Not that she couldn't appreciate the sentiment before, but Twilight really was beginning to understand how non-unicorns sometimes had such distain for magic. It was unfair really, seeing as how magic had done so much for the ponies in Mareitania, but Twilight wasn't going to complain as she lit a long burning, magical fire in the back of the tanks, totally circumventing the weeks spent designing and implementing a way to top the coal up in the tanks during battle.

While she was upsetting ponies with that, Luna was busily enchanting the tanks so that they wouldn't set off the explosives. She'd enchanted the ammunition for them to explode on impact using magic, and had solved the firing issue by enchanting the catapults to nullify the magic that made them explode on impact. It had been quite the eureka moment for her, slightly ruined by nopony else being around to witness it at the time. Yet again, magic had been the solution.

Twilight lit the last fire and shut the door on it. Then she flew up and kicked open the lid that covered the water tank. It slid open smoothly, running over rollers that made it a lot easier for the pegasi tasked with keeping the tanks topped up, especially since the lid was likely to be rather hot. Said pegasi had been practicing most of the morning, and could now kick it open, drop their load, and kick it shut again in seconds.

"Is that alright?" Honeydew asked nervously. She'd been acting that way since Twilight had turned up with fifty ponies in tow that morning to get the tanks operational.

"It's perfect Honeydew. Nice work."

"Thanks, although you'll have to thank Sweeps for thinking of putting them on rollers."

"Why isn't she out here? I thought you two shared a room now?"

"She didn't feel comfortable being around so many former enemies."

"Is that what's bothering you?"

"No..." Honeydew rubbed the back of her neck, showing her discomfort, "I just hate working on these awful machines. I wouldn't be too upset if they were all destroyed in the battle."

"Hate to say it, but that's the last thing I intend to have happen, apart from losing the battle anyway. If things go to plan, inside these tanks should be the safest place to be. Anyway, will you be joining us? Your knowledge of these tanks could prove useful."

"No thanks. I think I'll stay here, in my cosy prison cell."

"As you wish." Twilight nodded to the two guards on either side of Honeydew, and watched as they led her back to her cell.

"I rather think you could move her out of the prison at this point," Luna said from behind. "Perhaps give her a room in Prance?"

"She's still a prisoner of war, even if she did defect, and her tanks are still responsible for a large number of deaths on our side. I'm pretty sure letting her go free would only cause trouble at this point."

"I suppose so." Luna sat and shifted her weight from side to side, her unease apparent to anypony that looked at her. She only stopped when she saw the way Twilight was watching her curiously. "Apologies Twilight, I'm a little apprehensive at this whole ordeal."

"Apprehensive? You?" Twilight laughed, but stopped when she saw Luna grimace. "Are you a changeling? Where's Luna, and what have you done with her?"

"Is it so hard to believe I'm nervous?"

"With you Luna, yes. You weren't nervous at the idea of fighting before now."

"I'm not nervous about fighting Twilight, I'm nervous about where the fight will take place. This is High Rock Twilight, the seat of the enemy's power, as well as the millennia long prison of a pony I shan't be naming too loudly. There is an awful lot riding on this battle. I'm surprised you're so at ease with it."

"I think I'm just relieved to be finally getting on with this. When we started this rebellion High Rock seemed like such a daunting prospect, yet here we are about to attack it and hopefully end this war. It's almost mindboggling how far we've come to be doing this, and in so short a time too."

"I suppose that's true, but I do think that you're being premature calling High Rock the end of the war. Who knows what might have changed in the two weeks since your brief visit there?"

Twilight shrugged. Plenty could've changed if she were honest, but the recent scouting sorties hadn't turned up much, so she wasn't going to worry about some huge unknown factors coming into play. They'd go there, obliterate the defences, then storm the keep, end of. Nothing short of a dragon attack would alter that plan.

Luna laughed as Twilight said as much. "Twilight, I feel you are horribly underestimating the unpredictability of ponies, and of the world we live in."

It turned out tanks were slow. Luna had said that they seemed a lot faster when they were bearing down on you, but right now they seemed to be crawling along at a snails pace, leaving Twilight to stress and fret as she had planned to meet the rest of their forces en route from Prance. Trixie would just have to wait.

What wouldn't wait was the collection of griffons waiting in the road, standing with professional disinterest as tonnes of iron and steel rolled up to them, the lead tank stopping barely a pony's length from them.

"What is going on?" Twilight asked out loud, she was about to step forwards when Luna held her back with a leg.

