The fires around High Rock still smouldered the next morning as the liberation front prepared themselves for battle by eating a hearty breakfast, except for Trixie, who had eschewed eating, sleeping, and almost drinking until Twilight had threatened to force liquids down her.

Octavia hummed cheerfully as she sipped from a tin mug and packed her saddlebags with the supplies she knew she was likely to need for the day ahead. She kept humming cheerfully as Twilight walked by, stopped, turned back and questioned just why exactly Octavia was so cheerful considering the day before.

"Because maybe I've finally cracked Twilight, who knows? Or maybe it's because I've decided that after today I quit. No more injuries, blood, screaming and dead bodies for this pony, I'm out."

"And Summer?"

"She'll keep going. In fact, we've discussed it and she'd like to do something similar when we return to Equestria."

Twilight looked up at Summer and smiled at her, "Is that true? You want to be a nurse or a doctor?"

"Mmhmm. I think that if Equestria is going to give me a home away from..." Summer gestured all around herself, "here, then I think it's only fair that I give something back if I can."

"That's very thoughtful of you Summer. You really are an amazing pony, you know that?" Twilight said, making Summer blush. "Anyway, are you both ready?"

Octavia clipped her bags shut and lugged them over her back. "No," she muttered, "but since when has that ever mattered..."

The way she said it made Twilight wince guiltily, "I'm sorry you had to go through all this-"

"Oh don't Twilight," Octavia interrupted. "We're not doing anything we didn't agree to, so you don't have to go feeling guilty on our account. Honestly Twilight, if you hadn't taught these unicorns magic, and if the Wonderbolts hadn't taught the pegasi how to fight, this war would be a lot harder and a lot more bloody, so I can at least be thankful for that."

"Uh, thanks, I guess." Twilight stood awkwardly for a long few seconds, not really sure what to say after that. Ultimately she decided to move on before her embarrassment got worse. "Have you seen Fleur this morning?"

"Still hiding I'm afraid," Octavia replied. "It's almost like this place is tied to a horribly traumatic event in her recent past or something."

"Yeah, I should probably go talk to her." Twilight left Octavia and Summer to sit impatiently while she weaved her way through the camp to Fleur's tent. She stopped and pressed an ear to the side, all to aware that they might see her inside, but nopony said anything about it so Twilight shrugged and rapped a hoof on one of the tent poles.

"Who is it?" Fleur croaked from within. She sounded like she'd crying for some time.

"It's me, Twilight. I was wondering if I could tempt you to leave the tent?"

"...no?"

The filly whined plaintively, "Pleeease make her leave the tent, even if you have to force her. It's so boring in here, and it's starting to smell of fear, humiliation, and other confusing things, and I swear I'm going to get immersion syndrome if she hugs me any tighter and cries on me any more!"

Twilight stuck her head in through the entrance and sampled the odour within. The filly hadn't been too far off, although she'd missed out the crippling self doubt, but there wasn't really a describable smell for that, or for the sullen white unicorn that was curled up around the filly in the corner.

"I don't want to be the kind of pony to tell you what to do, but you really need to leave the tent Fleur."

"Don't wanna. Come back for me after you win."

"It'll still be exactly the same place Fleur."

"Don't care."

"Stop being childish Fleur."

"What do you want me to be Twilight!?" Fleur shouted in sudden anger. "Do you want me to just walk in there with a big happy smile on my face while thinking 'yeah, this is totally fine,' because if so, you're going to be disappointed."

"No, but I want you to remember that you wanted to come here, you wanted to bury Pearl with her partner, and you want to keep that totally unobligated agreement you never actually made with her to make sure her kids are okay. And don't think I haven't seen you wearing that necklace Pearl made."

Fleur covered the necklace of her cutie mark with a hoof and stammered as she fought for a reply, "Yeah, well, f-fuck you, you stupid...purple...horse!"

"Oh that is it, nopony calls me stupid and purple in the same sentence." Twilight's magic clamped around Fleur and dragged her out of the tent. The filly dropped to the ground with a squawk and chased after them as Twilight carried Fleur to her vantage point where she planted Fleur on the ground and forced her to look at the keep in front of them.

"I don't see how this is helping!" The filly shouted, only to be ignored.

"What do you see Fleur?" Twilight waited for the answer, but when she got none she looked at Fleur, finding the white unicorn's eyes clamped tightly shut. She rolled her own eyes and forced Fleur's open with her magic. "What do you see?"

"Ah! Fucking High Rock Twilight! Let go of me!"

"And what do you see around High Rock?"

"I don't know! Fires?"

"Exactly, because we bombed it last night." Twilight released her hold on Fleur's eyelids, but kept holding her in place as Fleur tried to blink her discomfort away before glaring at Twilight. "High Rock isn't some terrible bastion of doom Fleur. At most it's the end of the war. At the very least it's a neatly arranged pile of rocks that could be arranged very differently by the end of today. The building itself is harmless Fleur. It's the ponies in it that are the problem."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that nopony expects you to go on a nostalgic trip through the dungeons, but what you're really scared of is gone, and hopefully by the end of today everything else scary in there will be gone too, leaving just a building behind. Are you really going to be afraid of a building Fleur, or are you going to face your fear and walk in there with your head held high, surrounded by thousands of well armed ponies on your side, as well as your friends who will make sure nothing in there hurts you?"

