"Where would they even get the weapons to arm that many ponies with?" Snowbright asked as the most recent bits of intelligence they'd received were put together roughly a mile outside of Stalliongrad.

"Pass it on rule," Luna informed him. "You pass out the weapons you have to ponies, then if somepony with a weapon gets killed, somepony without picks it up and keeps fighting. I wouldn't worry unduly though as the decent weapons are likely in the hooves of their soldiers, so the civilians likely have little more than a few old swords and spears. Probably a few of those were homemade too."

"I still can't work out if this is voluntary or forced," said Fleur. "Forcing unarmed ponies to fight is barbaric, but having those ponies fight willingly is a lot scarier."

"It's nothing we can't handle if we're sensible," said Twilight, "and volunteer or not, we're going to defend ourselves if they attack us. Hopefully this is all a moot point so long as our plan works."

"I'd prefer a little more certainty on that," Snowbright whined, "but whatever the outcome, we'll be ready."

"And I'll be joining Summer and the medics," Octavia added morosely.

Twilight smiled weakly at her, "You don't have to if you don't want to you know."

"I know, but I'm here so I may as well make myself useful. Besides, it makes more sense for me to finish at the end." Octavia wasn't going to mention that seeing Twilight continue after what had happened at High Rock made her feel pathetic for quitting before it was all over.

"So long as you're sure." Twilight smiled at the ponies around her, but it soon faltered as she thought of the ponies that weren't. "I guess this is it then, the last battle of the war. Or at least I really hope it is. I also hope it really isn't a battle either for that matter."

Snowbright smirked smugly at Twilight, "I'm pretty sure we could've avoided this if you'd let me kill the Viscount back at that party."

"Oh har har, sure, let's bring that back up." Twilight shook her head with mild aggravation, "Come on Luna, let's go." Twilight took off and scooped Luna up in her magic before heading towards the city. She was about to say something when she felt the drag from Luna change, and she looked back to find that while Luna hadn't changed into her true form, she did seem to be sporting some wings that weren't there before. "What are you doing Luna?"

"Increasing my usefulness. Unless we're about to run into another griffon scouting party, I very much doubt anypony is going to care that I have wings at this very moment in time. As long as I hide them once we land again we should be fine."

"That is exactly the kind of optimism that gets us in trouble." Luna didn't change back though, and Twilight wasn't about to argue, so did nothing to stop Luna enjoying her brief chance to fly. Instead she focused on where they were meant to be going. The Winter palace, as easily identifiable as it was by its collection of big, colourful, and pointy domes, had the strange issue where it was almost impossible to tell from the outside where things were on the inside. Admittedly that was true for most buildings, but the Winter palace had the uncanny ability to make all of itself seem important.

"How about there?" Luna pointed at a small window in one of the lower towers. "I doubt there's anything important behind that."

"Then how is it useful?"

"What? You were thinking we could just happen upon the Viscount's bedroom and..." Luna smiled lopsided at Twilight, "You were, weren't you." She sniggered as Twilight tried to appear appalled at the very idea, "Honestly Twilight, even if we got that right off the bat, we could still run into a bunch of guards. Best to sneak in somewhere quiet."

"And what? Hope nopony minds us snooping around? Sure. Hey, maybe we could find some ponies, drag them into a cupboard, knock them out and steal their uniforms! How's that sound?"

"That sounds ridiculous," Luna replied totally deadpan. "How about you just trust me Twilight."

Twilight bit back the automatic reply about trusting a formerly omnicidal manic, then wondered for a short moment if the fact she immediately thought such a thing was a sign of her mental state degrading further, or if she was at the very least becoming an angry jerk. Then she decided to stop worrying about that for a moment and put the effort into trusting Luna instead.

With the unerring accuracy of a pony who didn't need all her mental faculties for as simple a task as matter translocation, Twilight teleported both of them down to the window. Then she followed Luna in once she'd opened the window, folding her wings in to squeeze through the gap, and flopped onto the floor with all the grace of a drunken ballerina. And then she started coughing as her landing kicked up clouds of dust.

