Walking was excellent for many things. Aside from it being good exercise, it was a useful means of getting from place to place. Right now for example, it was planned on being utilised to transfer a large number of ponies from High Rock keep to Stalliongrad.

However, there was still one type of walking that Twilight was looking forward to trying out if only because she's never able to, and right now still couldn't despite how much she wanted to, and that was the ability to walk away from something. A means of conveyance so illusive she'd only heard of it in passing, and she couldn't wait for the day when the war was over and she got to try it out.

First though they did actually have to end said war, and the prognosis for such a thing didn't look too good judging by the latest intelligence they had received.

"A citizens militia..." Twilight resisted the urge to plant her face against the nearest wall, or table, or anything really. Even another pony would do.

"I was under the impression that militias were volunteers bodies," Luna said as Twilight held in her despair. "I somehow get the feeling that giving every pony a weapon and telling them to defend the city and Viscount isn't exactly voluntary. Or a militia really."

"And what does this mean for us?" asked Fleur. "It's not like we can accurately number their forces if anypony in the city can be a soldier."

"It means we have a problem," Twilight groaned. "Why couldn't the Viscount just surrender? The cell we'd throw him in wouldn't be that damp and smelly! Then this'd all be over and we wouldn't have this problem!"

"Oh gee Twilight," Snowbright said as sarcastically as he could, "If only the dukes had been nicer ponies, none of this would have been a problem." He smiled angelically at Twilight as she glared at him, aware that the table in the dining room they were sat around to plan the attack was no protection at all if she decided she didn't like his attitude.

"Less snark, more solutions," she growled at him. "Preferably ones that don't involve starving the city into submission."

"What if we..." the filly said, drawing the we out until she fell silent."

"What if we what?" Fleur asked her. "If you have an idea, just say it."

"Actually, I was hoping if I said that somepony would fill in the gap with some brilliant idea. Personally I think we should sneak into the Winter Palace and assassinate the Viscount."

"That doesn't solve the issue of lots of soldiers and armed civilians. If anything it might make it worse." Twilight shook her head, "No, we can't do that."

"Fine then," the filly said reasonably, "hear me out on this then." She held her hooves up in front of her like she was holding an invisible ball, and stared directly at Twilight. "Mind control," she said with a goofy grin. "That's something you magic ponies could do, right? Then you can make him force his ponies to surrender. Problem solved."

"Except you can't directly control the mind of a pony," Twilight told the filly.

"But you can make them more persuasive," Luna said thoughtfully. "Do you know any spells like cogeria Twilight?"

"Sure I've heard of them, and probably have any number of books on mind manipulation magic back home in Ponyville, but the only one I really learnt was the amnesia spell because I never thought I would need to force a pony to act against their will."

"Yet you might've needed to give somepony selective amnesia apparently," Luna said with a faint smirk.

"And it's actually come in use a few times, thank you very much. Frankly, I have no idea why spells like cogeria and fiducia compelus aren't on the ban list when spells like erasicus are. The damage those spells could do in the wrong hooves..."

"Why aren't they banned?" Fleur asked. She had the strangest feeling that she'd seen these spells in action before now, although they might have been called something simpler like a roofy spell.

"Because they're so difficult to use," Luna told her. "Even if you could cast them, they require your will to be stronger than your targets'. In the hooves of an average unicorn, the most they might achieve is convincing a pony they'd prefer a coffee instead of tea, whereas a powerful magic user could convince an earth pony they're a pegasus and have them jump off a cliff under the belief they can actually fly."

"And these spells aren't banned because they're difficult to cast..." Fleur blinked incredulously, "That's one of the stupidest things I've heard."

Luna nodded, "Quite. Perhaps that's something I should look into doing once I return to Equestria."

"Yeah, you really should," Fleur said emphatically. "So, is mind-raping the Viscount and forcing him to surrender off the table or not?"

"Actually, it's still very much on the table," Luna said as Twilight was about to say it wasn't. "Twilight might not know the spells, but I do."

Twilight frowned at Luna, a faint worry gnawing at her. "Why do you know them?"

"Because while convincing ponies to do what you want is a handy thing when ruling, getting them to think it was their idea in the first place is even better." Luna looked down at the table, not wanting to look at ponies out of shame. "I assure you, it isn't something my sister and I have had to do for a long time, even before my banishment."

