"Are you sure about this ma'am?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "That's the ninth time you've asked in the last hour Spitfire. Stop worrying; I'd always planned on being the one to deliver the message to High Rock."

"But why? You have plenty of other ponies that could do it."

"True, but I'm the most likely to be able to get away if they try anything." Twilight spotted the towering form of High Rock keep creep over the horizon towards them, "We're almost there. Do you have everything you need?" Her escorts Spitfire and Soarin both pulled a small pad of paper and a pencil out of their armour. "Good. I hope you can draw quick, because I doubt I'll be allowed to stay for more than a few minutes."

"Yes ma'am." Spitfire and Soarin peeled off from Twilight, flying up to a higher altitude where they would hopefully not be spotted as they sketched the basic layout of the keep and its defences while Twilight delivered their message informing the Duke that the war would be continuing.

"Okay," Twilight breathed, "let's do this." She descended to ground level, kicking up a cloud of dust in her wake as she skimmed above the road to High Rock. She slowed as she got closer, and eventually landed, choosing to walk the rest of the way to the first of the wide gates on the zigzagging ramp up to the keep itself, so as to not spook anypony.

Predictably she was met by a large number of ponies pointing weapons at her. Thankfully though, those weapons went unused, giving Twilight a chance to study those bearing them for a second. It was a depressing sight. Besides the wretched appearance of ponies that had been forced to tighten their belts to save on rations, they just looked defeated. Each and every one of them was probably hoping for the peace agreement to work, making Twilight feel guilty that she was doing the exact opposite.

"What do you want?" said a gruff voice from the archway over the gate. Twilight looked up, expecting to find a stallion, only to be confronted with a biege mare with specks of white and grey in her coat, making her look older than her face suggested. A nasty scar on her neck did at least partially explain the gravelly voice.

Twilight brandished the letter in her magic, "I'm here to deliver a message to Duke Hargrave."

"And does the leader of the rebels usually deliver her own mail?"

"I thought it could use a more personal touch," Twilight said, smiling.

The mare grunted and held out a hoof, "If you'll pass me the letter I'll deliver it to the Duke." Twilight floated the letter up to the mare's waiting hoof, who then tucked it away into her armour. "Was there anything else?"

Twilight was put off by the abruptness of the mare. She had been hoping for somepony a little more conversational. "Uh... Are you all okay? You look hungry. Aren't they feeding you enough?"

"That isn't your concern."

"Isn't it? The war's going to be over soon, one way or another, so why shouldn't I be concerned? You should know there's no shame in coming and joining us. We have plenty of food and-"

"Silence!" the mare shouted. "You have ten seconds to turn around and depart before I order my ponies to open fire on you."

"But-"

"Ten!"

"I was only trying to-"

"Nine!"

"Alright! I'm going! Sheesh..." Twilight spread her wings and took off, climbing upwards to where she hoped to find Spitfire and Soarin. Soarin she found easily enough, kicking his rear hooves over the edge of a cloud and humming while he doodled.

"Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmmm... And a little bit more shading there... Round that out a bit more, and..."

"Soarin?"

Soarin shrieked as Twilight said his name, forcing her to catch his pencil with her magic as he flung it away in his shock. Then he snapped to attention like nothing had happened, and especially like he had definitely not screamed like a little filly.

"Reportingfordutyma'am!"

"At ease Soarin." There was a tiny slump in his posture, but Soarin remained very much at attention. "Can I see what you've done so far?"

"Yes ma'am!" What was meant to be a gentle motion to pass Twilight his work somehow, between his brain and his hoof, turned into a full on throw that Twilight only just caught with her magic before the pad smacked her in the face. Soarin snapped back to attention, blushing profusely, but not apologising.

Twilight eyed him for a moment, then looked at what he had drawn. Then she twisted it to the right, then the left. Then she gave up trying to understand it.

"I mightn't have had the best view from the ground, but I'm pretty sure I would've noticed the dancing buffalos in tutus, the boiling pits of what I assume is lava, the windigoes... and I can't make sense of what these wobbly lines coming off the keep are supposed to be."

