Twilight backed off, dropping into a defensive stance as the dark form of Nightmare Moon watched her inquisitively, "N-Nightmare moon! Wha- How? How is this possible? You shouldn't be here! We defeated you!"

Nightmare sighed and stared deadpan at Twilight, "Clearly you aren't aware of how dreams work. I know you've had nightmares of your former foes, so how can you not fathom this as being similar?"

Twilight relaxed slightly, "Dream? This is a dream?"

Nightmare Moon stalked in past Twilight, no longer bothered with being polite, "Of course it is. Mostly. Think about where you are Princess. I do wonder why you keep coming back to this tacky little library though. You have an entire, albeit also rather tacky crystal castle, but here we are surrounded by so much firewood because you can't let it go."

"The library was my home!"

Nightmare ran a hoof along a shelf, checking it for dust, "So was Canterlot once, but you don't seem to dream about that. Hmm, spotless. Why am I not surprised..." she sang.

Twilight was increasingly losing track of what was happening, "How do you know all this?"

"I know it because Luna knows it. Or knew it. I suppose she still knows it, but now I do too." Nightmare paused, "It's... complicated."

"Wait! You mean Luna became Nightmare Moon again?" Twilight fell back into a fighting stance, her horn blazing with energy, "Release her at once you fiend!"

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "Fiend? Very nice. And here I thought I had established that this is a dream. You can no more hurt me than I can hurt you. As for Luna, she's fine. Right now she's likely apprehending the spy that's been making your little lives oh so troublesome." Nightmare chuckled to herself, "I'm not sure how you would expect me to release her when we were the same pony. Luna was Nightmare Moon. No releasing possible. Until now I suppose, except I don't have her because we aren't the same pony any more"

"I- What? I don't understand..."

"Very well, I'll try to explain it to you." Nightmare's horn glowed, and a black throne shimmered into existence, which she threw herself into, kicking her back legs out over the side. "There are two things in this dream which are real. Your 'good' self, and me."

"But you said Luna was back in Puddingarde, and you aren't her, so how can you be real?"

Nightmare grinned, "Interesting, isn't it. Firstly, let me confirm that Luna and I are no longer the same pony. She used to be me, yes, or I used to be her... Whichever. The point is that I am no longer her. For which I have you to thank."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Believe me Twilight, you were the last pony I expected to be thanking for anything, but you are responsible for my being here." Nightmare raised a hoof and an image of the Elements of Harmony coalesced into existence around it. "The Elements of Harmony, these shiny little trinkets... although I suppose calling them shiny little tree decorations would be more accurate now. Anyway, the Elements of Harmony don't destroy. It's not in their nature. They didn't destroy me, that's for sure. Instead they locked me away into the recesses of Luna's mind. All her anger, wrath, jealousy, power, and other tasty little bits that made up Nightmare Moon, left to be forgotten forever. Even I wasn't aware I was there at the time."

"What has that to do with me?"

"Seeing as you're the one that found the Elements and got them to work, I'd say everything. But that's not my point. You remember that dream you were having just before Luna went, well, loony at you? When she took you to the dreamscape here?" Twilight nodded. "That's what I have to thank you for. You, the Element of Magic, feeling like you did, dousing both yourself and Luna in that much negative energy was more than enough to reawaken me thanks to your connection through... dream stuff. It filled in the gaps I was missing so to speak. I then tried to assert control as you saw, but it wasn't that simple."

"But Luna said you were always there! You never left her! Especially not in the dreamscape!"

"Very true, but now there's a fundamental difference in that I'm now my own mare, rather than Luna's unwanted shadow. Now stop interrupting, it's rude." Nightmare summoned a bottle of wine and poured herself a glass before offering one to Twilight, "No? Suit yourself. Now, where was I?"

"Gloating over your rebirth."

"Ah yes. I couldn't control her. Influence her a little, yes, but outright control her, no. So I waited. Funny thing is though was that I remember Luna and myself being one and the same. Why was I trying to control her when I was her? That's when I realised I was my own mare, separate to her, yet trapped in her mind. Although I did have access to her memories, and set out to learn what had happened since my defeat. It's good to see Luna is still as socially awkward as ever."

"You've been trying to influence her? You're the reason she's so edgy sometimes?"

Nightmare twirled a hoof, "Yeeesssss, but at the time I was consigning myself to an eternity of being trapped inside her mind, so I may have taken the opportunity to mess with her a bit. I could hardly just sit there and do nothing now, could I? I couldn't control her though, so that, I thought, was that."

Twilight sighed, "I sense a 'but' coming."

Nightmare grinned, which made Twilight cringe at how toothy it was. "Very perceptive of you. Dear Luna decided the best way to catch the spy was to enter Seeker's dreams, and ultimately ended up directly exposing herself to the dreamscape here. Such a boost of power was... intoxicating, and was more than enough to help me escape her mind into the dreamscape. And so, here I am."

"And what? You've come here to gloat? To tell me to you're going to bring about eternal night, and there's nothing I can do about it?"