"Might be one less friend after this," Fleur growled.

"And I'd hate for that to happen, but if it means you can do so much as even look at that place without wanting to run, then it might be worth it. Please don't make it have to be worth it."

"Have you ever been locked up and tortured Twilight?"

"I can't say I have."

"Then you really are missing the point here." Fleur lowered her head as she kept her eyes on the keep, "Let go of me Twilight." Twilight obliged and released her grip on Fleur, allowing her to stand and roll her shoulders before punching Twilight across the face as hard as she could, knocking the alicorn to the ground. "You all better fucking be there for me when I have to go in there," she said, holding a hoof threateningly in front of Twilight's face.

Twilight clicked her jaw, "Ah... Do I get a pass if I die again?"

"Nope, I'll just drag your corpse with me."

"Then I'll be there no matter what, apparently."

"Good." Fleur left them, but Twilight was at least pleased to see her head was held a little bit higher.

"You really are a stupid purple horse," Octavia said after a few seconds as Twilight pulled herself back onto her hooves and rubbed her jaw.

"You heard that?"

"And memorised it!" Trixie shouted from further away. "Now if you're done with your therapy sessions can we get a fucking move on!?"

The open space in front of High Rock filled up with rebel soldiers in a display that anypony within the keep likely found rather disconcerting at the very least. What might've seemed less disconcerting was that the rebels kept their distance from the keep as a small number of them had an argument.

"You can't seriously expect the pegasi to clear all their defences out while the tanks advance Twilight," Luna said, Spitfire subtly nodding her agreement beside her.

"And I don't, but this is an uphill battle, with walls and defences, and last I checked crossbows can't fire around corners. Magic can, but it's a lot harder than firing in straight lines. If the pegasi can distract the defenders, there'll be a lot less fire concentrated on the tanks and ponies following them up."

"Yes, but that is still the pegasi doing all the work."

"As usual," another pegasus grumbled from nearby.

"That's not to mention that the walls of the defences are honeycombed with tunnels that can protect their soldiers while still allowing them to attack us," Luna continued.

"Yes, and clearing those tunnels out won't be the pegasi's job, but we still have to get to the entrance of those tunnels, which will require the pegasi to provide some cover as the adepts shield the forces following the tanks up."

"Then why didn't you say that? You made it sound like you expected the pegasi to do everything!"

"Why are we yelling!?"

"I don't know!" Luna scratched her head and sighed, "You didn't know about the tunnels did you?"

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "I don't know how you do," she said back.

"First off, can you see the slots at regular intervals along their walls?" Twilight said she did. "Clue number one. Then there's the fact that this was all built during the war of the three tribes, so making pegasus proof defences was a must. Thirdly, it's exactly what I would do."

"Alright, fine. Honestly I thought the slots were just decorative." Twilight blew her cheeks out as she tried to think. There was only two reasonable methods of dealing with this that she could think of. First was to storm the tunnels and clear them out. Second was to block all their firing points and exits and force them to wait in their hole until the battle ended. That wasn't fool proof though as she had no idea how many exits they had.

"Guess there's only one thing for it then. Luna, you're in charge of clearing inside the lower wall. Trixie, you can take the middle while I take the top one. Snowbright, you're securing the village below. The pegasi are still going to have to take care of the soldiers on the outside though, and save what bombs you have left for the net launchers. Is that acceptable?"

Spitfire saluted, "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Luna? Trixie? Is that acceptable?" Both ponies nodded, although the expression Trixie wore suggested she didn't care and just wanted to get on with it. Since it surprised Twilight that Trixie was still being a team player through this she decided to get things underway. "Is the gate buster ready?" she asked Luna.

"Almost. I just need to activate the trigger and rig the controls so it heads straight for the gate. Although, saying that, it might be best if you guide it most of the way Twilight, so that you can correct its course should the undulations of the ground disturb its path."

"If you want me to, sure."

"Excellent! I shall be but a minute." Luna bustled off to their poor sacrificial tank, which as Twilight had come to understand was so full of explosives that only the drivers cockpit remained clear. It promised to be quite the explosion when it went off.

The sound of teeth grinding drew her attention to Trixie, who was glaring up at the keep with the kind of intensity that was normally reserved for predators hunting prey. "You can damage your teeth doing that."

"Do you honestly think I fucking care right now?"

"No, but I was going to say it anyway. I realise you're, well, not excited as such, but keen maybe? Whatever, either way you should calm down. Being this wound up now isn't going to help."

"Twilight, do I tell you how to do your job?"

"Yes, quite often."

"I- Huh... I guess Trixie does sometimes. Whatever, just quit nagging me." The fact that Trixie snuck a third pony reference in there satisfied Twilight that Trixie was mostly all there. She was still worried though. That worry was put behind her though as Luna announced the tank was ready to go.

"You'll be better off standing on the top so you can fly away once you're close enough." Luna gestured for Twilight to join her on the tank, and pointed to the two levers on either side of the drivers chairs, "Push those forwards to move and release pressure on one side to steer in that-"

"I know how it works Luna, I had Honeydew explain it all in unnecessary detail yesterday. Just tell me how to keep the tank moving once it's close to the gate."

"There's two brackets by the levers. Attach them and they'll hold the levers forwards so the tank keeps moving straight."