"They're-uh, stink lines, ma'am."

"Stink lines..." Twilight deadpanned. "Of course, how could I not see that?"

"Turn the page ma'am." Twilight did so, finding a much more sensible diagram of the keep and its defences with labels for each siege weapon, gate, and defensive emplacement. She then flipped back to the first drawing.

"You drew both of these in the time I gave you? I'm impressed." A hint of a smile grew on Soarin's face. "You still screamed like a filly though." The smile evaporated. "However, I won't mention it again if you lead me to wherever Spitfire is."

Soarin wordlessly led the way over to the opposite side of High Rock, and up to a cloud that Spitfire was using for cover. The yellow pegasus looked up as they flew in, and saluted Twilight as she landed.

"Anything to report?"

"Not really ma'am. There's nothing on this side of the keep, not even a door. It's all just bare rock. There's a graveyard around the side of the keep," she said, pointing to the right, "but I doubt that's helpful."

"Not really, no," Twilight murmured. "I guess it's a full frontal assault then."

"Couldn't we blow a hole in the wall around this side?" Soarin asked.

"I doubt it. If the keep's warded against teleportation, I can only imagine it's possibly warded against all magic. That, and it'd take time to get a significant number of ponies up here since sending pegasi to fight in an enclosed space like that would be suicide."

"Couldn't we blow it open with regular explosives?"

Internally, Twilight facehoofed for not thinking of that, but there were issues with the thickness of the walls and things like that. As they learnt from Prance, blowing holes in walls isn't as easy as it looks.

Externally, she nodded. "Possible, but the interior could be warded too, and while we have a way around that, I really don't think it's worth the risk since there's a lot of unknowns that could be thrown at us. Nope, I'm afraid the front door is the only safe and viable option." Twilight paused, "To a given value of safe anyway."

It was almost shameful to be glad to be back in Whiplash, but after the events that took place in Prance a couple of days ago, Twilight was happy to be out of there. Trying to create and explain democracy to ponies when you're not fully up on it yourself did seem somewhat akin to a blind pony explaining colours to a deaf pony now she looked back on it.

Twilight shook her head, banishing her sense of failure to the back of her mind. She didn't come here to privately smother herself in her mistakes. She came to check up on some metal beasts of destruction. And to maybe see what Luna had been up to since she'd been equally keen to get out of Prance, if only to escape Twilight for the whole Celestia thing.

It still made Twilight angry when she thought about it.

Ignoring that though, Twilight was happy that Luna had voluntarily journeyed to Whiplash to get started on creating a new stash of explosives to use in the attack on High Rock, and to hopefully figure out how to have the steam tanks effectively deliver said explosives.

"Oh fie on thee, thou accursed lump of gears and metal!"

"That sounds promising," Twilight said to herself as the angered cry echoed across the three hundred yards between herself and its source. She quickly covered the distance to where the tanks were parked, and landed on the one that had a trail of smoke oozing from its smokestack. "Luna?"

Clang! "Arrgh!" A blue head clutched by an equally blue hoof poked out of the port to the tank, "You best have a good reason for disturbing me whoever you... are... Twilight?"

"Having problems here Luna?"

"Yes," Luna answered plainly. "I simply wish to test out the catapults on these things so I might work out how to utilise my explosives most effectively with them. For some reason though I cannot get this blasted contrivance to operate!"

"Did you put water in?"

There was a long, expectant pause before Luna answered. "Yes?"

"Did you really?"

"...no."

"What do you think you should do?"

"Put water in the tank Twilight." Luna sighed and heaved herself out of the tank to jump to the ground, "Do not mock me Twilight. A thousand years on the moon might leave you a little confused about things too."

"Luna, you've studied these tanks a lot more than I have. Just admit you forgot."

"Never." Luna walked over to where they had kept one of the water pumps the enemy were using to top up the tanks during the attack on the facility, and dragged it over to the tank. She slotted the pipe into place and pumped the handle a couple of times. A sucking, gurgling, straw at the bottom of the glass kind of sound from within the water container informed her that it was in fact, empty. "I thought it seemed a bit light. Anyway, what brings you here Twilight?"

