"When's the last time you slept Twilight?" Trixie asked as Twilight pushed herself with healing the more severe injuries, having started the moment she had arrived back in Whiplash. "You're going to burn yourself out."

"I'm an alicorn Trixie, I'll manage."

"What?" Trixie snickered, "No inappropriate joke about how you can't physically work yourself to death? You disappoint me Twilight."

Twilight stopped feeding her magic into the device, checking the wound of the mare she'd been working on, a nasty looking stab wound that had miraculously managed to miss anything vital. Satisfied that it was healed enough for now, she moved onto the last pony she had to visit for now, Spitfire.

"What time is it?" Spitfire mumbled blearily as Twilight shook her awake.

"A couple of hours after midnight," Twilight whispered back. "I just wanted to tell you I'm going to heal your leg up as much as I can. You can go back to sleep if you want." Spitfire nodded sleepily and wasted no time in drifting off again.

A grey figure appeared out of the gloom of the facility, making their way towards them. "Morning Octavia," Trixie said cheerfully.

"I wish you could say good night to me instead. I'm exhausted. Guess who was lucky enough to have to watch the wounded tonight." Octavia gracelessly lay down and rested her chin on her crossed over forelegs. "I don't know how you keep going Twilight."

"Practice mostly. Biology seems to cover the rest."

"I don't think so," said Trixie. "I think you're too scared to stop in case something happens while you're sleeping. You had to heal all these ponies tonight because if one of them somehow died of their wounds while you were sleeping you'd never forgive yourself."

"That's not an unreasonable thing to think," argued Octavia. "If you could save the life of a pony at the cost of a couple hours of sleep, I'm sure you'd keep going as well. Besides, when's the last time you slept?"

"I don't know... what month is it now?"

"You honestly can't remember the last time you slept?"

"Of course I do. It was a couple of nights ago at Woodberry."

"That was almost a week ago Trixie!"

"It was?" Trixie thought about it for a moment. It did seem to have been a while... "Huh... oh well, not needing sleep only hints towards a greater and more powerful Trixie."

Octavia snorted, "Or that your dark magic is messing with you in the worst kind of ways."

"How does my magic equate to not sleeping?"

"Because evil never sleeps?" Octavia let those words hang in the air for a few embarrassing seconds.

"You think I'm evil?" It wasn't hard to hear the hurt in Trixie's voice.

"No, but you heard what Mama said about dark magic having a will of its own, and how it is generally considered to be a bad thing. Who knows what it's doing to you."

"That doesn't make me evil though."

Octavia bit her lip. This'd be a lot easier if Trixie had gotten angry with her instead as it would only add weight to her argument. "I'm sorry Trixie, I'm just stating the facts as I know them." Octavia stood and made to leave, whispering "Sorry," as she went.

Trixie wasn't sure what to think. Normally she would just brush something like that off, but the way Octavia brought it up bothered her. "She is wrong, isn't she? Trixie isn't evil... right?"

Twilight sighed slowly, "No Trixie, you're not evil. Octavia's just concerned about you using dark magic, like we all are."

"Well you shouldn't be, Trixie's fine."

Twilight almost rolled her eyes and laughed, but managed to rein herself back, faking a yawn instead. "If you weren't worried Trixie, you wouldn't have made me promise to stop you if you went too far."

"Yes... but..." Trixie looked down at the floor. Yes she worried, but that didn't mean she was evil, did it? Driven, yes. Angry? Most definitely. But evil? Been there, done that, ripped up the tee-shirt as a bad reminder. "Trixie hasn't been laughing maniacally without noticing has she?"

Twilight quickly held back a laugh, "Not as I've noticed, no. I'm really not sure you can gauge how evil somepony is by how maniacally they laugh." Twilight couldn't help but think back to the foes she had faced over the years. The least she could say was that Tirek didn't laugh all that much. The rest though, bunch of giggling loonies the lot of them, including Sunset after her demonic transformation. "Now you mention it though..."

"Maybe I should go and ask somepony that knows more about this than you."

"But I've faced loads of evil beings in the last two years alone!"

"I'm not sure that makes you an expert, but that's not why I'm not asking you. You might have fought evil, but you've never been evil. Trixie wants to ask somepony who knows more about being evil than either of us."

"Oh... Okay." Twilight frowned, slightly disheartened at not bring able to help Trixie through this. She looked up, about to ask who Trixie was going to ask, only to find that she was on her own.

"Who is she going t' ask about that 'round here?" Spitfire mumbled sleepily. "'s not like we're collecting villains around here, is it."

Trixie homed in on the pillar of silvery light shining out of the hatch of one of the tanks they had captured, all parked up in a row outside the facility after Honeydew had demonstrated how to get them working.

"Luna? Are you in there?"

The glow shifted, then rose out of the hatch, affixed as it was to the end of Luna's horn. "You wish to speak with me Trixie?"

"Uh, yeah... but I'm also kind of wondering what it is you're doing out here at this time."