"Got it. Let's get this over with then." Twilight waited until Luna jumped off the tank and pushed the levers forward, almost falling over as the metal behemoth jerked into motion. "Okay, let's try for a bit smoother than that in future," Twilight told herself.

A couple of minutes passed with her diligently holding the levers in position, and correcting any alterations in course. The keep loomed above her, and the main gate lay in front of her, the stone arch above it lined with enemy soldiers who seemed to be watching the tank approach with more curiosity than anything. All the same, Twilight raised a shield because they were likely to start shooting at some point. Then she looked back, finding that she had barely covered a quarter of the distance to the gate.

"Dear Celestia this thing is slow!"

"Oh come on!" Trixie whined. "I can walk faster than that!"

"These things were hardly designed for speed Miss Lulamoon," said Luna. "Although I could have told her about the valve that puts all available steam into speed instead of power."

"Ya think? Do you want to run out there and tell her?"

"No-no, I don't want to embarrass her in front of all those soldiers. Besides, she might forget to turn it back after as the power is important to how this works. Besides, it's really not that much faster."

"I really never thought that riding a tank laden with explosives to blow up the front entrance to a giant keep's defences could be so boring," Twilight mused as she passed what she optimistically hoped to be the halfway mark.

She hummed to herself, then started changing the colour of her shield until it looked she was being protected by a psychedelic disco ball, but even that grew old by the time she reached the three quarters mark. She did think she was close enough now as the first of the enemies shots bounced off her funky protection, so she locked the levers in position and took flight back to where the others were, covering the distance in about twenty seconds at a fairly lazy speed.

The tank had barely moved by the time she got there. "It hasn't stopped has it?"

Luna squinted as she held her hoof over her eyes, "No, it is still definitely moving. Another minute or so and it should be there."

"Y'know, I really thought this'd be a lot more exciting." They waited a bit longer, and the tank finally made contact with the gate with a thok that echoed around the clearing. It didn't explode, but it did keep moving, it's treads churning up the ground as it pushed the gate, the gate only just holding it back. "Luna?"

"Wait for it..."

They waited. "It's not blowing up Luna."

"Wait for it..."

"Luna, I really think this-" The tank exploded with a noise that almost transcended sound itself to become something you felt, mostly in your teeth. A great number of the rebels, Twilight included, fell over from shock as the ground trembled from the force of the explosion. Fire reached up into the sky, taking chunks of tank and masonry with it, and it seemed to take a long time for them to come back down. Smaller bits fell with a gentle pitter-pattering sound, while larger pieces thudded into the ground, sometimes uncomfortably close to where they were standing.

Twilight pulled herself back to her hooves, her eyes locked on the cloud of dust and smoke in the distance, highlighted orange from flames. If the gate survived that she seriously considered giving up and going home. She didn't have to worry though. The clouds cleared, revealing that the gate was gone, the arch over it non-existent, and a not insignificant amount of wall surrounding it was missing. The only thing remaining was the underneath of the tank, burning fiercely.

"I think it worked." Twilight said it again, unsure she actually said anything because she couldn't hear her own voice. "Shit."

Luna had tears in her eyes, "That... Was beautiful."

"What?"

"I think my teeth are still rattling," Trixie muttered. "So, are we going to attack now?"

"What?"

"Why can't I hear you? Oh," Trixie said as she worked it out, "Great." While keeping Twilight's attention she gestured at their army, then pointed at the keep.

"I can't hear what you're saying Trixie. I think the explosion damaged my hearing."

"What?"

"What? Oh nevermind, lets start the attack." Twilight waved until she caught the attention of the tank ponies, and made a gesture that she hoped meant that they should begin the attack. Seeing as how they all jumped into their tanks and pulled the hatches closed behind them, she took that to mean they understood her. A moment later they set into motion.

"When should we start hitting them ma'am?" Spitfire asked, surprising Twilight simply because she was able to hear it.

"Same time as the rest of us. Soon as the tanks reach the entrance is probably best. Try to keep away from where the tanks are firing too. In fact, just try to keep your pegasi out of trouble as best you can. Use your own judgement."

"If you say so ma'am."

"I do as a matter of fact." It felt as though all those nerves that Twilight had suppressed for the last few days were suddenly bubbling up now the attack was actually happening, and she could tell she was babbling because of that. "I'm going to go follow the tanks now. Carry on Captain." She could feel Spitfire watching her as she trotted to catch up.

Close up it seemed that the entrance they had made wasn't as clear as she hoped. Mostly it was chunks of stone and pieces of tank, both of which the tanks either went straight over or pushed aside, but the blackened remains of the tank weren't so easily ignored. Neither were the still large pieces of burning gate that blocked the road.

Arrows rained down on the shield Luna erected around Twilight and Trixie as they moved the debris out of the way. Cleaning up really was an odd start to the battle, and it seemed strangely amusing that their assault was stymied until they did. It didn't take long though, and within minutes the tanks were lined up two by two to begin their push up the ramp.

"Snowbright, secure the village," Twilight commanded, the white stallion throwing a lazy salute her way before leading a couple thousand of their number away. Twilight left it to him as she focused her own efforts on protecting her soldiers from the rain of enemy fire from above.

"I feel like this is going well," Luna said from Twilight's left. "Almost like this is going too well." She ducked as an explosion sounded, followed by another as the two leading tanks firing their first salvos against the gate at the top of the ramp. Behind them, whoever was able was firing up at the enemy soldiers, although none of them really hit anything.