"See? Perfectly safe place to sneak in," Luna said as she observed their surroundings. "Totally devoid of ponies, and therefore secure."

"It's an attic. It's full of junk." Twilight opened one of the wooden chests that was scattered around the room, finding it full of old toys that probably predated her by at least a couple of hundred years.

"Secure junk," Luna retorted with a hint of pride. There was a flash, and when the after effects cleared from Twilight's vision, she could see that Luna was now both wingless and hornless. At least to outside appearances anyway. Twilight quickly followed suit. "Let's go and investigate. Hopefully the Viscount isn't too hard to locate."

"Should never have agreed to this insane plan," Twilight muttered to herself. She stopped, adjusting her appearance further by hiding the stripes in her mane and tail, and by changing her cutie marks into something less like those borne by the leader of the rebellion. Not sure what to do she just stuck a purple circle over it that at least looked vaguely like a plum, and could be explained away as such.

They trotted quietly down the spiralling staircase, and pushed the heavy wooden door at the bottom open far enough to give them a sliver to peek through. The space beyond seemed empty enough, so they hurried out and tried to look like they'd been there the entire time.

"See? This is going perfectly!"

"We've been here barely two minutes Luna." Twilight rolled her eyes then turned her attention back towards where they were going. While they could at least give the impression that they belonged where they were, it was a lot harder to fake knowing where they were going when they had no idea in the slightest. Lacking other options they picked a direction and started walking since finding somepony to ask directions was a definite no-no.

Both of them smiled at a quartet of soldiers that marched past them on some unknown purpose, and Twilight briefly battled with the need to attack them, her imagination leaving nothing to chance judging by the amount of blood she could visualise. Thankfully the soldiers moved on without giving them a second glance, and Twilight had to stop until the visions went away.

"Twilight? Are you well?" Twilight stared blankly at the concerned expression Luna was wearing, and she had to think for a moment why Luna was looking at her like that when she noticed how rapidly she was breathing.

"I'm fine," she lied, and both of them knew it. Luna didn't seem to want to push the issue, and Twilight was glad of that as she shook it off, choosing instead to pay attention to the building's interior as they started moving again.

Frankly, there was no need for this much gold leaf. While High Rock seemed to retain much of it's functionality as a keep, it was still fairly luxurious. The Winter palace though, was birthed from a vision of sheer tastelessness. The kind of tastelessness you could only afford by being super rich, able to afford hundreds of artisans to create the most tacky decorations imaginable to place in one building. Truly the ponies of Mareitania's taxes were well spent if this was the end result.

"Eugh," Twilight groaned, summing all that up into a single syllable of disgust. "I think Rarity would have a fit if I showed her this place."

"It is rather gaudy isn't it," Luna said in agreement. "I think it's the gold paint on everything that isn't an actual wall is what does it. Gold picture frames, gold furnishings, gold trim on everything else. And then what isn't gold either clashes with the gold, or with each other."

"It's giving me a headache... Oh dear." Twilight looked about with horrified fascination as they wandered into what had to be a ballroom. The rest of the Winter palace had only been a warm-up compared to the splendour somepony had tried to achieve in here while failing miserably. The large portraits of all the past dukes were interesting though, filling up the one wall as they did, all framed in gold of course, and becoming subtly larger the more recent they became. Duke Ironhoof's portrait was actually fairly modest compared to the most recent addition of Duke Hargrave which was at least three times the size.

"One has to wonder whether they wanted this place to look so awful," Luna said bluntly. "I can at least thank Platinum for being surprisingly low-key when it came to the interior design of Canterlot."

Twilight shuddered as a chill swept through her, "I feel as if every one of them is judging me."