Twilight started, her mind having drifted off into ideas on how to top the water off in battle more efficiently. "Oh! Uh, for similar reasons to you actually. If I'm going to make use of these tanks, then I should probably make sure they're up and running."

"I've been informed that miss Honeydew was coerced into fixing the broken one, so they should all be operational at this point."

"Oh, that's good." Both ponies milled about for a moment until Twilight grunted irritably, deciding to no longer ignore the elephant in the room. "Why'd you do it Luna? Or at least tell me why you didn't mention it until you did."

Luna didn't need to ask what Twilight was talking about. She knew full well Twilight was referring to Celestia coming to Mareitania to finalise their government. "Because I knew you'd reject the plan out of pride if I had told you before."

"And why shouldn't I have? Thanks to you we're all getting kicked out of the country as soon as the war is over. Out of the country we fought to build. Do you have any idea how that feels?"

"Seeing as how I'm one of those being removed, yes I can." Luna cut off Twilight's response before she could begin to say it, "But I haven't been here since the beginning, so I appreciate it would have far more of an effect on you than I. However, getting removed from the country was neither my plan nor intent. That was Snowbright's doing."

"So it's my fault for accepting his terms?"

"Not at all Twilight. I simply wish to express that I would've rejected Snowbright's conditions in favour of most anything else. You were the leader, not he."

"Sometimes it's easy to see the similarities between you and Nightmare."

"And that should surprise you?" Luna replied, not rising to the bait.

"You still haven't told me why you didn't tell me, other than me refusing to entertain the idea out of 'pride.'"

"Twilight, this uprising has been in motion for months now, and you've been here even longer than that. I'm going to say this plainly so that there might be no mistaking my intent behind it. You need to go home. Your friends here also need to go home, or be given a home to go to in the case of Summer and the filly. You've done a tremendous job of things Twilight, but even you should go home and hang up your sword before you find yourself unable to do so. Be with your friends Twilight, be there for the birth of dear Cadence's child, as she must be due in a couple of months. Mostly though, have a break."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Luna, "So you think I can't handle things, is that it?"

"Not at all Twilight, I know you to be highly capable. It's just that my sister and I agree that you need time to rest and recover from your experiences here, time that would be better spent doing so rather than repeatedly smashing your head against a brick wall here while you try to make things work. Celestia has over a thousand years of experience when it comes to head-butting brick walls, and has become most adept at it. Her plump rear gives her the momentum she needs."

Twilight smiled at the attempt at humour, but she couldn't hold it. "You know, if you'd said all this to me before the summit I probably would've accepted leaving while Celestia came here as I did promise myself I'd be there for the birth Cadence's foal. Instead I'm left with a horrible taste in my mouth because you've forced me into this situation where I've had to accept Snowbright's conditions just to keep things together."

Luna sighed and nodded glumly, "I am sorry for that Twilight. While I suspected you wouldn't be pleased, I had otherwise thought myself to be doing you a favour. I hadn't counted on Snowbright's ultimatum though. I mean, how could I when he sprung it out of the blue? I was hoping that once Celestia was here you could see the wisdom in going home anyway."

"Have you told Celestia about what happened?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"And she was not best pleased, but accepts that there's nothing she can do to change it now. Something we should all have to accept."

"Yeah, and I do." Twilight jabbed a hoof at Luna's chest, "But next time you feel like doing me a favour, ask."

"Understood." Despite the situation, Luna smiled impishly, "Should I write you a friendship report on what I've learned?"

"No thank you," Twilight laughed. "Anyway, I have things to do, and a mare to see, so I'll see you later."

The interior of the former pegasus facility seemed a lot busier than the otherwise peaceful exterior, filled as it was with prisoners of war that had been captured or surrendered. A constant bustle of noise filled the place as these ponies found out about certain parts of the life they forced the pegasi to live. Some might call that justice. Twilight would be among those.

She kept her head high as she made her way through the prison, ignoring the jibes and insults directed at her, and calmly deflected the few items that were thrown. It seemed that not all of the ponies here appreciated being locked up when they could be another statistic on the battlefield instead.

