to take the piss you know."

"You're right, I don't." They stared out of the window for a while, until Fleur seemed to reach a decision and headed back to the saddlebags to pull the filly's cloak out of them, tossing it to the smaller pony. "Come on filly, let's go for a look around."

Fleur lowered her eyes in a show of deference as a guard trotted past them. Now she was thinking about it she felt rather silly for not considering that there might have been a curfew or something, and was rather relieved that there didn't seem to be one. She surmised that might be because the work at the various factories was now continuing through the night. There was definitely 'more stuff' going on for sure. What she wasn't sure of, was why that involved so much smoke.

Nopony paid them much attention as they skulked through the city at night, most ponies more concerned with hurrying to whatever their business might be. It started to dawn on Fleur that even the earth ponies here seemed nervous, and she hadn't even seen another unicorn the entire time. The whole thing had a creepy vibe to it that she hoped would disappear when day came around.

She flinched and flicked her ears back as the lonely bark of a dog echoed in the distance. "Yep, definitely creepy."

"Remind you of Prance?"

"Not really. Although, saying that, we should probably head towards the industrial areas to see what's going on there."

"There's probably more guards around there too," the filly pointed out. "Maybe we should wait for Twilight to wake up?"

"No. I imagine she wants to be out of here as soon as possible. An idea that I agree with wholeheartedly since we're in a city of earth pony supremacists. Lets go and find out what we can and then go back to Twilight."

Even in the dark it was easy enough to spot the towering edifices of the industrial quarter in the distance, a lazy trail of sparks pouring out of a chimney illuminating the thick black smoke. The biggest problem was that Fleur was fairly sure that chimney hadn't been there last time they visited, and even though it was a short visit, it still felt like something they would've noticed. There had been some construction work going on, yes, but they shouldn't have finished it that fast. But then again, what did she know about building?

The filly jabbed her hoof into a bale of something that had started out white, but was slowing turning grey from the soot in the air. "What the hell is this?"

"That's a bale of cotton, but since they grow that in the south I couldn't tell you how it got here. Maybe it's from the last harvest."

"I don't think cotton is much use to us, not when we're looking for something called Ironhoof."

"Shush filly, keep it down. Are you trying to get us arrested?"

"Oh please, what're they gonna do? Dehorn you and cut off my wings?"

"Or they could, y'know, kill us?" Fleur shuddered, "Or send us to High Rock. Now come on, time's wasting." They continued their journey, pausing only as they reached a coal yard that had quadrupled in size from what Fleur remembered it to be. A row of carts were lined up to pass beneath a hopper to be filled. Other than the scale of the operation, it didn't really interest Fleur. What did interest her though was the small steam engine that was hissing and thudding away as it powered the belt feeder that lifted the coal up into the hopper. She had almost passed it off as irrelevant until she remembered that Mareitania didn't have steam power.

"Oh Celestia no..."

"What? What is it?"

"They've really done it?"

"Done what?"

Fleur pointed to the steam engine, "That. The Viscount's boat was only the beginning. Now they have all this coal and steel because they're making everything steam powered! Steam powered boats, steam powered factories... Celestia knows what else they've made that's steam powered."

"And that's bad, right?"

"Depends on how they use it, but quite frankly their ability to make stuff now severely outstrips our own. I just hope they haven't worked out the full uses of gunpowder yet."

"Should we go and tell Twilight?"

Fleur thought about it, but shook her head. "Not yet. I want to see if there's more to this Ironhoof business other than what we've seen so far." They continued their journey towards the largest building there, guided by the trail of sparks from the chimney as well as the increasingly foul smelling air.

The filly raised a hoof to her mouth to stifle a cough, but stopped when she found the bottom of her hoof was black. Instead she pressed her cloak to her mouth and coughed into that. "Urgh... how can ponies live like this? It's horrible!"

