Bodies. As Twilight flew over Prance it started to occur to her that she'd seen an almost obscene amount of bodies by now. So much death had passed before her, and been caused by her that it was almost laughable to think that it might still bother her. But it did.

Luna said that nopony should possess the power of Sol Invictus, with which Twilight strongly agreed, but she also thought that nopony should possess the power to end lives like she and maybe half a dozen others did, as useful as that power was in these situations. Twilight could end a life with barely a thought, magically speaking, and with her right in Prance were two more ponies capable of just that; Luna, and Trixie.

Baring that in mind, it made it all the more baffling as to whether it was bravery, stupidity, or fear that kept the ponies of the Grand Army marching against an army that was already packed with deadly spell casters without three ponies capable of killing at as large a scale as Twilight, Luna, and Trixie.

Whichever reason it was, it was pushing them down through the city towards the rebels hastily set up defences, and making them almost throw themselves into a barrage of arrows and spell fire in the hopes that the pony behind them would eventually reach the rebels. As a tactic it was bloody minded and a waste of pony life at worst, and proving at least somewhat effective at best as the line of soldiers met the line of rebels.

That wasn't Twilight's concern at this moment though. She got to avoid the frantic crush of battle to go and cut off the soldiers primary means of retreat. How she was going to do that wasn't yet apparent to her, but she was bound to figure it out.

Twilight wasn't sure when Prance was built, but if it was built before the exodus she had no idea which tribe built it; the unicorns, or the earth ponies, since it was at least obvious that it wasn't the pegasi. The thick walls, the gates, the castle in the centre... it was all set up for serious defence against invaders. Twilight did think that the ingenuity was at least consistent with what the earth ponies had constructed in Puddingarde. Too bad the current defenders hadn't counted on those same defences being turned against them.

Twilight landed on the top of one of the gatehouses that separated the upper city from the lower city to the right from where the main gates were situated. On the outside were a pair of heavy wooden gates, bound in iron, while on the side facing the upper city was a portcullis.

Figuring there was no point in going overkill and using both, Twilight dropped off the roof and flew into the short archway, pulling the gates shut in her magic. Like the main gates there were bars that could be slid into the stone to secure it, and a mechanism on the back of each gate to move the bars. Twilight turned both simultaneously with her magic, locking the gates in place, and was about to fuse the mechanisms into solid lumps to prevent them being unlocked again when somepony shouted behind her.

"Hey you! What are you- Shit! It's her! Run!" Twilight watched with faint amusement as a quartet of soldiers ran from her. She shrugged and turned back to her task, fusing the mechanisms into solid lumps, and just finished when the clatter of hooves and armour informed her that she had more company. Twenty more soldiers had arrived, supposedly trapping her in the archway.

"We've got you cornered!" Twilight waited a beat, but nothing more was said. No request to surrender, or taunts, or threats of imminent death. Nothing. It was like they hadn't actually planned for anything past cornering her.

"And?" Twilight said after an awkward silence.

"And... uh..." The soldiers looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. It seemed that cornering a pony like Twilight was perhaps not most prudent position.

"You could surrender?" Twilight suggested. "I don't want to have to kill any of you really. Maybe we could pretend that I didn't see you, and you didn't see me?"

"Get her!"

"Guess not." Twilight fired a beam of magic that split into four. Two of the soldiers went down, while a third was at least taken out of the fight. The forth only took a glancing blow, and was the first to reach Twilight, and was therefore the first to meet Swordy as he came out swinging.

Twilight formed a disc of magic to defend herself from blows as she attacked with her weapon, occasionally shooting at a soldier with her magic, or shielding herself entirely as necessary. She caught the hooves of a soldier that had reared up to strike her, and buried Swordy in his chest before swinging the body at a couple of soldiers that were trying to flank her, knocking them down.

While they were occupied, she snapped a shot off at a soldier in front of her, noting his surprise as the cavity that appeared in his chest ended his life. Twilight didn't stop to think about that as she sliced Swordy to her right, cleanly decapitating a mare that was about to thrust a spear towards her. Before the spear had fallen Twilight grabbed it and threw it at another soldier, the strength of her magic driving it through his armour and into his midsection.

In less than a minute, and before she knew it the remainder of her attackers were fleeing, save for the two mares she'd thrown the body at. One was almost free, but the other's back left leg was clearly broken, having been caught at a bad angle as she went over. The soldier whimpered with pain and fear as she waited for whatever Twilight was about to do.

Twilight snatched the weapons of the fallen from the ground and purposely broke them into pieces, making sure she had the two mares full attention as she did. "You know, I'm not sure why any of you thought that was a good idea, attacking me like that. If I was able to teleport I could've avoided the whole thing, but I can't, meaning I had no choice but to fight. Do any of you realise I have absolutely no desire to hurt you?"

Twilight waited for the last of the blood to drip off Swordy's blade, the enchantments she'd put on it ensuring that not even blood would stick. She then put him away into his little pocket dimension and lifted the body off the mare with a broken leg, "I'm sure if you stay here the others will assume you're dead, meaning that you'll definitely get to live through this. Think about it, please."

