Twilight trotted nervously in place, her armour gleaming in the sun after Luna convinced her to wear it one last time. Conventionally speaking, Twilight knew wearing it was a good idea, but to her it seemed like more of a burden. One she wished to shed along with all the others she could once Stalliongrad was 'liberated.' She was beginning to dislike the sound of that word. The ponies of Stalliongrad didn't want to be liberated, so was attacking them like this and forcing them to accept the view of the new Mareitania really liberation? Or just another form of oppression?

Not that it mattered. Even though they might have captured the Viscount through creative misadventure, the city couldn't be allowed to remain under the control of the remnants of the Grand Army. Apart from being a threat to the rest of Mareitania, they wouldn't be able to feed anypony in the city within the next fortnight if they weren't dealt with. Both good reasons, if nothing else.

The ponies behind her shifted uneasily, not so shy about showing their nerves. Twilight wished she could do the same, but she had to maintain an air of calm and confidence, even though she'd been feeling neither ever since the battle to take High Rock. Twilight was starting to think that maybe she should have given the reins of this whole affair over to Luna or Snowbright, especially since it was Luna's plan they were going with. If it didn't work she could then pass the fault off as somepony else's, and save herself the grief.

She also knew that'd be selfish, so she held in a sigh and went back to waiting for the signal from one of the pegasus above to tell her the tanks were in position. She didn't have to wait long as she caught sight of Soarin waving desperately at her from above, then gesture towards the tanks once he was sure he had her attention.

Part of her wanted to say something dramatic like 'so it begins,' but the words died in her mouth, creeping out as a bitter sigh instead. She walked forwards, a shield springing up around herself as she went to deliver the usual spiel about them being able to surrender peacefully and blah blah blah, then watch them refuse as they normally did. Maybe through some miracle they might accept for once, which would be nice.

"We've captured the Viscount," she said loudly. "Don't bother trying to convince me he isn't missing, because I know you'd be lying. Your leaders are gone, the country you fight for is no more, and let's not pretend that any of us really want to do this. You have nothing to fight for, so please, can't we end this without any more bloodshed?"

She waited, hoping for a positive response, then waited further, hoping for any response at all. The quiet she received didn't really fill her with hope though, and she found herself wanting to scream at them. "Well? Don't I at least get an answer of some kind? Even if it's to tell me to go away?"

"We've been told to not talk to you," a voice answered hesitantly, as if they were fully aware that they were breaking that order by informing Twilight of it.

"Why not? I'm a nice pony, and I can be very reasonable. If you surrender you'll be treated nicely, the war will end, and we can all go home, alive and well. Doesn't that sound nice?" It certainly did to herself.

"Go away and leave us alone!"

While it wasn't a surrender, it was at least an admission that they didn't really want to fight either. Twilight wished that actually made it better, but it really didn't.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Well I could, but I know there's not enough food in the city to support you. I could starve you out, but that's not going to be any nicer. Come on," she pleaded, "just do the right thing."

"Go away!"

"Fine." Twilight turned and started to walk away, a rather unpleasant amount of anger building up in her that wanted to break out. She knew better than to do that though, as there was only one way that anger would manifest, and Twilight had had enough of dark magic for a lifetime.

She took a deep breath and turned back to the wooden gates between her and Stalliongrad, and her horn started to glow as she prepared a spell. "If you won't come out, we're going to come in, and I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow this whole damned city down if I have to!" A brilliant pulse of magenta leap off her horn and smashed into the gate, shattering wood and punching through the bar locking it shut. Surprisingly the gate kept standing, but there wasn't an awful lot of resistance as Twilight took hold of the two gates and pulled them towards her, opening them.

Explosions echoed from the right at the tanks began their advance, and a distant flash of light to the left was what Twilight hoped was Luna making her way through the west gate. Barely thirty seconds into the battle and the enemy was already on the back hoof.

Spitfire's teeth rattled from the overpressure of the spells that came from both Twilight and Luna, and more than a few pegasi had to take flight as their clouds disintegrated beneath them. That was fine though as now the battle had begun, they weren't going to be resting on their laurels anyway.

"Formations," Spitfire shouted, and the pegasi and thestrals separated out into their squadrons of twelve, ready to attack. Spitfire held the order for a minute, making sure the ground forces held the full attention of the Grand Army, even if those facing the tanks weren't entirely sure what to do. When she was sure their approach wasn't going to be noticed too soon, she drew her blades, raised one in the air, then brought it down to begin their attack. "Go-go-go!"

The fliers broke up, no squadron taking the same flight path as the others, and they would again break up into four groups of three. Spitfire and Soarin didn't have a third member though, and had kept it that way since Fleetfoot had returned to Equestria, and they would keep it that way until she returned to active duty, although that would probably be several months from now.

Spitfire pushed her distracting thoughts away. The kind of flying they were about to do wasn't one that called for anything less than total focus.

She picked a target on the wall surrounding the city, a mare who was carefully sighting along a crossbow at ponies that were ironically trying to free her from tyranny. Spitfire didn't care about that though as she lined up her attack vector and dived. A couple dozen meters above the mare she flared her wings, slowing her speed down to something that wouldn't shatter her own limbs, and crashed down onto the mare, her blades impaling her behind the withers as her weight pushed the mare to the ground.