"Don't I know it filly." The parts of Fleur's coat that weren't covered by her cloak were now a blotchy grey colour from the soot in the air. "I hate to think what breathing all this in could do to you. I'm pretty close to upgrading this back to the worst place in Mareitania."

They reached the building, finding it to be surrounded by a high wall. The gates were open, but neither of them seemed particularly inclined to attempt going through them. Instead they made their way around the side of the wall until they found a pile of rotting crates to stand on.

"I'm still not high enough!" Fleur stretched out as far as she could, but her forehooves were still a couple of feet short of the top of the wall. "Filly, come here, I'm going to boost you up." Fleur, balancing carefully, picked the filly up in her hooves and pushed up until the filly was able to hook her legs over the edge of the wall. "What do you see?"

"Not much. I can see some carts out by the front, but I can't tell what's in them. I'm going in for a closer look."

"No! Don't!" Fleur whispered harshly, but it was too late as the filly had already hauled herself up onto the top of the wall. "Filly!"

"Wait for me by the main gate, I'll meet you there." She kept low as she trotted along the top of the wall until she found an outhouse roof to jump down onto. Thankfully the roof was solid. She bounced down to the ground and hugged to the wall as she made her way to the carts.

She paused and waited as another cart was pulled out of the large building, galloping over to them as soon as the workponies backs were turned. She dived underneath them, still feeling very exposed, so she wasted no time in clambering up a reinforced wheel to have a look inside.

The cart was full of thick plates of metal. Not particularly special to look at, but they must have a use for something. At the very least it told her that this place was a steelworks, and a large one at that. She jumped down to the next cart, only to find it contained the same, as did the next. "What are they making these for?" she wondered out loud.

Fleur fumed as she waited around the corner from the main gate. Of all the stupid, reckless things a pony could do, this was pretty high on the list.

She growled to herself and poked her head around the corner to see if the filly was out yet. She wasn't, so Fleur withdrew her head and moved onto cursing under her breath to pass the time for a few minutes until the clatter of hooves made her stop. She looked around the corner again and almost yelped at the sight of a large group of soldiers approaching to enter through the gates.

"Shitshitshitshit!" She started to panic, thinking for sure that the filly would be caught if she hadn't already. She couldn't hear anything though, no shouts or screams or any such panic related sounds, so she waited, impatiently trotting on the spot for what felt like an agonisingly long time until the soldiers left again, hauling the carts in teams of four.

The carts passed by, and Fleur thought it was over when she saw a little hoof waving to her from beneath the last cart. Against all reasonable sense, the filly was hanging upside-down from the bottom of the cart, wedged in the gap between the body and the axle in the space the suspension provided. She twisted and dropped to the ground in a crouch much like a cat would, and waited for the carts to pull further away before running back to Fleur.

"Come on Fleur! We have to follow them!"

"Are you insane!? You could've been caught doing that!"

"Much like we could be caught with you shouting at me in the middle of the street?" the filly cheekily answered back. "Now come on! We have to follow them!" The filly trotted forward a few steps, only to stop when she didn't hear Fleur's hoofsteps. "Fleur? We have to go. Come on!"

Fleur reluctantly followed after the filly, and they both kept a sizable distance from the carts. "What was in those carts anyway?"

"Sheets of steel. That place was a steelworks."

"A steelworks?" Fleur glanced back at the building, only really able to see the towering chimneys as they spat smoke out over the city. "That can't be good for us. What about these carts? Why are we following them?"

"Because I heard them talking to each other, moaning about having to haul these carts back to Ironhoof! That has to be what we're looking for! We follow them, we know where the Ironhoof thing is!"

"Really? Alright... nice work," Fleur said begrudgingly. "But seriously, never do anything like that again!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever." The carts had stopped so they waited while the soldiers lit lamps and attached them to poles on the carts. "Why are they doing that?"

"Because they're leaving the city. We're by the west gate."