Not wanting to see whether the two mares took her advice, in case they didn't, Twilight took flight and headed over to the gate opposite. Apparently the soldiers were a little more prepared for her at this point, and maybe just short of a hundred soldiers were waiting for her. She felt inclined to disappoint them.

Two quick shots broke the chains holding the portcullis up, and it felt into place with a thud. Twilight then swooped over the wall and slammed the gates shut with her telekinesis before running a beam of superheated magic down where the two gates connected, melting the iron at the outside of the gates together and sealing them shut.

"Don't know why I didn't just do that in the first place."

To say Trixie was in her element would be a fallacy. Even now Trixie still considered her true calling was to be on a stage performing for her adoring fans, only she'd maybe think about cleaning her act up a little. The showboating and boasting was maybe going a bit too far towards the end she could admit, mostly to herself though.

Right now though, this was not her element. She took pride in a job well done, true, and she did it excellently as far as she was concerned, as she did all things, but this was... easy. It took no talent or flair to do what she was doing, just blind rage and the will to get things done. No style at all.

Trixie liked being stylish. Even more so when her face didn't hurt so much.

So when the purple flare went up to indicate that Twilight had sealed the gates and it was time to push forwards Trixie was keen to show just what she could do. She'd had a lot of practice by now, and the battle to this point had been a pleasant warm-up act, if you forgot the face biting part, but now it was time for the main display.

Trixie's horn blazed with a dark fire, and a pleasant tingle passed through her body and down to her loins as the magic almost screamed with its desire to used. It was hard for Trixie to remember that once it had hurt to use this magic, but now she felt nothing of the kind as a field of crystals spread out before her, piercing the hooves and bellies of her opponents.

The crystals exploded, shredding the ponies they had already struck as well as showering nearby soldiers with fragments of razor sharp crystal. It was a gory display to be certain, but as Trixie trotted forwards the soldiers did their best to get away from her, meaning she had achieved her desired effect.

She didn't notice that the rebels behind her weren't exactly rushing to follow her.

Luna was impressed with Snowbright as the white earth pony fought with the sword he held in his mouth. She'd always considered such a method to be a terribly awkward way of fighting, but she wasn't an earth pony, so she'd never had to do it that way.

Snowbright was making it work for him though, parrying one moment, thrusting the next. His entire body seemed to be a weapon as he grabbed a spear, flipped it around in his hooves, and stabbed a soldier with it before punching the soldier's neighbour. He often went out of his way to help his rebels if they were struggling, throwing himself into the fight to help, dancing between the blades of the enemy. If he wasn't such an ass after the way he acted a week prior, Luna might have thought a little more fondly of him.

How he had any teeth left fighting like that was a mystery for another time.

He wasn't alone though. Luna's horn glowed with light as she cast a subtle spell on their foe, robbing them of their courage and coordination as she cut a swath through them, a fog that existed only in the soldiers minds. Artemis and Apollo sang through the air as they fulfilled their purpose.

As far she could tell, the soldiers had no real hope of beating them in such a closed up fight. The rebels simply had far better defences, which they could concentrate further in the streets. Then, between their archers, adepts, and pegasi, they could pick off their enemy relatively easily, while a mere twenty or so soldiers were able to fight in the front at any one time, only to be rendered ineffective by Luna's magic.

With all the soldiers crammed in behind them, they had nowhere to retreat to. They could only fight, and Luna stole their ability to do even that. She felt bad for them.

She was pulled from her thoughts as a beam of purple magic lanced from the sky and sliced through the mass of soldiers. It seemed that with her task complete, Twilight was re-joining the fight.

The soldiers were breaking. Twilight could see their push collapsing as Trixie and Luna drove their enemy before them. Twilight was guiltily glad to be out of it. Attacking from the air at a distance seemed to have far less of an impact in comparison to fighting up close. A difference that meant wonders for her attitude as she swooped down, again and again, along with the pegasi and thestrals.

Under that much pressure it didn't take the soldiers much longer to scatter. More and more of them started retreating, only to find the way back into the upper city cut off thanks to Twilight's efforts. The hardest part was still to come as the soldiers then fell back into the rest of the city. Trying to find them all in the labyrinthine streets of the city was going to be a nightmare, and one she realised, she was going to have to deal with first to prevent the soldiers reorganising themselves, or endangering the civilians of the city more than the battle already had.

With the soldiers retreating, it didn't take long for the rebels to advance to the gates to the upper city, where they halted. Twilight flew down to where Luna and Snowbright were inspecting the gates, and frowned at the sight of their battered forces. Even though she knew that this was only half of the forces they had advancing, it still seemed like there were a lot less than before. The battle might be one sided as it often was, but the soldiers were still getting their licks in. Hopefully the losses weren't too severe.

"Twilight," Luna said in greeting as the purple alicorn landed beside them. "We were just wondering how we were going to push into the upper city with the gates sealed."

"We're not," said Twilight. Both Luna and Snowbright raised their eyebrows at her. "The upper city is mostly full of wealthy earth ponies. In other words, their sort of ponies, so they won't hurt them. Right now I think we need to spread out and secure the rest of the city before the soldiers reorganise, or entrench themselves too deeply. Set up some defences here while most our forces spread out into the parts we've taken, just to be sure it's clear of soldiers. I'm going to get the pegasi and thestrals to harass the soldiers while you're doing that. Once that's done we can spread into the rest of the city, block by block. I'm going to ask Trixie to do the same."