"That doesn't make it right!" Twilight shouted in disbelief.

"We are very aware of that Twilight, hence why we stopped doing it. I don't need to be told how awful we were to do such things."

"But that same spell could be used to prevent the deaths of thousands of ponies now," Octavia said soothingly, trying to placate Twilight. "It has to be worth trying, surely?"

Twilight growled a sigh, "Yes, and for that reason alone."

"Hold on," the filly said slowly, like she was trying to figure something out. "How come we've never tried to do this before?"

"Because Twilight didn't know how, you can only use it on a few ponies at a time, it isn't permanent, and the one pony we really needed to convince lived in a big, magic proof castle, and you need to be within 20 meters or so to cast it." Luna counted off some imaginary points around the edge of her left hoof, "I think that covers it. Frankly, we'll still need to prepare for an attack on the off chance this doesn't work."

"Oh good," Snowbright said with relief. "For a moment there I thought you'd all gone insane."

"Wait, you mean we're going to have to break into the highly guarded Winter Palace, inside the heavily defended city of Stalliongrad, to cast a spell that might not even work." Twilight gawped at Luna, "Are you serious?"

Luna nodded once and smiled, "I am."

"This is it, I think I've finally lost my mind because we're calling this a reasonable plan." Twilight buried her head under her legs, "I can't believe we're even considering this."

"Let's put it to a vote then," said Fleur. "All those in favour of Luna mindfucking the Viscount, raise your hooves." She raised her own, then counted off the hooves of the voters. Summer had a broad grin on her face as she tried to raise her hoof the highest, and like her everypony had voted in favour, including Twilight. "Really Twilight?"

"Yes? No? I don't know! Leave me alone..."

"At any rate, I think that's fairly unanimous. Let's go make the Viscount our bitch."

Twilight timidly knocked on the door to Trixie's room, and let herself in since she doubted Trixie was going to reply anyway. "Hey Trixie."

"Mmhmm." Trixie flipped the page of the book she'd been given to pass the time. A book that had been written about High Rock's history, and was actually written over a thousand years ago. Apparently, while the dukes discouraged education amongst the masses, they were avid historians, so long as they wrote it themselves. "Did you know that a whole town used to cover that plain out front, but the dukes demolished it. I always wondered why this was the unicorn capital when it's just one castle. Now I know."

"Really?" said Twilight, genuinely intrigued. "So Unicornia was one big township?"

"And the surrounding areas, but they rented that to earth ponies for ridiculous rates, while claiming loads of free food for raising the sun and stuff."

"Wow." Twilight laughed awkwardly, not quite hiding the tension she still felt around Trixie. "No wonder earth ponies hated unicorns."

"Yep. Anyway, are you here to release me?"

"Uh... no?"

"Then you know where the exit is."

"I was only coming to tell you that we're about to head off for Stalliongrad, and that we'll see you in a week or so. Hopefully anyway."

"Uh-huh. Good luck; have fun."

"D-do you need anything?" Twilight shied away from the look Trixie gave her, "Forget I asked. Anyway, we'll be heading back to Equestria not... oh forget it, you won't even care until it's happening."

"And don't act like I don't already know that we'll be going back to Equestria after you capture Stalliongrad. Trust me, the thought of getting out of this room actually has me excited, even if you're just going to lock me up somewhere else. Seriously, you could just put fetters on me so I could barely even trot, let alone gallop. Then I wouldn't have to be stuck here."

Twilight winced, having not even thought of that. "I'll ask somepony if they can find some. They mightn't have some though."

"You're kidding right? This place has multiple torture chambers, and you're saying fetters might be a bit much?"

"No, but they might be too tame to even consider having."

"Alright." Trixie nodded, "Fair point. Now seriously Twilight, get the fuck out."

Fleur kept looking sideways at Twilight as they walked. She'd been doing this for the last couple of miles, and Twilight was starting to lose her cool about it.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Fleur blushed at being caught. "Sorry, it's just, I'm kind of wondering why we're coming with you. It's not like we'll be fighting or anything, and Octavia's quit her job, so it's only Summer that really has a purpose here."

"And it's wrong for me to want my friends with me?"