Nightmare laughed. It was actually a rather pleasant laugh without the manic edge Twilight remembered, "Oh heavens no. Eternal night was Luna's thing, not mine. And frankly, between you, Celestia, Luna, and dear sweet Cadence, as well as that ridiculous 'Rainbow power,' I really don't stand a snowball's chance in hell, do I. No-no, as I said, I'm my own mare with my own life, thoughts, and desires. And what I desire Twilight, is to survive."

"Survive?"

Nightmare nodded, suddenly seeming a lot more serious. "It won't take long for Luna to work out what's happened, if she hasn't already, and she'll do everything in her power to destroy me. Believe me she does possess that power. Obviously I don't want that to happen."

"So you came to me?"

"I did. Luna trusts you, so if there's one pony here that can convince her to call off her hunt it's you. In exchange I'm willing to help you. Consider it my... uh... redemption! Yes, redemption. You do those don't you? I mean, you reformed Discord, so why not me? I don't want to harm anypony Twilight, I just want to live."

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, "I have the strangest dreams sometimes..."

Nightmare raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "This isn't all a dream Twilight, I'm being serious. I will get on my knees and beg if that's what you require of me. Just, please... help me."

Twilight considered it for a moment. As amusing as it might be to see Nightmare Moon begging, it probably wouldn't be worth antagonising her if this was real as claimed. The fact was that if this was real, what reason would she have to trust what Nightmare said. All the same, Twilight didn't have it in her to refuse a pony that was willing to beg her for help, especially a pony such as this.

"Alright, what do you have to offer?"

"Offer? Well, from here I can enter the dreams of everything in Mareitania, even the world if I have to. I can find information that you never could conventionally."

"How?"

"From a ponies dreams I can get their memories-"

"You can see my memories!?"

"I could, yes, but I'm trying not to as they're probably far too flowery for my tastes. Well, apart from the last few months that is. I'm sure there's ponies such as the Duke whom I'm sure you're very interested in knowing what they're thinking though."

"Alright, I suppose that could be useful. Anything else?"

"You need more than that? Very well then, I could plague your enemies with nightmares if you wish, make them fear you-"

"No."

"Or at least give them sleepless nights so they're less effective in battle," Nightmare finished lamely. "I've already helped Luna as a gesture of good will! She was being attacked by a monster she couldn't beat in Seeker's dream, and I helped her defeat it as well as lead her straight to the memory Seeker had of the spy."

"And what about the dreamscape? You won't stop it from healing will you?"

"No! Of course not! It won't matter now I'm free. And... and... it'll help Luna to not hunt me down! I'm not going to go down without a fight Twilight, believe me, and she'll become all weird and obsessed, and it'll only end up hurting her."

"And you care because?"

Nightmare looked away, "I don't hate Luna if that's what you're thinking. I even quite like her, although I doubt we'd ever see eye to eye. All my best qualities come from her. My drive, my ambition, and my... my... I don't know, but I owe it all to her. When I said the gaps in my being were filled in, they were mostly filled in with her. The sad thing is, even with me gone, all that's lost to her is a little voice in her head. She's only really reset to what it was like before I became aware, only now I'm here too. She's still as capable of being Nightmare Moon as she ever was."

Twilight wasn't sure she could get used to seeing Nightmare Moon like this. The arrogance that you'd expect from Nightmare Moon was still there, if a little toned down, but here was a mare genuinely needing help, afraid for her life. Frankly, if Nightmare didn't keep her end of the bargain, all Twilight would have to do was set Luna on her.

"Alright, I'll give you a chance, but this bargain extends well beyond the war to take Mareitania. You have to promise to be good forever."

Nightmare hesitated and steepled her hooves in front of her mouth, "Define 'good.'"

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, but if we're only talking good intentions then yes, but good everything else... not sure I can keep to that. After all, Discord is still a trickster. Maybe you could keep me to Trixie levels of good?"

"Fine, I'll hold you to at least good intentions."

"Excellent!" Nightmare held out a hoof, "We have an accord?"

Twilight took the hoof and shook it, and was quite surprised by how normal it felt, "Yes Nightmare, we do."

"Excellent." Nightmare grinned, some of her usual confidence showing again, "I knew you'd agree." Twilight raised an eyebrow and she pointedly cleared her throat, "I meant to say that I hoped you'd agree."

"You really aren't the Nightmare Moon you used to be, are you."

"I'm not Luna if that's what you mean. Luna was the one that wanted to be respected, that wanted ponies to love her as much as her sister, that wanted the night to last FOREVER!" Twilight folded her ears back at the outburst. "Me? I just want to live. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably still going to be a complete bitch at times, but old habits and all that. In fact, I think I should really have a new name since I'm not really Nightmare Moon any more. What was it the zebra called me... Nightwalker? Yes, Nightwalker. I think that's more apt."

"That makes you sound like a vampony."

"Hmm, yes, I suppose it does. Perhaps we should just keep with Nightmare for now." Nightmare performed a small curtsey, surprising Twilight with the gesture. "Thank... you Twilight, for doing this. As a further gesture of goodwill, I have a tasty little morsel of information for you. Once you take Prance, and you will, because lets face it, you're seriously outmatching your enemy at every turn, don't be surprised if the enemy comes to you with an offer."