Her attack didn't go unnoticed though, and she tore her left blade out of the mare's back just in time to deflect away a sword that was swinging towards her. She pulled her right blade free and balancing on her hind legs she followed through with the motion of her block and turned it into an attack, bringing her right blade around to slice a deep wound on the chest of the stallion that attacked her. He dropped his weapon in shock and staggered back, and Spitfire pumped her wings to push herself forwards, knocking him over and allowing her to finish the stallion off by plunging her right blade into his chest. She hopped up onto his side and pushed off it, both freeing her blade and putting her out of reach of further retaliation.

"Almost lost a few feathers there Cap," Soarin joked as he rejoined Spitfire in the air.

"You or me?" she asked back, pointing a blade at a raggedy patch on Soarin's left wing when a blade had cut through some of his feathers.

"Aw man! What the hell? I didn't even feel that."

"Forget about it." From what Spitfire could see, the pegasi's opening strike had devastated the defenders on the wall, but that was only one small issue, and as the battle crept further into the city holding the walls was already a moot point. A bigger problem was the soldiers coming from the east of the city, having given up on attacking the tanks that were doing nothing more than quietly making their way through the city towards the Winter palace, totally impervious to whatever the soldiers tried to do. The simple solution was to throw something flammable through one of the viewports, but Spitfire wasn't about to share that.

"We need to slow down those coming from the east before they overwhelm Twilight's position."

"So she's Twilight when you're not actually talking to her?"

"Shut up Soarin! Spread the word to start hitting the soldiers coming from the east, and that we'll be flying through the streets, so it'll be close quarters, okay?"

"Yes boss!" Soarin saluted, his blade waving dangerously above his head.

"One of these days you're going to cut your ear off doing that. Now get going." Spitfire did the same, flitting from squadron to squadron when they had a brief break in whatever they were doing. Word spread quickly, as being quick is something most pegasi take pride in, and Spitfire went to spread word to the thestrals, who forsook the squadrons and wings method the pegasi used for doing whatever the hell they felt like, their resilience giving them an annoying amount of leeway in Spitfire's opinion.

"Hey Spitfire," Shadow said jovially as she polished her darkened goggles on her coat, wiping away the specks of blood that marked them. Now that Spitfire thought about it, her own goggles weren't as clean as she liked. "Is this where you give me suggestions on what to do, and I obey them for arbitrary reasons?"

"Something like that. The soldiers from the east are coming through the city to join the rest of their forces. They'll be on Twilight's position in a couple of minutes. I was hoping to thin them out and slow them down before they can do that."

"Mmhmm, tell me more."

"I'm sure Princess Luna would be pleased."

Shadow sniggered at Spitfire, "That is a weak-ass attempt at trying to buy me, but whatever." She opened her mouth and emitted a squeal that made Spitfire's ears buzz, but it also got the attention of every other thestral there. "We're hitting the soldiers coming from the east before they can hit Twilight's forces. Street to street flying, so watch those wingtips." She turned back to Spitfire and grinned, "Race ya down there."

"What? Wait!" Shadow didn't slow down in the slightest. "Crazy fucking bat ponies!"

"Hey!" Shadow shouted back, having turned onto her back in mid-air so she could shout back to Spitfire. "You can't say that! That's our name!" She grinned toothily and flipped back over to continue her dive.

Spitfire decided to ignore that, and having spotted Soarin she signalled him to join her as she followed the thestrals in. Soarin tucked into just behind her to the right, and together they tucked their wings in, letting gravity do the work of building their momentum, using their wings sparingly to guide their descent until they had to pull up out of their dives and race into the narrow streets.

As undisciplined as they were, the thestrals had the skill and muscle to back up their actions, and not a single thestral corpse littered the streets amongst their victims, while the enemy soldiers that were still living clung to the sides of buildings to escape their wrath. That meant there were still plenty of targets for Spitfire to choose from, and she did.

She angled herself towards the side of the street, defying gravity as she rolled onto her side, the tip of her wing almost touching the ground, and held her blade out, letting her momentum do the work as she dragged the blade across the neck of the soldier that hid against the wall, hoping it would save him. It didn't, and he was almost decapitated, and certainly killed by the attack.

Spitfire rolled back level, the end of the street getting closer, as well as the wall beyond it that would certainly cause some problems if she were to fly into it. She spread her wings wide and shifted herself so her rear was leading, letting her legs take the impact as she met the wall. For a split second she hung there, crouched against the wall, waiting for gravity to catch up with her, and giving her the chance to complete an assessment of the new street before her. As she had suspected, there were plenty of soldiers there, sheltering in the streets that went against the direction of the dive-bombing pegasi and thestrals.

Spitfire completed that assessment in the time it took for gravity to remember it had a job to do, and she pushed off the wall, using her wings to add to her speed, and slammed bodily into the nearest soldier in a move that would have pinned him to the wall had Spitfire's blades been longer. She pulled back and swung around, letting the body of her victim slide off her blades and into the next soldier, staggering him enough to give Spitfire a chance to get back into the air, from where she could launch another attack, and another, until she ran out of targets.

It took Twilight a few moments to work out what it was the pegasi were doing, and that was when she had the time to think about it at all. Rather than fall back along the main road that led to the Winter palace in the centre of the city, the soldiers defending the wall and gates had spread out into the winding streets instead. Each corner was a place to ambush around, each elevated window a vantage point to fire down onto the rebels from. They dragged carts, barrels, furniture, and anything they could use into the streets to make use of as cover, and to slow the rebel's advances into the city. Twilight spent as much time moving and destroying these blockages as she did fighting.