"Actually," said Luna, "might I suggest Trixie and I join you? The soldiers might be less inclined to hide from us than from our airborne warriors."

Twilight looked to Snowbright who shrugged, "Wick!" he shouted over his shoulder, "Did you hear the orders here?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"Then go take over from Trixie and carry out those orders while she's off playing hunt the soldier."

Wick saluted, and Twilight squinted in confusion, "You're not going to make any suggestions or argue with me?" she asked Snowbright.

"Should I? It'll give our ponies a chance for a breather while we take care of the wounded."

"Well... yes, it does... do that I mean." Twilight blinked and shook her head, at little bit weirded out that she wasn't at least getting a groan out of him.

"You two head around to where Trixie is. I need to find Spitfire." Luna and Wick ran off as Twilight took off to find her target. It wasn't too hard as most of the fliers had also decided to take a breather on the rooftops, making spotting the two Wonderbolts a breeze with their distinctive uniforms.

Both Wonderbolts snapped to attention as she came into land. Shadow's own attention consisted of a lazy salute as she grinned at Twilight. Rush half saluted a moment later, but stopped and lowered her hoof as she felt silly for being so slow.

"So was this the plan?" Shadow asked, "Or something new you threw together on the spot?"

"Let's just say I'm playing it by ear," said Twilight. "That's a legitimate plan!" she fumed as Shadow snickered at her.

"Sure, sure... Ow!" Shadow squawked as Spitfire smacked her on the wing.

"What are your orders ma'am?" Spitfire asked, hoping to sound a bit more professional.

"The soldiers are running into the rest of the lower city. Once we've had a chance to fortify our positions we'll move in to secure the rest of the city. But until then I want you all harassing them as much as possible to keep them on the tips of their hooves. Separate them, ambush them, whatever, just keep them busy, and hopefully keep them moving."

Rush raised a hoof, "What if they move into the buildings?"

"Leave them for the ground forces to take care of. I don't want any of you going indoors unless you think you have good odds of winning because that's probably not a fight you want to get into."

"Understood." It wasn't hard to tell Rush was relieved hearing that.

"Don't worry ma'am, we'll keep low to the rooftops. They won't know what hit them." Spitfire saluted again and took off, the others following after her. Twilight flew where she hoped to find the others. She was surprised to find Trixie and Luna in a heated debate when she got there.

"What's going on?"

"Trixie is taking this dark magic too far!" Luna shouted, pointing an accusing hoof at Trixie. "She isn't just fighting these ponies, she's- she's... mauling them to death! For example!" Luna pointed to the upper body of a stallion. Several meters away was his lower body, the two sections connected by a length of intestine. One of his hooves also appeared to have been completely shredded.

"In my defence," Trixie said lightly, "the two bits are only apart like that because somepony caught their hoof on the back end and dragged it away."

"I shouldn't have been able to get my hoof inside him in the first place!" Luna growled.

"What do you want from Trixie? War is messy! Get over it! I've seen what your explosives do to ponies, and that's no better than what I'm doing. So I suggest you stop hating on me for using dark magic."

Luna bit her lip, having been caught out slightly. "You agree with me, don't you Twilight?"

"Uh..." Having decapitated a pony earlier with a sword of nigh infinite sharpness left Twilight feeling under-qualified to comment. "Maybe you could tone it down a little Trixie? War's messy enough without ripping ponies apart."

"I only ripped a few apart to scare the rest, but fine, whatever." Trixie pouted at the scenery, "So what are we doing exactly?"

It was a strange sight watching the pegasi and thestrals prowling over the rooftops like overgrown cats, one Twilight could happily watch for a while if she didn't know that every time one of them jumped over the edge of a building a pony probably died.

Street after street wound through Prance, and the soldiers of the Grand Army had little choice but to spread out due to the sheer volume of them being unable to fit into the narrow streets. This left them vulnerable to the ponies prowling above them. It also meant that they were spreading out and setting up ambush points. Often in the homes of ponies.

Below on the street, Luna and Trixie were semi-obliviously walking into one of these traps. The soldiers had holed up in the second floor of a tobacconist, giving themselves a clear view of the street which the two 'unicorns' were trotting down.

"This is stupid," Trixie grumbled. "We're just walking into a trap, no thoughts as to the fact that they might actually succeed in killing us." She looked sideways at Luna, "Temporarily at least..."

"We have to trust that Twilight will protect us," said Luna, although she had her own doubts about this plan.

"Uh-huh, sure. And just when are we supposed to- Ah!" Trixie bit her tongue as she walked into the back of a pinkish-purple shield, off which a few arrows bounced. "Luna fucking damn it!"

"No, I'll let her get away with that one," Luna said with a tiny smile as Twilight dived through the window of the tobacconist. She flinched at the sound of Trixie's magic as she flung a length of crystal at one of their ambushers, hitting her in the chest and nailing her to the wall behind. A moment later were screams, one of them sounding a lot like Twilight.