Twilight had expected as much, but what she hadn't expected was the sight of the dingy purple mare Sweeping Strike sat on her own at a table in the dining area wearing an orange vest. Her body was covered in dark, angry looking bruises that not even her coat could hide, and her left eye was almost swollen shut. Curious as to why she was sat on her own looking so beat up, Twilight slid into the seat opposite her.

"Hello Sweeping Strike one zero eight two five."

Sweeping Strike sighed a laugh, "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"I'll forget it as soon as somepony invents a day that doesn't end in y."

"Too bad because I actually have a new number now. According to your prison system I'm E-P two nine four seven. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue like the other one."

"E-P?" Twilight asked. "What's that for?"

"Stands for earth pony."

Twilight looked around them, "Isn't that a bit redundant since you're all earth ponies here?"

Sweeping Strike shrugged, "Whoever made your prison system is really planning ahead for having unicorns and pegasi here too. Unicorns are U-N, and pegasi are P-G."

"Oh... well, that's good to know." Perhaps alicorns could be A-C. Wait, that's air conditioning. A-L? Twilight shook her errant thoughts away, "So what happened to you? You look like you've been fighting."

"More like I was the victim of a fight. I'm not exactly the most popular pony around here with some. Probably less so if they see me chatting with you."

"Because of what happened in Prance?"

Sweeping Strike shook her head, "Bitmark. They say I gave up without a fight because I was a rebel sympathiser. Certainly not because we were outmatched and you threatened to drop me off a building. Oh no, certainly not..."

"So they did this to you?"

Sweeping Strike nodded slowly, "Yeah. In the army I had rules and a rank to protect me, but in here?" She shrugged helplessly. "The guards are letting me get some peace here until they can find me somewhere quieter."

Twilight squinted at the mare, "You sound like this isn't the first time this has happened."

"Third. The first was on the first day here, then a week later, and again last night."

"Oh. I'm guessing there's a lot of anti-rebel sentiment here then."

"Some, but quite frankly most of us realise that we're getting three meals a day, a bed of some kind to sleep on, and have significantly less chance of a violent death happening to us. It's just a few hotheads making most of the trouble."

"And they focus that trouble on you?"

"This kind of trouble, yeah, some of it, and those that surrendered with me at Prance don't care enough to help me as they'll probably make themselves targets too." Sweeping Strike shrugged again, and shifted her position, a clanking from under the table making Twilight look down to find a cuff attaching Sweeping Strike's back left leg to the table. Apparently the guards didn't trust her that much. "Anyway, what brings you to this slice of paradise?"

"Left my steam tanks here," Twilight said with an easy smile. "I'm going to need them for the attack on High Rock."

Sweeping Strike's eyes widened, "You're going after High Rock already? But you only just took Prance a couple of weeks ago!"

"What can I say, we're busy ponies. Besides, as soon as we take High Rock the war's pretty much over. I doubt Stalliongrad will put up too much resistance."

"You might be surprised there."

"Maybe. Also, if you could not tell anypony here what I just told you Sweeping Strike, I'd appreciate it."

"Since knowing would probably get me beaten up even more, I'll stay quiet. And I prefer to have my friends call me Sweeps. It's less of a mouthful."

Twilight was stunned for a moment, "You think we're friends?"

"Okay, friends might be stretching it considering you exploited my fear of heights by threatening to drop me off an eight storey building, but you aren't really my enemy at this point."

Twilight smiled strangely, "It was four storeys, but that's not important. You know what, I think you might've just made my day Sweeps. I was actually planning on seeing somepony else here, but if you'd like to come with me I'd appreciate the company."

"Okay I suppose, as long as you don't drag me through the main holding areas as that really would confirm their opinion of me."

"Don't worry, it's away from the holding areas as you call them. Soon as I find a guard to unlock your cuff I'll show you exactly why I'm here."

"Where are we?" Sweeps asked as Twilight led the limping pony to a part of the prison she hadn't seen before.