"Rightfully so since you've pretty much torn down everything they built." Luna grinned as Twilight shivered. "Anyway, back to the matter at hoof. If we're in the ballroom we must be in or around the centre of the palace. How that helps us I have no idea, but it's a start. Maybe."

"Perhaps we should ask for directions."

"Yes, I'm sure anypony would happily direct us to wherever the Viscount is, and certainly wouldn't question what we're doing wandering about in here."

"Well I don't know!" Twilight said louder than she intended, the exclamation echoing around the empty ballroom. She blushed and cleared her throat, "Perhaps we could pretend we have business with him."

"What business would that be?"

"I don't know... Concerned citizens from the city perhaps?" Twilight's lips went tight as Luna sniggered at her. "Alright then, what would you suggest?"

"Me? Well, based on what I've learnt about the Viscount over the time I've been here, there is only one reason nopony would question why a mare would be trying to find him." Twilight blinked, totally uncomprehending, so Luna gave Twilight her most seductive smile, which may have missed the mark since Luna wasn't naturally seductive, at least not by modern standards. That was fine though, since the Viscount wasn't exactly seductive either. "Are you sure you don't know what I mean?"

Twilight did, and wished she didn't. "We are not posing as whores Luna. We tried it before and it didn't end as we intended."

"Oh come on Twilight, it's not like we'll actually be whores. We're acting, remember?"

"And? You really think a woefully un-seductive smile and a flutter of our eyelashes will convince somepony to guide us right to the Viscount, because I don't. I think it might convince them to guide us to the exit, or even worse the dungeons."

"Who knows, the Viscount might be into the dungeon thing, so that might be where we need to go."

Twilight gagged as Luna winked at her, "No. Just- Just no." She tried to think of what else to do, but short of keep walking around feeling optimistic, she had no ideas. "I can't believe this, but fine, we can try your idea." She smoothed her mane and raised her tail a little, but soon lowered it again, "I might've done my mane and put some makeup on if I thought I'd have to look whorish today."

"It's all in the attitude Twilight. Just let me do the talking."

"You remind me so much of Fleur right now," Twilight said as Luna raised her tail to hint at an invitation, and swung her hips as she walked. Truthfully Twilight had some less than favourable feelings about seeing Luna like this, as in it went totally against what she thought Luna to be like, but stayed quiet as she followed the sashaying mare.

Thankfully it wasn't too long until they found a stallion standing guard near some doors, his spear held crookedly as fatigue and boredom sapped his desire to look professional. He snapped to attention as soon as she saw Luna, but relaxed again as soon as he realised they weren't anypony he needed to be at attention for.

"Excuse me," Luna purred, while behind her Twilight tried to smile, although it came across more like a grimace. "We seem to be a little lost. The Viscount sent for us, but we have no idea where he is. Could you help us?" Luna fluttered her eyelashes for good measure.

"Seriously? He's not even kicked the mare from last night out, and now he has you looking for him? I swear..." The stallion studied both Luna and Twilight, his eyes lingering on Twilight for slightly longer, "He always did go for the tall ones," he mumbled. "Alright, down that corridor," he pointed his spear back in the direction they came from, "right at the end, up the stairs, right again, and to the end of the next corridor. That's his bedroom, where I suspect he's waiting for you."

"Oh thank you kind sir," Luna gushed. "Who knows what kind of punishments he might come up with if we kept him waiting too long." She winked at the guard, who shuffled his hind legs like he was trying to hide something.

"I bet you'd like that too, now get moving before I decide to punish you too." Luna blew him a kiss and let her eyes linger on him before turning away, Twilight following stiffly behind her.

"Would you like that?" she asked dumbly, trying to keep in role, while being too dumbstruck to really do so.

"Depends what he had in mind. But mostly not, because he's a disgusting lech, and I'd sooner sew myself shut than let him touch me."

"Ew!"

"You're the one that asked Twilight." Twilight didn't argue, as she'd rather the issue just die and be forgotten, and continued to follow Luna as they followed the directions the hapless guard had provided.