Luna launched into a gallop, Trixie just behind her as she smashed the door to the shop open and galloped up the stairs opposite. She ground to halt at the sight of the mare pinned to the wall, slowly sliding down the length of the crystal right over the family of four huddled beneath it. The bodies of a few other soldiers were also strewn about.

"Twilight! Are you alright?" Luna asked quickly.

"I was until that happened!" Twilight cried, pointing at the body. Trixie grinned sheepishly as the corpse completed its journey down the length of crystal and slipped off the end with a horrible sucking sound. The children started screaming again.

"Heh, sorry," Trixie muttered. She winced as the children screamed even louder upon seeing her. The pony covered in blood with a curved red horn, smoking green eyes, and a bite mark on her face not being the most comforting presence.

"Get out of here Trixie!" Twilight shouted. Trixie slipped away and Twilight gathered up the bodies and yanked the crystal out of the wall. "So sorry to have disturbed you," she said to the cowering family. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

She hurried down the stairs, the bodies dripping a trail of blood behind her, and dumped the bodies outside. She then turned on Trixie and pointed the crystal at her as she slowly advanced on the mare, only stopping as Trixie's rear pressed up against a wall.

"Don't. Do. That. Again. You could've hit one of those ponies up there!" Twilight flexed her magic and shattered the crystal.

"That's the idea isn't it?" Twilight's glare grew a little tighter, "Oh... You mean the non soldier ponies... Right." Trixie sighed, and the smoke faded from her now normal looking eyes. "I'm not apologising. I'm fighting like I normally do. I don't know why it's an issue now when I was only trying to help you."

"I know," Twilight sighed, "but there are civilians around, meaning you need to be more careful." Twilight rubbed her face as Trixie lowered her head away from Twilight, looking like an angry kicked puppy. It was a good job too as a second later an arrowed pinged off her shoulder armour after leaving a neat hole in the outside edge of her right ear. It would've hit her in the face if she hadn't.

"Motherfucker!" Trixie shouted as she danced around in a circle, clutching her hoof to her ear. She stopped as she saw the group of four soldiers huddled together up the street. Her magic roared with her as she fired blast after blast at them, leaving nothing but smoking corpses behind.

"Do ponies here hate my face or something!? First I get bitten on the face! And now this!" Trixie spun in a circle again, burying her shout of pain, "Fuck this hurts!" She glared at Twilight and Luna, "Well don't just stand there!"

Twilight looked at Luna who pulled a face and shrugged, "What do you want us to do about it?"

"I don't know! Some sympathy might be nice!" She lifted her hoof from her ear and flicked it, a dot of blood landing on her armour. "Oh that is it, I'm tearing these bastards a new one."

Trixie set off towards where the quartet of soldiers had come from, her head low and her hooves stomping heavily on the cobblestones. Twilight and Luna followed after her, ready to help as needed. A minute later an arrow bounced off the ground by Trixie's hooves, and she set into a gallop towards where it had come from.

"Wait!" Twilight shouted after her, but it fell on deaf ears as Trixie burst into a house. She could hear the sounds of fighting, and was about to head in herself when the body of a soldier flew out of the upstairs window and crashed into the building opposite before flopping to the ground. If the fight hadn't killed him, then the landing definitely did.

Trixie came back down the stairs, a grin on her face as she brushed past Twilight, "Let's get a move on shall we?"

Twilight looked back up the stairs where two nervous mares were watching her, totally unharmed. "Yeah..." she said slowly. "Let's do that."

Luna pointed into the air as they left the house, and Twilight took flight to watch from above. Seeing Trixie at work like this was odd as the mare clearly had a point to make. Only a few times did they have to intervene as Trixie walked into traps, and even then it usually only involved a few shields to protect her from incoming fire.

They progressed like this through much of the city, whittling the number of soldiers down ever so slowly. Clearly the pony in charge here, assuming it wasn't Pearl, had half a brain to order their soldiers to set up ambushes. Utilised properly they could've burned though the rebels numbers at an uncomfortable speed. Sadly for those soldiers though, the three deadliest ponies in Mareitania were blundering their way into them, and viciously blundering their way back out.

Truthfully it was barely a drop in the ocean as far as numbers were concerned as by Twilight's reckoning there had to be at least five thousand soldiers spread about the city somewhere, holding out against the advance of the rebels. Far too many to take on even with the pegasi helping them.

Twilight was about to suggest falling back to the rest of their forces when a pale pink pegasus mare fluttered into a landing, bleeding from a gash on her flank.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Twilight asked quickly.

"I'm fine," the mare grunted. "Soldier took a pot-shot at me and got lucky. I'm actually here to tell you that Snowbright wants you back at the front gate to the upper city. I think the ponies in there are trying to surrender."

"Surrender?" Twilight gasped with surprise. "We'll be there right away!"

It seemed nothing much had happened by the time Twilight flew back to the main gates with Trixie and Luna. Mercifully it seemed that Snowbright had decided not to use his own initiative, and instead chose to wait for them to arrive.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked him. The three ponies on the battlements above the gate to the upper city, one of them waving a hastily constructed white flag, were a bit of a giveaway, but she still thought it best to ask.