"Hide your wings Twilight. Something tells me this isn't a social visit." Twilight obeyed and walked up to the front where the griffons were still stood in the road, like they were waiting for something.

"Can we help you?" Twilight asked as she counted the griffons in her head. Fourteen in all, some females, but mostly males. Potentially a problem, but not a big one.

A large brown griffon that stood a head taller than the others studied Twilight, his eyes hard. Then he suddenly started smiling, "So the rumours are true, Mareitania revolts against its leader. Most intriguing."

"Why's that?"

"Because it means the treaties the Mareitanian government has with Equestria regarding outside threats no longer exist. Mareitania is ripe for the picking."

"Ugh," Luna groaned quietly, "raiders." Louder she said, "My good griffon, I think you'll find that Mareitania is still under Equestrian protection as this revolt is supported by Equestria. That means the treaties are still very much in place."

"Besides," Twilight added, a little confused by events, "as citizens of Equestria you should know that banditry, or raiding, or whatever...you..." Twilight fell quiet as the griffons laughed at her. Luna quietly facehoofed beside her. "What?"

"Poor ignorant little chick," the leader chuckled. "We aren't weaklings from that pathetic, pony loving dung heap Griffinstone. We're from the Empire."

"The Empire? Griffonia?" Twilight frowned with confusion, "But that's even further from here than Griffinstone is! And surely whatever it is that you're here to do is also illegal in Griffonia?"

"Certainly is," the griffon said cheerfully. He leaned in close, "Within Griffonia anyway. Not so much outside it. But seeing as how the treaties are still in place, clearly we made a mistake coming here. Of course, we'd be more inclined to believe you if the princess we heard was leading this told us herself."

"Even if such a thing were true," Luna replied quickly, before Twilight could accidentally reveal herself, "Why would her word mean more? If you truly want the definitive answer you should go to Equestria and ask Celestia herself. I assure you she would tell you the same that we have."

"Really? You seem to know a lot about what Celestia does for a country that's been in isolation for centuries."

"And you're not really raiders are you." Luna straightened up and narrowed her eyes at the griffon, "I suggest you return to your Emperor and tell him that Mareitania is still off limits."

The griffon bowed deeply, "Of course, Princess, but I can't force him to listen."

"If you saw us, I'm willing to bet you saw Mareitania's rebel army. The army consisting of thousands of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. If he won't listen to me or Celestia, then he might listen to all of them." Luna stared hard at the griffon until he bowed again.

"Of course Princess Luna, by your leave." The griffons took wing, and Twilight and Luna watched them until they were out of sight. Then Luna swore, loudly.

"What was that about?" Twilight asked nervously.

"That," Luna growled, "was the griffon Emperor trying to stomp his big fat claws over something that doesn't belong to him. That, and an attempt to expose the leader of the rebellion as an Equestrian princess, thus embarrassing Equestria. Fortunately for you they now think it is I that leads us."

"And how is that fortunate?"

"Because it means that you'll likely be left alone after we return to Equestria."

"But he doesn't know it was you. He never said your name."

"He didn't need to Twilight, he knew who I was, but not who you were. I suggest you accept that the griffons, and soon the world, think that it is I that leads the rebellion as it will mean much less grief for you."

Twilight didn't like it, and chewed her lower lip anxiously as she thought about it. Honestly she knew there was no way to inform the griffons that she was actually the leader, but it bothered her enough to want to fly after them and tell them. Realistically she knew she should just accept the situation, so she did. She had bigger things to worry about than some political farce with the griffons. There was still something she wanted to know.

"What would the griffons interest in this place be?"

"Resources and riches I believe. Being airborne creatures, griffons make poor miners so they have to contract out to other races to do it for them. At the same time though, griffons hate parting with money, and would rather steal what their Empire needs instead of pay for it. In todays more civilised world that is much harder for the Empire to do, so I imagine Mareitania looked far too tempting to not at least investigate. That, and the chance to embarrass Equestria for our direct involvement would be a rather happy bonus for that flabby fool of an Emperor."

Twilight didn't know what to say. In the space of a few minutes they'd discovered a whole new problem, one which could have far-reaching repercussions. "Seems you were right about that whole unpredictability thing."

"I suspect I may have jinxed us just by saying it."

"Probably." Twilight pointed a hoof back at the dozens of ponies behind them that had watched the whole exchange. "What are we telling them?"

"Where have you been?" Trixie demanded to know as the tanks caught up to the rest of the army.

"Tanks are slow, and there were griffons."

"Griffons? What do you mean griffons?"