"No, but-"

"Besides, I have a surprise planned for you, and I'd like us all to be there." Twilight sighed bitterly, "Most of us will be there anyway..."

"A surprise for me? You managed to find something pleasant in all this?"

"I've tried to. I hope you like it."

Night was beginning to creep over the horizon by the time the rebels made it to the village of Hoofridge, and with it came an unexpected chill, but apparently such was normal this far north in late autumn.

"We're going to need to set up camp soon," Snowbright warned Twilight, his breath coming out in little white puffs.

"I know, but there's somepony I want to see here. Could you take lead and make camp as soon as you're through the forest?"

"You actually know a pony here?"

Twilight nodded, "We do, and there's something I need to tell her."

"Alright then," Snowbright said, rolling his eyes at the highly ambiguous answer. "Don't be too long though."

"I'll try not to." Twilight sped up to put herself ahead of the mass of ponies behind her, her friends hurrying to keep up as they started up the hill into the village itself. They had obviously been spotted though as there was barely a pony to be seen save for those few that could be spotted twitching their curtains aside so they could see out. About the only pony that seemed happy to see them was the young colt Sprig, who managed a wave before his father pulled him away.

"These ponies seem really happy to see us," said the filly with fake cheer. "Everypony stay calm, we're here to liberate you from the Duke. He's dead by the way. You're welcome."

"We're only here to see a pony, filly," Twilight told her. "She was pretty much the first friendly face we met in this country." They stopped outside the house they spent a few days in while Octavia was ill, and Twilight raised her hoof to knock, feeling oddly nervous about it. She knocked anyway, and earned herself a nervous shriek from a pony sounding much younger than Twilight remembered Grammaw being.

"What do you want?!"

"We're-uh, here to see Grammaw."

"Grammaw?" There was a short moment, during which the sounds of bolts unlocking could be heard, then the door opened a crack, allowing the mare within to see her visitors, and the ranks of ponies in uniform filing past behind them. "You're her, aren't you, the pony that leads the rebellion."

"Yep, that's me."

"Grammaw said you might come." The mare looked side to side, then opened the door wide, "Come in quick, before the neighbours see you."

Twilight and the others piled into the house, the mare slamming the door shut as soon as Summer's rear was in far enough to not get hit as she closed it. She locked the door again, and turned to face her unexpected guests, revealing herself to be a creamy yellow coloured earth pony mare with a grass green mane and tail, and surprisingly accusatory brown eyes.

"Grammaw really wasn't lying, a pony with a horn and wings..."

Fleur smiled at the mare, "And you are..?"

"Oh! I'm sorry, my name's Tealeaf. I'm- I mean I was, Grammaw's apprentice."

"What do you mean was?" asked Octavia.

"I'm afraid Grammaw passed away, well, not even two weeks ago. If you wanted to see her I'm afraid you're too late."

Twilight sat down, feeling that once again life had punched her in the stomach. "Passed away? That's..." She shook her head, "How'd it happen?"

Tealeaf shrugged, "That's just it, I don't know. We were just sat here mixing up some tonics in preparation for the flu season, when suddenly she looked up and said 'aye, that'll do it.' Then she spent the rest of the day making lists before going to bed. I went up to bring her breakfast the next morning, but when I tried to wake her she was... gone." Tealeaf sniffed and rubbed her eyes, "It's almost like she saw it coming."

"More than likely," said Twilight.

"Isn't that around the same time we captured High Rock?" asked the filly.

"And the same time the Duke died," said Octavia.

Tealeaf eyed them both suspiciously, "Why does that matter?"

Twilight tried to explain, "Because Grammaw's real name was Felicia, and she was the Duke's younger sister. She was born a unicorn, and they dehorned her when she was little, so she ran away and eventually ended up here being Grammaw." Twilight frowned, "Not sure why that means she had to go and die just because her brother did though."

"Is that really true?" Tealeaf asked, surprised at the revelation.

Twilight nodded, "It's true. She told me as much herself, and I've had confirmation from... another source as well."

"Oh... I guess that means the Duke really is dead too. I'd heard the rumours, but everypony else said it wasn't true. I guess you're going to Stalliongrad after the Viscount?"

Fleur raised an eyebrow at Tealeaf, "How'd you know that?"