"I'm fine with this going well Luna," Twilight grunted back. The withering fire her shield was taking was actually less than what she thought it would be, but still enough to require some effort on her part. Luna chatting into her ear wasn't exactly helping.

"Well, yes, I should hope so. I just can't help but feel like something is missing." The tanks fired again, and this time Twilight watched the explosive orbs sail through the air before impacting against the gate in a fiery explosion. To give the probably long dead builders their due, the gate was holding well.

"They should really be aiming for the hinges of the gate," Luna commented conversationally, like she were watching a movie rather than participating in a battle. "Knocking the gates over is a lot easier than trying to destroy them outright."

Twilight gave up, "Luna, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm babbling Twilight, because-" Her voice was drowned out by the sound of more explosions, but that didn't seem to phase Luna as she kept on talking. "-and I'm not sure how I feel about this method of attack. It's too easy and I don't like it."

The tanks struck gold, and one of the stone pillars supporting the first set of gates crumbled, taking one half of the gate with it as it fell back away from the ramp. What Luna's feelings were on the matter were disregarded as Twilight let Luna take over the shield entirely as she took wing, flying over the tanks to drag the gate away and push the still standing one open. Then she paused as the sheer lack of resistance caught her attention, and she picked up on Luna's sense of unease as nopony was manning the gate.

Twilight stepped aside as the tanks crawled over the lip of the ramp and into the flat area behind the gate where the tanks would change position, allowing the middle two tanks to take the lead as the tanks currently leading no longer had a full payload.

While that was happening they located the tunnels running through the first of the walls, sealed shut with a heavy iron door that locked from the inside. That was easily solved by Luna pressing the blades of Artemis and Apollo to the metal, chilling it to the point where the bolt holding it shut shattered from the pressure of Twilight and Luna pulling on it. Shouts echoed from the tunnel behind, and a few arrows followed.

Luna filled the tunnel with a shield protecting herself and the ponies about to follow her as she brandished her weapons with a practiced ease. "I shall meet you at the top once I am done Twilight."

"Yeah, good luck in there." Twilight lingered by the doorway for a minute as Luna charged in. She didn't know why as all she could hear was the sound of some very brief fights that usually ended with cut-off screams and shouts.

"Hey Twilight!" Trixie shouted, drawing Twilight's attention from what Luna was doing. "We're waiting for you! Come on!"

Twilight pulled herself away and retook her place behind the tanks as they started their trek up to the next set of gates, Trixie falling into place beside her.

"Twilight, I know this isn't the point, and we have some pretty cool explosions happening, but this battle is really disappointing. Where's the resistance here? They're hardly trying to stop us Twilight; that ambush did more damage than this."

"I know, but it doesn't matter; we keep advancing all the same." The lead tanks started firing again, and taking the lessons learnt from the first ramp they aimed for the hinges of the gates, taking a bit less time to bring the gate down than before. As before, Twilight flew ahead to clear the way, and was again put off by the lack of ponies trying to kill her.

Trixie wasted no time in forming crystals around the frame of the door to the tunnels she was meant to clear. Metal squealed as the pressure popped the door out, and it was as much as a couple of adepts could do to keep up with Trixie as the reckless mare raced in. Twilight didn't stop this time as she'd heard more than enough of Trixie's work over the last few months.

The tanks were already starting up the third and final ramp, and due to its shorter length were already lobbing their payloads at the gate at the top. This gate seemed to be much sturdier than the previous two, being the last line of defence save for the keep itself. While the explosives would likely have proven effective in the end, the simpler solution was to ram it open, so the tanks kept moving.

Twilight didn't see it first, despite being in the lead, and she really couldn't tell what the ponies behind her had started shouting about until she saw the ramp sag under the two leading tanks. By then it was far too late to do anything as a section of the ramp collapsed entirely, and it was all Twilight could do to not cry in horror as the two tanks slid down the almost vertical slope in a hail of rubble, smash through the wall below, and continue tumbling down the cliff face, crashing over the ramps, and through any ponies unfortunate to be standing in the wrong place, although the falling debris probably claimed more than the tanks themselves.

The sound was horrible. The sight even worse.

The collapse of the ramp spread, and the outside tank of the second row found the road slowly vanish from beneath it, and it soon joined its fellows at the bottom of the cliff. The tank beside it slowly crawled back from the edge until it hit the tank behind. Despite the cacophony of sound the falling tanks had made, a deathly silence fell on the battle, at least until the cheers of the defenders made themselves heard.

"Fall back. Fall back!" Twilight screamed, not really sure what else to do. She didn't follow her own advice though. She flew down to the middle defences, flying straight into the hole the falling tanks had made. "Trixie!" she shouted as loud as she could, the dust burning her eyes and choking her lungs. "Trixie!"

"What the fuck just happened?" Trixie said from the gloom left by the dust. She walked forwards until she could see Twilight, "It sounded like we were hit by a train."

Twilight sighed with relief as she saw that Trixie, and the ponies with her were unharmed, albeit rather dusty. "The ramp collapsed under some of the tanks," Twilight explained. "They fell, and...and..." Twilight couldn't talk as the thought that the falling tanks and stones had likely killed dozens, if not hundreds of ponies on the way down.