"An offer? What kind of offer?"

"I don't know, but I would suggest you be cautious about how you approach it. I'll be in touch. Good luck with the pegasi."

"Wa-"

"-it." Vertigo hit Twilight like a tonne of bricks to the forehead as she was forcibly ejected into the waking world.

"Something wrong?" Trixie mumbled from nearby.

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut until it no longer felt like everything was spinning, "I... I have literally no idea. I think I just made a bargain with Nightmare Moon?"

"Of course you did Twilight. Maybe you could invite Tirek round for tea later as well."

"I'm being serious Trixie!"

"So am I. I bet Tirek has some interesting theories about conservation of magical energy between two points when he's not trying to suck your soul out through your horn."

"Huh? Is that what you thought happened?"

"Heck if Trixie knows. That's what it felt like though. Is there a point to this? Or can Trixie go back to sleep now?"

"Sorry Trixie, go ahead." Twilight lay back and tried to think. She wanted to dismiss everything that had happened as a dream, but all of it felt far too real to simply discount. The surreal aspect of it was certainly there though. Maybe it might be a good idea to talk to Luna about this at some point to try and corroborate some of what had just happened.

The door to the room they were sharing with a group of other ponies pushed open, and a dark figure crept through it and up to her bed. Twilight was about to defend herself when the cheerful face of Shadow popped up over the edge and loudly announced, "Good morning! Up and at them Twilight! We got a busy day ahead of us!"

"Rrrrgh!" Trixie threw a pillow at Shadow, smacking her in the face with it. "Is there a thing where ponies with wings are noisy jerks in the morning!? The first sleep I get in over a week..." she finished, muttering to herself.

Shadow picked the pillow up in her mouth, taking extra care to get plenty of drool on it, and flew over to Trixie's bed, picking her head up with a hoof and placing the pillow under it. Then she dropped Trixie's head back onto the pillow and kissed her on the cheek, "Sorry sweetums, you go back to sleep."

"I feel violated in so many ways right now."

"And I guess I'm up," Twilight said to herself.

Twilight squinted, trying to look at Prance from their position on a cloud bank a few miles from the city, "How many pegasi would be needed to maintain a cloud formation that size around the clock?"

Spitfire thought Twilight's question over, "In a normal situation in Equestria, you could form that using fifty pegasi at a push. But here, around the clock you'd have to have at least a hundred moving the clouds, another hundred making the clouds themselves, and assuming that they aren't literally working these pegasi to death they'd need rotational shifts... so I'd say roughly five to six hundred pegasi."

"They couldn't keep that many pegasi in a compound, could they?"

"If they really crammed them in, sure." Twilight felt ill. "But I'm sure that's not what they've done. If I was doing this, and I thank Celestia I'm not, I'd create a temporary encampment near the water source. Shouldn't you have found all this out first?"

"I did ask Fleetfoot, but she hasn't reported back yet. I would wait, but the longer we leave this the worse it's going to get, so we'll have to improvise."

Spitfire lowered her head, suddenly feeling sick with worry at mention of their absent friend. "How long ago did you send her out?"

"I asked her when I saw her yesterday. I wouldn't mind, but it should only have taken her an hour to scout it all out, and a few hours to get back." Twilight stared out over at Prance in the distance, "I hope she's alright."

"She's tough," Soarin said confidently. "She'll be fine."

"I hope you're right," said Twilight. She lit her horn, and little wisps of cloud were pulled up from the one they were stood on to form a small model of Prance and the surrounding area. "As I said, without solid recon from Fleetfoot we're going to have to improvise. Rush, could you come here please?"

"Sure." The cream and blue pony stepped closer to the rest of the group, "What do you need?"

"Do you or any of your pegasi know Prance? Or have worked here at some point?"

"Uh... hold on." Rush took off into the clouds suddenly. She returned a couple of minutes later with another, darker cream coated pegasi in tow, but this one with a grey mane. "This is Cloudy Bop. She worked here for a couple of years before being transferred to Whiplash."

"Why'd they transfer you?" Shadow asked without really thinking.

Cloudy held a hoof to her stomach, her face mostly hidden behind her mane. "Reasons," she said quietly.

"Shit, sorry. I really need to stop asking questions I probably don't want the answer to."

"It's fine, really." Cloudy looked back up and put on a brave face, "What do you want to know?"

"The water source for the weather in Prance," said Twilight. "Where is it?"

Cloudy closed her eyes for a moment, then pointed to a spot on the model that would be a couple of miles to the northwest of the city. "Here, I think. I'm not sure how to do it right on this. Anyway, there's a small lake around there that's fed by water from the hills. That's where the clouds are made."

"And the compound where they kept you?"

"Next to the lake." Twilight nodded, at least they wouldn't have to split up to find that as well.

"Isn't that a bit far from the city?" said Shadow. "How do they get back and forward without triggering their collars?"