In a close quarters fight earth ponies usually held the advantage, and it was showing as the rebels adepts were forced to fall back, allowing their earth pony counterparts to fight at the fore and take the brunt of the attacks, their superior armour being all that was between them and an untimely death. It also seemed as though the enemy soldiers were using the most brutal tactics they could, and had started setting fires in the streets and to buildings, trading territory to strengthen their positions elsewhere.

Then the militia had arrived, driven on by fear, determination, and obedience. Some of them wore the barest scraps of armour, and some of them weren't even armed, but all the same they fought, possibly even harder than the soldiers since this was their city that the rebels were trying to take. They poured out of houses, and shops, and wherever they could that the rebels weren't prepared, and it took a demoralising amount of effort to slow them down as the rebels were suddenly forced to scour each building for hidden attackers.

Honestly, Twilight was starting to consider the wisdom of falling back and letting the city starve into submission. It'd certainly be easier.

Twilight popped her head out from behind the pile of wooden crates the soldiers had dumped into the street, originally to defend themselves, but that had turned around as the rebels pushed on, and she snapped off a couple of blasts of magic at a building on the opposite side of the street a little further up where a soldier had been doing their best to put arrows into everypony they could see from the safety of a window, and had been doing quite well until Twilight decided to do something about it. Her magic had not only stopped the soldier, but demolished quite a bit of the building around where he had been, the bricks tumbling into the street below along with his body.

Sensing an opportunity to advance while there was a lull, Twilight stepped out from her cover, firing blast after blast up the street at the defenders ahead, forcing them into cover and giving her own ponies a chance to push ahead. She ran forwards with them, her magic keeping the soldiers heads down behind the row of accumulated odds and ends they were using for cover.

Once she was close enough she used her telekinesis to plough through the barricade. A spray of splinters and chunks of wood peppered the soldiers, and Twilight wasted no time in thinning them down while they were distracted. Her horn blazed as she both fired bolt after bolt of magic, punching through armour and burning through flesh, and Swordy sang as he swept through both the air and ponies.

Then the remaining soldiers retreated, and Twilight fell back behind the barricade for cover, her own ponies already shoring it up as others spread out into the small bit of newly acquired territory. A few dozen meters of street, likely with more ambushes set up around it, for the price of one of her own ponies, and a half dozen of theirs. She couldn't decide if it really was worth it.

Twilight wrinkled her nose as an acrid stench crept up her nostrils. It smelled like oil, only sharper, and she looked around hoping to find the source and remove it. The smell seemed to be coming from everywhere though, and it took her a moment to work out that it was because it was everywhere. The barricade, the wall near her, the ground, and now her hooves were covered in a wet oily substance that glistened in the light. Some of the ponies around her started to take notice too, and of those a few were quicker on the uptake, and had started running even before the flaming arrows smacked into the barricade.

"Run!" Twilight shouted, the fire spreading far too rapidly over the oil soaked wood as she scrambled to get away. The flames spread down to the ground, and nipped at her heels as she ran, grabbing, teleporting, and sometimes even throwing those ponies that had been too slow to escape.

Thick black smoke from the fire stung her eyes, and one of her rear hooves grew uncomfortably warm as the oil on her armour caught fire. She extinguished the flame and cooled the armour back to normal, then ducked as arrows rained from above. Ponies cried out in pain, either from being struck by an arrow, or from not escaping the fire fast enough. Not sure what else to do Twilight raised a shield, preventing the soldiers from causing further damage, while also preventing the rebels from attacking. After what had happened Twilight thought they needed the breathing space.

"Get the wounded out of here," Twilight ordered, and kept a vague eye on the ponies carrying out the order while she maintained their protection and thought about what to do now. With their main avenue of attack blocked by the fire the rebels would either have to holdout where they were, or spread out sideways into the streets. Something that the enemy likely planned for, probably with malicious glee. With the attack hopefully progressing in the rest of the city, Twilight felt they really didn't have much choice but to try and keep pushing on. Once the wounded had been moved she ordered everypony to advance into one of the side streets as she dropped the shield. A few of the adepts would stay where they were, exchanging fire with the soldiers to keep them occupied.

Twilight had other plans though, and wasted no time in heading through the street she'd picked. She advanced cautiously, keeping her magic and weapon ready for the first sign of trouble, and didn't have to wait long as a dozen ponies burst out of the door to her left. They weren't wearing uniforms, but their intent was no different from the soldiers as they charged at Twilight. Two blasts of magic felled the first two, and she brought Swordy around to fend off a rudimentary weapon that had been aimed at her face.

She wouldn't be given a chance to defend herself further though as those ponies that she or her soldiers hadn't already stopped piled onto her, kicking and biting anything fleshy enough to leave a mark. She teleported out of the pile, picking a few more off with her magic before letting her soldiers finish them off. All that remained was one colt who couldn't have been more than sixteen by her estimates. He'd picked up the one weapon the ambushers had possessed between them; a kitchen knife tied to the end of a broom handle, and he pointed it at Twilight, the point weaving about as he failed to hold it steady. Twilight held a hoof up at the ponies that were about to tackle the colt, and they stopped, watching to see what Twilight would do.

Twilight didn't disappoint. Swordy flashed through the air, again and again, slicing a few inches off the broom handle every time until there was only the part the colt held remaining. He yelped and dropped the now considerably shorter piece of wood, and froze as Twilight's magic took hold of him and dragged him closer until they were face to face.