"Oh, cool. That should make it way easier to follow them."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't know if normal ponies like us are allowed to leave the city for starters. Then there's no telling how many soldiers we might meet on the roads. We'll go back to Twilight, and in the morning she can fly us out of the city so we can follow their tracks." They watched as the soldiers pulled their load out of the gates, which the city guard then closed behind them. "Let's not take any more unnecessary risks today."

Twilight mumbled sleepily and stretched. Her bed seemed far too cold and hard for some reason. She pulled her cloak around her and curled up into a ball. Wait... cloak?

She cracked an eye open and peered about, quickly jamming both open as she swiftly remembered where she was, and why. "Fleur?"

"I'm here Twilight." Twilight turned to where Fleur was sullenly sat by the window, forelegs crossed to lean on the windowsill.

"Why did you let me sleep? We have far too much to do!"

Fleur turned her head to look at Twilight, "You were exhausted Twilight, you needed to sleep." Twilight stifled a yawn, then gave Fleur a glare that dared her to make something of it. "You're not supermare Twilight."

"I know... How long was I out?"

"About seven hours."

"Seven hours! Seve-" Twilight stopped and took a deep breath. "Fine. That's fine." She saw the filly curled up in her cloak on the floor next to Fleur. "I guess we would've had to stop at some point anyway."

"Actually, the filly and I went for a walk while you were sleeping, to have a look around."

"Did you find anything useful?"

"I'll say. Come here." Fleur pointed to the plume of smoke coming from the steelworks that was just visible around the side of the building, "What do you think that's from?"

"From a factory I presume, but there was nothing here like that last time we were here."

"Do you remember those construction works from last time?" Twilight said she did, "That's that. A huge great steelworks. That's what's putting out a lot of this smoke."

"But not all of it?"

Fleur shook her head, "We passed a coal yard while we were out, and besides how big it had become, it also had a piece of machinery powered by steam."

"Steam?"

"Yep, steam. That's what all this coal and steel and smoke is about. It seems the industrial revolution has arrived in Mareitania."

"But that's not possible! I mean, the steam engine on the riverboat was a surprise, but now you're telling me they've discovered steam power in a big way?"

"Yeah, right when we're in the middle of a war against them. Funny that." Fleur pushed back from the window to look at Twilight fully. "Something about this stinks. When I left here fifteen years ago they barely knew how to slice bread, but now they're capable of building a steam engine to do it for them? None of this feels right Twilight."

"No, it doesn't." Twilight tried to imagine how this had happened, but nothing she thought of could accommodate how all this could've happened so fast.

"We've also found a clue about Ironhoof," Fleur said, disrupting Twilight's thoughts.

"You did? What is it?"

"Some soldiers came for a delivery of some steel plates from the steelworks. We followed them to the edge of the city, but where they were going is outside somewhere. I thought we could try and follow the road to find it."

"How do you know that has anything to do with Ironhoof?"

"The filly was spying on them," Fleur admitted. "She heard the soldiers moaning about having to haul the carts back to Ironhoof, whatever it may be.

"You let the filly spy on soldiers? Are you crazy?"

"I didn't tell her to! You try to stop her!"

"I would've stopped you both if you hadn't left me here unconscious!"

Fleur scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Don't make it sound like we battered you half to death to make you that way! You were sleeping!"

Twilight slowly inhaled and exhaled, "Fine, I was sleeping, but that doesn't make what you did any less dangerous. Still, we have a lead now so I guess that I can't complain too loudly, so I'll limit myself to grumbling under my breath, stupid reckless ponies..."

Fleur grinned lopsidedly, "Stupid like a fox Twilight. Now are we going to sit here discussing how stupid and reckless we are, or are we going to go find that... thing we're looking for..?"

A purple flash sparked in the skies above Stalliongrad, leaving behind something that hopefully appeared to be little more than a overweight bird to any ponies that happened to look up at them. The bird circled a couple of times before settling on a westerly direction, and it flew on before any budding ornithologists could identify it as an Alicornus Magentus.

"So what exactly am I looking for?"