"It's hard to explain, but it all adds up to us taking our sweet time getting here." Twilight cast an eye over their assembled forces, "What's the situation here?"

"Situation? What situation could there possibly be since we've been sat here doing fuck all for at least two hours!"

Twilight leant back from the spittle coming from Trixie's mouth, "Are you ready to go?" she asked plainly.

"Oh, well, yes we are."

"Good." Twilight spotted Snowbright making a beeline straight for her, and failed to keep the slump from her posture. "What now?"

"When were you going to tell me about the entire pack of traitors we have imprisoned in Whiplash?"

"I was going to tell you when the council told me to tell you. As it is, the matter is still being investigated by Fleur."

"Fleur?" Snowbright frowned at Twilight and pointed into the mass of ponies behind them, "Fleur is over there somewhere drinking tea with Octavia and Summer, and it doesn't seem like she's investigating anything at all to me."

"She is?" Twilight raised her head and saw half of Octavia being eclipsed by a soft pink mane that raised a tin mug to its owners mouth in a haze of magic. "So she is. Why is that?"

"Hey! I was talking to you!" Snowbright whined as Twilight made her way over to Fleur. As well as Octavia, Summer, the filly, and most surprisingly Seeker was there, all of them drinking tea and chatting comfortably.

"What are you doing here Fleur? I gave you a job to do."

Fleur looked up and pushed her mane to the side so she could better see Twilight. "Funny thing Twilight, on top of you not being the boss of me I realised that there should probably be a pony leading the Shades that isn't about to leave the country in a month or so. Instead I've put our best Shade on it, and if she does well she can be their official leader."

Twilight paused, realising that Fleur was actually right about that. "Alright, fair enough I suppose-"

"Then there's this whole thing with burying Pearl and finding her kids, and the possibility you might need my help at some point..."

"Okay, I get the picture. What about you Seeker? Are you sure you want to be here?"

"I intend to be as far from the battle as I can reasonably be. Otherwise, yes, I want to be here to see my past buried."

"Your past?" Trixie said, confused.

"She means Pearl, Trixie," Fleur answered for Seeker.

"Trixie knows that. I was just under the impression that she'd only been here a few years, so she can hardly be burying her entire past." Fleur's expression went flat, and she didn't bother saying anything, leaving Trixie to work it out herself. "What? Is it hard to be less dramatic and say what she means? She wants to bury parts of her past, not all of it." Trixie looked between the ponies around her, seeing their incredulous expressions, "What?"

"Stop trying to force a tangent Trixie," the filly said with a grin.

"Trixie is being totally serious."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Uh-huh. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

"You were about to tell me about all those new arrivals at Whiplash," Snowbright said from behind her, making Twilight duck her head slightly and curse.

Fleur answered in Twilight's stead, "It was a plot between the deposed nobles and the Duke's favoured leaders to overthrow whatever government we made through assassinations and suchlike. All taken care of so no need to worry your little head over it."

"And that isn't worth me knowing because..?"

"Maybe a dozen ponies outside of the plotters themselves know about it," said Twilight. "Excuse us for wanting to find out the whole story before we go around telling everypony."

Snowbright watched them coolly for several seconds before speaking, "Fine. I at least hope you're going to throw the full extent of the law at them?"

"Show him the book Twilight!" the filly shouted happily.

"Book? What book?"

"Nevermind." Twilight smiled at Snowbright, "I haven't decided to throw anything at anypony because that is no longer my job. If you really wish to see them all strung up you'll have to take it up with the council. As it is, the matter is still being investigated so nopony will be doing anything until the investigation is complete. Now, do you have anything to say about the upcoming battle?"

"Uh... No?"

"Then I think it's time we got underway to High Rock."

There was a certain sound to the mass of ponies that were making their way to High Rock. The fall of hooves, the hissing and clanking of the tanks, the sound of pegasus wings flapping above, the chatter. There was something Twilight found pleasing about it.

Sadly though, the topics of discussion weren't entirely to her liking. Besides the upcoming battle, news of their griffon visitors seemed to be the big issue, and every time she heard a snippet of conversation about it her ears folded a little lower.

Eventually the news spread to her friends, and she soon found herself surrounded by them as they gently demanded to know what's going on.

"Basically, the secret really is out now, but with the added twist that they think Luna's in charge instead of me."

"Why does it matter?" asked Trixie. "We knew we couldn't keep our involvement secret forever."