"I think this was where the staff that used to work here lived. Still is I suppose. Anyway, we appropriated one of the rooms to hold a very special prisoner since she'd probably get it worse than you if she were in the main holding areas."

"Who is she?"

"You'll find out in a minute." Twilight stopped at a door, taking a moment to listen to the cheery humming coming from within before knocking.

"Come in!" said the pony within. "If you can that is. The door might be locked, and the guards don't normally knock."

The key was actually hanging on a nail by the door as none of the other prisoners came down here, and it was the work of a moment for Twilight to unlock the door and enter. Honeydew was sat at her desk, pencil in mouth, scribbling away at a piece of paper, only stopping when she noticed she was no longer along.

"Oh, you found your way in. Can I do something to help you..?"

"General Calibre?" Sweeps exclaimed.

Honeydew frowned, "So they found another pony called Calibre and made them a General? What are the odds on that? Especially since you're here as well."

You could almost see Sweeps brain jam hearing that, "Uh, no, I mean you're General Calibre. General Steel Calibre."

Honeydew rolled her eyes as she understood her mistake, "Not any more I'm not, that pony's gone. Call me Honeydew, since that is my actual name. Now, can I help you miss..?"

"Uh, Sweeping Strike, formerly Sergeant Sweeping Strike."

Honeydew smiled happily at Sweeps, "Ah! So you defected too? Good for you!"

"I wouldn't say defected entirely," Sweeps muttered while Honeydew addressed Twilight.

"And who might you be?"

"Uh... Twilight Sparkle?"

"The name rings a bell..."

Twilight spread her wings, "The alicorn leader of the rebellion whom you surrendered to?"

"Oh yes." Honeydew rubbed her head, "Not sure how I could forget that. So, what brings you two here?"

Twilight ignored her, distracted as she was by the mass of papers that covered much of the walls. She studied one of them, finding a design for a new type of valve, while another showed plans for a gearing system. "Have you really made all these in the time you've been here?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, but many of these are just parts of a much larger device." Honeydew gestured for Twilight to join her at the desk, and showed her the design for a steam locomotive. "I don't know if all my designs for the steam train survived the destruction of the tank factory, so rather than sit around and hope they did I decided to start again on a new design, even better than my last one. I honestly can't thank you enough for letting me have this room, as I've gotten so much done while being in here."

"Is this using the Equestrian rail gauge?" Twilight asked as she studies the plans. They were even sleeker and more powerful that the last design Honeydew had made. At this rate Equestria was going to left in the dust as far as steam power was concerned. For a brief moment Twilight considered smuggling Honeydew into Equestria to implement her ideas there.

"It does. I thought it might be more useful that way, so that if Mareitania does get a railway network, we could link it to Equestria's using the railway that comes into the border by Stalliongrad."

"This is nuts," Sweeps said as she tried to take in what she was seeing entirely. Even if both eyes were fully operational she might have struggled. "How do you even know how to do this?"

"I don't know." Honeydew turned so Sweeps could see her cog and piston cutie mark, "It's my talent so I guess that it all just makes sense to me. Anyway, I doubt you came just to see what I've been up to. How can I really help you?"

Twilight pulled herself away from the plans, "I'm afraid I'm here about one of your less favoured designs."

"Ah, you mean the tanks, don't you?"

Twilight smiled grimly, knowing full well Honeydew despised them. "I'm afraid so. I'm told you repaired the one that broke?"

"Yes, and then again no. I fixed the immediate problem, but there's something not right with that tank. Even repaired it just doesn't seem to have as much power as the others. If I had the ability I'd scrap it and start again. I certainly don't recommend using it in your attacks."

"But the others are fine?"

"Apart from a small case of corrosion because your ponies didn't keep them covered in the rain, yes, they're all fine and ready to pointlessly end lives." Sweeps looked at Twilight who shook her head and mouth 'long story' at her.

"There is just one thing," said Twilight. "I was hoping that we could change how the water is topped up. Currently you have that water cart system, but as you said yourself it's kind of ridiculous. I was thinking we could change it to a pegasus air drop method."