Cloudy drew a line in the clouds between Prance and the lake, "They put up a couple of towers along this route, and one in the city. For everywhere else around the city they use the mobile ones. There should be a few of them kept at the compound."

"There'll be a failsafe switch they might trigger," Rush pointed out, "like at Whiplash. I bet those towers, and the one in the city would be rigged to turn off at the same time if they use it."

"That's going to be a problem," Soarin said to general agreement.

"The mobile towers wouldn't be linked, would they," said Shadow. "Until we get the collars off we could always steal some of those and use them."

"Yeah," said Twilight. She nodded to herself, the inklings of a plan finally coming together. "We need to split up. I'll lead a team of fifty to the city and try to free those pegasi working the clouds there. The rest of you are going to the lake. Take those mobile towers first and activate them. Spread them out between the lake and the city and make sure they stay on, so protect them. Get all the pegasi there airborne until we can get their collars off. Once that's done we should hopefully be able to fly off with a bunch of newly freed pegasi."

"You make it sound easy," a grinning Shadow said.

"Hopefully it should be."

Twilight had decided to lead the smaller team on her own, comprised of their newer fighters. That meant that most of the best, and most experienced pegasi were able to hit the compound, but also meant that Twilight had to make informed decisions on how to navigate a giant storm cloud with zero experience of doing so.

She had been told that in this situation, the new clouds would be crammed into the bottom of the formation so the rain could fall straight to the ground without having to pass through all the way through the clouds already there, so that'd be where the pegasi were. She told them that the only way to approach was from on high where they would be undetected. She was told that lightning hurts, but good luck anyway.

She was starting to see what they meant. The oldest clouds at the top of the formation were almost black, while the new ones at the bottom were mostly a light grey. Thunder rumbled from within the clouds, and the entire formation lit up for a split second, and she winced as thunder crashed below her, a lot louder than she was used to hearing it.

She checked the key for the collar was still on its string around her neck. She had passed out the twenty or so keys they had amongst her pegasi before coming here, putting them on a length of string to ensure they weren't dropped. She was starting to realise that she had basically passed out miniature lightning rods to them.

"Here goes..." She formed a large, cone like magical construct that rotated quickly, and pointed it down at the clouds. With it she hoped to bust the clouds in a clean line straight down to the lower strata, in a method that was hopefully not going to result in death by lightning. "Follow me in and stay in a tight formation."

Her magic made contact with the clouds, and as she hoped they disintegrated under its touch, leaving a tunnel down through the clouds to fly through. What she hadn't expected was the static from the clouds building on her drill. It wasn't a problem, not until the built up static started leaping to nearby clouds, creating continuous thunder. Not exactly inconspicuous, but probably not going to be commented on by the sleep deprived denizens of Prance. The worst part was probably that it made all Twilight's hair stand on end.

She kept going, even though static was starting to jump off her too, thankfully it was mostly harmlessly, but it did sting a bit. She reached the last layer of clouds, stopping when she spotted a blackened shape ahead of her. She dismissed the drill, the static on it leaping off into the clouds, and made a closer inspection of the shape. It seemed to be a pegasus who hadn't been quite so lucky with the lightning. Twilight sighed regretfully that she was too late to save that one.

The rest of the pegasi with her started to spread out, most of them ignoring the charred pegasus, and each of them suffering the effects of the static as well.

"Okay, spread out and start looking for pegasi. Take their collars off but don't drop them as ponies will quickly become suspicious if it starts raining collars. Once the collar is off tell them to wait here until they're all free, then I'm counting on you guys to get them to Brayside as I'm going to go to the others to check on them. Apart from those of you with keys that is. You head to the compound too once you're done here. Understood?" There was a chorus of acknowledgements from the pegasi, "Excellent, carry on."

The spread out in groups of at least two, making sure that every group had at least one of the keys to remove the collars with. Cloudy Bop remained with her as she had been extremely reluctant to see the compound again.

Twilight signalled for them to head down, and found a rather dull looking and disinterested brown stallion packing a cloud into the formation. "Psst!" The stallion paused, flicked an ear, then continued with what he was doing. "Hey!"

"I-is somepony there?"

"Up here!" Twilight waved at the stallion, and he slowly made his way over to them.

"Can I help you? I really shouldn't be stopping..." His mouth hung open as his eyes fixed on Twilight's horn, "You're her aren't you? The flying unicorn."

"Alicorn, actually, but I-" Twilight stopped herself. "Yes I'm the flying unicorn, and-"

"Are you here to save us?" the stallion asked excitedly.

Twilight leaned back a bit from the stallion, "You know who we are?"

"Of course! We've been hoping and praying that you'd come since we heard you'd taken Whiplash." His face fell, "I'm sorry for what they did to your friend."

"Friend? What are you talking about?"

"Blue pegasus with a white mane and tail? Was wearing some fancy armour? They caught her last night after she touched one of the tower crystals."

"Fleetfoot..." Twilight looked about desperately, her stomach trying to crawl its way out of her mouth. She had to go. Her eyes landed on Cloudy Bop, and she slipped the key off her neck and onto Cloudy's. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes," Cloudy replied quickly.