"We couldn't keep Equestria's involvement a secret Trix," said Fleur. "Our individual involvement, as well as a princesses was meant to be the secret part. I just don't get why the griffons feel the need to make an issue about it."

"Because griffons and ponies are ancient enemies," said Luna from beside them. They made room for her as she joined their group, falling into step with them. "The ancient griffon empire of Griffonia has attacked Equestria more than once in our history. We may have long been at peace now, but they still aren't fond of us, even if the dislike is one sided for the ponies of Equestria."

"Let me guess," Trixie said sarcastically, "They think we're weak and pathetic?"

"Actually it started out with ponies living on sacred ground or something, but I'm not really sure about that since they've given up pestering us about it. But yes they do think of ponies as weak. Funny really since we've beaten them any number of times. Griffons tend to go for the strength of the individual rather than the strength of the whole, which ironically makes them weaker."

"What about Griffinstone?" Octavia enquired.

"It used to be an outpost of Griffonia, until we captured it. It remained part of Equestria as its own little kingdom after the treaty, and we allowed its inhabitants to stay if they wish. Now griffons from there are ostracized by Griffonia almost as much as we ponies. Probably more so."

"We're getting off topic here," Fleur interrupted before the history lesson could continue. "What does this mean for Equestria? The griffons knowing about our involvement in the war?"

Luna sighed heavily, "It means that Equestria will be accused of meddling in the affairs of another country. I know that might not seem like a lot, but the international consensus for some time has been to let a country take care of itself."

"And?"

"And it just makes things more difficult. I can already suspect that some will accuse us of wanting to aid foreign ponies above other races, while some will say we're trying to absorb Mareitania into a greater Equestrian empire or something. Whatever each nation comes up with it shall mean trouble for us."

"So tell them the truth," said Octavia. "Tell them about the awful place this country used to be, and about the awful rule of the Duchy."

Luna shook her head dismissively, "It won't matter, we still will have instigated a rebellion in a foreign nation. Other nations will long be suspicious and on the lookout for us doing similar in countries we think would benefit from such."

"Then lie." Trixie smiled crookedly as the rest of them stared at her. "It's not like we have to tell the rest of the world exactly what happened. They have no proof that there are ponies from Equestria here, so why worry? At the very least we could tell them that the rebels asked for help with their cause, rather than have us be the ones who started it."

"Such could possibly soften the blow, but not nearly enough." Luna looked up at the sky, checking the position of the sun for the time, even though she instinctively knew anyway. "I shall warn my sister of it once we stop and make camp, and hope she can think of something. Speaking of, I suspect we are not far away now."

"I'll have a look." said Twilight, spreading her wings and taking off. By her reckoning they were a few miles out from their intended campsite, which was a few miles away from High Rock again. Even at this distance the tower of High Rock still seemed horribly large and daunting.
As she was watching she saw some of the pegasi fly to a point ahead on the road. Rather than wait to be told what was happening she flew up to them, and quickly saw what the problem was. Across the road and stretching into the woods on either side a trench had been dug and filled with spikes. Not a huge issue for the ponies as they could walk around, but the tanks would easily get stuck. Still seemed odd though, to have this here. It was enough to make her act on her suspicions.

"Spitfire, have your pegasi spread out and look for more traps." The Wonderbolt saluted and launched herself into the air to fulfill the order while Twilight started removing the spikes and pulling dirt from both sides of the trench into the pit to try and flatten it out enough for the tanks to pass.

"Ambush! Ambush!" Twilight jolted as the shouts from the pegasi reached her, and screamed as an arrow sliced a furrow into the top of her rear above her tail. She dropped down and tried to see where the arrow came from as her entire rear end throbbed. She couldn't tell until the ambusher fired again, and Twilight almost obliterated the tree they were hiding in.

"Shields up! Shields up!" Luna bellowed in the distance as the enemy arrows cut into their ranks. Sadly that wasn't enough to protect them as several loud thunks echoed around the forest, followed seconds later by the heavy projectiles from catapults that smashed straight through the hastily erected shields, and killed ponies by the dozen.

"No..." Twilight gasped, frozen to the spot as her mind failed to comprehend just what exactly was happening. In the distance she saw the pegasi dive for where the catapults were, only to rise back up and scatter as nets chased after them. They circled around for a moment, safely out of reach of the nets, then flew to the rear of the rebel army where the explosives were being transported.

Finally shaking herself out of her stupor, Twilight pushed herself into the air, fighting both gravity and wind resistance to get as high above the road as she could, as quick as she could. What she saw from up there was a mess. The ambush had done its job, and a large number of their army was...gone. Easily several hundred of their ponies now lay dead, hit by either an arrow, or by a catapult shot. It was only some very small consolation that the tanks hadn't been hit.