Fleur poked her head out of her saddlebag, "Heck if I know. If there's been a lot of traffic going to this Ironhoof place then we should be able to follow the tracks right to it."

"But we've been this way before! We didn't see anything then!"

"Need I remind you that the road was covered in a foot of snow? Burying any and all tracks? And that we had a severely ill Octavia to distract us as we fled the city thanks to Trixie, on top of having no reason to suspect there was some secret thingy out here? Hmm?"

Twilight flicked an ear in irritation, "Alright, I get the picture." She focused on the road below, seeing that the ruts in the dirt track were easy enough to follow. "Just keep your eyes open."

Miles of countryside drifted by below them, presenting little of interest. While there was likely a vested interest in keeping this place hidden from the rebels, surely there was also some merit in having it a bit closer to civilization? Twilight wasn't sure where the line was, but suspected that building it up here in the north where everything was buried in snow for half the year was probably a poor decision.

"Hey!" the filly shouted excitedly, "What's that?" Twilight looked to the right, to where the filly was wildly gesticulating at a plume of dark smoke in the distance. "Should we check it out?"

"I Guess so..." The tracks did appear to turn off ahead, so maybe there was some merit to doing so. "Hold on, I'm going to go in low through the trees so they don't see us." Fleur could only feebly squawk in protest as she dived down to the treeline by the road. She flitted between the trees, constantly banking and turning to make sure the fir trees didn't touch her wings.

"Warn me first Twilight!"

"Why? So you could tell me not to?"

"Um..." Fleur sighed and held on for dear life as they continued on their turbulent trip through the trees, only paying attention again when Twilight came to a halt. Sat before them was a massive factory, easily the size of a couple of hoofball fields. "Woah..."

Twilight dropped to the ground, regretting that their approach through the trees hadn't really prepared her for what they had found. Smoke poured from the massive chimneys at the rear of the building, while at the front were some massive steel doors that were sealed shut, preventing access to everything including inquisitive little ponies.

"So..." the filly said in a low voice lest she anger the building somehow, "what now?"

Twilight tapped a hoof a couple of times as she tried to think. They really ought to get inside to have a look around and see what it was they were doing here, but such a thing was far easier said than done. Especially considering that this place contained an indeterminate number of soldiers and workers.

"First we have to get inside, but I'm not really sure how we're going to do that."

"Find an open window and fly in?" the filly suggested half-jokingly. Unfortunately it was the best idea they had so far.

"Maybe we should start with having a look through a window," said Fleur. "Try and get a layout of this place first?"

They waited a couple of minutes to see if there were any patrols going around. There didn't seem to be any, so Twilight gingerly left the safety of the trees and flew up the nearest window. A soft yellow glow suffused most of the inside of the building, tinged slightly more orange the further along the factory you looked as the forges at the far end added their own light.

"Why would they bring metal here if they could make their own?" the filly asked out loud.

"Probably quicker to outsource some of the things for whatever they're doing here," said Twilight. She squinted her eyes at what was in the centre of the building, metal contraptions, some barely more than a frame with ponies working on them. "What are they making here? They look like machines of some kind."

"That one has wheels," the filly pointed out. A few of them had wheels, two big at the front, and two small at the back, while another was being hoisted by a crane as wheels were attached.

"That looks like an office in the corner by the doors," said Fleur. "Maybe we could get in there and find out what all this is?" The office was elevated from the factory floor, and featured a large window to view the factory floor.

The filly pointed at the bottom of the stairs leading to the office where two soldiers were standing guard. "And how do we get in past them hmm?"

"We fly around the other side of the building and break in through a window."

"Oh, yeah, that..." The filly playfully smacked herself around the head, "A-duuurrrr." Twilight flitted up over the roof of the factory, taking a second to check the coast was clear and that the office was empty before flying down level with where the office was. Thankfully there was a window, and it was all of a second's work to pop the catch and open it. "I'm starting to understand what Trixie means about cheating alicorns," said the filly.