"Good." Twilight took off, going as fast as she could, angry that not only had this happened, but also that saving Fleetfoot wasn't her primary concern. If she'd been captured there was a good chance the enemy knew they were coming.

"Are we all set Cap'?" Soarin asked cheerfully as they made their approach.

"I think so. We'll do a lap around quick to check out the defences and choose our best angle to attack from." She didn't add that Fleetfoot should've been back with that information, and that she, like Soarin, was worried sick about her. It didn't need to be said.

"You lead, I follow."

"Alright then. Shadow, you got good eyes, you're with us."

"I've got good eyes at night maybe," Shadow grumbled to herself. She had been idly thinking of how to make herself some tinted goggles to wear during the day for some time, but never quite seemed to find the effort to follow it up.

The compound was quiet, with few guards, while the lake near it was swarming with ponies, both pegasi and guards. Thankfully that left the mobile towers they needed almost completely unguarded. In fact, considering the amount of pegasi that were here, there seemed to be very few ponies watching them.

"This is gonna be a total cake walk," Soarin laughed. Spitfire wasn't so sure. If there was so little in the way of guards here, why hadn't Fleetfoot come back? She was pretty close to calling the whole thing off, and had almost refused to do this at all without intel, except that there would be time needed to let the ground dry out before the attack on Prance.

"What's that?" Shadow said from beside her. "On the tower, is that... is that Fleetfoot!?" Spitfire quickly angled herself to look at the tower erected by the compound. Half way up it was a blue pegasus with a distinct white mane and tail, spread-eagle with her back to the side.

"Fleetfoot! Damn it! Rush, can you get the mobile towers set up?"

"Sure!"

"Alright, we're going in!" Spitfire banked towards the compound, leading in as they swept around it for guards. As there were only a few it didn't take long to clear them out. Rush and several others went straight for the towers, while the thestrals, minus Shadow, headed for the lake along with half of their pegasi, leaving Spitfire, Soarin, and Shadow to go to Fleetfoot.

She was tied spread-eagled to the uprights of the tower, a rope pulled taut from each of her legs in a way that had to be extremely uncomfortable. She had another rope gripped in her mouth, both ends of which going behind her head and trailing off up into top of the tower.

"Fleetfoot!" Spitfire inspected all of this in the space of a second. She went to pull the rope out of Fleetfoot's mouth, but she held onto it, rapidly shaking her head. "Come on, let go of it!"

"Nnnn!" Spitfire looped her hooves in the rope and yanked it out of Fleetfoot's mouth. She released it only for Fleetfoot to scream in her face, "No!" A whirring sound was the only short warning they had before a weight descended inside the tower, pulling on wires that had been coiled around Fleetfoot's wings, ripping them clean off her back in a spray of blood.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Fleetfoot screamed, pausing only to gasp in a ragged breath to scream some more. A spray of something else came from Soarin as he threw up inside his muzzleguard. Vomit dripped from around his chin as he tried to flick it off, but his hooves suddenly felt fat and useless, and when he did get it off all he could do was cough and snort out vomit.

Shadow fell to the ground, her mouth hanging open, and Spitfire hovered in the air, like she was pinned in place by her own wings. Her eyes stared widely at the two blue wings that dangled inside the tower, swaying slightly in the breeze. She kept her hooves clamped over her mouth as Fleetfoot screamed and screamed, each one more hoarse than the last, until she slumped in her bindings, too weak to do more as blood dripped off her rear hooves and down the ropes.

Spitfire finally tore herself away as the sound of slow clapping finally reached her, the sound oddly metallic as the hooves making the sound were encased in thick black armour.

"I had expected this to be good," Pearl purred, "but seeing you throw up in your own muzzleguard was... mmm, perfection... I must admit that the initial screams were higher pitched than I had been expecting from a mare with her voice, but I think it only made it all the better."

"You fucking bitch!" Soarin shouted, "Why would you do this!?"

"Do what? I might have set this up, but you're the ones that made it all happen. It could've all been avoided if you'd taken a moment to think." Pearl shrugged, "I guess I was expecting a bit much if I want thought from a pegasus, rather than the impulsive action you so wonderfully delivered."

Soarin dived at Pearl, not even bothering to draw his weapons as that would've taken extra time. Pearl wasn't even fussed, and ducked under Soarin's outstretched hooves. She turned with the attack and delivered an uppercut into Soarin's stomach that sent him tumbling away. She ducked again, just in time to avoid Shadow swinging a blade towards her.

"And that is what I'm talking about; impulsive. Reckless action with zero benefit, all because you don't take time to think about what you're doing. I though, have been thinking. And what I thought of after catching your friend here, was how I could possibly make this day any better. Then it came to me, if you're so insistent on being impulsive, then maybe it'd be fun to see how far your impulsiveness can take you."

Shadow swung around to make another attack, but stopped when she heard a shout. "Pearl!" Twilight soared through the air towards them, as fast as she could, appearing as little more than a purple streak.