Explosions rocked the ground a moment later as the pegasi delivered their bombs to the catapults, destroying them from a distance the nets couldn't easily catch them at. As the catapults were taken out of action the rebels were finally able to erect shields to stave off the enemy crossbow fire. The remnant soldiers had done their job well though. In the space of a minute the rebels had taken their largest losses since the battle at Puddingarde.

Twilight couldn't meet anyponies eyes as she came in to land. Instead she was forced to look at the dead and dying, and prayed to whomever was listening that her friends weren't among them. Then she kicked herself for not seeing this ambush ahead of time. Had they got so complacent in their martial superiority that she didn't even consider such a thing?

"Twilight!" Luna shouted, the blue mare running over to Twilight. "You're bleeding. Is it bad?"

"It's just a scratch," Twilight croaked back.

"Good, because we're going to need every bit of help to get out of here. Right now we're pinned down by enemy fire, but that can be solved. The problem is there are an unknown number of soldiers still out there."

"That's why we need to get out there and hit them!" said Trixie. Her armour appeared piece by piece and spun around her as she quickly strapped it on. "Not sit here stuck behind our shields, especially since they won't hold forever."

"Too risky," Luna argued. "The forest is probably littered with traps and ambushes. It'd be a massacre."

"Yeah." Trixie's eyes gleamed, "For them."

"Trixie..."

"What? We should do what you say and sit here under fire? We might as well just bend over and spread 'em in that case."

"Trixie's right. Well, half right." Twilight studied the trees on both sides of the rebels, watching the arrows as they covered the distance only to bounce off the shields or shatter upon them. "We can't just go charging into the trees, but we do need to do something."

"Split the adepts and advance on the trees at both sides," said Snowbright as he jogged up to them. "Once we're into the tree line the fight becomes much more even." There was a shriek of pain as an arrow found a gap in the shield. The number of adepts they had was still down after Prance, and they simply couldn't cover everypony.

"Do it," said Twilight, since she couldn't think of a better plan. "Luna, take the right side. Trixie and I will go left. Snowbright, can you make sure Fleur, Octavia, Summer, the filly, and the other medics are safe before joining Luna."

"They're fine," Trixie told her. "They're hiding in the tanks. And frankly I don't think you've seen anything until you've seen a zebra smack an arrow out of the air.

Twilight released a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "Thank goodness," she whispered. She nodded to herself then gestured for Trixie to follow her. "We're taking the lead Trixie, but take it slow. The last thing we need is to run into a trap or ambush and get ourselves killed."

"That's fine for you to say. I don't get a guarantee on surviving death a second time."

"Advance on my mark." Twilight added her own shield to the defence, allowing the adepts to close up a lot of the gaps. They waited for a lull in the crossbow fire, but it never really seemed to change in quantity, so Twilight gave up waiting for it. "Go!"

The bushes lining the edge of the forest gave way to their shields, and were trampled under hoof as they held their formation. Even a single adept out of place could give an arrow room to hit a target. Unfortunately they couldn't hold it as they met the trees, but that problem was solved as their camouflaged opponents could now be seen hiding amongst the reds, yellows, and oranges of the autumnal trees.

Twilight pulled one out of a tree where he was quickly finished off by an earth pony with a sword, and Trixie peppered trees with her own magic. It still wasn't enough though, and as they were forced to split up for the trees the enemy seemed to double their efforts, increasing their rate of fire while the rebels were vulnerable.

There was a scream from Twilight's left as an adept fell into a trap, a pit of spikes covered by twigs and leaves. Whether by luck or something else the mare survived and Twilight carefully picked the screaming mare out of the trap and laid her on the back of an earth pony who carried her back to the tanks without saying a word.

"We can't keep this up Twilight," Trixie growled from beside her. "They're going to pick us apart before we even get a chance to reach them. The whole slowly advance with shields thing isn't working here!"

"I know!" Twilight took in their surroundings, but there wasn't much to see other than how screwed they were either way. The enemy had cover and range, whereas the rebels lacked a large amount of their usual ability because the trees made shields difficult, and stopped the pegasi from helping much at all.

"Just call the charge Twilight!"

"Alright! Adepts fall back and provide ranged fire. The rest of you get ready to charge, and watch out for traps!" Twilight lowered her stance and readied herself. "Charge!"