Eventually they came to a large double door, through which the sound of snoring could be heard. Twilight decided to maintain her position behind Luna, and let her open the door and enter first. That also meant she was the first to hear Luna's "tch" of disgust as she saw two ponies in the large bed, rather than one.

"I bet she was cheap," said Luna, wrinkling her nose at the various smells in the air; a mix of sex, alcohol, smoke, and sweat, as well as others she couldn't identify.

"Now what?"

"Now we kick her out and do what we came to do." Luna pulled the covers off the mare, and recoiled as the mare groaned, rolled over, and exposed herself to them, mumbling something about making it quick. Luna stuck out her tongue, then backhoofed the mare across the rear, "Wake up."

The mare groaned and opened her eyes in fits and starts. A fairly lazy reaction to getting slapped across the ass by an alicorn. "Who're you?"

"Housekeeping," Luna said sternly. "I'm afraid it's time for you to go. Grab your belongings, and go."

The mare blinked sleepily and rubbed her eyes, "I haven't been paid yet."

"Oh for goodness sake." Luna walked over to a dresser, also gaudy, and started rummaging through the drawers. After a moment she pulled out a jewelled necklace that was probably worth more than the mare could make in several years, and threw it towards the bed. The mare's eyes widened as it landed in her lap. "There, now get out."

"Yes ma'am!" the mare said obediently, jumping out of bed and grabbing her discarded garments before wrapping the necklace in them and scurrying out the door in the space of seconds.

"Right, now lock the doors Twilight; we have work to do and I don't want any distractions." Twilight obeyed, and when she turned back Luna once again had her horn, and was mumbling under her breath as she cast a spell. Then she stepped back and waited. Nothing happened.

"Oh wait, I need to activate it." Luna cleared her throat and lit her horn up in a blaze of energy, "Awaken Viscount and heed my words!" She waited, her horn raised dramatically, but got nothing more than a snore from the Viscount. "Ok. Ahem, hear my words and obey!"

Thwpptt... Luna backed away as the Viscount broke wind, as equally confused as she was disgusted. "What is going on here? Why doesn't he hear me?"

"Have you thought about using the royal Canterlot voice?"

Luna shook her head, "I don't want the whole building to hear us." Luna paused, her hoof on her chin as she thought. Then she violently slapped him across the face. Twilight was about to shout a protest, but held it back, and even she was surprised when the Viscount barely reacted. "I see."

"See what?" Twilight asked, feeling like she knew what was going on less and less. "Why's he like that?"

Luna slumped, "This isn't going to work. I wish I could say there's something blocking the spell, or interfering with my magic, but I think the reason is far simpler, yet more insidious."

"What? What is it?"

"I rather suspect this fellow has been chasing the dragon."

"Chasing the dragon? Why would he do that? Is that why he's so tired? I didn't even think there were dragons in Mareitania..."

"What?" Luna facehoofed. "No Twilight, that's not what that means. It means he's high as a kite, and not because he's secretly a pegasus before you say that. Opiates, Twilight. He's on drugs. It's hard to control a mind that can barely control itself."

"And that stops the spell working at all?"

"So it would seem," Luna replied harshly.

Twilight started freaking out, but the feeling passed as it failed to get any traction on her already overtaxed psyche. Instead she head-butted the nearest thing once, swore, then got on with things.

"So now what? Do we wait for him to stop chasing the dragon?"

"He's not chasing it now- Oh never mind. What I was going to say was that it could take hours for him to sober up. Hours we can't afford to spend sitting here." Luna paced as she tried to think, "Perhaps there is a way we can salvage this however."

"How?" Twilight said with a glimmer of hope.

"We kidnap him, then use him as a bargaining chip."

The glimmer died. "You can't be serious."

"Why ever not?"