"And? Fucking hell Twilight! Come on!" Rather than freeze up like Twilight, Trixie clambered out over the rubble and sprinted back down the ramp, Twilight following after her. It didn't take long to find victims of the accident, although there were already plenty of ponies helping them. Even the pegasi flew down to help while what adepts there were provided cover from above.

The injured were being swiftly loaded onto whatever ponies were still capable of carrying others, and Twilight took to flying rather than dodge and weave around them like Trixie was forced to. It seemed everypony had the same idea to retreat back down to the village at the base of the keep, while Twilight and Trixie made for the remains of the tanks.

They were barely recognisable. Metal had been crushed and twisted as the tanks fell that barely a straight line remained on them. Twilight's enchanted coal lay scattered around, still burning after what happened. Steam oozed out of one of the tanks, the boiler having ruptured in the fall. All you could really hope was that the operators' deaths were mercifully quick.

There was a feeble shouting coming from one of the other tanks, which had landed upside down. Twilight wasted no time in trying to flip it back over, but it wasn't until Trixie joined her, along with Luna, that she was able to succeed. The hatch had been badly bent out of shape, but between them they tore it open.
Twilight ducked her head into the dark interior of tank, her horn lighting up to show the frightened and pained eyes of a mare that was squashed between the drivers seat and another pony that hadn't survived. She was covered head to hoof in blood, and her right legs were both bent at funny angles.

"Hold on, I'm going to get you out of there." Twilight wrenched the chair over as much as she could, giving the mare as much room as possible to pull her out. She lifted the mare out of the tank, cradling her in her magic, and immediately set out to where the rest of the injured seemed to be taken to. Contrary to what Twilight initially thought, the village was actually a barracks, and had more to do with the Grand Army. Seemed the Duke didn't want soldiers dragging dirt through his castle.

Twilight landed outside one of the many barracks the wounded were being taken to, and gently lay the mare down on the nearest bed. She seemed to be having difficulty breathing, leading Twilight to think that she might have broken ribs, if not something worse. She was about to ask how she could help when Octavia held one of the prototype healing devices in front of her, not saying a word as Twilight took it and used it to save the mares life.

Anger was the predominant feeling amongst the rebels. Anger at ponies that had no hope of winning, yet seemed determined to take as many rebels with them as possible. It was working too, although not nearly enough to give themselves a chance.

Twilight had been relieved to hear that barely a quarter of their forces had been on the ramps when the tanks fell, and of them barely a quarter had been affected by it, and of them again a bit over half had been killed. Then she hated herself for having to feel relieved that not too many lost their lives.

"They'd undermined the ramp," Luna said, continuing the report that Spitfire had given her about what might have happened. "Dug out underneath it, then shored it up enough to hold the weight of ponies, but not the tanks. Spitfire said she could still see the support beams, although most were broken."

"So we should've sent ponies up first then," said Trixie. Luna disagreed.

"They wouldn't have been able to get through the gates, and if we put a few ponies in front, the same would've happened, only they would've been trapped up there with the enemy."

Trixie pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight, "Then Twilight should've opened the gates!" Twilight found herself unable to disagree with that one. Thankfully Luna came to her aid.

"These plans were made with the idea that we'd be up against a potential number of ten thousand enemy combatants Trixie. Not exactly ideal conditions for Twilight to open the gates on her own. It seems that now we're here though that the number of soldiers is far less, possibly even lower than four thousand."

"So either they've deserted, or they've-"

"Gone somewhere else, yes."

"Great! So for all we know the Duke mightn't even be here!"

"This is the Duke's most defensible position, as we just found out." Twilight spoke slowly, sounding out her own thoughts. "I find it unlikely that he would abandon it lightly, even if his soldiers did."

"The only other place they could've gone is Stalliongrad," said Snowbright. "But neither the city or the Winter Palace would hold us off for long. I get the feeling that the remainder of the Duchy has split, with most of those soldiers wanting to live having left."

"But who could have tempted so many away?"

Snowbright shrugged, "The Viscount maybe? Or perhaps somepony who was simply persuasive enough to get the Duke's soldiers on his side."

Trixie snorted angrily, "They're just putting off the inevitable."

"Indeed they are," agreed Luna. "I only wish their absence had made things easier. Sadly that has already been disproven."

"No kidding," Twilight murmured. The sight and sounds of the tanks falling down the cliff were replaying themselves in her head far too frequently. "I didn't think it was possible for a battle to turn around so quick. Part of me still doesn't believe it happened."

"The question that remains then," said Luna, "is what do we intend to do about it."

Snowbright spoke first, "Our biggest obstacle is the road up being out, but I'm sure-"

"Crystal bridge," Trixie interrupted. "What?" she said defensively as the others stared at her. "You can't tell me it's not a decent solution."

"Is it a decent solution?" Snowbright asked Twilight.

Twilight hummed as she thought about it, "It'd take a few minutes to do, but it could be done. The downside is that the tanks wouldn't be able to cross, but that was kind of a given anyway. The only problem then is the last gate at the top."

"The tanks could still get those," said Luna. "They were well in range before they got to the section that collapsed. It'd take time, but they could destroy the gates. We can also salvage what explosives remain from the-uh, other tanks, and have the pegasi drop them on the enemy positions in the courtyard at the top of the ramp."

"Is that safe?"

"Snowbright, I invite you to think about what you just asked. Nothing about this is particularly 'safe.'"