"Can you blame me for being a bit of a night owl?" Luna chuckled, "It is rather my thing."

"And your obsession with the tanks? How do you know so much about this stuff anyway? Seems a bit odd for a pony that's been on the moon for a thousand years."

"And you'd be forgiven for thinking that." Luna teleported herself out of the tank, reappearing in front of Trixie. "I was always a scientifically minded pony Trixie. Seeing how much had changed when I returned was shocking, true, but I challenged myself to learn as much about it as possible. Now I probably know more about it than the majority of ponies. You have to keep up with technology Trixie, otherwise you'll be left behind."

"I suppose... yes..." Trixie nervously ran her right forehoof up her left foreleg, hoping that Luna didn't take what she was about to ask the wrong way. "You were Nightmare Moon once, right?"

"I seem to remember being so, yes."

"And you were evil, and know what it's like to be evil."

"Yeeesss..." Luna squinted at Trixie with curiosity, "Is there a point to this Miss Lulamoon?"

"How would... how would I know if I was evil?"

"Have you started laughing maniacally yet?"

"I'm being serious!"

"As am I! No evil doer can go without an honest evil laugh. You wore the Alicorn amulet Trixie, surely you must've observed your behaviour while you wore it."

"The amulet drove me insane! Yes there might have been quite a bit of evil laughter, but there was also quite a lot of other stuff too. I trapped Ponyville in a giant fishbowl for Celestia's sake!"

Luna's expression went flat, but there was a hint of amusement if you looked close enough, "Don't involve my sister in this."

"I- Sorry. I guess hearing things like that must be weird for you."

"I am particularly fond of 'Luna damn it.'" Luna sat beside Trixie and smiled to herself, "Like I'm expected to personally take issue with whatever vexes ponies, whereas more than likely I couldn't care less."

Trixie hesitated, but decided to not follow that route, and get back to her original point. "What I was going to say was that the amulet thing was hardly an example of properly going evil as all I originally wanted to do was get back at Twilight for besting me. The amulet stole my sanity and did the rest."

"And all I wanted to do was prove myself as an equal to Celestia. It's almost amusing how that spiralled wildly out of control. Attempted murder of my sister, which is also attempted regicide I suppose, but that would've been rather overshadowed by the omnicide I was about to commit by freezing the sun and moon in place."

"But you must've realised when you had gone evil? Surely?"

Luna shook her head slowly, "Only in hindsight Trixie, after the Elements of Harmony purified me. Up until that point I thought I was right to do all I did, or I at least didn't care." Luna appeared thoughtful for a moment before turning away from Trixie and sighing. "Sometimes I do wonder what I might've done if I had won. Would I have let the world fall to ruin, choosing to rule over a freezing wasteland, or would I have tried to undo what I did, having proved myself the superior princess. Sometimes I wish I could have an answer for that."

"Why would you want to know that?"

"To see how far I had fallen. I'm stuck with the stigma of Nightmare Moon now, in so many ways, and I accept that, but I don't think ponies really realise what I was. Nightmare Moon has almost become a joke now, and I admit that it annoys me to some degree. Ponies now have no idea what destruction I could have wrought on this world if I hadn't been stopped. Or is it that I overestimate just how bad Nightmare Moon was? Would I have damned the world just to spite Celestia? Or would have I have ruled it as she did, my point having been made?"

Trixie nodded slowly, not really sure where Luna was going. "Okay... how about this. Something's attacking Equestria, and you could stop it, but only if you had to become Nightmare Moon to stop it. Would you?"

"With some reluctance most likely, but yes. You misunderstand Trixie, Nightmare Moon was an ideal, even if that ideal was that Celestia was a stinky poop head and that I should rule Equestria alone. The strength, the dark coat, the fangs? That was just dark magic, much like yourself."

"Oh."

"The question is, once I vanquished the foe, would I stop there? Or would I try to do what I originally set out to achieve with that power. As for your scenario though, that's just a question of the ends justifying the means."

"So wait, you became stronger by using dark magic. Does that mean dark magic is stronger than alicorn magic."

"Not really." Luna missed seeing Trixie slump as she said that. "I was more using a fusion of my magic, dark magic, as well as drawing power from the moon as I made it night. Even then, all it did was give me an edge over my sister. If I had attacked during the day that edge would have vanished." Luna watched Trixie with curiosity, "Is any of this helping?"

Trixie shrugged and shook her head, "I don't know. I know you mention the ends justifying the means, but do they?"

"You use this power to be a better fighter. Why?"

"Because I'm not powerful enough without it."

"Why fight though? It's been mentioned that you want nothing more than to have the Duke dead at your hooves. Other than that you have little vested interest."

"He killed my family! He deserves to die for that! Him and his entire damned family that have ruined this country for centuries!"

"So this is revenge," Luna said coolly, not wanting to rise to Trixie's anger.

"It's- It's- It's justice!" Trixie stopped as Luna smiled coyly, "What?"