"Look at him! Do you really think that he's of any actual benefit to the ponies here? When he's not chasing dragons, he's chasing tail instead. Those soldiers might have followed him to escape the battle at High Rock, but that doesn't mean anything. They'd be better off without him. You know, I know it, and they probably know it."

"So you're saying they wouldn't want him back?"

"I'm saying that we'd make their lives harder by leaving him here."

"I see." Luna thought some more, then shook her head. "I not saying you're wrong Twilight, but I still think we should at least try to bargain with the soldiers in exchange for this useless lump of a pony. It might work, it might not, but we can at least try."

Twilight groaned, "Fine..."

"That's the spirit. I'll grab him, then you teleport us back to the camp." Twilight tapped a hoof, betraying her irritation, but otherwise waited for Luna to drag the Viscount out of his bed, and sling him over her back, no more inconvenienced than if she were carrying a pillow. "Ready to go Twilight."

Twilight started to cast the teleportation spell, but quickly stopped as it felt like her head was splitting off in several directions, before snapping back into one the moment she stopped casting. She dropped to the floor and groaned as she clutched her head. "Stupid, poxy, arseholes!"

"What is it Twilight? What happened?"

Twilight risked opening her eyes, glad the ground did at least have the decency to remain still. "Anti-teleportation stone. They must've brought one with them from High Rock. There's no way we're going anywhere with one of those around."

"Then we need a new plan. I suppose we could just fly and carry him." Luna opened the large windowed doors onto a balcony. A balcony that overlooked a large, heavily occupied courtyard. Luna swiftly stepped back and shut the doors behind her, hoping she hadn't been spotted. "I suggest finding another route."

"Or we could just leave him?"

Luna shook her head, "Wouldn't matter now. We can't teleport away, and I don't suggest we fly from here as we'll be spotted."

"I could teleport by the window we got in through. How about we go back there?"

"And sneak through the entire Winter palace with the Viscount unconscious on my back? I doubt that's going to work."

"I said leave him!"

"And I'm saying no. This is my first time to Stalliongrad, and I'm not leaving without a souvenir. If there's still a chance we can win this without bloodshed, we should still take it."

Twilight pointed at the doors to the balcony, "Then why don't we fly over all those ponies out there, and not worry if we're spotted?"

"Nay Twilight. If they see us leaving with the Viscount, they might attack our forces to get him back. Potentially anyway. I'd rather we not risk that."

"Risk what? Risk them giving up their defensive advantage inside the city? Heavens forbid that be a tactical advantage for us! No, we should definitely sneak him through the Winter palace, and use him as a bargaining chip, because they would definitely want him back."

"Is not taking him alive even if they don't want him back not worth it?!" Luna shouted.

"Maybe!" Twilight shouted back. She'd genuinely forgotten that they were kind of trying to do that. "Fine, we'll bring him, but I don't see why we can't just fly out in full view."

"Because I'd rather them not know we have him until we want them to know. If we give them the time to think about it, they might conclude the same as we have; that he's a useless lump not worth keeping."

"But it's going to be impossible to get him out of here without being seen."

"I know." Luna's face screwed up as the first inklings of an idea came to her. Firstly she cast a spell to make sure the Viscount didn't wake up mid-kidnap. Then she lifted him off her back, rolled him up in his sheets, then placed him back on her back. "This might work." Without saying a word, Twilight shrunk the Viscount, made a sling out of the sheets to hold him, them looped the sling over Luna's neck. "Even better."

"I would say I'm going to regret this, but I'm already regretting this so much already. It would be hard to regret it more." Twilight waited for Luna to hide her horn again, then opened the door to leave, only to find a soldier standing outside it, hoof poised ready to knock. Both of them stared at each other for an uncomfortable moment before Twilight came to her senses, bit onto his collar, and dragged him into the room, throwing him onto the bed.

"Wah!" The soldier landed heavily on the bed, then scrambled around to look at Twilight, his expression a mix of fear, bewilderment, and moderate excitement. "What we gonna do on the bed miss?"