"Ah! The guest of honour has arrived." Pearl didn't move as bolts of purple magic washed over her. "Should've brought the other one as well if you want that to work."

Twilight skidded into a landing, her hooves sliding on the packed earth that surrounded the tower and compound. She stopped barely a meter from Pearl, who cocked her head curiously. "What? No hug?"

Twilight stared at Pearl, then looked to Fleetfoot, still in her bindings, sobbing loudly with blood dripping down her back as Spitfire hovered in front of her, immobile save for the beating of her wings and the movement of her chest as she drew in short sharp breaths.

"Why did you do this?" Twilight asked, barely louder than a whisper.

"If you're looking for me to justify this you're wasting your time as there isn't a single justification you'd actually accept. Besides, as I told your friends here, ripping her wings off could've been avoided if they'd only paid attention."

"You're a monster."

Pearl snorted, the sound echoing inside her helmet, "Says the pony that's probably killed more ponies than me by now. Even then, we both know that isn't a patch on what Trixie's capable off."

Twilight grit her teeth, "At least we don't torture them!"

"Exactly! Their lives are so meaningless to you. You just snuff them out without a single thought, whereas I at least I find worth in ponies before I kill them. Besides, it's not like I killed her, is it? Perfectly merciful."

"You may have well have!" Soarin shouted at her.

Pearl shrugged, "So a pegasus without wings is just... what? A pony? Sure, but at least she's still alive. Maybe she could find use as a comfort mare? You do use those, right? If you want you could leave her with me and I'd find a use for her."

Soarin started to charge again, but Twilight held him back with her magic. She could feel Pearl grinning at her, but without Trixie there wasn't a lot she could do about it without wasting time.

"What do you want Pearl?"

"Straight to the point I see. No time for a little chat, or to maybe apologise for killing my husband. You should've seen the looks on my kids faces when I told them. Truly and utterly heartbreaking." Pearl shook her head, "Sad that they're going to grow up without a father."

"Are you going to apologise for what you did to Fleetfoot?" Twilight spat back. "Or Fleur, or Seeker? Or any of the other ponies you've tortured over the years?"

"Don't be silly. Seeker isn't a pony, and I'm hardly going to apologise for doing my job. Now, let's-"

"We're going to kill you, you know that?" Twilight could see Pearl roll her eyes through the slots of her helmet. "Your kids'll be better growing up without ponies like you in their lives."

"Of course you're going to kill me, but not today. Today we're going to play a little game. Or perhaps calling it a race might be better. Of course I had to call it strategic resource denial to make my superiors happy, but they at least agreed to let me wait until you got here as they did need the pegasi to keep working. Unlike them though, I knew you'd come for the pegasi long before you tried to take the city."

Twilight didn't want to do this, but it was hardly like she expected to have a choice. "What kind of race?"

"An interesting one to be sure. Two teams, yours, and mine, in a race over the pegasi we keep here. Your team has to save as many as possible, while mine has to try to kill as many as possible. And to make things even more interesting, we're going to be attacking you the entire time, which I suppose would be called home advantage."

"What?"

"Of course you're totally welcome to attack us as well, but the more you focus on us, the less you'll be able to focus on saving the pegasi." Pearl clapped her hooves together gleefully, "This is going to be so much fun! On your marks, get set, go!"

Pearl sprinted away towards, pausing only to grab a small flag that had been planted behind the leg of the tower, and wave it as she ran. Twilight didn't worry about her though. She quickly sliced through the ropes holding Fleetfoot, and lowered her into the hooves of Soarin.

She was still bleeding heavily, and was at risk of serious blood loss if it wasn't stopped. Twilight used her magic to generate an orb of heat and pressed it to the loose flesh of where Fleetfoot's wings had been, cauterizing the wounds. Fleetfoot screamed again and tried to fight her way out of Soarin's grip, but he held firm.

"Get her back to Brayside, now!" Soarin didn't argue. He slung Fleetfoot onto his back between his wings, and took off in the direction of the town. "Shadow!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Go warn the others at the lake that we have incoming. Get them to start moving ponies towards the mobile towers as fast as possible. Forget about the collars for now. And get some of them to guard the towers!" Shadow nodded and zipped off. "Spitfire!"

"..."

"Spitfire?" Spitfire hadn't so much as moved the entire time Twilight had been there. Twilight flew up and turned Spitfire towards her, Spitfire's eyes refusing to meet her own. Her expression was unreadable, even if her face hadn't been half covered by her muzzleguard.

Twilight shook her again, and Spitfire finally reacted, locking her eyes with Twilight. "P-Princess, I-"

"Whatever you're about to say can wait," Twilight interrupted. "We have incoming, and we need to save as many pegasi as possible. Are you with me?"

Spitfire didn't move for a second, then closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again they were harder, and focused, more like the Spitfire Twilight recognised. "I'm with you ma'am."

"Then follow me." Twilight led them up above the compound and towards the direction that Pearl had ran off in. Already there were enemy forces heading towards them. They also had about twenty carts with them, with the net launchers they had encountered in Whiplash mounted upon them.