"Two sides of the same coin there I think. I don't disagree that the Duke deserves to die, but is that truly justice? Or are you just calling it that to make yourself feel better?"

"Don't you dare judge me! I've been through too much to get here, and..." Trixie trailed off in silence as Luna didn't even twitch a muscle towards her anger. "Screw this! I don't even know why I came to ask you!" She started to walk off, hooves stomping on the cracked earth, but stopped when Luna quietly said her name.

"Trixie, I know you're looking for an answer, but there isn't a clear cut one. One pony might see you as a monster for using dark magic, but another might see you as a hero even as you use that same magic to fight their enemy. My question for you Trixie, is what do you plan to do after you have justice for your family? Can you stop? And even then, would you?"

Luna turned her gaze upwards towards the moon, basking in its silvery light as Trixie continued off into the darkness. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself as she thought of Trixie's moral predicament. It would be interesting to see how far Trixie would go to achieve her goal. Perhaps with a little persuasion she could be convinced to turn her anger on Twilight, and eventually Celestia...

Luna gasped and clasped her head in her hooves until she had calmed enough to risk opening her eyes. To her immense relief she was still alone, sat by the tanks under the glow of her beloved moon. "By the stars... why do you sneak up on me like that?" She rubbed her head, a sharp headache forming behind her eyes. It was things like this that were really making her question whether what she thought about Nightmare Moon was true. "I really ought to return to Puddingarde, and soon."

Twilight muttered something incomprehensible, cursing the hoof that was incessantly poking her in the chest. Didn't they know that hurt? Couldn't they also see she was trying to sleep?

"What?" she croaked.

"It's time to wake up Twilight. It's almost mid-day." Twilight's eyes reluctantly fluttered open to find the calm, grey visage of Octavia before her. "I would've let you sleep longer, but Luna wishes to depart to Puddingarde, and Trixie seems to have vanished."

"Vanished?"

"Luna said she went off into the woods last night, and hasn't been back since." Octavia frowned, her eyes wandering away from Twilight, "It's what I said to her, isn't it? I didn't mean it like she was evil herself. Only her magic is."

Twilight reached up to rub her eyes until the blurriness faded from them. "I dare say you could've been a bit more tactful Octavia. You shouldn't be surprised that she's a little touchy about that subject. For a pony like Trixie, the line between herself and her magic is fairly blurred. If you say her magic is evil, she's evil."

"I see." Octavia sighed, "I need to apologise to her."

"Let's not worry about Trixie right now. She's a tough pony that can take care of herself for a little bit. We can go look for her later."

"If you say so." Octavia sat back and waited as Twilight went through the usual morning routine of washing her face and brushing her mane and tail. Dental hygiene was catered for through magic, as there wasn't exactly a reliable source of toothpaste in Mareitania.

"What was it you said Luna wanted?"

"She wants to go back to Puddingarde. I don't know why, but she seemed kind of... edgy, I suppose."

"Hmm..." Twilight wasn't sure what edgy meant, but it could hardly be good. "I was planning on having her go back there anyway, so that's no problem. I do need to talk with her first though. How about you Octavia? How are you doing?"

"I'm... fine, I suppose. I've actually been spending quite a bit of time talking to the prisoners lately. They're quite angry over what happened here."

"They knew we would have to come eventually."

"No, I mean they're angry at being used as fodder in the trap with the tanks. I think I told you many of them were new recruits?"

"I don't think so, but I'll take your word for it."

"They joined up to fight for Duke and country, only to end up being thrown away as disposable. Even more were killed when the bombardment hit the facility, and I really think some of them want to join us instead."

Twilight wished she could say yes, as many of them could have genuinely wanted to fight the Duke, but considering recent events she couldn't bring herself to trust that all of them were honest. "I don't know. After what happened with Seeker, I'm not sure I should really trust ponies like that."

"What happened with Seeker?"

"It's... complicated. I'll explain it all once we find Luna."

"I don't understand," said Octavia. "How could she possibly have brought herself to go back to High Rock after what was done to her there."

"Maybe she thought that by doing so we would divert any suspicion away from her," said Luna. "It would've appeared to have worked to some degree."

"But her cover would've been totally blown if Pearl had seen her there and recognised her."

Luna shrugged, "Perhaps she hoped that you would have killed Pearl in that situation. By her reasoning that would have truly set her free. My biggest concern is who this other spy is, and how much they may have given away. I hate to imagine what might happen if they got a hold of how I produce explosives."

"Another reason why your request to head back to Puddingarde is totally approved since I was going to ask you to go there anyway." Twilight cast a spell to soundproof the room they were in as an extra precaution. "I need you to help Fleur catch the spy. I'm not about to have her risk herself when she has nothing to defend herself with. The spy may be one of our non-combat ponies, but that doesn't mean she isn't dangerous."

"I shall make sure that the only pony that comes to harm is our spy, whoever it is. What of Seeker though? She claims to know who the spy is. Surely we could get it out of her?"