"Oh, you'll see." The outline of Twilight's invisible horn glowed with magic, and the soldier squawked with shock before collapsing into unconsciousness, the amnesia spell stripping away the last hour of his memories.

"See?" Twilight said triumphantly. "Useful."

"Mmhmm," Luna said noncommittally as she stared down at the dead soldier at her hooves, his head pointing the opposite way it should be. "He came in while you were busy. I didn't know what else to do."

"Oh."

"Still, bravo on sparing the other one."

"Don't mock me Luna." Twilight fumed silently as Luna stuffed the dead soldier under the bed. The other they decided to leave alone after Luna drew some whiskers on him with some ink she found.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" Twilight let Luna lead the way this time, and stayed behind her as the blue mare poked her head out and looked around before walking out completely. "Coast's clear Twilight. Now lets hurry before something else happens."

The time that passed between them leaving the Viscount's bedroom, and the alarm going up could only be counted in minutes, which was actually fine because in those minutes Twilight and Luna had actually managed to make it most of the way back to the attic, and succeeded in covering the rest of the distance without getting spotted.

Less convenient was the fact that the palace was now teeming with soldiers, both inside and out, and Luna was becoming increasingly smug because it was clear that they did appear to give at least a rats ass about the Viscount.

"And how do you know they're not just concerned that somepony killed one of them and knocked out another, leaving them with no memory of what happened?"

Luna shrugged, "Those two had to be going to see the Viscount for a reason."

"There is just no arguing with you today, is there?"

Luna beamed at Twilight, "You do seem to have found me in a contradictory mood today. Anyway, I was going to say that they might have been going to inform him of that." Luna pointed out of the window at a dark blob outside of the city walls. A dark blob consisting of thousands of the liberation front's soldiers. "I daresay that might get their attention."

"Why are they so close to the city? I didn't tell them to do that!"

"Did you tell them not to?"

"I shouldn't have needed to!" Twilight swore as she spotted the plumes of smoke that could only have belonged to the tanks. At the very least she could be thankful for the distraction as the soldiers started making their way to the walls. "Come on, let's get out of here." Twilight scrambled out of the window, catching herself with her wings as she started to fall, then waited for Luna to do the same. Then, confident that she could, she teleported away to behind the largest cluster of rebel soldiers.

"What are you doing?!" Twilight asked loudly before the sparks from hers and Luna's sudden appearance had faded away.

"Just following orders ma'am," a mare told her, both helpfully and unhelpfully.

"Whose orders?"

"Snowbright's ma'am."

"And where is Snowbright?"

"I'm here, I'm here!" Snowbright said as he jogged up to them, Fleur, Octavia, Summer, and the filly not far behind him. "What happened? You were in there for ages, then Shadow spotted Selene and told us you were in trouble."

"Based on what?"

"I don't know. Maybe she just assumed you were."

"And so you came to the rescue?"

"More or less. Was that the wrong thing to do?"

"Only in the way that it was very much the wrong thing to do, yes."

"Oh. Shit."

Twilight took a deep, cleansing breath. "It's fine. This is totally fine. We can still work with this. It wasn't the original plan, but Luna and I..." Twilight trailed off as she turned to Luna and saw the very flat expression she wore as a yellowish liquid dripped from the sling and down her right leg.

"He wet himself, didn't he," she said, completely deadpan.

"It would appear so, yes."

Luna closed her eyes and slowly breathed in, held it, then exhaled again just as slow. "Please, get him off me Twilight," she said in an incredibly calm voice.

"Did you steal a foal?" Octavia asked as Twilight lifted the sling off Luna and placed it on the ground.

"No. Well, maybe in every sense except the literal one at least. Behold." Her horn emitted a flash of light, and she stepped back as the Viscount grew in size, sprawled out on the ground before them, still thankfully unconscious due to Luna's spell. "That's right! We kidnapped the Viscount! Meaning our plan went off swimmingly." Her eye twitched as she smiled at the ponies around her. "It was Luna's idea."