The shields dropped and they all rushed forwards as one. Colourful bolts of magic flew overhead, gouging great chunks of wood out of the trees, the explosions of splinters putting the hidden archers off firing as they protected themselves from the stinging shards.

Twilight probed the ground ahead of herself as she ran, uncovering and if possible destroying any traps and pitfalls before they could claim any of her ponies. Sadly her reach was limited at the speed she was galloping, and she knew she couldn't get them all.

All too soon though they met their enemy head on, the soldiers seemingly unprepared for the sudden charge, and two fell to Twilight's magic before they could even so much as reload their crossbows or unsheathe their melee weapons. The third pony was a bit faster though, and she ducked as a sword swung through the air where her head had been. She twisted her head and unleashed a blast of magic up at the side of his chest, blowing him away and killing him instantly.

She drew Swordy, the blade singing through the air as she put him to work alongside her magic. It still wasn't easy though, the soldiers had cover and knew the area well enough to plan their attacks. The charge might have caught them off guard, but they had planned for it. The soldiers on the ground held the rebels attention while the archers in the trees picked off the rebels as fast as they could.

The tide was turning though as the sheer weight of the rebels broke through the enemy. The trees had hidden the soldiers numbers, and truthfully there wasn't as many of them as there had seemed to be at first. Barely five hundred soldiers tried to hold off the far more numerous rebels, and inevitably failed. Between Twilight and Trixie they fell quickly, and the story was likely similar on Luna's side of the battle.

The soldiers on the ground scattered, and Twilight turned her attention to the soldiers in the trees. Not many of them remained as the withering fire from the adepts reduced many of the trees to smouldering husks. There were still plenty left though, firing with wild abandon as their escape was taken from them, and Twilight shot her own magic back up into the trees until the archers were either dead, or the branch they sat on broke.

"Ma'am!" Spitfire broke through the canopy and stopped to hover on front of Twilight. "The enemy are making a break for it. Should we pursue?"

Twilight knew there wasn't much point in doing so, but she was in no mood to accept that argument against herself. Frankly, if none of them made it back to High Rock, then there was no way for their enemy to learn just how bad they'd hurt the rebels with this ambush.

"Alright," Twilight said, and Spitfire raced back up through the trees and started shouting orders that Twilight could barely make out.

"You're bleeding pretty bad Twilight." Twilight looked up as Trixie spoke to her, surprised to see her still here and so calm after fighting. Trixie nodded to Twilight's side, and she looked back to see blood trickling down her back right leg from the wound she sustained earlier.

"I'll live. You should be more concerned with getting the other wounded back to the tanks, see if those new healing devices we got are as good as I hope they are."

"But-!"

"Now, Trixie."

"Fine." Trixie left her, and a few moments later there was a cry of pain as a mare was plucked off the ground and draped over her back. More ponies were picked up as Trixie went, drifting in her magic beside her. Twilight wondered if Trixie really knew how much more powerful her magic was becoming.

She wasn't allowed to ponder it for long as a stab of pain travelled across her rear. Now the adrenaline was wearing off she could feel every bit of pain from her wound. She supressed a whimper as her entire rear end throbbed, but her cry of pain would only be a drop in the ocean of ponies around her that were far worse off. Rather than focus on her own temporary pains, she pushed herself into action, picking up as many wounded as she could to get them help.

It was chaos back at the tanks as the road filled up with row upon row of wounded. The medics rushed back and forward, trying to help as many ponies as they could, while the new S.h.d's were almost thrown at any unicorn standing nearby that wasn't doing much. Even Fleur was using one, sat as calmly as she could as she shone the healing light on the pony at her hooves.

"Twilight, are you badly injured?" Luna asked, the mare having run up to Twilight as soon as the purple alicorn came into sight.

"No more than the last time you asked."

"Good." Luna pressed one of the older healing devices to Twilight's chest, "I suggest you get to work then. We have far more wounded than we can treat at the moment, so every little counts."

"Right." Twilight found a stallion across from Fleur, a wound on his chest making a horrible sucking noise as he fought for each breath. Why he was being left to die was anyponies guess, but if he wasn't top priority, Twilight hated to imagine what kind of injuries were.

"Hey," Fleur said quietly as Twilight put her magic to work, powering the device. She sniffed and wiped away some tears. "Sorry."

"What for?"

"Crying. Being a coward. Whichever."

"Why are you calling yourself a coward?"

"Because I am one? As soon as the ambush started I grabbed the filly and hid, then hid in a tank as soon as I could."