"What's in the courtyard up top?" Trixie asked as Snowbright glared at Luna.

"Initially nothing," Luna answered, ignoring Snowbright. "However, in the two hours since the ramp collapsed, they've been setting up barricades around the entrance to High Rock. It seems somepony quite clever is leading the defence here as they knew we'd have had the pegasi attack them during our initial assault."

"The pegasi could be bombing them right now," Trixie pointed out. "A clever defender would be making it impossible to get anywhere inside the keep."

"A clever defender wouldn't assume he could do that, not against us," said Twilight. Between the power of two alicorns and Trixie, he'd have to be very clever indeed to do that as far as she was concerned. "I guess that courtyard provides some good fields of fire?"

"Oh yes," Luna agreed. "If the pegasi were to attack from melee range they'd likely take heavy losses."

"Forcing us into a ground assault. Not that we should rely on the pegasi alone by any means."

"And we've never lost a ground assault until today," said Trixie. "They can't seriously expect to win, especially when the pegasi back us up, so I don't get why they haven't just given up already."

"If they still had all their numbers they could hold us off for quite some time," Luna said thoughtfully. "Which only makes the lack of defenders all the stranger. Unless they're hiding in the keep of course."

Twilight sighed heavily, "I hope not, but I find it hard to believe so many would desert. We really can't discount them being hidden away to catch us unawares though."

"Maybe they deserted because they don't think they can win?" suggested Trixie. "We haven't exactly given them reason to think they could. Not sure why they'd go to Stalliongrad though."

"Because winter is coming," Snowbright answered her. "Whoever's in charge there is likely thinking that they could hold us off until winter arrives, and we'd have to retreat until the spring, giving them time to create a plan on how to defeat us. That plan would probably have to involve cannibalism somewhere because Stalliongrad is highly dependent on trade to survive the winter."

"Uh-huh." Trixie wasn't actually interested in anything past defeating the Duke, so thinking ahead to Stalliongrad really wasn't a high priority for her. "How about we focus on here before thinking of Stalliongrad. Frankly I don't think we have any choice but to march up and fight them head on. We could have the pegasi bomb them, but they could just hide in the keep with super thick walls until we run out of bombs."

"And frankly I'd rather not face them inside the keep," said Luna, agreeing with Trixie. "Perhaps we should meet them on their terms."

"That sounds like a costly way to win," Snowbright argued, "and this battle's already been costly enough before we even got here. Attacking them head on could be another trap. If only there was some way to find out what was going on inside the keep."

"There isn't a way to do that." A faint smile tugged on the corners of Twilight's mouth as a plan came to her. "What we can do is scout everywhere around it, including Stalliongrad. If we can't find anything then we can assume all their forces are here and plan accordingly. It'll take time, but it beats going in blind."

"No way!" Trixie shouted, "That'll take ages!"

"A few hours at most. All those in favour raise a hoof." Twilight nodded as Luna and Snowbright raised their hooves, causing Trixie to start sulking. "Alright then, let's see if we can't find our missing soldiers."

Trixie had started pacing again as soon as the pegasi were dispatched on their mission, and her anticipation was starting to rub off on others. To have been so close, only to be violently beaten back down was hard to bear for a lot of the rebels, and Twilight wasn't immune to the feeling either.

The tanks that had fallen were beyond repair. Twilight had known that from the moment she'd first seen them in their current state, but that didn't stop herself and Luna from picking over them, pulling out their payloads in case they proved to be of use. Twilight had thought it a miracle they hadn't gone off during what happened, at least until Luna explained that she'd enchanted the entire tanks to nullify the bombs in case somepony dropped one during reloading. She'd then demonstrated by smacking one against the side of one of the destroyed tanks.

She still couldn't believe it had happened. One moment it was all going fine, then the next she was looking down at the smoking ruins of three of their tanks. A few short seconds and they were suddenly on the backhoof, their plan lying amongst the ruins of the tanks. Twilight rapidly shook her head as the sound of the tanks crashing down echoed around her head, and she swore quietly to herself, and hoped for a distraction soon.

It wasn't much longer until some of the pegasi started returning, having found nothing. Twilight was just starting to despair when one of them returned with the news she'd been hoping for; a large number soldiers taking a lesser travelled route to Stalliongrad.

"It was a lot of soldiers anyway," the stallion that had found them said. Twilight wasn't about to push for exact numbers since it was highly likely he couldn't count. "They had a carriage with them too, with the funny golden tree mark...thing the Duchy has."

"There's only a few ponies that would use that," said Snowbright. "The Duke, his wife, and his son. I'm guessing the Viscount decided running was the best idea, and plenty of others agreed with him."

"I wish we could confirm the Duke was actually here. I hate to think we're doing all this when he isn't even here."

"High Rock is a symbol Twilight," Luna told her. "Even if he were to escape, us taking High Rock very much signals the end of his rule."

"No," Trixie piped up, her voice laden with anger, "him being dead signals the end of his rule. And since we now know a whole bunch of soldiers ran away, could we possibly get on with this?"

"I don't see why not."

Danger close was a phrase unknown by Twilight right up until one of the tank operators said it in passing. She'd asked what it meant, and given the context of what they were doing had been told it meant being uncomfortably close to the explosions as the bombs were launched over her head. She hadn't needed a phrase to know that.