Snowbright pointed at the three ponies, one stallion and two mares, "The stallion there claims to be the leader. He wants to surrender."

Trixie held a hoof up to shield her eyes as she squinted in the early morning light. In particular she focused on a dingy purple mare stood to the left of the stallion. "Is that you Captain Sweeping Strike, one zero eight two five? How you doing girl?" There was a curse from the mare as she backed away from the edge of the battlement. "Aw, come on, don't be shy."

"A-actually it's Sergeant Sweeping Strike now," the mare said timorously. "I was heavily demoted after pulling out from Bitmark while you were there."

"Then why aren't you down here fighting with the rest of your ponies?"

Sweeping Strike glanced to the stallion next to her, "General Rivers was generous enough to make me his personal aide."

"General?" Twilight asked out loud. "I thought there weren't any more generals?"

"It's a recent promotion," the General said smoothly. "One I never asked for. I'll cut straight to the chase; I surrender, along with the sergeant and the three thousand ponies I still have within the upper city."

Twilight's eyes went wide with surprise, "Really? No terms or conditions?"

The General shook his head, "All I wanted was to serve my country and protect my fellow ponies. I think it's been made pretty clear to me recently about what kind of country I was serving. What Madam Pearl did to the pegasi here was a disgrace, especially after the insane orders I was given to have them worked to the bone flooding the ground around the city. I've had enough. Enough of this war, and enough of her!"

"Her?"

"Madam Pearl." The General hesitated for a moment, "Do you think you could open the gates so we could talk in person?"

"Don't," Snowbright said quietly, "It could be a trap."

"I know." Twilight thought about it for a moment, then shrugged and picked the trio of ponies up in her magic, eliciting a shriek from Sweeping Strike who clearly had bad memories of such things. Twilight deposited the three ponies in front of her and smiled at them, "You want to talk, so let's talk. Perhaps you could tell us why you want to surrender, beyond being annoyed with Pearl?"

"Being in this city since the death of General Sabre has opened my eyes so much. Poverty, starvation, mistreatment of unicorns... So much I never saw before. I never really understood what happened to the pegasi until I joined the army, but it seems that was just the beginning."

"And?" Trixie said testily.

"And it makes a pony question if what they know is right. I've been trying to keep Prance safe and secure, but I knew it was only a matter of time until you came. Then the Duke made Prance the lynch pin in keeping his hold on northern Mareitania, and things got so much worse. Madam Pearl arrived to give me orders to hold this city at any and all costs, even if every soldier here gave their life doing so, while she..." The General shuddered, "She made her own plans, including drugging some of our ponies into savagery. Now she's endangering the lives of everypony in the lower city, and taken some ponies hostage in the castle after kicking us all out." He shook his head, "None of it's worth this. None of it."

"And what about your three thousand ponies in there?" Snowbright asked, gesturing towards the gates. "What's their stake in this?"

"That they get to live. I'm sure you're aware that conscription has been in force for a while to bulk up the Grand Army's numbers?" They nodded at him, "Let's just say it wasn't a welcome move for a lot of ponies. Those three thousand in there are new recruits forced to join under conscription. It didn't take much convincing to get them to surrender with me. At least those that didn't run into a certain winged unicorn earlier."

"And those soldiers still in the lower city?" Twilight asked, glossing over the fact that those ponies attacked her, not the other way around. "Could you convince them to surrender?"

"I could try, certainly, but I won't promise anything. Those still fighting in the city aren't conscripts, and are much less likely to give up."

"Hmm... I need a minute to discuss this with my cohorts. If you'll excuse us." Twilight led Trixie and Snowbright to the side, turning herself to keep a wary eye on the General. "What do you two think?"

"That this is too easy," said Trixie. "We've taken out half their army to, what? A fifth of ours? I say we deal with it our way since we can still win this. Besides, who's to say he's really in charge with Pearl around?"

"Snowbright?"

Snowbright shook his head slowly, "I don't know. If he's telling us the truth, then it saves a lot of lives and hassle. But if he isn't, then we're setting ourselves up to get hurt. I say we take the lower city, then see if he's still willing to surrender so easily. If we can take the lower city, then the soldiers in the upper city wouldn't stand a chance against all of us. With the numbers they still have, I'm inclined to agree with Trixie, at least until we significantly outnumber them."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at him, then looked to Twilight, "What do you think?"

Twilight sighed, once again having to be the piggy in the middle making the awful decisions. An early end to the fighting would be nice, but like the others she thought it too easy. If it wasn't for the presence of Sweeping Strike, Twilight might have sided with the others, but she knew the sergeant was at least a decent mare. Sadly Twilight realised that she might be here purely to make Twilight take the bait.

"Are our ponies ready to move into the rest of the lower city?"

"Yes ma'am," said Snowbright. "Does that mean you're not accepting their surrender?"

"We're accepting the surrender of the General and the ponies in the upper city, but that's it. We go ahead with our original plan to clear out the soldiers, but, I'm making this clear now; we are taking prisoners, understood?"

"Understood, but what about the soldiers trapped in the upper city?"