"I don't think she's capable of doing that. It was hard enough for her to tell us that the spy wasn't a fighter. She doesn't need to be placed under further duress."

"Very well. If we have not located the spy before this Pearl has met her end, perhaps she might be more forthcoming with news of her death."

"Probably, but that could be weeks from now. We can't really let this spy keep working during all that."

"Of course not," Luna agreed, "that'd be foolish. Unless of course we can feed them false information. Say that we're going to strike High Rock instead of Prance so reinforcements are diverted away from our actual target."

"If you want to do that, go ahead, but I'm choosing to continue like we're going after Prance. Which we are."

"Leave it to me Twilight." Luna stood and made towards the door, only to stop and grin sheepishly at Twilight. "I don't suppose you made a beacon to teleport me there with?"

"Sorry Luna."

"So I have to walk there? Marvellous."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Luna's complaint. She spread her wings and ruffled her feathers, "Nopony will see you."

"No, I suppose not. Very well, I shall be back in Puddingarde before the day is out."

"Wait a moment. I was hoping to get your opinion on Honeydew."

Luna sank back into her spot by the table, "Ah yes, her..."

"You have a problem with her?"

"Not really. At least not beyond the mare being a total wet blanket. Don't get me wrong, she's brilliant in her field, but outside of it? Not so much."

"But do you think she really wants to help us?"

"No, I don't. I don't think she wants to help the Duke either. What I do think is that she wants to go home and be left alone, when frankly that isn't an option. Maybe once the war is over, but even then she'd be of more use, not less."

"Would she be of more use to us down in Puddingarde?" Octavia asked. "Maybe she could help you with your bombs."

Twilight and Luna shared a look. "Probably not the best idea for now," said Twilight. "I think the best we can do is keep her here, away from the other prisoners. Maybe try and keep her fairly comfortable as well so she hopefully remains cooperative. Could you see to that Octavia?"

"Wouldn't that be rather unfair to the other prisoners?"

"Yes, but that's the way it is. Besides, it's not like we're treating them poorly, is it?"

"No, I suppose not. Very well, I shall do my best to make her happy."

"Might I make a suggestion?" said Luna. "I think part of Honeydew's problem is that she despises what she's been forced to create, leading her to hate herself. I imagine that given the chance to create, or at least design things that would be beneficial to ponykind, her attitude may improve. If you could find her a desk and some drawing implements I think she'd appreciate it more than any extra comforts you could give her."

Octavia looked to Twilight for confirmation, and the alicorn nodded at her, "If you don't mind."

"Very well, but I may need some marcs to make purchases in town. Assuming anything is open that is." Twilight teleported her saddlebags onto the table and pulled out a pouch of coins, passing them to Octavia, "Thank you."

"If that is all," Luna cut in, "may I be on my way? It's going to be a long flight to Puddingarde, and I wish to get going."

"Alright," said Twilight. "I'll walk you out. See you later Octavia." Octavia waved at them and left, giving Twilight peace to scrutinise Luna as they made their way out of the building and towards the road back south. She kept her mouth shut until they were far enough from the ponies there to ask what was on her mind. "Are you alright Luna? You seem rather keen to leave."

"I'm... fine."

"You could try to sound like you believe that." Luna turned her head to Twilight to give her a obviously fake smile. "That's not what I meant. Come on Luna, you can talk to me. What's wrong?"

"You should worry more about Trixie than myself."

"If I worried about Trixie all the time I'd never get anything done. Right now I'm worried about you more."

Luna turned away and her head dropped slightly, shifting her mane to obscure her face from Twilight. "You are a persistent one Twilight. Trixie came to talk to me last night, asking for my opinion on whether she was evil, and how she could tell. Rather silly really. After she left I was thinking about her, about her worries, when I found myself thinking on how I could maybe turn her against you, and eventually my sister..."

"What? Why would you think that?" Twilight asked, shocked that Luna would do such a thing. "Wait, is this a Nightmare Moon thing? I thought you said that could only happen in the dreamscape?"

"I know, but here I am surrounded by the broken dreamscape that she loves so very much. It'd be just typical for that harlot to sneak into my thoughts here when I least expect it." Luna sighed, and bared her teeth slightly, "But I should've been expecting it."

"Is this why you want to return to Puddingarde so quickly." Luna nodded limply, "I see." Twilight sighed and kicked her hoof at the dirt, "Is this going to be a problem Luna? I already have enough on my plate without the threat of Nightmare Moon returning."

"She will not be returning Twilight, you know that. But while I am forced to contend with the local dreamscape she will keep attempting to pollute my thoughts. Things are better in Puddingarde, so there I shall return. It's unlikely I'll leave there again until you are ready to attack Prance."

"As long as you're sure. If it does start to become too much for you I will have to insist that you return to Equestria." She stopped and looked around, finding nopony else nearby, "I think it's safe for you to transform now."