"Go home," she said sternly. Twilight dropped the colt, and stood patiently as he cowered in front of her. "Now." The colt didn't need to be told again, and he bolted away, not seeming to care where he was going. Twilight really hoped he had the sense to stay somewhere safe. "Too bad they won't all do that."

Somepony had been clever. Cleverer than anticipated by a long way. That or the rebellion had been uncharacteristically dull by not anticipating certain things. Luna couldn't decide which made her feel worse.

Even though the steelworks had ceased operations, that didn't mean quite a few of their products weren't sitting around from when it had been operating. That somepony clever had decided to make use of those products by armouring their barricades with them, then hiding them until the attack began. Now Luna found herself not making progress because most magic was largely ineffective against steel and other metals. She hoped Twilight wasn't having to deal with this issue.

Luna's advance into the city had run into this problem almost immediately, and had barely advanced more than a hundred meters before stopping to exchange fire against an almost impenetrable wall of steel, while the enemy soldiers ineffectively fired back at the shields Luna and her adepts had erected. Currently it seemed to be a race between the adepts getting too tired to cast their shields, or the enemy running out of arrows. It wasn't a race Luna had any intention of losing. She just didn't know how to win it yet.

"We need to push forwards," Wick said loud enough to hear over the noise around them.

"I'm aware of that." Luna cursed her luck for getting stuck fighting with Wick. Sure he might have been one of the better soldiers in the liberation front, having been trained by both Snowbright and Twilight in regular and magical combat, but he had the worst habit of stating the obvious. "If you have an idea of how to do that I'd love to hear it."

"You can teleport can't you?"

"Yes?" Luna said slowly, a little bit put off that he might actually have an idea.

"Then can't you teleport up onto the roof of the buildings next to their barricade and attack them from above?" And it was actually a good idea too, and Luna almost wanted to smack herself for not having thought of it herself.

"I suppose it's worth a shot," she said as begrudgingly as possible. "But I can only take a dozen ponies with me at most."

"How many do you need?"

Myself, thought Luna. "Doesn't matter. I'll take as many as I can and try to break this deadlock. Try to get as many of our ponies into cover as you can because I want to take a few adepts with me. Then, prepare yourselves to rush the gap we make, understood?"

"Understood."

Luna picked out three adepts and a mix of both earth ponies and unicorns armed with crossbows. Then she carefully picked out her spot to teleport them to. It had to close enough for them to easily be in range, but not so close that they were immediately spotted. She settled for a spot a couple of buildings back behind their barricade, and having warned the ponies with her, she teleported.

They appeared a split second later in the spot she aimed for, and judging by the lack of immediate outcry, they weren't spotted. "Okay, now we need to-" She fell silent as the roof groaned beneath her hooves, then sagged. "Uh-oh." With a crash the roof collapsed completely, dumping them into the room below in a rain of tiles, wood, dust, and ponies.

Pain filled Luna's world for a moment as she landed, and she lay there in a daze as the ponies around groaned and coughed in the cloud of dust.

"Everypony okay?" somepony asked, and Luna could've sworn it wasn't one of the ponies with her. She was right too as the dust cleared and she found herself looking at a half dozen soldiers who had just worked out the ponies that fell through the roof weren't on their side. Acting quickly, Luna raised a shield over herself and her ponies.

"Surrender now and you won't be hurt," Luna told them, sounding a lot more confident than her appearance let on as she lay sprawled in the debris from the roof collapse. She grunted in pain as she hauled herself to her hooves, glancing back at her right side and finding a piece of wood attached to her flank by several nails.

"Or you could surrender?" One of the soldiers suggested, his voice hard.

Luna grit her teeth and pulled the wood free, tossing it aside. "Nay, we shall not be surrendering, and since you've yet to call for aid, I think you know that surrendering is best."

"Oh darn, she got us," a mare with the soldiers said loudly. She held her crossbow out and dropped it theatrically, "Those confounded rebels." Slowly the other soldiers with her followed suit until only the one remained, who looked at his fellows with an expression of total betrayal. With an angry sigh he threw his crossbow away.

"Traitors," he muttered in defeat. Luna gathered their weapons up and set a couple of her ponies to watch them in the corner while she went to the window overlooking the street below. While she wasn't quite where she hoped to be, they still had a decent enough vantage point to attack the back of the barricades. The problem was that the windows reduced the number of ponies that could attack at once.

"You four," she said, pointing to three unicorns and an earth pony armed with crossbows. "Attack from the windows. The adepts and I shall teleport up to the roof and attack from there, and pray that it doesn't collapse further. The rest of you watch the prisoners."

Luna waited a moment for her ponies to get into position. "Attack on my mark," she said before teleporting herself and the three adepts up to the roof. They braced themselves, and while the roof groaned under their weight, it did hold. They crept to the edge of the roof, and Luna took a moment to study the barricades to find a weakness. Thankfully it seemed that simply blasting out the wooden supports would cause them to collapse, or at least fall over. She whispered as much to the adepts, and readied herself.

"Go!" Luna and the adepts launched blast after blast at the back of the barricades, while below her the archers hit the soldiers, distracting them enough to give Luna and the adepts a chance to do their work. Swiftly their magic chewed through the wooden supports, and even as the soldiers recovered their senses enough to return fire, they kept going with Luna raising a shield around them.