"We can leave them there to stew for now. Let's clear the lower city before we worry about them. When the time comes to deal with Pearl I don't want any distractions."

They broke from their huddle and walked back to the General, "General Rivers, we accept your surrender, and that of your ponies in the upper city, but we will be proceeding with our plans for the rest of the soldiers here as we suspect they're more under Pearl's command than they are yours."

The General sighed, but nodded while Sweeping Strike looked downcast. "I understand. Truthfully that's probably more than we could hope for under the circumstances. All I ask is that you at least give them a chance to surrender."

Twilight turned to Snowbright, and the white stallion shrugged, "We'll give them a shout first."

"Thank you."

"It appears the thestrals and pegasi have been busy," Luna commented as they made their way back through the streets of Prance again. There seemed to be a few bodies on every street corner, and every now and again a silhouette of a winged pony would flit across the street above them, still on the hunt for their prey.

"If they had any sense they'd bunch up," said Snowbright. "There's no lie in saying there's safety in numbers. Maybe you should go find Spitfire and see what's going on?"

"Good idea. You keep searching while I'm gone." Seeking the advantage of height, Twilight flew high above the city. As high as she was she could see that the pegasi were clustered around two areas; the market, and a park, although the pegasi were keeping a relative amount of distance from the centre of it. It was pretty obvious why that was too as the park contained quite a few soldiers.

The market was nearest so Twilight flew towards that first, spotting the armoured form of Soarin as she made her descent. She landed next to him, keeping low like he was, out of sight from the soldiers that filled the market area.

"What's happening here?" she asked in a whisper.

"Their ambushes weren't working against us much, so a lot of them grouped up here," Soarin whispered back. "Pretty much all the surrounding buildings have ponies with crossbows in the windows, so it's going to be hard getting them out on our own."

"And the park?"

"That's the other place they grouped up. Spitfire's there keeping them contained while we keep these here. There's also a few other ambush points that we've been unable to crack, but those account for barely a hundred soldiers."

"What about civilians?"

Soarin looked away, his expression somber, "I've seen a few dead civilians, but whether it was us or them that killed them I couldn't say, other than it wasn't a pegasus at least since we don't carry crossbows. Thankfully when I say a few, I mean a few."

"Okay. Are the streets around the market clear?"

"I think so."

"Then could you keep them here while I find Snowbright and Trixie?"

Soarin saluted, "You got it boss."

Twilight slipped off the roof away from the market and flew just above street level until she found where the others had got to. She explained the situation them about the market and the park, and told them to spread out and converge on the market. While they did that she went to inspect the park.

Turns out quite a large number of soldiers had made their way to the park, and were occupying a low hill near the middle of it, as well as the area around it. There had to be at least a thousand ponies there, if not far more, and they'd have to be taken care of before they decided to get clever. At least it was a more open battleground, more like what the rebels were used to, rather than close quarters fighting in the streets. Hopefully that meant it shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

Ponies were making their way up the streets towards the market, and judging from the way they were setting up, the soldiers knew it. Twilight didn't waste time. She shielded herself and hovered over the market, ignoring the arrows that bounced off her shield as she cast a simple spell to amplify her voice.

"Soldiers of the Grand Army, you are both surrounded and outnumbered. I'm offering you the chance to surrender. Refuse, and we will attack. You have one minute to drop your weapons and leave through there," she said, pointing to the largest exit towards the city centre.

She waited, and she could see that a lot of the soldiers were looking at each other, watching to see if one of the others was going to be the first to drop their weapon. Twilight waited more than a minute, hoping that they'd give up, but in the end, none of them did, and it was with a heavy heart that Twilight announced that their time was up.

She swooped forward, a beam of purple magic cutting through the soldiers, pulling their attention after her as Trixie and Luna attacked from the direction behind her. Rather than attack further, Twilight set up shields around the buildings, denying those within the ability to help their comrades as the rebels cut through them like a knife through butter, the misdirection Twilight gave being all the rebels needed to catch them unawares.

It was at least a small victory that those still in the buildings afterwards gave up without a fight.

The park would prove to be a different matter.

"That's a lot of soldiers," Trixie observed.

"If we're lucky it should be all the soldiers," Twilight said. "Except the ones in the upper city that is."

"Do you think they'll surrender?" Luna asked.

"Maybe." Twilight doubted it though. Strange though it was, Hotpot's words on ponies not wanting to live in a country of tribal equality were running through her head. Many of these soldiers might well be from Prance, and may well fight to the death to defend their home from the rebel invaders trying to force their point of view onto ponies. If the reverse was happening, Twilight would be no different.

Unfortunately, even with that in mind, the rebels still had to deal with the problem at hoof, namely the thousand plus ponies zealously defending their grassy knoll.

Trixie pulled a face, "I guess if they don't this is where we line up and crush them with the overwhelming power of magic and pegasi?"

"Only if they don't surrender," Twilight reminded her.

"Because that worked so well last time," Trixie muttered. Trixie didn't actually mind; one less soldier alive was one less obstacle to her.