Twilight stood back and shielded her eyes with a wing as pale blue magic shone from Luna's horn, coiling down around first her horn, then her body until she was obscured by the light of her magic. The glow increased in size, then faded to reveal Luna's true alicorn nature. She spread her wings and stretched her entire body out, smiling as her mane started to flow. "Ah, it is good to be me again, even if only briefly."

"You do look so different as a unicorn."

"Anything else you wish to say before I depart?"

Twilight counted it off in her mind. Help Fleur find the spy, make the explosives to bring down a section of the wall around Prance, and don't go crazy and become Nightmare Moon. "No, I think we covered it all. I'll let you know of any developments."

"As you wish. Farewell to thee Twilight Sparkle."

"And farewell to you too Luna." Twilight watched as Luna flew up and away, waiting until she was just a dot in the distance before shaking her head ruefully and returning to the facility. "Right, so Luna is going to help Fleur root out the spy. Octavia is taking care of Honeydew for now, not that I have an immediate use for her since the tanks are useless to me in Prance. Spitfire's leg is mostly healed, along with the more seriously wounded, leaving that big weather thingy around Prance..." Her face screwed up as she thought. She swore there was something she'd forgotten.

The thing she had forgotten was quickly remembered though, as the thing she had forgotten was leaning in the entrance to the facility, both reminding Twilight of what she had forgot, while also rendering the importance of remembering what it was absolutely moot.

"About time you got here," Trixie said angrily before Twilight could say so much as a hello.

"I was only gone for a few minutes!"

Trixie snorted and pushed herself upright, "Sure, whatever. We have a problem."

"A problem? What kind of problem?"

Trixie hesitated, "Okaaayyy... maybe not an actual problem, but it is something I think you should see. You feeling up for a little flight?"

Twilight almost stammered as that caught her off guard, "You? You're asking to go flying?" Twilight squinted at Trixie, "I wasn't aware there was a changeling hive in Mareitania. Where's Trixie, and what have you done with her?"

"Knock it off Twilight. We both know there's barely enough love in this country to feed a single changeling, let alone a entire hive. Besides, if ponies here get wigged out over pegasi, well... I think a changeling would blow their backwards little minds."

"Both logical arguments." Trixie took a little bow. "I will have to remind you that we didn't bring the cart we usually do this with, so unless you're comfortable being shrunk I'll have to carry you."

"I knew there'd be a catch," Trixie groaned. "Fine, our stop isn't far out of town so I'll manage."

"Excellent choice." Twilight grabbed Trixie in her magic and took to the air, dragging Trixie along behind her. "I'm impressed Trixie," Twilight said at the lack of noise from Trixie, "you didn't scream or anything." Twilight didn't hear a reply. "Trixie?" She looked back to find Trixie's eyes squeezed shut as she held her hooves before her in prayer, her lips forming words that Twilight couldn't hear. "Nevermind..."

Twilight turned her attention downward, seeing ponies picking over the blasted ruins of the catapults she had bombed. She didn't remember telling anypony to do that, and she wasn't exactly sure what they were hoping to find. Then her stomach did a flip as she saw the row of bodies that had been picked up from the wreckage, some of them barely recognisable as ponies. She quickly decided to move on.

"Where are we going Trixie?"

"A couple of miles along the road to Prance. It begins where the forest ends."

"It begins? What begins?"

"You'll see."

Twilight growled to herself and put on a burst of speed, not feeling guilty in the slightest at the yelp she got from Trixie as she did. The woods raced past beneath her, and it didn't take her long to reach the point that Trixie indicated. "What am I looking for Trixie?"

"Can't you see them? Along the sides of the road?"

"See what? I can't see anything. Wait..." Now she was really looking she could see something. Spaced roughly seven or eight meters apart on each side of the road were colourful blobs. It looked like somepony had decided to line the road with candy. "What are those things?"

"How about you land and find out!" Trixie half shouted, half growled back in a way that clearly said that Trixie thought Twilight was an idiot while also saying 'I don't want to be up here any more.'

Twilight complied before Trixie did anything to expedite their descent. She placed Trixie the ground and had just placed her rear hooves on the ground when she saw what the things Trixie pointed out were, and she jumped back into the air with a cry. Spaced out along the sides of the road, placed point up, were the severed horns of unicorns. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

"Oh my Celestia," Twilight whispered barely loud enough to hear. She landed again and walked to the nearest horn, a pale blue one, not dissimilar to what Trixie's used to look like. She reached out to poke it with a hoof, but recoiled with a shiver as she saw the crust of blood around the bottom.

"Nasty isn't it," said Trixie as she pointedly watched the horizon. "They even poked little sticks inside them so they could stick them in the ground to keep them upright."

"Why would you show me this Trixie? This is horrible!"

"It could be worse," Trixie said with mock cheerfulness.

"Worse? How could this possibly be worse?"