Steel plate after steel plate crashed down, their supports no longer able to hold them up, and as the gap grew bigger a charge was sounded from the rest of the rebel army attacking there, and they tore across the space to meet the soldiers of the Grand Army. Weapons clashed between the two groups as a mêlée broke out, and satisfied that they'd done enough, Luna ordered the adepts to start firing on the soldiers while she joined the fight below.

Apollo and Artemis appeared from thin air as Luna leapt off the edge of the building, using her magic to reduce the impact to something that wouldn't break her own legs, and ran into the heaviest part of the fighting where the rebels were trying to fight their way in through the gap in the barricades.

A burst of telekinesis staggered the soldiers holding the line, and Luna jumped into the gap she made, swinging her weapons back and forth with wild abandon as she forced the gap ever wider. Blood slicked her hooves and her weapons as she pushed on, the rebels behind her filling the space she left, while others expanded along the barricade, destroying the supports and creating room for even more rebels to join the fray.

Colourful bolts of magic flew overhead, crashing down onto the soldiers further back. They broke for cover, and without the ranged support from their fellows, the soldiers in the mêlée started to break, and Luna found they offered less and less resistance. Shields sprang up ahead of her, cutting off the retreat of the soldiers she was fighting, and those that remained barely lasted thirty seconds more before she ran out of foes.

Luna flicked the blood off her blades and returned them to the ether as Wick pushed his way through the rebels to get to her. "That was amazing! You really are one of a kind Selene. I doubt even Lady Twilight could've pulled that off."

Luna shrugged, "She could've, I assure you. Now, have our ponies spread out into the streets. There's quite likely going to be ambushes set up, so be sure to clear out each building as you...go?" Luna cocked her ear, a distant shouting growing louder and louder. A glance up the street informed her of its source as hundreds, if not thousands of ponies charged towards them, a mix of both soldiers and the civilian militia.

Luna wasted no time in firing at the advancing wall of ponies, the ponies around her quickly doing the same. Pony after pony fell, only to be trampled underhoof as the charge didn't slow, even as it met the shield. Unable to withstand the amount of ponies crashing into it, the shield collapsed entirely, but it did at least slow the charge a little, giving Luna a chance to redraw her weapons for all the good it did her.
A quick swing felled two ponies, but them falling didn't slow the mass of ponies behind them in the slightest. They slammed into Luna, bowling her over and trampling her, not even stopping to finish her off. Pain blossomed through every inch of her body, but all Luna could really think was that getting trampled to death was a really ignoble way to die.

Shadow adjusted her goggles, and scolded herself for not making them more comfortable. Perhaps if she'd thought to wear them a bit more before today she'd might've realised they were so damn uncomfortable, but no, she had to assume they were fine. If it wasn't for the fact that her eyes felt better while she wore them she might have given up wearing them.

Adjusting them again, Shadow hung in the air, keeping an ear out on the happenings below. Not that there was much in the east of the city. A lot of the soldiers had been cleared out, and the tanks now sat just outside the Winter palace, not really doing much. As a result, many of the pegasi were now aiding Twilight's position, while Shadow herself, she stopped to adjust her fucking goggles.

"Fuck these things," she grumbled to herself.

"Shadow! Shadow!"

"I can hear you across the city Misty; you don't have to shout."

The vividly blue maned Misty flapped to a stop in front of Shadow, and tried her best to not scream each syllable, although they did come out in a pitch that most ponies would've found uncomfortable to hear. "They're about to overrun the princess's position!"

That got Shadow's attention. "Which princess?!"

"Whi- The important princess!"

"Shit! Come on!" Shadow slapped her goggles back into place, her discomfort no longer important as she gathered up her thestrals. Wasting no time they flew over to the west, just as the enemy broke through the rebels line.

A high pitched squeal that made the dogs in the city howl came from Shadow's throat, and she drew her blades and dived, knowing her thestrals well enough to know they'd be right behind her.

They dived faster, their targets growing in definition the closer they got. Those thestrals that could directed the full power of their voices at the enemy, the slightest shimmer in the air being the only indicator of their attacks, although the effect on the ponies it hit was far more pronounced. The impact alone was enough to stagger a pony, but the disorientation was the real prize, as it tended to confuse a pony's senses to the point they fell over anyway. It certainly stopped them fighting back very well.

The soldiers and militia pushing the rebels back faltered as the thestrals sonic assault hit them, although the foremost ponies were unaffected as the thestrals didn't want to hit their allies. Without that backup though, they were totally vulnerable to the blades of the thestrals, and fell swiftly, allowing the rebels a moment to rally themselves.

Shadow led the way as they swooped around and prepared another strike. A rumble sounded deep in her throat, and through a method that she herself barely understood, she projected it at the enemy, who had only just recovered from the first time. Keeping low, she held her blades out, slicing through the flesh of her targets like butter as she attacked almost unimpeded. The thestrals passed, and in their wake were left dozens of dead and dying ponies.

A burst of magic heralded Luna's return as she tossed ponies off her. She recovered quickly, and she brandished her weapons to strike at her foes. She tossed one glaive, cutting down a pony as she ran forwards, the rebels racing to her position, and cleaved into the enemy lines as the thestrals came around for a third strike.

The enemy broke and ran, the militia simply not willing or able to stand their ground against a foe they couldn't strike back against. With her opponents rapidly depleting, Luna staggered off to the side and leant heavily against a wall to recover.

"Mistress!" Shadow shouted as she landed next to Luna, "Are you alright?"