"I could act all coy and mysterious about it," Tealeaf said with a faint smile, "but the fact is you aren't the first army to come marching through here in the last fortnight. The difference is though that you're not demanding half of everyponies food as 'taxes.'"

"Is that why everypony's hiding from us?" Summer asked quietly. She cringed as Tealeaf's eyes fixed on her. "What?"

"Sorry, but I didn't realise you were a pegasus. I've never seen one up close before."

"And yet the alicorn is fine?" The filly asked deadpan.

"In my defence, I was told to expect an alicorn, although I wasn't expecting her to come at the head of the rebel army. If I can still call you rebels anyway, since you've more or less won."

"We still call ourselves that," Fleur told her. "Just seems simpler that way. So, was there anything else in these lists Grammaw wrote?"

"Most of it was to help me carry on her work, but there was some other bits alongside expecting an alicorn that didn't make sense to me until now." Tealeaf walked over to the coffee table in the middle of the room, and skimmed over the papers on it until she found the one she wanted. "Ah, here we are. Ahem, to the white one; it'll get easier."

Fleur frowned in confusion, "What will?"

Tealeaf shrugged, "I don't know, that's all it says," she replied, making Fleur roll her eyes and mutter to herself. "Anyway, to the grey one, what's a musician without music? To the little yellow one it says to try and stick the landings."

"What?" the filly squeaked. "What the hell does that mean? And how does she know about me anyway? We never even met."

Tealeaf shrugged, "I'm just reading what it says. As I was saying, to the blue one; helping others helps you, so keep doing it."

Summer looked up at the ceiling, "I hardly need to be told that, but thank you anyway, mysterious pony that I never met."

"To the alicorn... I'm not sure what this applies to, but it says she'll forgive you, whoever she is? Do you know?"

"I might," Twilight said carefully. "I'm not going to count on it though." Twilight shook her head, not wanting to get her hopes up on a rather ambiguous prophecy. "Was there anything else?"

"Do any of you know a pony called Trixie?"

"Yes!"

"Then yes, there is." Tealeaf cleared her throat like she was about to make a big announcement, "Tell Trixie I said hi."

The filly snorted into laughter, "Was this 'Grammaw' pony some kind of hack? Because she sounds like one."

"Actually she knew more than she let on, and I bet she knew exactly why Trixie wouldn't be here." Twilight sighed, feeling strangely weighed down, "I guess that's that. Come on guys, we shouldn't intrude on Tealeaf's time any further."

"Oh it's quite alright. After all, Grammaw knew I'd make time for you." Tealeaf drooped slightly, "And that foresight is what's going to make it hard to live up to her legacy," she sighed.

"Did you come to Grammaw to learn, or did she come to you?" Fleur asked the downcast pony. "In fact, I don't think it even matters, because I doubt she would've taught you if she didn't think you could do it."

"You really think I can do what she did?"

"Maybe, but I'm willing to bet Grammaw would rather have you do what you can instead of you trying to do what she could. Create your own legacy as it were."

Tealeaf smiled up at Fleur, "That does sound like something she'd say."

"Oh good, because that's totally what I was going for. Besides, be yourself is pretty common wisdom." Fleur adjusted her gear, making herself more comfortable. "Thanks for your time Tealeaf, and we're sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, although I think everypony here lost something when she left us."

"Yes," Fleur said, drawing the word out, "but some of those ponies were rather unpleasant to us last time we were here, and quite frankly we don't have time to pass our condolences onto the entire village. Anyway, what I'm trying to do is say goodbye because we need to catch up with the army."

Summer glanced out of the window. "They're still coming through the village," she observed.

"Then we need to go catch up with the front." Fleur closed her eyes and swore under her breath before reopening them and giving Tealeaf a pleasant smile. "It was nice to meet you Tealeaf, even if it was only briefly. Keep up the good work." She opened the door and walked out, the filly muttering a quick farewell as she followed.

"Goodbye Tealeaf," Twilight said to the mare as she walked out into the crisp air, then she trotted swiftly to catch up with Fleur. "What was that about?"

"I'm pretty sure that if we stayed there longer she was going to want stories about our time there, and frankly I'd rather not tell her about Octavia being a sweaty feverish mess, you being crap at keeping secrets, and us forcibly dyeing Trixie's coat. It would've been awkward."

"So you made it awkward in a different way instead."