"We can but try." Twilight left them as the rebels spread out around the soldiers huddled on their hill. The situation was actually a little bizarre since it would've been better for them to not hide out in the open, and she quickly figured her answer out as she saw a great many of the ponies on the hill in the middle of the soldiers were in fact unarmoured. The soldiers had taken hostages.

"Not another step!" a soldier shouted at her as she got closer. Twilight obediently stopped, not taking another step as a pony pushed through the mass of soldiers to get nearer to her, and aimed the crossbow he had in the crook of leg at her. "We've got civilians!" he warned.

"Ask him if he's afraid to use them!" Trixie shouted from behind her, only to be scolded by Luna.

Twilight cleared her throat, "I can see that-"

"If you attack us you'll kill them too!"

Twilight wanted to sigh, or run her hooves down her face or something to show her irritation, but didn't in case she provoked him. "What do you want?" she asked instead.

"I want you out of my city!"

Ah... "I'm afraid I can't do that. As it is you're the last group of defenders in the city. General Rivers has already surrendered the city to me." Both points were technically true, even if there was a big question mark hanging over the soldiers in the upper city. "I can offer you fair treatment if you release your hostages and surrender."

"Never!"

"Is that you Sergeant Pestle?" Snowbright asked loudly. "It sounds like you."

"...No?"

"Yes it is!" Snowbright waved a hoof excitedly at Pestle, "How did that rhyme about you go again?"

"Don't you dare say even a single word of that damned rhyme!" Pestle roared.

"Oh come on! It's just on the tip of my tongue..."

"Don't. You. Dare!"

"I got it!"

"No!"

"Sergeant Pestle porked a pie, a thing for which he couldn't lie, for when the brass came down to eat, they found their pie was stuffed with meat!"

"Arrgh!"

Twilight looked back and forth as chuckles came from both sides, "I don't get it." She lowered her head and grunted in annoyance, "I don't get any of this."

"It seems even this war isn't enough to get them to promote you above sergeant, not after what you did to that poor, defenceless pie."

Twilight suddenly brightened up, "Oh! Now I get it!" Then she blushed as a large number of eyes set on her. "Sorry." She thought about what she had just understood, "Ew."

"Now how about you tell me what this is about," Snowbright continued. "If you're not going to surrender, then fight it out like a stallion. Don't hide behind civvies. What would your dear ole mum think about this? She might have understood you being balls deep in piecrust, but I don't think she'd understand this, rest her soul. How about you let them go, and we talk about this?"

"You're taking our country from us," Pestle said slowly.

"It's hardly a country worth lamenting being rid of Pestle."

"That's just what you think! Fifteen hundred years of safety and security being wiped away because you have a different opinion!"

Snowbright grew a little tense, as did Twilight. This didn't seem to be going well. "I'm hardly the only pony here with a different opinion. Come on Pestle, don't do this. We've already won, so there's no point getting yourselves all killed for this. Let the civvies go, and surrender, please. Don't be the bastard that killed civvies because he's a poor loser. You're better than that."

Pestle hung his head for a moment, the waved a hoof and stepped aside. Twilight couldn't hear what he said, but the soldiers made a gap and started letting their captives go. The rebels also made room as the civilians made a break for their lines.

"Thank you," Twilight sighed with relief. She wasn't sure she could handle things if that hadn't gone well.

"Now how about you lay down your weapons and surrender?" Snowbright continued once all the civilians were safely behind the rebels lines.

"Fine," Pestle said weakly, "you win." He threw his crossbow to the ground, the landing hitting the trigger and firing it. The arrow flew off to the side, stopping as an adept caught it on a shield barely six inches from her face. She stared wide eyed at it for a moment and promptly fainted.

Thankfully that was the only incident as the rest of the soldiers threw their weapons aside and stripped off their armour, leaving them with only their identification tags. The decision was reached to have them marched out of the city and held by a large number of rebels outside where they'd have nowhere to hide if they made a run for it.

As the soldiers were led through the city under close guard, Trixie sidled up to Twilight. "Sooo... is Snowbright a pony we like now? Or not?"

"Honestly, I have no idea."

Trixie and Luna were tasked with clearing out the remaining few holdouts in the city. While that was happening Twilight went to oversee the surrender of the upper city soldiers, a faint smile on her face as she did. Considering that the battle had started off a bit shaky, she was glad it hadn't turned into a massacre. It seemed that the soldiers of the Grand Army were bereft of both hope and morale if they gave up that easily. Weeks of poor sleep might also have sucked their desire to keep fighting.

It was almost too good to be true, like the Duke wanted them to win. Even his best ideas like the steam tanks and using the pegasi against them simply ran up against the rebels and failed to work. None of his plans had the strength that ponies had when all three kinds of pony, plus thestrals of course, worked together.

Even if she, Trixie, or any of them that came from Equestria never lifted a hoof against the enemy, she still thought that the rebels would've stood a decent chance. Maybe better as they might've made better use of guerilla fighting, rather than have Twilight drag them into pitched battles like she did, even if they were battles they mostly won.

"Twilight?"

"Gah!" Twilight jumped as Fleur spoke right into her ear close enough for her breath to tickle her hairs. "Fleur!"