Luna smiled weakly, her body throbbing. "I am well enough Shadow. Thank you for the timely intervention."

Shadow couldn't hide her blush, "Aw, you're welcome."

"How goes the battle in the rest of the city?"

"The pegasi are helping Princess Twilight's position. Last I checked they were trying to push their way towards the Winter palace, but the soldiers are doing everything they can to block their way, including setting fires."

"I see. So we are not the only ones having a hard time. What of the tanks?"

"Almost at the Winter palace. They can't really do much there though."

"A distraction is all they were meant to be." Luna nodded thoughtfully, "Very well, perhaps with the aid of you and your thestrals we will make progress." Luna held a hoof up to shield her eyes as she searched about, "Where is Wick?"

"The lieutenant's wounded ma'am," one of the rebels told her. "We've carried him back to the medics."

"Blast! Very well, I shall have to do it myself. Shadow, keep harassing those soldiers and militia still out in the open, and don't give them a chance to rally again. I'm also hoping you'll keep the main thoroughfare to the Winter palace as clear as you can while the rest of us spread out street by street."

"Of course mistress." Shadow leapt back into the air, a creative misinterpretation of those orders already percolating in her mind. She had no real intention of letting her princess come to harm again, and planned to split her forces in two. The majority will carry out the orders given to them, while the rest would help Luna, led by herself of course.

"Is the Princess alright?" Misty asked as soon as Shadow reached them.

"She's fine, and she's given us new orders. Most of us will focus on the main road to the palace, while fifty or so will help the Princess. Misty, I'm leaving you in charge of the larger group while I lead the group helping the Princess."

Misty rolled her eyes, "Brown-noser."

"I prefer the term sycophant myself," Shadow said back with a grin. "Anyway, let's get back down there."

Twilight ducked as a bottle shattered off the corner of the wall above her, the broken shards landing on the ground next to her as she hid around the corner. Then she ducked again as a trio of pegasi swept by, their wings only just missing the close confines of the street. Using the distraction they provided she stuck her head out and blindly blasted her magic at the ponies in the street ahead. The ones with a seemingly limitless supply of bottles.

Truthfully Twilight knew she could raise a shield and walk out, totally immune to everything they could throw at her. At the same time she was tired of that, and tired of the slaughter. Ponies shouldn't be this stubborn, and their willingness to fight for an already lost cause was sapping her own will to fight.

But such reasons weren't an actually reason to give up, so Twilight closed her eyes, bottled her up her misgivings, and teleported into the shop in the street where the bottle throwing hooligans were located. She appeared behind one and bucked as hard as she could, sending the mare flying out through the already broken shop window. Then she went flying sideways herself as a stallion bucked her.

"Ow," she muttered as she landed heavily against a bench. The stallion charged at her, his eyes filled with murder, so Twilight summoned Swordy, and winced as the stallion ran onto the blade, impaling himself as it materialised between them. Twilight did her best to not look in his eyes again as she pulled her weapon free.

Another stallion ran down the stairs towards her, a broken bottle in his teeth. Rather than let him get close, Twilight picked him off the floor, plucked the bottle from his mouth before he accidentally crushed it, and slammed him bodily against the wall. Then she sat down and waited for her soldiers to run in, weapons at the ready. She almost wanted to laugh at them.

"Secure the two still alive," she ordered, glad that she could. Frankly, killing three mostly unarmed ponies for a dozen meters of street and a shop didn't feel good, so at least she could say two of them would survive the battle.

Leaving her soldiers to it, Twilight left the shop only to see more pegasi racing up the street. Wondering what was going on she followed them into the air. Back towards the main street clouds were being gathered, creating an extremely localised fall of rain. It took Twilight a moment to work out they were extinguishing the fires, and for the first time that day she genuinely smiled. With the fires out, the rebels could push towards the Winter palace, circumventing the soldiers intended method of forcing the rebels into a vicious street to street fight.

Her spirits momentarily lifted, Twilight spread from group to group, telling them to fall back to the main street, and to spread the word to any others they found. Then she flew to the main street herself, and caught up to Spitfire who was directing the pegasi forming the rainclouds. "Boy am I glad to see you."

"Sorry ma'am, we got caught up stopping the soldiers from the east of the city from attacking you here as well. We would've come sooner otherwise-"

"It's fine Captain, really." Twilight tried to not think what all those reinforcements attacking her ponies would've looked like. "How long until you get the fires out?"

"Shouldn't be long. I'm told Princess Luna's forces are advancing on the Winter palace as well, although they've been bogged down in a street to street fight as well."

"And the tanks?"

"Sitting pretty at their destination ma'am. I think they could strike the soldiers retreating from yours and Luna's advances if you wish."

"Uh..." Twilight wasn't sure such a thing was necessary at this point, although she wasn't going to discount how it might be necessary in the future. "Tell Snowbright to position his tanks for such a strike, but to hold fire until I say so."

"Yes ma'am. Soarin?"

Soarin snapped off a salute, "On it."

Twilight paused as the rebels poured back into the main street. Once the fires were out their path was more or less clear, and it hopefully wouldn't take much to reach the Winter palace. If anything they had too much support with all the pegasi as well.

"Once the fires are out Captain, could you take half your pegasi and go help Luna?"

"Yes ma'am, if you're sure."

"I'm sure." Twilight left Spitfire to her work and flew down to the street, letting the rain wash the blood and dirt off her armour. Around her the rebels started forming their own positions, making sure each smaller street that led onto the main one was well defended from unwanted surprises.