"You kidnapped the Viscount..." Fleur said flatly. "Why did you kidnap the Viscount? That wasn't the plan in the slightest."

"I know!" Twilight nudged Luna, "Tell them about the dragons he was chasing!"

Luna sighed, while the others shared confused glances. "To put it simply, he was too- What's a modern way to put it... Whacked out? Yes, that'll do. He was too 'whacked out' on opiates for the spell to work, so we decided to kidnap him."

"You decided to kidnap him. Not me."

Luna rolled her eyes, "Fine, I decided we should kidnap him, in the hopes we could use him as a bargaining chip, forcing them to surrender."

"Won't work," Snowbright said bluntly.

"What? Why ever not?"

"Because if they surrender, they'd get the Viscount back, sure, but they'd lose the city and the war, and the Viscount wouldn't be the Viscount any more in that case, so they'd actually gain absolutely nothing from trading the city for him. In fact, they'd have less than when they started."

"Hah!" Twilight shouted triumphantly as Luna thought it through and swore under her breath. "You could've just listened to me and left him, but no, you had to kidnap him."

"Oh silence yourself Twilight." Luna sat down, keeping quiet as she tried to think, but failed to come up with anything. "I'm afraid I'm rather at a loss on what to do now. Could we at least try trading him?"

Snowbright shrugged, "Feel free to try, but you'd be wasting your time."

The filly raised a hoof excitedly, "Ooh-ooh-ooh! We could give him back by shooting him over the wall with one of the tanks! That'd freak them out!"

Fleur smiled gently at the filly, "I'm not sure that'd have the desired effect sweetie."

"How'd you know what effect I was going for?"

"Anyway..." Twilight stopped as she caught Summer making small moves towards the Viscount, stopping, then trying again. She watched for a moment, but eventually she had to ask what Summer was doing.

"I kinda of want to kick him, but I'm not sure I should."

"I think if anypony here deserves a kick it would be him, or Luna," said Twilight. "I'm not sure he'd even notice though. Luna slapped him across the face and he didn't notice. Don't stop on our account if you really want to though."

Summer really looked like she was fighting with herself over it, but eventually she backed off, shaking her head. "I shouldn't. Maybe it's best I just forget about him."

"Whatever you think is best," Octavia told her, giving the pegasus a hug. She released it as she saw Summer develop a devilish grin, "What are you thinking?"

"Oh, nothing much," Summer replied, her grin only growing in size.

"Fine, keep your secrets." Octavia turned her attention back to the rest of them, "So what now?"

"Is it really worth trying to trade the Viscount back?" asked Fleur. "Or would it really be a huge waste of our time?"

"I'm with Snowbright on this," said Twilight. "They have absolutely nothing to gain from having him back. I doubt he was in charge of the defence either, so we have nothing to gain from them having him back either. I say we just move onto plan b and start the attack, and since I'm still technically in charge, that's what we're going to do. Luna, secure the prisoner. Snowbright, I want up to date information from the pegasus scouts on the enemies defences. Summer, and Octavia... Are you still with us in this Octavia?"

Octavia nodded, "I am."

Twilight smiled at her, "Excellent. You and Summer go join the medics. You too Fleur since you can use a healing device now." She turned and stared grimly at the city before her, "Let's finish this."

Or we can finish this later, Twilight thought glumly as she parsed through the information in front of her, studying the enemy's layout on the rather detailed map Soarin had sketched out on his scouting run. So far she had learnt that whoever was leading the defence wasn't exactly experienced, but had instead fallen back on the old staple of 'hold the walls.' But that was only half the issue, maybe two thirds at most. If there was in fact a civilian militia of some kind, the rebels had no idea where they were, or in what way they would be used, because they looked like everypony else in the city. Just taking one half the city in the hopes the other half would surrender wasn't as good a plan as it first seemed.