"Pegasus air drop?" Honeydew leant back in her chair and crossed her forelegs, "It's doable I suppose. You'd have to change how the water goes in, and create something to catch the water..." Honeydew grabbed her pencil and a fresh piece of paper, then started sketching. "We could make the funnel recessed into the body so it goes straight into the storage tank..."

"Wouldn't you have to leave the way into the storage tank, as you call it, permanently open for that to work?"

Honeydew shook her head, "Can't do that as dirt could get in and block the system."

"Add a filter?"

"That'd increase the time it would take to put the water in, leaving the pegasus exposed."

"Spring loaded cap that opens inwards?" Sweeps suggested. "The weight of the water pushes it open, then it closes itself again."

"It's a good idea Sweeps," said Twilight, "But the weight of anything on it would open it."

"Then why not just put a door over the entire funnel that the pegasus can kick open and closed without too much trouble?"

Twilight looked at Honeydew, the mare shrugging, "That could work I suppose, and wouldn't be too difficult. Good thinking... Sweeping Stork-"

"Strike."

"Right. The thing is, this doesn't change the issue where we still have to put coal in the tanks during the fight."

"I'm going to fix that with magic," said Twilight. "It shouldn't be a problem in the slightest."

"Oh, magic, of course," Honeydew said while Sweeps rolled her eyes.

Twilight clapped her hooves together, "Good. You two keep thinking about things while I go see how my compatriot is doing."

The clank of machinery informed Twilight that Luna had at least got the tank working. When she found her, Luna was actually standing by the tank, having driven it a short distance away, and was using her magic to operate the controls as she launched the iron balls they used as ammunition into the distance.

"How's it going Luna?"

"Hmm? Oh, well enough I suppose. These things really were wasted firing these silly balls. Apart from the difficulty it takes to aim, the end result is just so... lackluster as to barely be worth it."

"So you're going to use them to throw explosives then?"

"Most certainly, but that presents its own problems. The whole exploding on impact thing, or sticking to whatever they strike... both are difficult."

"Why's the sticking one difficult?"

"Because having them hit things and not bounce off puts a lot of stress on the bomb casing. They could easily split apart, ruining the bomb."

"Oh." Twilight stayed quiet as Luna launched another shot before writing something down on a sheet of paper. "Are you trying to compare the difference between firing a bomb and one of these shots?"

"Yes, but the difference isn't too big. A bomb weighs less than a shot, but the bombs I intend for these are bigger, so the increased drag should negate the loss of weight I think." Luna reloaded the catapult and fired it again, "I'm also finding this to be rather enjoyable in a cathartic way."

"How big are these bombs supposed to be?" Luna formed an orb using her magic, giving Twilight an idea of how large they might be. It was the size of her head. "I don't think that's going to be enough."

"Beg pardon?"

"I did some scouting of High Rock while I delivered the message, and the gates they have on the ramp up are pretty big. The first one at ground level though, that's almost twice the size of the others, and I don't mean width-wise. I don't think those bombs are going to be enough to break it."

"While I wish to dispute that, as enough explosives can break anything, I won't argue. Do you have any ideas on how to get it open?"

"Make a bigger bomb?"

"Sounds good."

"Pull!"

Using her magic Twilight flicked the lever to fire the tank's catapult. With a hiss of steam it flicked up a short distance, launching the rock Twilight had loaded into it high into the air. Luna grinned as she predicted its trajectory and snapped off three short blasts of magic, destroying the rock with the second.

"Nice shot," Twilight said as she watched the fragments of the rock fall back to the ground.

"I invite you to try and beat it Twilight."

"Alright." Twilight loaded two rocks from the pile they had gathered into the catapults cup. Then she widened her stance and readied herself, "Pull." The catapult flicked up again, and the rocks flew into the air, staying close to one another, making it easier for Twilight to hit them. A couple of shots destroyed the first, but out of the three shots she fired at the second, only one clipped the rock, sending it flying away to smack into the ground a few seconds later.

"An admirable effort Twilight," Luna said as she stomped a hoof in applause. "T'would seem your aim is improving."