"They could be the severed heads of unicorns, instead of just the horns. At least the horns will grow back." Twilight's mouth opened, but all she got out was a squeak before she dashed to the side of the road to throw up. "Oh come on! The things you've seen and this is what makes you throw up?" Trixie continued to watch the horizon as Twilight emptied her stomach, doing her best to ignore the retching sounds before they made her feel like doing something similar.

Twilight heaved a couple of times, but nothing more came so she wiped her mouth and reluctantly returned to where Trixie was now watching her without a trace of pity. "This is different. This is intentional cruelty, and an attack on unicorns done for the simple reason to mess with us."

"Mess with us?"

"Seeker said that the unicorns around Prance were being forcibly dehorned. We surmised that they wanted to prevent us using them as adepts. I guess she wasn't lying about that," she added to herself.

"That actually sounds like a sensible strategy." Trixie backed up as Twilight flared her wings in shock at Trixie saying that, "I didn't say it was a nice strategy! And I don't see how that was done to mess with us!"

"The dehorning wasn't, but lining them up like this was. They may as well have a sign saying 'look what happened, look what you made us do. We hope you're happy now.' Psychological warfare at its most gruesome." Twilight raised a hoof over her eyes to look down the road, "How far does this go?"

"I only went a couple of miles past here, and I could still see them going along the road. Surely this must've been done before the tanks arrived?"

"I'd guess so. And if I were to hazard a guess, I bet I know who did it."

"Who?"

"Pearl."

"Pearl? The bitch that mutilated Fleur? Why do you think it was her?"

"She cut off Fleur's horn. Now she's cut off a few thousand more. It'd be just typical for her to do something like this to rub it in our faces."

A small smirk tugged at the corner of Trixie's mouth, "Should I be worried that you can understand the mind of a psychopath like her?"

"Not now Trixie." Twilight looked upon the two rows of horns as they stretched off into the distance, her own horn aching with sympathy. "We should probably clean these up."

Trixie snirked, "And do what with them exactly? Build a mighty throne of horns? I bet the Duke would love it."

Twilight couldn't believe Trixie could be so flippant about this. "This isn't funny Trixie!" she shouted, stamping her hoof for emphasis.

"I know it isn't!" Trixie shouted back. "You think what you see here is bad? You can't see any of the horns here that are half the size of the others. They cut the horns off young fillies and colts Twilight! Children!" Trixie panted as she stared down Twilight, "Excuse me for dealing with this in a way that doesn't involve me throwing my guts up in a ditch!"

Twilight bit her tongue, feeling slightly guilty, but not very. "You are so infuriating sometimes, you know that?" she said after a moment.

"And you're a sanctimonious bore. I can see this is bad Twilight, but don't expect me not to make inappropriate jokes about the most libidinous road I've ever seen."

"Libidinous?"

Trixie grinned suddenly, "Y'know, because it's so horny."

Twilight steadied herself and breathed in a calming breath, releasing it slowly. Then she repeated it, again, and again, and again in the hopes that it might work. "Why do I get the feeling that half the reason you brought me out here was to make that joke!"

"Actually I thought of that just now, thank you very much."

"Where did you get a word like libidinous from anyway?"

"You're telling me that you lived in a library, but never read an erotic novel? For shame Twilight." Twilight's ears slowly folded back as a small blush coloured on her cheeks. "Ooh, maybe she has..."

"Fifty shades of hay," Twilight confessed. "Rarity recommended it to me, but I never finished it. I couldn't help but think the relationship was actually little more than systematic abuse on a mare that didn't know better." Twilight straightened up again, "Maybe I should ask you whether you've read these kinds of things?"

Trixie flicked her tail side to side, and smiled in her best approximation of seductive, "I've lived alone in a caravan for years Twilight, of course I have." She walked up to Twilight, her smile not moving. "By the way Twilight," she purred, enjoying the look of terror in Twilight's eyes, "we should probably clean up all these severed horns. Ponies might get the wrong ideas."

Twilight jerked and her eyes went wide as what they were doing came back to her, "Yes! That! We should do that!"

"I was thinking that maybe we should burn them," Trixie continued, her seductiveness having vanished in the blink of an eye. She plucked a horn off the ground and with a flash of dark magic she reduced it to cinders.

"That's a good idea, yes." Twilight picked a horn up herself and incinerated it with rather more power than she needed. She wanted to say these crazy ponies were going to be the death of her, but she knew she couldn't escape that easily.

"See, things aren't so bad when you use a little humour," Trixie said as she watched Twilight out of the corner of her eye, unaware of what Twilight was thinking.

"And maybe you are evil Trixie."

"That's the spirit."

They covered several miles, collecting hundreds of horns and incinerating them, scattering their ashes to the wind. But no matter how far they went there always seemed to be miles more to cover.

"We can always come back and do more later," Trixie whined. She had been falling behind Twilight for a while, her hooves dragging through the dust. "I mean, what if we're spotted out here?"

"I can teleport us to safety easy enough," said Twilight, "but you're right, we can't do all this. I doubt this goes all the way to Prance though, so it's unlikely we'll be spotted."