She'd also been left to create the bridge on her own as a Luna had to put her efforts into shielding Twilight as she worked, and Trixie's own crystals had a tendency to vanish if she stopped paying attention to them.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Twilight swore as the tanks fired at the final gate. Every explosion was like an earthquake at her unfortunate proximity, and what had started out as a nice, smooth bridge of purple crystals, was now a rather haphazard looking thing that would at least serve purpose as a bridge.

"Just focus on what you're doing Twilight," Luna said with a calmness Twilight found infuriating. "You shan't be harmed while I protect us. Be thankful I'm blocking the sound as best I can as well."

"That is extremely easy for you to say!" Twilight flinched as a volley of arrows struck from above. "You try concentrating during something like this!"

"We could easily have done this the other way around, but you insisted on being the one to create the bridge."

"Not helping!" Twilight looked up as the dull thumps of the explosions lessened in frequency. The gates, although still standing, were little more than a ruined husk that a strong breeze could have blown open. Thankful for the reduction in distractions, Twilight finished the bridge and walked up to the ruined gate, waving for her soldiers to begin their advance.

As she pulled experimentally at the gate, some of the adepts ran ahead, forming a kind of tunnel for the rest of them to run through, rather than create a moving shield. By the time the ponies in front made it through, Twilight had torn the gate open, giving them access to the courtyard beyond.

Twilight wished the tanks were still an option. Row upon row of wooden barricades faced them, complete with wooden spikes, and soldiers bearing other, even spikier things. The tanks could've ploughed right through it, whereas most ponies could not. As an added bonus, the barricades had roofs over them, making it very hard for the pegasi to get at the ponies within.

"Hey, Twilight," Trixie whispered into Twilight's ear as the adepts took their positions made their shields. "I took these from the tanks." She hefted a dozen rounds of explosive in her magic, "Think we should use them?"

"Really, please, do not drop those." Twilight looked at Luna, seeing her watching the bombs like a dog having a juicy bone waved in front of its face. "Care to do the honours Luna?"

"Oh Twilight, you say the nicest things sometimes." Trixie passed four of the bombs to Luna, and four more to Twilight, and they stood poised, ready to begin their attack.

Twilight checked to make sure everypony around her was waiting for her cue, and was pleased to see they were. "Go!" She charged out, throwing the first of her bombs at the barricade in front of her, while the rest she threw upwards to land randomly amongst their enemy, as did Trixie and Luna. The chaos that act created amongst the defenders was more than enough allow the two alicorns and Trixie to tear through the first couple of lines of barricade, putting them squarely amongst the enemy.

Luna branched left, and Trixie right, spreading out across the defences while Twilight focused on destroying the barricades in front of her, trying to penetrate deeper into the enemy defences. As well thought out as these barricades were to be so quickly assembled, as well as providing some protection from pegasi, they were still only made of wood, and not very thick wood at that. The ancient aged oak that the gates were made of were like a rock compared to a meringue as far as these flimsy pine barricades were concerned.

Twilight kept herself shielded as the arrows came thick and fast at her, and rather than try to push further, she started to fight back, firing blast after blast of purple magic into the clustered soldiers with wild abandon, trying to create an opening for her own fighters to push into. A crash from her left as Luna burst through the barricade drew the attention of some of the soldiers, easing the pressure, and allowing her to make the opening she needed.

Twilight drew Swordy as a soldier ran in, opting to attack in melee as crossbows were again proving ineffective against the rebellions shields, and she parried his downswing, counterattacking with a swift thrust that left the soldier to fall at her hooves. Suddenly the battle was a different place as a lot of the other soldiers had the same idea, racing out with swords and spears to try and slow the rebels advance.
This also took them out from the protection of the roofs, and as Twilight fought back the soldiers in a whirl of steel and magic, she saw the pegasi start to pick off the ponies trying to get to her, diving down into the gaps and plunging their blades into their prey.

Blood flicked across the ground as Luna send her glaives spinning around her to try and keep some space around herself as the soldiers moved in closer, vying for the chance to get her. She didn't give them the chance though, her magic expertly picking off her targets with swift, clean kills that soon had the rest of the soldiers trying to find cover from her.

Having lost the opportunity to strike her in melee combat, the soldiers tried to attack her from range, but again she denied them that option by shielding herself. Frustrated by their inability to strike her, the soldiers turned on the ponies around Luna. Again they were frustrated as Luna and the adepts protected them from the soldiers arrows. On the battlefield, frustration breeds all kinds of mistakes. Hesitation being one of the worst.

Luna charged them, running towards the next barricade as the soldiers milled about, uncertain on how to proceed. A couple of powerful downward sweeps with her blades cut through a section of the wooden structure, and she wrenched it out with her magic, tossing it at the ponies beyond. The soldiers barely had time to raise their weapons before Luna was on them, bloodying the ground even further.

How she wished they'd just surrender.

Trixie hated this. If things had just gone to plan she'd have been in High Rock hours ago, kicking back and using the Duke's corpse as a hoof stool, her revenge complete and her life great. Instead she had been set back again and again, slowed by ponies too smart for their own good, and by others too dull witted to just do what had to be done.

Like this. Adepts fought desperately to keep Trixie safe as she ploughed into the enemy. Her horn blazed with a dark fire as she left trails of bodies behind her. Blood flowed into the ground as she tore into the soldiers with vicious blasts of magic and razor sharp crystals that sliced through flesh like it was pudding.