"Because freaky healing and cheating death didn't clue you in earlier?" Fleur whispered harshly.

"Shh." Twilight squeezed through the open window and searched about for a chair to wedge the door shut with before letting Fleur and the filly out of her bags and restoring them to normal size. "Fleur, have a look around for clues. Filly, crawl up to the window and keep an eye out," Twilight whispered.

"Aye aye captain." The filly crawled on her belly to the window overlooking the factory floor, sticking to the corner so nopony could see her as easily.

"What am I looking for Twilight?"

"Anything that'll tell us what they're doing here." Fleur started rifling through the desk of whoever this office belonged to, while Twilight started going through the images pinned on the wall around the workstation in the corner. Most of them seemed to be blueprints for various components of steam engines, such as a pressure valve, and something they had called a dual pressure system.

"Hey Twilight." Twilight turned at the sound of Fleur whispering her name. "I've found a bunch of letters in one of the drawers. Some of them seem to be congratulation letters for the promotion of somepony called Steel Calibre to general. There's even one from Filigree. This must be the third general!"

"Steel Calibre huh?" Twilight thought about the developments around steam engines lately, "Fitting. Anything else?"

"Nothing saying what they're doing here, but there's a book in the bottom drawer that looked like a diary. I'll have a look through that and see what it says. Ooh, seems Steel Calibre is a mare."

"Uh-huh." Twilight resumed her search, cocking her head at two blueprints, one of a chassis of the things being made down below, and another of the dual pressure system, before picking them and placing them over each other. The system fed power to each large wheel individually, and the rear wheels were rigid, so the whole thing had to skid ste-"

"Oh that jackass!"

"Fleur!"

Fleur clamped her hooves over her mouth, "Sorry. I was found the entry on the launch of the Viscount's boat, and General Sabre said she did well 'for a mare.' Where does that guy get off? Seriously. Anyway, she then starts gushing about how Filigree valiantly came to her defence and yadda yadda yadda. I get the feeling that she likes Filigree."

"And we killed him," Twilight said bluntly, "so now we have another pony with a vendetta against us. Great." She continued searching the blueprints, stopping when she found a folder and looked through that instead. Her worries increased exponentially as she started seeing designs she had seen back in Equestria, locked in the Canterlot archives. "What in the world?"

"What? What is it?"

Twilight stamped a hoof down on a page, "This! And lots of other stuff!" Fleur walked over to see what Twilight was talking about, finding the mare had stamped a hoof down on the blueprints of a steam train, the kind commonly used by the Equestrian railway system. "How did they get these things? There's things here that ponies in Equestria have no idea exist!" She turned the page, finding the plans for new type of train, bigger and faster that Equestria's.

"They're adapting our technology?"

"They're improving it. This design for a train makes ours seem pitiful by comparison. My point is though that I've seen some of these designs locked in the Canterlot archives! They shouldn't be sat in a folder in Mareitania!"

"Are they the originals? Or copies?"

"They aren't signed or marked, so I think they're copies, but that doesn't make it any better! How could they have got these? A lot are these could be found in the patent office, but some are locked away in the Canterlot archives, and there's only about a dozen ponies in Equestria with access to the forbidden sections of that place."

"And who are they?"

"Myself, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, my brother, Prince Blueblood, the archivist, and a few high ranking members of the court."

"Did you say Prince Blueblood?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, I saw him getting pretty chummy with the Viscount at the Equestrian games. Maybe he might have done it."

"He was?" Twilight thought about it and swiftly shook her head, "No, I'm not going to go around pointing hooves based on a suspicion. I'll tell Celestia, and she'll have to investigate that herself."

"Shouldn't Ivory know all about this as well if she was there," the filly said from her spot by the window.

"We should ask her when we get back to Puddingarde," Fleur agreed. "It's quite possible that she was kept in the dark about it though."