"Perhaps, but it was a short lived awkward."

Twilight woke up the next morning on the outside edge of a family friendly pony pile, the five of them having huddled together for warmth through the cold night. She was fairly sure she wouldn't be the only pony in their encampment waking up to a similar degree of embarrassment.

She pulled her leg out from under Octavia, the grey mare mumbling protests at the motion, and from the cold that was now intruding on her back. She stood, and met the eyes of Summer at the other end, who gave the impression of being disappointed, which took Twilight a while to work out was because the filly was between her and Fleur.

Twilight nudged her head towards the flap of the tent they were in, and Summer nodded before slowly creeping out of her end of the pony pile, trying not to disturb the filly that had almost latched onto her over the night.

"No mummy, don't go," the filly mumbled, making everypony awake to hear it feel horribly awkward. Then Fleur curled up a bit, wrapping herself around the filly, making it worse. Twilight silently undid the toggles on the tent flap, and slipped out with Summer close behind, both of them wordlessly agreeing to never mention what just happened to either Fleur or the filly.

"So," Twilight said with a brittle cheerfulness that threatened to snap at the slightest provocation, "how are you this morning Summer?"

"I'm okay I guess. Would've been better if the filly had slept in the middle."

"Why?" Summer started blushing, and Twilight had no idea why.

"Oh, no reason."

"Okay then... anyway, I was going to grab some breakfast then do a flyover of the city if you want to join me- Oh Celestia, were you thinking naughty things about Fleur?" Summer's cheeks almost glowed as she blushed. "You haven't thought things like that about m- You know what? I don't even know want to know." Summer blushing brighter while failing to look her in the eye told Twilight enough even without finishing the question. "Gah."

"Would you be like that if I were a stallion?"

"What?" Twilight suddenly felt bad as she worked out Summer might be upset because she thought Twilight didn't want attention like that off a mare instead of a stallion. "Sorry Summer, but I tend to be this way about attention from mares and stallions. There's just something about the whole idea of... mating, that I find far too squishy and unappealing. Maybe with the right pony, but telling me you think I'm attractive isn't going to get you what you want. Probably the opposite. Well, not you per say, but anypony saying that kind of thing."

"So you're not interested in sex?" Twilight blushed, then blushed harder because she was blushing at the word sex, like a kid who just learnt what sex was, and thought it was icky and a horrible source of cooties. "Then why did they used to tease you about liking mares?"

"I have absolutely no idea how that came about."

"Oh." Summer entered into a thoughtful silence as she followed Twilight towards the smell of food. "So you have no interest at all in sex? Like, even the slightest bit?"

"Some," Twilight hesitantly admitted, "but not enough to really feel the need to engage in it."

"Wow, I've never heard that before. Kinda wish I knew more ponies like that back when I was... you know, a-uh-"

"You don't need to say it, I know what you mean." They stopped in front of a large pot of porridge, and judging by the stack of dishes by it Twilight assumed it was a help yourself system, so that's what she did, ladling two bowls full for herself and Summer, and carrying them to a nearby spot where Spitfire and Soarin were already eating their own breakfast.

"Good morning ma'am," Spitfire said as she saluted sharply.

Twilight waved it off, "I think we can dispense with calling me ma'am since I might not be in command in a few days time."

Spitfire and Soarin look sideways at each other, "Beg pardon, uh, ma'am, princess, ma'am," Soarin said uncertainly, "but we'll still be under your command until either you or one of the other princesses relieves us."

Twilight stared dumbly at him, then her mouth formed an 'O' as understanding dawned on her. "Right, of course, the whole princess thing. That. Hah!" She shoved a spoonful of gloopy porridge in her mouth and chewed on it needlessly for a moment. "For a blissful moment I almost forgot."

"Ma'am?"

"Nevermind. Let's just say you've earned the right to call me by my name."

Spitfire chewed her lip, showing her discomfort. "Ma'am, protocol dictates that we address you as either your title, or as-"

"Spitfire?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Just once, call me by my damned name, even if it causes you actual physical pain. You can sit here and eat breakfast with me, so you can at least call me Twilight when we're in private."

Spitfire squirmed, uncomfortable at the very notion of being casual around your superiors, "Yes ma- T-Twilight."