"And why don't you think this goes to Prance?"

Twilight quickly did some rough maths in her head, "To line both sides of the forty-seven mile road to Prance, evenly spaced out like they are, would take roughly twenty thousand horns. I doubt there's even near that many unicorns in northern Mareitania, maybe ten thousand at best."

"I guess..." Trixie shrugged, "At least I had one thing answered for me."

"What?"

"Evil or not, at least I'm nowhere near the most evil thing is this country." Trixie turned and started trotting down the road back towards Brayside as she remembered to think of it as. "Come on Twilight, let's get out of... here..." Both of them stopped as a rumble of thunder rolled over them, "What the hay was that?"

"I don't know," said Twilight, "but it came from the direction of Prance. It might have something to do with that weather anomaly there." Twilight looked towards Prance, then back the other way towards Brayside, "Y'know, we're almost a quarter of the way to Prance."

"So?"

"So, it wouldn't take long to fly to Prance to investigate that thing."

"Ooohhh-no," Trixie said as she backed away. "No way are you carrying me in your magic all the way out there. Nope, you can pick me up on the way back."

"Aww come on Trixie, you can ride on my back. It'll be fine."

"No," Trixie reiterated, shaking her head. "I'm not flying that far. With the cart would be bad enough, but without it, no way. Besides, can you even fly when you're carrying a pony on your back?"

"Sure! I mean, Spike's ridden on my back when I'm flying, and he's not much lighter than a pony."

"He's also a biped, with claws for holding on!"

"So?"

"So? So it isn't happening! That's what!"

"Fine..." A devilish grin crossed Twilight's face, "I guess I'll see you at Brayside when you get back."

"When I get back? Don't you mean when you get back?"

"No actually. We walked for three hours to get this far, not including all the flying we did to get this far, so you'll have something like a four, four and a half hour walk ahead of you. Me though, I can fly to Prance and back in a few hours so I'll probably be back well before you. Oh well, that's too bad. See you later." Twilight took off and started lazily flying towards Prance. As she predicted, she didn't get far.

"Wait!"

Twilight flew back and hovered just in front of Trixie, "Yes?"

"You promise you won't drop me?"

"Absolutely."

Trixie bit her lip, her front hooves shifting uneasily, like she was kneading a tiny loaf of bread. "Then... I guess I'll come with you. I mean, you might need me, right?"

"You know what? I might." Twilight dropped to the ground and crouched so Trixie could easily clamber onto her back, "Climb aboard."

"Ugh, please don't say it like that." Trixie climbed on to Twilight's back, straddling her around the waist and gripping Twilight around the neck. Trixie yelped as Twilight started to move, only to blush fiercely as she realised Twilight was only standing up. "Please be gentle, it's my first time doing this." Trixie grinned shakily as Twilight groaned.

"Ugh, Trixie... you just had to make this weird, didn't you." Twilight spread her wings and braced herself. She pushed off with her hooves and flapped her wings rapidly, thinking that it would take a lot more to take off with Trixie on her back. She was rather surprised when she found it wasn't much harder to fly with Trixie than without. Carrying Trixie wasn't all that different to wearing a bulky scarf.

"Okay, next stop, Prance," Twilight croaked. "Please stop squeezing my neck so hard."

"Sorry."

It wasn't hard to tell just what exactly was meant by an unusual weather anomaly. Surrounding the city of Prance was a massive ring of dark clouds, illuminated by frequent flashes of lightning, although none as severe as the one they heard miles away.

"Ho-ly shit." Trixie was probably less of an expert on weather than Twilight, but even she could tell that what she was looking at wasn't right. If it was enough to distract her from how high they were, it was definitely bad.

"We need somewhere to hide so we can watch what's happening here." Twilight searched about, eventually settling on a lone cloud that was drifting around some distance from the rest. "There. Perfect."

"Perfect for you perhaps, but I can't walk on clouds."

Twilight cast a spell, her horn flashing for a second, leaving Trixie's hooves tingling. "There, now you can."

"Huh?" Twilight flew up to the cloud and touched down on it. Trixie gingerly slid off Twilight's back, keeping hold as she pressed the tip of her back left hoof onto the cloud, finding that it gave resistance back. "That's weird." She pressed her other rear hoof down and reluctantly let go of Twilight's neck, ignoring the lopsided grin the alicorn was giving her. "I'm standing on a cloud. How? How is Trixie doing that?"

"Cloud walking spells have been around for centuries Trixie. Surely you knew that?"

"Knowing they exist is a lot different than using them to stand on a bit of condensed moisture a thousand foot in the air!" Trixie's knees trembled, giving away how much that little factoid was bothering her. "Hoo boy..."

"Probably nearer two thousand."

"Not helping!"

"Psst!"

"What?" Trixie looked sideways at Twilight, "Why are you psst'ing me? Trixie's right next to you."