One more battle, and she could finally put all this behind her. One more battle and she could avenge the family she never really knew. All that stood in her way was some flimsy wood, and idiot ponies. She hated that.

An almost feral scream from Trixie heralded the complete destruction of several barricades in a line, along with the soldiers defending them as vicious spears of dark crystal jutted up out of the ground. Twilight was about to wonder whether Trixie had finally lost it, but the swing of a sword towards her stole away the time needed to do so.

Things quickly turned worse for the soldiers. While Twilight, Trixie, and Luna held their attention, the rebel's earth ponies were able to get in close to the enemy, giving the adepts a chance to step back and focus on the defences themselves. The wooden barricades were torn down or blasted to pieces, destroying the cover of the soldiers, forcing them to fall back further towards the keep, where they clustered even tighter together. The keep doors remained shut, giving them nowhere to run.

Twilight parried with Swordy and caught the blade of another weapon on her leg armour before snatching the weapon away in her magic. She thrust the weapon at the soldier she was holding at bay with Swordy, ending her life, and allowing her to fire a blast of magic at the soldier she'd disarmed. She tossed him aside, and was about to fire on a new target when the mare dropped her weapon and held up her hooves.

Unsure what to really make of that, Twilight pulled her down to the ground to fire over her, but similarly, other soldiers were throwing down their weapons. It was only then she realised that they were almost at the keep, having blown through the soldiers defences like a hot knife through butter. Given the choice, it seemed the remaining soldiers chose to live. Too bad they hadn't opted for that earlier.

"Grab their weapons and gather them up," Twilight ordered, hoping that her ponies realised she meant to gather the soldiers up. Thankfully it seemed they knew the drill by now, and the soldiers were slowly filtered out to be gathered in the centre of the courtyard.

"Wall's been cleared out," Snowbright informed Twilight as she watched the soldiers being moved. She turned to look at him, and gasped at the amount of blood running down his face from a gash above his left eyebrow that almost reached the other. "It's fine," he said before she could say anything, "It's just a scratch."

"Scratches don't bleed that much. You'll need stitches, so get it checked out."

"Fine." Snowbright suddenly chuckled, "That was some fight. For a moment it seemed like the soldiers thought they had a chance, and then you crushed them completely in a couple of minutes. It was a little bit scary actually."

Twilight rubbed her head. She hadn't been aware that it took so little time, but now she thought about it, it seemed like a brief blur of action, then it was over. Honestly she just wanted some peace and quiet to figure this entire day out.

It was purely luck that caused to Twilight to look back up when she did. A few meters away, about to be led past her was the speckled mare that she met briefly on her trip to deliver the letter refusing peace. The mare glanced at her, then quickly looked away again, like she really didn't want to be seen. Curiously, her uniform had lost all its designations showing her rank, whereas even the privates had something.

Twilight pulled her out of the line, earning herself some choice swear words from the mare. "I have some questions for you," she said, choosing to ignore the barrage of expletives.

"I'm not telling you anything," the mare rasped.

"Mmhmm, sure. As much as I want to humour you, truthfully they're easy questions I can easily find the answer to myself. All I want to know is if the Duke is still here, and why most of your forces are enroute to Stalliongrad."

The mare hesitated, then sighed in defeat. "Yeah the Duke's still here. Where else would he go?"

"Stalliongrad?"

"That place is a dump, and if the Viscount thinks he's going to hold you off there when we couldn't do more than slow you down here, then he's an even bigger chump than I already think he is. If he hadn't taken most of our soldiers, I think we might've stood a chance."

"Then why fight at all? All these ponies could still be alive now if you just gave in. Is having to live equally with unicorns and pegasi really that abhorrent to you?"

The mare snorted and shook her head, "You don't understand, and I doubt you ever will." She looked at Snowbright, "Perhaps you might one day, traitor, if you don't already."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked, but the mare walked away, re-joining the other prisoners, clearly uninterested in answering. "Do you know what she meant Snowbright?"

"No idea." Snowbright stared intensely after the mare, then shrugged when he saw Twilight was watching him.

"Hmm." Twilight facehoofed as she remembered something, "I was meant to ask her if there were still any soldiers in there."

"Unlikely," said Snowbright. "At least not soldiers anyway. The Ducal guard will be in there, but there's only like fifty of them, and they're chosen more for how pretty they look in the uniform rather than for how good they can fight. Most have never even seen a battle, let alone been in one. Honestly, this next bit should be like taking candy off a foal."

Author's Notes:

I've decided that from here on I'm going to try and alter how I write battles. Here, and previously, I'm doing an overview of the battle, partially from Twilight's and others view, but mostly I'm just describing what happens as a whole. It's fine for me writing that, because I can see it all in my head, and it's pretty glorious seeing all these cute colourful ponies slog it out. However, when I read it back it always seems a little flat and sterile. Add to that the work I still think I need to put into my descriptive writing, and I end up thinking it's not great.

Anyway, next chapter should be up next week as normal, but there might be a week out after that as I'm having a week off work, and I don't really write when I'm at home. If I get around to finishing the next chapter that is. I seriously have no idea how I managed to write a chapter every week, because I'm struggling to do the same now even though nothing has really changed. It's weird and annoying as get all out.