Twilight herself decided to put herself right in front. Even with the fires out there was still a lot of debris in the road, and she'd have to clear it on the fly. She waited as the fires grew smaller, struggling to survive against the rainfall, and she was about to start moving when Soarin flew towards her, shouting urgently.

"Don't charge! Don't charge!"

"Why not? What's happened?"

"The soldiers and the militia are falling back from everywhere. They're surrounding the Winter palace, and I bet they're inside it too."

"What about Snowbright?"

"He's fallen back to the east road, and is blocking access to it. I think the soldiers are just trying to avoid them."

The all too brief moment of optimism Twilight experienced had all but evaporated, and left some confusion behind. Using the Winter palace defensively she could understand, but why surround it? The ponies doing so were setting themselves up as nothing more than cannon-fodder as they were easy targets for flyers, susceptible to ranged attack, and had tanks capable of killing them in droves peeking over their shoulders. It didn't make sense, meaning caution was in order.

"Go find Luna and tell her in case she doesn't know yet."

"Yes ma'am."

Throwing a significant amount of caution to the wind, Twilight trotted up the street, her rebels following behind her as she weaved through those fires that still clung to existence, tossing aside anything in her way.

The soldiers and militia stuck outside the Winter palace clung to its edges like a child clinging to its mothers legs. The large space around the palace was barely even a quarter full, and had no defences to speak of, just open space. If the rebels were so inclined, it'd be a slaughter. The palace itself was much better defended, and each window and balcony had ponies with crossbows waiting to fire down on the rebels. If it got that far anyway. Truthfully, Twilight didn't know what to do.

She stood there, silently watching the ponies around the palace until Luna arrived from the west street. She too seemed as equally incredulous about what was going on.

Up above the thestrals joined the pegasi as they lazily circled around the palace, prepared to attack. In the space of seconds hundreds of the ponies around the palace could be dead, and from they way they nervously watched the skies, the defenders knew it too.

Twilight teleported over to Luna, simply to ask if she had any idea what was going on.

"I'm afraid not Twilight. I'm almost tempted to say attack just to alleviate my concerns. Is this some great last stand, just to spite us, or did somepony think this was a viable defence? Or was this merely thought up to protect a Viscount that's no longer there?"

"I'm not ending this war on an atrocity Luna. Not if I can help it anyway. Let's just wait and see what they do. In the meantime, spread your ponies out around them, and I'll do the same."

"As you wish."

Twilight teleported back to her ponies, and immediately ordered them to spread out and surround the Winter palace and its defenders. Straight away Twilight could see the discrepancy in their numbers as the soldiers had far less than she thought they should. Chances were that many might have gone into hiding throughout the city, which was fair, but unless they were all crammed into the palace, the few thousand soldiers left just didn't seem like enough. This had all the hallmarks of a trap of some kind, except for the part where they had no hope.

Unless they rigged every building around the palace with explosives, a rather unpleasant part of her said. She really wished it hadn't as the hairs on the back of her neck rose.

Nothing continued to happen. A significant amount of nothing judging by the increasing confusion of the soldiers. Something was supposed to have happened, but clearly didn't, and Twilight really, really wanted to attack now, because her paranoia was going into overdrive.

Thankfully the soldiers made the first move. The heavy doors to the Winter palace opened, and two ponies trotted out, and mare and a stallion that Twilight didn't recognise, bearing the stripes of a middle ranking soldier. They were likely the ponies in charge since the war had gutted the command structure of the Grand Army. The soldiers moved aside for them, giving them passage to Twilight, who felt ever more unsure about what was happening. They stopped in front of her, drew their weapons and dropped them, and said the two most beautiful words Twilight had ever heard.

"We surrender."

The soldiers started dropping their weapons, a cacophonous sound of metal striking stone as swords and spears clattered to the ground by the dozen.

"Thank you," Twilight gasped, almost in tears with relief. "I accept your surrender."

The square almost echoed with the sigh of relief from both sides. At long last, the war was over.

Twilight had read somewhere that when one country surrendered to another, a formal document of such was signed by both parties. But what happens when a country surrenders to itself? What happens when a formally legitimate government surrenders to a formally illegitimate rebel movement turned government? What happens when neither really accepts the legitimacy of the other?

Turns out it wasn't much in this situation, although there were plenty of awkward moments as both sides tried to work out what they were doing. For the most part the rebels collected the weapons of the now surrendered soldiers, while the soldiers themselves helped with the dead. Under close watch of course.

How that ended with Twilight sat in the Winter palace opposite a very smug Snowbright, she had no idea. Why he was claiming to have saved the rebels was even more mystifying.

"Run that by me again."

"They'd rigged the buildings around the square with gunpowder. I'm no expert, but I think the idea was to collapse the buildings onto all of you."

"Okay," Twilight said patiently while her mind's eye showed her a very vivid picture of what that would've looked like. She didn't even try to hide her shudder. "Explain to me how you saved us."

"I killed the ponies lighting the fuses, then pulled all the fuses out."

"On your own..." To say Twilight was skeptical was like pointing out the sky was blue. In other words it was really obvious.

"Okay, I might have had a little help, and there was only like five ponies down there," he added in a mumble.

"Where would they even get that much gunpowder?"