They headed off towards the lake, while a group of maybe thirty soldiers peeled off towards the compound itself. Twilight was about to tell Spitfire to go and warn Shadow about the launchers when they started firing, not at the rebel pegasi, but at the enslaved ones.

"Go find Shadow and warn her! Now!" Twilight shouted. She burst into motion, not waiting to see what Spitfire was doing, and launched a bolt of magic at the nearest net launcher, reducing it and the cart into splinters.

The other launchers responded in kind though, and Twilight was forced to teleport away as the rest of the launchers opened fire toward her, only to catch sight of the launchers as they opened fire towards the lake while her ponies were still preoccupied with the guards. Twilight could only watch in horror as many of the pegasi were snatched out of the air by the nets. Clearly Spitfire's warning had been too late.

"No!" Twilight was about to make another attack on the launchers, when her ears caught the sound of screams coming from the compound. The soldiers that had gone there were dragging the pegasi out, one by one, and executing them under the watchful eyes of Pearl herself.

Twilight suddenly understood the full depth of Pearl's horrific plan. She could expend efforts fighting the soldiers at the compound at the cost of helping those at the lake, or ignore them to save those at the mercy of the net launchers, where her own pegasi were also being hit. The faster she helped one group, the faster she could help the other and save more pegasi. If she had ground forces she could direct them to the compound where they'd be more effective than pegasi, but she never thought she'd need them on this mission.

Twilight could feel Pearl watching her as she wrestled with indecision, first heading to the compound, then the lake, then the compound again. Twilight knew she couldn't afford to lose this many of her fighting pegasi, so with a cry she set off towards the lake, tears streaming down her cheeks as she left those defenseless pegasi to die.

She summoned Swordy and flew towards the launchers in a flanking maneuver. She swung Swordy, neatly slicing the nearest launcher in half while she fired a blast at the next, destroying it completely.

The soldiers around her fired their crossbows at her, and she shielded herself as she pulled up. She knew she was going too slow. She couldn't focus on the soldiers and helping her ponies until the launchers were taken down, but she couldn't destroy them fast enough with soldiers covering them. Even then, the thought of those pegasi being executed still bubbled in the back of her mind. Things might be better if the enslaved pegasi weren't all panicking and refusing to move, leaving themselves as sitting ducks for the soldiers.

All of this hurt Twilight in ways she hadn't imagined possible before, but rather than succumb to her emotions, she let them empower her in one of the few occasions she felt it might be beneficial to do so. She screamed an almost unholy scream, her eyes blazing white as dark energy twisted and writhed around her horn, melding with her own.

She almost threw herself at the nearest launcher, a roiling bubble of energy protecting her as she slammed down upon it, releasing a shockwave of energy that sent the soldiers around her tumbling through the air like rag dolls, and completely obliterating the neighbouring launcher.

A low, almost crazed roar escaped her throat as she charged towards the next launcher, picked it up, operator and all, and threw it aside, only to do the same to the next. Arrows flew towards her, but bounced off her as magic she barely knew she was casting toughened her to the point where her skin was like iron. Swordy whirled around her, side to side, striking down any soldier that got too near to her without her even having to look as her perceptions seemed to extend far beyond her usual five senses. She was a whirlwind of death, and her inner self was screaming in terror the entire time.

She soon found herself at the last of the launchers, and picked it up to slam it on the ground again and again until it was nothing more than splinters and a bloody streak that was once the operator. She dropped it and finally managed to rein herself back.

The remaining soldiers had fled rather than face her and the remaining pegasi now that they were no longer under threat from the net launchers. She rubbed her tears away and galloped over to the nearest grounded pegasi. The mare was wounded from her crash landing, but still alive and conscious. Twilight wasted no time in slicing the net apart, freeing her.

She ran from one netted pegasus to the next, freeing them. The only ones she couldn't help were those unlucky enough to crash into the lake. Some of them had managed to free themselves, and were making for the shore, but she knew there were plenty more beneath the surface of the water.

Without the soldiers and guards harrying them the pegasi descended to assist their fellows, giving Twilight a chance for to find some ponies to help her. "Spitfire! Shadow! Where are you!?"

Shadow limped over to Twilight, blood running down the left side of her chest and down her leg. She caught Twilight's expression and sighed, "Edge of a net caught me. I'll be fine," she finished, just as Spitfire came into land beside her.

"Ma'am?"

"Get as many pegasi together as possible," Twilight panted. "They're executing the pegasi at the compound!" Spitfire leapt into the air to start gathering as many ponies as possible. Shadow shakily took off, but soon crashed back to the ground.

"Shadow, start gathering the wounded. There'll probably be more soldiers on the way from Prance soon, and we'll have to get those that can't fly moving. There should be some transport carts at the compound to move those that can't even walk."

"But-"

"No buts Shadow, do it!" Shadow jerked as Twilight shouted at her, and Twilight sagged with exhaustion and guilt. "Please."

"I'll do my best."

Spitfire came back with a few dozen ponies flying behind her, "This is all I can get right now."