"It wasn't me that said that. I think it was the... cloud?" Twilight wasn't sure she really believed what she had just said. She stepped back in a hurry as a circular section of the cloud swung open, revealing the white windswept mane of Fleetfoot.

"Get in, quickly, before you're spotted," Fleetfoot whispered harshly at them before she ducked back in to make way for them to enter. Trixie hesitated, unsure of how to do so, and ended up sliding in on her belly over the edge with all the grace of a walrus, only to catch her rear hooves on the lip and flip herself over so she landed on her back.

"Oww... Trixie isn't sure she likes clouds being this solid," she groaned as Twilight entered backwards, spreading her wings to hover as she pulled the hatch shut after her.

Twilight touched down inside the hollow cloud, looking around with interest. "What are you doing here Fleetfoot? And isn't this a bit much to spy on Prance?"

"There was nothing for me to do after Whiplash, so I thought I'd come and catch up on what I missed. And yeah, this is necessary. If I was only watching ponies on the ground it would be overkill, but I don't want any of their pegasi spotting me."

"Pegasi? What pegasi?"

"The pegasi maintaining that cloud formation. Just because they're slaves doesn't mean they won't report any unknown pegasi up here." Fleetfoot crouched down by a little viewport out of the cloud through which she could watch the city. "I think they have bigger problems now though."

Twilight crouched down next to Fleetfoot to see for herself what Fleetfoot meant, while Trixie bounced up and down on the cloud floor, giggling to herself. "What do you mean?"

"That formation's turning bad. They haven't been clearing out the spent clouds while continuously trying to force new ones in. When I left this before heading to Whiplash it was starting to turn dark. Now it's producing intracloud lightning because all the new and old clouds are rubbing against each other and making static."

"Intracloud lightning?" Trixie asked, taking a short break from making the entire cloud bounce.

"Sheet lightning in laypony terms," Twilight said without taking her eyes off the clouds below.

"Oh. So, what does that matter?"

"Apart from being really dangerous for the pegasi to work on, not much," Fleetfoot said. "But if the formation becomes even more unstable the lighting will keep getting worse and begin grounding itself."

"Meaning? I'm not a weather pony! I don't know what you're saying!"

Twilight looked back at Trixie, "Fleetfoot means it'll start hitting the city."

"So? Hopefully it'll hit some soldiers. I also bet nopony's getting a lot of sleep with all that thunder going on."

"Trixie has a point," Fleetfoot agreed.

"So that can't have been their original intent," Twilight murmured just loud enough for them to hear. "What else has this formation been doing?" she asked louder.

"Just raining. Lots and lots of it, except for along the roads."

"That's it?" Trixie asked with confusion, "Rain?"

"Yeah, rain."

"But no flooding?"

"Prance is built on a hill. The water's just running straight off down hill. There might be some flooding further down, but nothing as I've noticed."

"Then why are they doing it? Explain that one to Trixie! You still haven't explained why you never mentioned the road lined by unicorn horns!"

"Unicorn horns? What? Who would do that?"

"You're the scout! You tell me! You mean to say you never noticed?"

Fleetfoot shook her head and shrugged, "I don't follow the roads so I'm harder to spot."

"Oh. In that case, fair enough."

"Hey!" Twilight shouted, hoping to get their attention. She lay there tapping her hoof until she was absolutely sure she had it. "That's not important now, is it."

Trixie sniffed and raised her nose into the air, "Then maybe you can explain what they're doing down there, hmm?"

"I was about to when you two started bickering." Twilight went back to looking out of the viewport, "It's been raining down there for weeks now, correct?"

"Two weeks at least ma'am."

"And the ground would be totally and utterly saturated with water, right?"

"I would believe so, yes."

"This isn't explaining," Trixie groaned. "This is asking questions you already know the answer to."

Twilight ignored her, "What would happen if you marched an army over that land?"

"It'd-" Fleetfoot's eyes bugged as she worked it out," Oh boy. It'd get totally bogged down. Except for along the roads where it hasn't rained so much. They're trying to force us to attack where they want us to!"

Twilight nodded, agreeing with the assessment. "We couldn't get any siege weapons close enough, if we even had any, and our ponies would be sitting ducks for theirs."

"So... what?" Trixie asked, "We just attack them at the gates? Is that really their best plan?"

"It's not a bad plan Trixie. The gates will be an awful bottleneck for us if that's what we do. I'm actually thinking of something else for now."

Trixie groaned and rolled her eyes, "Why do I get the feeling that this is going to involve more waiting."

"Only a couple of weeks, for you anyway. I'm thinking that since they've denied us access to recruiting adepts from the north, we're going to steal their pegasi instead."

Author's Notes:

Apologies for how long this took, but I don't seem to be getting any writing done. Every time I try there's always something that seems to get in the way, even when I'm not busy. I'm also trying to get back to writing a chapter ahead of where I'm posting which isn't helping. So far I'm only half a chapter ahead, sooo... yeaahhhh. Might be a while to the next chapter again. Or not. I literally can't even tell anymore.