"From the quarry probably. You do know there's a huge mining operation not far from here, right? With the steelworks shut, they've been out of business too, so they had plenty of explosives just sitting around." Snowbright folded his legs crossly and pouted, "You don't believe me, do you."

"I'm just glad nothing happened. If you're really the one responsible for nothing happening, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"And thank you again."

Snowbright's brow creased with confusion. "You're welcome? I Don't suppose you could tell me what for though?"

Twilight smiled as she dumped her armour on the table. Then she slid it over to Snowbright, not caring about the scratches she left on the antique maple desk as she did. "Thank you for being in charge now." She plonked her helmet on top of the pile, "I hereby, and officially, quit. All in accordance with what we agreed upon the end of the war with the Duchy of Mareitania. No backsies."

"What? No! You can't quit yet!"

"Why not? War's over, so I quit. That was our agreement."

"B-b-but-" Snowbright stammered, tripping over his own tongue. "I-I don't know what I'm doing!"

Twilight snirked at him, "And you think I do?" Snowbright shook his head slowly and shrugged. "Alright, I'll give you a clue. Keep the captured weapons under guard away from the soldiers who will also be under guard. Then, in the next few days you can release the militia back to their homes as a gesture of good will, transfer the surviving soldiers to Whiplas- Sorry, Brayside, then aid the city in rebuilding and distribute the shipments of food once they arrive. You'll need to maintain a heavy presence in the city though, as there's bound to be trouble. As for the rest of it, use your imagination."

"What about you?"

"Celestia should be here soon, so my friends and I will return to High Rock tomorrow, taking the Viscount with us. Then we'll be leaving, with Trixie, for Equestria, because our part in this is over, understood?"

Snowbright sagged in his seat, "Understood." He sat silently as Twilight made to leave the room, "Wait," he said, catching her before she left. "Can I have your sword too?"

Twilight smiled playfully, "No."

"Aww."

"Goodbye Snowbright."

Fleur smiled at Twilight as the purple mare trotted into the impromptu infirmary set up in the ballroom of the Winter palace. "You look surprisingly chipper for a mare that fought a bloody battle earlier."

"That's because I quit. Completely, utterly, and irrevocably. And you know what? It feels good, like I'm lighter somehow."

"You dumped it all on Snowbright?"

"And then some," Twilight grinned.

"Good. That pain in the ass deserves it."

"Mmhmm. By extension, that means all of you are free from your duties as well."

"About time," Octavia said with relief. Summer merely smiled as she carried on with what she was doing.

"Twilight?" Twilight looked around as Luna said her name, "I just heard a most curious rumour about you relinquishing command. Seeing as how it was Snowbright that told me as he ran through the palace in a panic, I assume it's true?"

"Oh it's very true."

"Thank goodness for that." Luna shed her armour and placed it out of the way, then sat next to Twilight. "That armour was becoming too heavy by far. I suppose that means we'll be heading back to High Rock soon?" Twilight nodded, "Good. It'll be nice to see my sister again."

"I'm leaving it to you to organise your thestrals though."

"That's hardly a problem."

"And now there's one more thing I'd like to do, if you'll all join me."

"What are we going to do?" the filly asked as she drew closer to Twilight.

"It's time for Fleur's surprise. Are you ready to go Summer?" Twilight asked as Fleur suddenly looked apprehensive.

"Sure. Just let me wash my hooves and I'll be right with you."

"Should I be afraid of the nature of this surprise?" Fleur asked nervously.

"Not at all," Twilight replied as Summer dried her hooves off.

"I'm ready."

"Excellent." Twilight walked behind Fleur, making her even more nervous, and reared up, placing her hooves over Fleur's eyes. Then she teleported them to a spot outside the palace, glad the anti-teleportation stone had been found and sealed away. She felt Fleur tense under her as the chill outside hit her, but she didn't let go. Instead she nodded to Spitfire who had been waiting patiently for Twilight's signal. Behind her Octavia gasped as she worked out what was happening.

"Are we on a roof Twilight?" Fleur asked, her eyes still covered by Twilight's hooves.

"We are. I know it's not quite what you envisioned, but I hope its good enough." Twilight removed her hooves, "Surprise."

Fleur blinked in the light, then gasped as she saw Spitfire break the lock on the pegasus compound they were overlooking. She covered her mouth with her hooves, and tears rolled down her cheeks as the pegasi rushed into the compound with aid for their fellows. "Oh my goodness." It was several minutes until she could talk again, "You're right, it's not the same. It's better. Thank you so, so much Twilight."

Twilight smiled, her own eyes misty with tears. "The last pegasi to be freed in Mareitania. Hopefully now they can put this chapter of their lives behind them, and move on to something better."

They all kept watching silently as the pegasi had their collars removed, and were led out of the compound, each of them nervous about their newfound freedom. None of those watching could blame them really.

"Wait," the filly said like she'd worked something out. "Did you make them wait until now to let them out?"

"We had other priorities filly. Besides, I think this was something we all needed to see. Now stop ruining the moment."

"But-"

"Shh."

"Fine..."

Author's Notes:

Once again I've pulled a miracle out of my ass and finished a chapter within the week. I seem to do that a lot.

Anyway, this is what I meant by doing a less overarching take on battles, and taking it down to the more individual levels of the ponies fighting it. It's not perfect, but for a first go I think I did okay. Btw, pegasi are super fun to write in combat.

This also means the war is over, and the story is nearing it's conclusion. A couple more chapters and an epilogue and I think we're all done.

Until the sequel anyway.