"Perhaps. Keep looking through that diary while I keep going here." Twilight kept looking through the plans. Not all had been given an improved version, but even those had notes written in the margins suggesting improvements. The major running theme though, was that all of these were designs for steam powered devices, even the weapons.

"There's an entry here about the Duke gifting her those plans you're looking through, about a month before we got here. It seems that the evidence against Blueblood is stacking up." Twilight ignored her, skimming through the plans as fast as possible. "Twilight?"

"Where is it? Where is it!?"

"Where's what?"

"Do you remember me telling you about a steam powered weapon called a tank-"

"That spewed boiling steam on its victims, yeah. Not sure you called it a tank though. Had to wonder what kooky weirdo thought that one up. Wait, do you think they built one?"

"No, the design didn't work. Or at least it didn't work well. If you fired the weapons you'd lose all pressure and the tank wouldn't be able to move. But that doesn't mean the idea couldn't be expanded upon." She started at the beginning of the folder and flicked through it again. "Where is it?"

Fleur watched as Twilight scanned through plan after plan, "Maybe they didn't get it? Most of these things look fairly benign. You can't tell me most of these were locked in the archives."

"No, they weren't, but I doubt we're in the habit of gifting advanced steam technology to our enemies either."

"Mareitania wasn't an enemy then Twilight."

"They weren't exactly a friend either." Twilight slammed the folder shut, pausing as she tried to think. Then she saw it, pinned behind some other papers on the wall in front of her. She carefully pealed it off and looked it over, hoping for some clue as to how they might have fixed it.

Fleur looked at the design. Six wheels on a chassis protected by metal skirting that almost reached the ground, with vents that belonged to its main weapon. "Wouldn't ponies cook in there? And it looks nothing like what they're making down there."

"It was poorly thought out, but the principle was there." Twilight started picking more plans off the wall, piecing them together to make a whole. A frame, four wheels with two smaller wheels between them, a rotating turret on top with a small steam powered catapult, a steam powered battering ram down the middle, tracks, and two inch armour all around, coming together to make a ten ton steel death machine. "This is their improved version."

"Shit." Fleur moved over to the window to watch the work ponies below, a fresh sense of horror filling her now she knew what they were making. "Good job they haven't made any yet."

"That or they've already finished some and left," said the filly.

Twilight's eyes went wide, having not even thought of that. She turned the diary to its last page, hoping for a clue of where Calibre was now. It was there on the page, clear as day. Ironhoof was on its way to Whiplash for its trial run.

"We need to get back to Whiplash now!"

"But we can't just leave this here to make more Twilight!" the filly argued. "We have to stop this! Can't you destroy the factory?"

"Too big, but I think we can slow them down." She grabbed the plans for the tank as well as the folder and crammed them into her bags, then ran over to the window. "I'm going to teleport you out. Wait in the trees for me." Before the others could say otherwise she teleported them away.

"Right..." Wasting not a moment she starting casting a fire spell, spreading fire around the room to incinerate every last bit of paperwork that she hadn't taken, then she shielded herself and waited for the alarm to be raised.

"Fire! Fire! Get the hoses!" one of the guards shouted below. While the ponies below we're distracted she teleported herself into the centre of the factory and flew towards where the forges were. She raised her head and cast Clover the Clever's oscillating gravity well, far bigger than the one she used in Neigh Orleans to destroy the pegasus compound. She fired it into the middle of their metal production.

Iron squealed as the spell twisted and tore it apart, spilling red hot coals and molten metal that was immediately pulled into the spell along with any ponies unfortunate to be nearby. A tremendous crash echoed throughout the building as the chimneys bases were ripped away, and the middle of the three starting toppling over. Twilight blasted a hole in the roof and flew out as fast as she could as it fell onto the factory.

She shielded herself from the clouds of dust and flew to where she left the others. They both stared at her, wide eyed as she landed. "Holy shit Twilight!" the filly squealed, "Why don't you do that on the battlefield? That was awesome!"