"I imagine they're still easier to hit than an actual flying target. It seems to me that the Duke's soldiers mostly hit the pegasi out of luck rather than skill."

"If you can call such a thing luck. Pull." Two rocks arced into the air, and quartet of shots followed after, destroying them both. "I do believe that puts me in the lead."

"Based on what? Our non-existent scoring system? Sure, okay. None of this is really helping us solve the big gate issue. Sure we could make a big bomb, but how do we deliver it without magic? Running it up to the gate would be dangerous, and pegasi can't fly it that far. I mean, I could, but... I don't actually have an argument there."

"I do. Making a bomb that large? Could be troublesome. A collection of smaller bombs would be preferable, but how to effectively deliver them all at once is the issue then."

Twilight paused as she loaded another couple of rocks onto the catapult, and for a long moment she stared at the side of the tank as an idea slowly percolated in her mind. "What if... what if we loaded one of these tanks up with explosives and drove it at the gate? Would that work?"

"Work?" Luna snickered at Twilight, "Forsooth Twilight, there would be no gate left! It'd be a terrible waste of a tank though."

Twilight looked back at the row of tanks still parked beside the prison, at one in particular. "Not if we use the broken one. Honeydew said that even though she fixed it there's something not right with it, and that she'd scrap it if she could. Using that one to ram the gates wouldn't be that big of a waste."

Luna pondered it for a moment while Twilight watched her, "I see no problem with that other than the problem of finding a pony willing to drive the tank up to the gates and detonate it."

"Time the fuse so that the tank covers the distance before exploding, and jury-rig the controls so that it drives in a straight line up to the gates. That should remove the need for a pony to do it. I'll even control it from a distance if I have to."

Luna put on a face that Twilight could only describe as her thinking face. It was pretty cute in an 'invent a better way to kill you' kind of way. "Perhaps I have a better idea. What if I created a mechanism that detonated the explosives as the tank hit the gate? Some kind of button or pressure plate that would trigger as it pressed up against the gate itself! You know what Twilight, this idea is marvellous!"

"So you can do it then?"

"Most certainly! I do feel that I might have to return to Puddingarde to properly implement this though. I doubt I should trust these prisoners with making the explosives we'll need."

"But I thought most of your bomb making equipment had been shipped here?"

Luna shrugged, "A lot of it, yes. Mostly its the triggering mechanism that I'll need to make in Puddingarde as I will need access to the smithy to produce some of the components."

"Alright. Before you go running off to Puddingarde, could you ask Honeydew to finish her designs to upgrade the tanks, and what tools she'll need to do it. Then get the components made while you're down there."

Luna turned her head sideways, "Upgrades? What upgrades?"

"Just a small one so that pegasi can drop water into the tanks. I'm sure she'll explain it to you if you wish."

"Very well. What will you be doing?"

Twilight grimaced, "I'll be going back to Prance to make sure our new government hasn't torn itself apart yet."

It didn't take much for Twilight to tell something was wrong as she approached Prance. The city was thick with soldiers, thankfully her own, but that paled in comparison to the number of soldiers that were swarming around the castle. "Is it too much to ask for nothing to have happened?"

She flew in quickly to land at the main entrance, and ran into the castle. Thankfully she was recognisable enough that nopony bothered to challenge her as she ran deeper in. Realising that she didn't actually know what was going on, she stopped and asked one of the guards what was happening.

"We're on high alert ma'am," the stallion answered. "Snowbright's orders."

"High alert for what?"

"Assassins ma'am. Somepony tried to kill Councillor Spire."

Apparently hoping nothing had happened was too much to ask for.

Author's Notes:

Apparently it's christmas for those of us that live under a rock like I wished I did at times. It took me a while to make the correlation, but christmas means I'm busier at work which is where I do like 99% of my writing. No wonder I don't seem to be getting anything done on this front lately. Hopefully once the new year is in things'll be back to normal and I can get back to weekly updates. Here's hoping anyway.

In the meantime, merry christmas y'all (hence the badly made crimbo avatar), and here's hoping 2017 is less shitty than this year.