"And?"

"And I'm a coward! For fuck sake Twilight, even Seeker joined in the fighting! But me? I ran and hid, too terrified to even grab a crossbow and fire back from a distance."

"So what? They all know what happened to you Fleur. Nopony expects you to be brave after that-"

"I expect me to be brave Twilight! Instead I just hid while others ran into enemy fire, getting themselves hurt and killed. I'm pathetic."

Twilight closed her eyes and exhaled angrily, "You know what Fleur, I don't have the patience for this right now, so here it is. Nopony thinks you're a coward except yourself. You're not here to fight, so I think it's forgivable if you don't, so stop beating yourself up over it because now is really not the time for a fucking pity party okay?"

"Okay," Fleur mumbled back.

Twilight growled in the back of her throat, partly at Fleur, partly at herself. "I'm sorry for yelling, but now really isn't the time, y'know?"

"No, no, you're right, it isn't. Honestly I shouldn't have needed to be told that." A mare a few meters away gasped and shuddered, growing still as her life slipped away from her. "Fucking hell..." Fleur whispered, "How does anypony do this?"

"Just focus on the pony you're healing Fleur. We'll save as many as we can, but thinking about the ones you couldn't will only drive you nuts."

"But that's horrible!"

"I know." Twilight watched the stallion she was working on. The wound was closing slowly, but was still far too open for her liking. If it wasn't for her getting there when she did he'd likely be dead by now. "How's the power drain on that healing device?" she asked to distract herself.

"It's okay I guess. I could probably keep going for another hour, maybe more. It's pretty fast too. I'm actually sat here watching her flesh slowly knit back together. It won't be long until she's fully healed."

"Can she survive like she is?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then move onto somepony else. We don't need to completely heal them, just enough so they keep on living without help."

"Okay." Fleur shuffled over to the next most wounded pony she could see, and started the process all over again. Meanwhile, part of Twilight was busy being jealous that somepony managed to improve her design even more than she herself had thought possible. She knew how to fix the power drain issue, but to speed up the healing...

Twilight almost laughed at herself. Of all the things to have an issue with right now, that was what she came up with. How dare a pony create a way to save even more ponies. Bastard.

"Are you alright Twilight? You're giggling to yourself, and it's really fucking creepy."

"I was? Sorry. Blame blood loss and the after effects of adrenaline."

"You're not about to pass out are you?"

"No, I don't think so." Twilight looked down her side, happy to see she wasn't sitting in a puddle of blood. "I think the bleeding's stopped now. I'll probably be healed by tonight."

"Lucky cow."

"Hey," Twilight wiggled the healing device in her magic, "I'm sharing aren't I?"

"Eight hundred dead, almost as many wounded."

Twilight didn't want to believe what Snowbright said. Over a tenth of their army taken out of action in the space of ten minutes. It was still well within the realm of 'acceptable losses,' but when they hadn't made it to the battlefield yet it didn't seem very acceptable.

"How many of theirs got away?"

"None I think," Spitfire answered. "Although we were pretty close to High Rock by the time we caught the remainder, and there's no way we couldn't have been spotted."

"I guess they know we're coming then," Snowbright sighed.

"I guess they knew anyway since they ambushed us."

"Not exactly," said Spitfire. "There was a camp around the catapults, so I think they've been out here for a few days at least. Maybe even since getting our letter refusing peace."

"I concur," said Luna. "Trying to set up an ambush like that would take time. I suspect that too much of our focus has been on the keep itself that we missed what was going on around it."

"Great," Trixie whined, "so we're stupid and shortsighted. At least they won't know just how bad that ambush hurt us."

Lets just focus on getting the dead and wounded taken care of," said Twilight, "and think of what we should do now."

"I've sent a flier back to Prance to fetch transport for the dead and injured," said Snowbright. "They should be here by this evening. In the meantime I suggest leaving some of our forces with the wounded while the rest of us carry on to our destination."

"Alright," Twilight agreed, "although I think we'll have to make some changes to our plans. Luna, how many pegasus bombs do we have left after the ambush?"

"Enough to do the task, but not enough to allow for inaccuracies such as tends to happen when dropping bombs while under crossbow fire."

"I thought as much, which is why I want to have the thestrals bomb their defences tonight under cover of darkness. Thestrals are almost invisible when flying in the dark, so they should have a better chance to line up their shots."

"And it'll teach them not to fuck with us," Trixie growled, "and that we won't be stopped so easily."