"It'll do. Come on!" Twilight wasted no time in leading them to the compound. Pearl had disappeared, but the soldiers were still at work, the pile of bodies testament to their ability to slaughter defenceless ponies.

Twilight led the way down, firing blasts of magic that killed two of them before she had landed, a short swipe from Swordy felling a third soon after. Like before though, rather than fight the soldiers turned tail and fled towards Prance, not that Twilight, still fueled by pain, rage and the power it gave her, let them get away cleanly, firing blast after blast at them.

"Cut them down!" she shouted, and the pegasi all too willingly chased after them. If Pearl could do this in the name of 'resource denial,' then Twilight could do the same.

She didn't join the chase though. Instead she pulled open the gates to the compound and walked inside. She'd been hoping to see a mass of pegasi there, but all that were left were a few dozen, cowering in the corner, even from her. Her anger didn't fade though, and she stalked over to them, Swordy beside her dripping blood.

"Why? Why didn't you fight back? You outnumbered them! You could've fought back and saved yourselves! Why didn't you!?" The pegasi all tried to push back from her, cramming themselves into the corner of the compound to get away from her. Twilight ignored them though as her attention was caught by a white envelope pinned to the hut nearest to her. She pulled it off and tore it open, unfolding the letter as fast as she could.

Dear Twilight.

I do hope this letter is finding you well, and you haven't had to suffer any more unfortunate dismemberments as a result of my actions.

Obviously as this is a letter I can't tell how many of the pegasi here you might have saved, if any, but I have absolutely no problem in telling you that there were exactly two hundred in here to begin with. So, if you managed to save at least one of those, congratulations, you won the race!

If you didn't save even one though, then might I be the first to offer you commiserations. Better luck next time Princess. And there will be a next time. We both know you're setting your sights on Prance, as even a moron could work that out, and I can assure you I'll be waiting for both you and Trixie so we can play another little game.

In the meantime though, assuming you're reading this soon enough, there should be reinforcements on the way from Prance, and they should be arriving in the next ten to fifteen minutes, so I suggest you get moving. I suppose you could call it another race! Good luck getting away!

Your friend,

Pearl.

Tears were running down a face wrought with anguish by the time Twilight finished reading the letter. She dropped it, the letter fluttering down to land in front of her hooves. She wanted to scream, to rage at how unfair this whole thing was, but all she could do was produce a drawn out wail of pain and collapse into tears as she was finally overwhelmed by her emotions.

She lay there, sobbing into the dirt, the pegasi still watching her in terror, until Shadow came looking for her. She wasn't sure what to do seeing Twilight sprawled out in the dirt, crying her heart out, and sat there for a minute, just watching her as she tried not to cry herself. She only looked away as an equally distraught Spitfire landed beside her.

"We need to get moving," she said. "There's soldiers on their way from Prance, and we're in no condition to hold them off."

"I know." Shadow stood and limped to Twilight. She shook Twilight's shoulder, hoping to get a reaction out of her. "Get up Twilight, we need to go." Twilight didn't move, "Twilight! Come on! Don't fall apart now!"

There was a quiet sniffle from Twilight, "This was supposed to be easy. We were supposed to swoop in and save these pegasi, and it'd all be fine. Instead, half of them are dead, along with how many of our own." Twilight raised her tear streaked face to Shadow, "Why? Why did this have to happen?"

Shadow sighed and looked away, "I don't know Twilight, I really fucking don't. But I do know that if we don't get moving soldiers are going to come and kill a whole bunch more of us. We saved some of them Twilight, but that doesn't count for shit if we stay here and get them killed. So get up and get us out of here. I've got ponies loading those that can't run into the transport carts, and Rush is bringing one of the mobile towers to run with us, so all we have to do is go." Shadow laid a hoof over Twilight's withers, "I'm sorry Twilight, but your feelings are really going to have to wait."

Twilight choked, but swallowed it back. Shadow was right that this would have been for nothing if the soldiers got here first. She stood on shaky legs and wiped her eyes free of tears, and her nose clear of snot. "Get these pegasi outside with the others," she said to Shadow, as she was sure they were too scared of her right now to do as she asked. "I'll pull the lead cart, and you better be on it Shadow."

"Yes ma'am." Twilight dismissed Swordy and slowly walked outside the compound. As Shadow said, most of those too wounded to run were being loaded into the wagons. Twilight didn't feel too inclined to interfere with that, and quietly made her way to the lead cart. She hitched herself to it and stood there waiting for somepony to tell her to start running.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually she was tapped on the shoulder by Spitfire to drag her out of the stupor she had been sliding into as she stood there. "They're all loaded ma'am, it's time to go." Twilight nodded, glad for the distraction. She set her hooves into the dirt and started running, not needing to think on anything else for now.

Author's Notes:

As I said last time, I'm not totally sold myself on the Nightmare Moon thing. I do have some things I'd like to do with her, but I'm not sure on how nicely it fits into the story. You guys can be the judges.

Legion is out tomorrow (so much hype,) and I'm having a week off as well, so don't expect a chapter for at least a couple of weeks, if not more.