"Don't blame me. You were the one staring off into space." Fleur looked around, noting the unicorns digging the rubble out from in front of the gates. "I'm guessing things went well then?"

"More or less," Twilight said once her heart rate had slowed a bit. "Things started out a bit rough, but they improved. The General in charge here surrendered, and-"

"General?"

"He says it's a recent promotion. Anyway, if things go well, hopefully a full third of the soldiers here will have surrendered."

Fleur nodded thoughtfully, but then her lips pulled back in a grimace. "Any sign of Pearl?"

"We haven't seen her, but we've encountered some of her work." Twilight explained about the berserkers, Fleur nodding along as she listened. She was about to say something when the filly spoke up.

"If you say a third surrendered, What happened to the other two thirds? You can't really have killed them all."

"Between the bombings, the berserkers, the fight, the pegasi ambushes, and the market, yeah. I think it all adds up."

"But that's like ten thousand ponies!"

"Eight, according to General Rivers, but they're not all dead, some are just injured. Why does this matter?"

The filly shrugged, "Just seems like a lot. It's not even midday yet."

"Yeah, it is a lot," Twilight said bitterly. "I'm just glad as many surrendered as they did." She sighed and pushed the thought aside. She saw Trixie and Luna walking up, dried blood on Trixie's face from a short gash on the cheek that hadn't been bitten.

"I want a full face helmet," she said.

The filly stared at Trixie, "Wow... you look like shit."

"I'd look fine if ponies would stop attacking my face!" Her cheek bulged slightly as she poked the wounded part with her tongue. "Seriously, full face helmet."

Luna rolled her eyes, having heard enough about it already. "We've cleared out the places that the pegasi knew about, but we cannot say that was all of them."

"It'll do for now," said Twilight. The unicorns had cleared the rubble enough for the gates to be opened just enough to get a pony through, which was all they intended to get through. They were hoping to filter the soldiers in the upper city one by one, disarming them as they went. "General Rivers?"

The general nodded at her and made his way up to the gates while the rest of them kept back. The plan was that if the upper city soldiers had changed their mind, he would be the first to know about it.

Twilight pulled the gate open, and the general went in. A few hundred ponies kept their weapons and horns trained on the gate until he returned a few minutes later, a pony behind him. She threw her weapon away and shrugged her armour off. She then walked down through the rebels towards the main gates as another pony came through the gates and did the same.

A collective sigh of relief went up from the rebels as it seemed the fight was well and truly over. For them at least.

Like the lower city, there were plenty of anxious ponies watching from slivers in curtains as the rebels made their way into the upper city. Twilight had given Snowbright orders to complete a thorough if polite search for any hidden soldiers and weapons, but he was to keep it all as friendly as possible. Ponies in the lower city were already starting to creep out of their houses now the fighting was over, and Twilight wanted to make a good impression on them by not treating the upper city ponies like they were above getting searched for possible threats. Of course she'd conduct a search of the lower city at some point as well, but it could wait until they'd cleared the bodies.

"I'm still not sure why you brought Summer and I here," said Octavia as General Rivers led Twilight and her friends to the castle. "It's not like we don't have plenty of wounded to take care of."

"I know, but I thought you'd better come just in case. Not even the general knows what we'll find in here."

Fleur growled, "I know something that we'll definitely find in here. Or rather, somepony. It's high time Pearl paid for her crimes against all the ponies she's hurt, killed, and tortured. Against Seeker. Against me."

"Don't worry," Twilight said to try and reassure Fleur, "we'll take care of her."

"Yeah!" Trixie grinned. "A bit of two types of magic and she'll be toast. Literally."

"I guess," Fleur muttered. "I just wish I had the skills and magic to do it myself, show her how it feels to get burnt like that..." Fleur grit her teeth, but swallowed her anger back, "But there we go."

"Doesn't it seem a little easy to you that she's just sat waiting for us?" Octavia asked. "This pony has been after us since the first time we went to the caverns. Do you really think she's just going to let us kill her?"

"Let's not forget she has hostages," said Luna. "I think saving them should be our biggest concern."

Twilight nodded, "I agree. Pearl isn't going to go anywhe-" She trailed off into a mumble as they turned the corner to the entrance of the castle square. The place that had kicked off the Prance riots after she used magic. She wanted to say she'd made up for what happened that night, but truthfully she wouldn't ever really think so after ponies died for her actions.

She stirred as a hoof shook her shoulder. It was blue, and attached to Trixie who looked ready to slap Twilight if she didn't snap out of it. "Trips down memory lane can come after this is over Sparkle."

"I know." Twilight sucked in a deep breath and released it all at once. "Let's go."

They let the general lead them into castle square, "I do wish I could tell you what to expect in there, but she's been secretive ever since she-" Thud.

They all squealed with shock as the General slumped to the ground with a crossbow bolt planted in his head. Twilight and Luna reacted quickly, setting a shield up around them and looking around for their attacker.

They found her on the battlements above the open entrance to the castle itself, the sun shining off her black armour and recently discharged crossbow.

"About time you got here."

Author's Notes:

Not had a huge chance for writing this week, hence this is a bit rough and ready. I'm also a bit behind on the next chapter, so even if that's done for next week, the chapter after might be late.