"I don't think they were trying to stop us Trixie," said Luna. "More likely they just wanted to show us that they can still hurt us, even if it cost them a significant number of soldiers."

"Even so, they should pay for that, and a little night-time bombing to say hello sounds good to me."

"Let's just get to our campsite first."

Even though she'd seen it before, High Rock still seemed all too massive. Standing on a ridge a couple of miles away, Twilight couldn't quite comprehend how big it was. And yet, it wasn't. It was just one keep, with one walled compound below it that was likely now empty, one zigzagging road that led up to the main entrance, and a bunch of gates and walls. All perfectly mundane things that shouldn't make it any more intimidating than any other place they've captured. Honestly Prance was bigger by a considerable margin.

Maybe it was the anticipation behind it that made it more intimidating, or the importance. There was no denying that the Duchy was broken at this point, but that wasn't to say it could regrow like a weed if they failed to kill it at the root.

Maybe Twilight just couldn't admit to herself that she was scared. Not of the fighting itself, but that they were on the brink of winning, and she was terrified of what could happen if they lost. Most terrifying of all was having to think of what to do with what lurked beneath High Rock. Faust had the potential to be far more dangerous than anything they had dealt with so far, and if the Duke released her...

Twilight rapidly shook her head, trying to dislodge those thoughts before she could think of nothing else. Faust being released would be just as bad for the Duke as it would be for the rest of them, and Twilight knew that she was over imagining such things. She wasn't the only one, as Luna had confided being sick with worry about meeting her so called mother.

Trixie and Fleur were also having their own troubles, although Trixie's was far more predictable. Ever since they set up camp she'd been pacing back and forward, her eyes never leaving the keep for long, and she looked ready to tear the place down on her own. Fleur on the other hoof had set her eyes on the keep, whimpered a 'nope,' and had hid in a tent with the filly ever since. Sometimes Twilight heard her crying. What Octavia's and Summer's opinion on the place might be was still unknown as they were still with the wounded.

Twilight kept watching the keep, even hours later after the sun had set and the rest of their forces joined them. She stayed there with a hot drink until darkness hid the keep mostly from sight, although she could still see its silhouette. She tried to get some sleep, but only managed a few hours of tossing, turning, and bad dreams before giving up and returning to her spot where she stayed until Shadow disturbed her.

"Here to watch the fireworks?"

"Or more likely I just can't sleep."

"Nervous?"

"Yes and no. It's complicated."

There was a jingle from the harness Shadow was wearing to carry the bombs as the thestral sat beside Twilight. "Can you even see the keep?"

Twilight laughed, "Not really, although I imagine I'll see it soon enough. You know, I really can't imagine what it's like to see in the dark."

"And I can't imagine what it'd be like not to be able to. Seems odd to say that I'm over two hundred years old, and I have no real idea what darkness looks like, and probably never will." Shadow sighed as she looked up at the moon, "Princess Luna's nervous too, although she won't say why."

"That's...complicated too."

"Is complicated just an alicorn thing? Or is it that you make simple things complicated just to maintain an air of mystery? Most thestrals get to at least five hundred before ennui sets in and we start making life hard for ourselves just to make it interesting, but you're not nearly that old."

"How long does puberty last for your kind?"

"A couple of decades? Why?"

"Just curious."

"Uh-huh. Well, hold your curiosity for later. It'll be dark soon so we better get on with this bombing, and hopefully this time I remember not to look at the explosions."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't see a damned thing afterwards. Later Twi."

A few minutes later the sound of leathery wings passed over Twilight as she sat in anticipation of something actually happening. She wasn't to be disappointed.

A bright flash lit up the keep, followed by another, and another. Several seconds later the sounds of the explosions reached where Twilight was sat watching, and kept coming as the explosions went on. Ponies started stumbling out of tents as the noise woke them, and Twilight quickly found herself surrounded by others.

She ignored them though, and kept watching even as they started to cheer, blocking out the sounds of the exploding bombs. It was a small loss though as the flashes continued and the flames that sprung up around the keep lit it with a hellish orange glow. It was loud, violent, destructive, and something Twilight would only wish on her worst enemy, which was highly appropriate, and as she imagined the pants wetting fear the Duke must be enduring right now, she had to admit that after today, it felt pretty good.

Author's Notes:

Suddenly a random cat-bird appears. The problem I have here is that I'm hinting at stuff that isn't really important to this story, but the sequel(s, maybe, depends how it goes), so even I feel it's a little pointless adding it in. Yes, there's a sequel. Don't get too excited as I have to finish this first, obviously.