"That's exactly why I-" The remaining two chimneys lost the battle against gravity and crashed to the ground, a cloud of dust rolling over them, which Twilight shielded them from. "That's exactly why I don't use these kinds of spells! I only meant to destroy their ability to make metal! Not do all this!"

"Even though it's a good thing?"

Twilight hesitated, "Well... yeah, this time. But if I were to try that in battle I could end up killing just as many of ours! Now shut up, I'm going to teleport us back to Puddingarde." She concentrated, feeling the thread that the beacon made for her to follow, and with a flash they vanished, leaving the smoking, dust filled ruins of the factory as the only indication they had been there.

Luna traversed the last of the stairs onto the roof of the facility in Whiplash, taking a moment to catch her breath, more out of habit than actual necessity. "Curse this damnable lack of wings," she moaned to Trixie, the pony she was looking for, who was lounging in a chair she had found inside, enjoying the morning sunshine.

"Why didn't you teleport up?"

"Because I'm supposed to be incognito, and incognito ponies aren't allowed to teleport."

"Uh-huh, sure."

"I see you mastered pretending I'm not royalty pretty quick."

"It helps you to go incognito."

"I-" Luna started to say something, but stopped as she had no basis on which to launch her argument. "I can see you were put on this world to test ponies," she muttered to herself instead.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"I was wondering if Twilight had said something to you about why she might be gone as long as she has been. I'm beginning to get worried."

"And you can't fly down there to find out because you're incognito?" Trixie shivered as the temperature dropped around her, and she sat up to see the icy glare Luna was giving her. Feeling that maybe she was pushing her luck a bit too much, she added a "your highness," to the end.

"Sadly not, although I could send a pegasi if one of them were to come down here."

"You can hardly blame them for not wanting to come back inside this place."

"I suppose not." They sat in a semi awkward silence for a minute, watching the horizon.

"I'm curious, your highness. Aren't your wings just invisible like Twilight's?"

"No, I am fully transformed into a unicorn as I would have to disguise far more than just my wings to pass as a normal pony."

Trixie grinned, "You mean the sexy space mane?"

"And tail, yes." Luna opted to remain in ignorance of what Trixie meant by sexy.

"I see... Can I ask how-"

"No you cannot ask how I get my mane and tail to do that." Mostly because Luna wasn't a hundred percent sure of why it happens herself.

"Aww..."

"Good morning your highness, Trixie," Octavia said in greeting as she and Summer made their way up to the roof.

"And a fine morning to yourselves," Luna said back while Trixie waved a hoof at them. "I didn't see you at breakfast this morning."

"Actually, that's why I'm here. I was talking to some of the soldiers, and it turns out that most of them are new recruits. I'm not a militarily minded pony, but it struck me as odd that they would have mostly new recruits here, and I wanted to know what you thought about it."

"New recruits? That might explain their poor execution in the battle to take this place. Hmm..."

"What are you thinking?" Trixie asked cheerfully, making a point of not adding an honorific that time.

"I'm thinking that I would only do such a thing if I wanted the enemy to capture this place, but I wanted to make it look like I didn't want to lose it." Luna shook her head, "But that wouldn't make sense unless I had a reason to do so, or some kind of advantage to gain."

Trixie sat up, taking things a little more seriously, "Should we be worried?"

Luna squinted into the distance, having spotted a small blue dot that was rapidly resolving into a blue pegasi with a white mane. "Perhaps."

Author's Notes:

Kind of wishing I had hinted a little more at Mareitania's burgeoning steam technology beyond the Viscount's riverboat, and mentioned the conveniently appearing construction work back in the first couple of chapters, but such is the problem with not fully planning everything out. Lessons might be learnt from that.

In other news, don't expect a chapter in the next week as I haven't even got halfway through writing the next chapter, and work commitments will be keeping me busy for a while. I'll might get some writing done, but I definitely won't be posting anything, so don't hold your breath.