"Well done Captain. Now, since you're up this early I was thinking that you could join Summer and I as we perform a little aerial reconnaissance over Stalliongrad. If we're going to try out this insane plan we have I'm going to need to know where things are in the city."

"Insane plan? What insane plan?"

"Using magic to coerce the Viscount into surrendering." Spitfire stared blankly while Soarin choked on his food.

"Is that possible?" he asked once he could breathe again.

"It is possible, yes, but whether it'll actually work or not is another matter entirely. The only reason I'm considering it is because he's forcing the ponies of Stalliongrad to fight as well. A surrender would be preferable to fighting ponies who don't really know how to fight back."

"And if it doesn't work?" asked Spitfire.

"Then we do things the old fashioned way. Centuries of severe winters and poor maintenance have left Stalliongrad's walls in a pretty poor state, and I'm pretty sure a strong breeze could bring it down in places. There's no way they're stopping us from getting into the city."

"You really think we can fight their whole army head on along with the ponies he's forcing to fight?"

"Sure, but we'd have to be smart about it. Anyway, let's think about these things if they happen. Right now I just want to see the city and get a basic layout of it."

Stalliongrad was large. It wasn't the largest city in Mareitania, which was Neigh Orleans, with Bitmark in second place, but it was larger than Prance, and yet had a smaller population. In Prance everypony was packed in like sardines in some parts of the city, mostly because the massive walls limited building space, but Stalliongrad had grown to a certain point, stopped, then had the usual defensive walls built around it.

Soarin had a different theory where he suspected nopony in their right mind would really want to live in this frigid crap-hole. The others were inclined to agree.

The city also kept things simple by being almost perfectly circular. The Winter palace sat in the middle, easy to spot due to how big and colourful it was, and from it extended four main roads going north, south, east, and west, although only the west and south roads really went anywhere outside the city. There was a road to the east, but Twilight doubted that had been used in a while since Equestria ceased trading with the Duchy months ago when she and her friends arrived.

As for the city itself, due to the four road system, it was largely split up into four sectors. The north east sector just seemed to be residential, much the same as the south east, except it contained the guard station where Trixie was imprisoned and almost dehorned. The north west was mostly industrial, and was where the massive, soot spewing steelworks were, although it currently seemed to be inactive. It was also where the abandoned building they stayed in was located, overlooking the pegasus compound which, unlike most places, was located inside the city limits. The only notable feature of the south west was the market and trade hub.

Apart from those major features though, the city was a honeycomb of streets, alleys, and places it would be easy to get ambushed in. Thankfully the Grand Army, or what remained of it, were focusing their efforts around the Winter Palace, and the walls, mostly to the west where the rebel army would be approaching from. If it were to become a street to street fight though, it could easily turn nasty for the rebels.

"Ma'am?" Spitfire said, concerned at the way Twilight was staring at the city like it had offended her.

"I really hope our insane plan works. Okay, so as far as I can tell, sneaking through the city is an impossible waste of time, so we'll just fly to the Winter palace and teleport down to one of the balcony's, and go from there. Hardly the perfect plan, but that's all I have to work with."

"And if the insane plan doesn't work?" Summer queried timorously as she peered over the edge of the cloud they were hiding on.

"Then we attack. It's the only thing we really can do in that situation."

"And what about the soldiers numbers down there?" Soarin asked.

"Can you tell how many soldiers are down there?" Twilight asked back.

"No, not really."

"Then neither can I. At most there should be around seven thousand professional soldiers, but we can't be sure of that since they ran from High Rock and the Duke, so I have no reason to think some of them won't run or desert now either, if they haven't already. It's the armed civilians that have me worried, because there could be twice as many of them as there are soldiers."

"So, in essence, we could be way in over our heads here?"

Twilight shrugged, "If it gets too bad we pull out and place the city under siege until they give up. But that's a worse case scenario. Too bad there's only one scenario between best and worst though." Twilight stood and stretched her wings, "Come on, the rest of our forces should be ready to go by now."

Author's Notes:

Just a short chapter with some less important stuff in it. There'll be a similar one next week as well because I managed to get six hours of writing done on Friday by some crazy chance, and knocked most of a chapter together. Funny how I seem to get days to do loads of writing on when I kind of need them. Makes me feel stupid too after saying there might be delays. Anyway...