As much as Twilight would like to plan out every last detail in the hopes that this would go perfectly, she simply couldn't, as usual. It almost hurt her that there was still the possibility that this could go wrong, prolonging the war, even though she still found that unlikely. All the same, the doubt was gnawing away at her a lot more than usual, and she suspected it was because she didn't have the one thing she had every other fight; Trixie.

She never realised before this point just how much she relied on Trixie, not just as fighter, but as a rather unusual form of moral support. Trixie's tendency to not give up against even superior odds had subtly made Twilight think that they could do anything, but it seemed that now Trixie had given up Twilight was doubting herself, even with superior odds, and she knew that doubt was a good way to get ponies killed. The more she thought about it, the worse it got.

She forced herself back to the issue at hoof. There were three ways into the city, and the east entrance was barely even worth considering as it was the furthest away, and if the enemy saw them going for it they would put more defenders there as they could cover the distance easier than the rebels could. Of course that would split the defenders up, but the rebels would be split up as well, and with the smaller number of adepts they had since Prance, their own defences would be poor, and they would lose far too many ponies.

Instead they could focus on one entry, fighting at their full strength, against an enemy that was also at their full strength, but was also at a disadvantage like they normally were. it seemed like the better solution, but something about it gave Twilight a bad feeling. But that bad feeling could simply be part of the doubt that was eating at her, nothing more.

"Luna, I need your help."

"And none too soon Twilight. I was beginning to think we'd be here all day. What can I do for you?"

Twilight did her best to hide the effect that sentence had on her already dying confidence, and gestured at the map. "I want your opinion. Do we attack multiple entrances to the city, or one? Multiple would divide and weaken their defences, but would weaken our own defences in turn. Attacking as one would make us stronger in one place, but something tells me that isn't the best idea. What do you think?"

"I think you're being too rigid. The pegasi can attack any part of the city at once, and there's no reason to think they shouldn't. Weakening the enemy's defences would be key, because as soon as we take one entrance, the distraction to them would make the others easier to take."

"I know, but without enough adepts to cover everypony, too many of ours could get killed! That would be a disaster even if we win."

Luna smiled politely at Twilight, "Are you struggling because you can't point Trixie at something and let her do her thing?"

"No. Maybe." Twilight sighed and leant back, "Yes. If there were only two entrances, you and I could cover them, but there's three, so one of our advances is going to be weaker, and that worries me."

"Then only attack two entrances, or do something else with it. Maybe have the tanks attack it alone as a distraction while we attack the other two."

"Can we do that? Let the tanks attack on their own?"

"I don't see why not. The enemy has no weapons we've seen capable of even damaging a tank, let alone destroy one, and they've no ramps to undermine to stop us that way. I imagine that the tanks could bust through the gates and head for the Winter palace without even being slowed down in the slightest."

Twilight thought about it, but quickly saw the flaw in the plan. "How would we get into the city without the tanks to bust down the gates?"

"Good grief Twilight, you've seen the state of this city. The walls are old and crumbling, and the gates not much better. You or I could tear them down with little difficulty, or the pegasi could bomb them until they're little more than burning splinters. Getting through the gates is not the issue here."

Twilight went quiet as she thought about it, and she could see that Luna was onto something. The tanks could attack the east gate on their own, and there would be little the soldiers could do to stop them. Perhaps Twilight was being too rigid. She and Luna could lead the attack on the south and west gates while the tanks attack the east, and the pegasi could provide quite a bit of support as the top of the walls were exposed to airborne attack. Perhaps this was nowhere near as bad as she's thought.

"Okay, I think we have a plan. Now we can finish this."

Author's Notes:

I think my brain was on vacation when I wrote this. Really lacks a certain serious tone. Whatever.

Only halfway through writing the next chapter, so it might be up next week, it might not. I give up trying to predict such things.