Summoned by the noise of battle, a squad of Guards and paramedics stood sentinel amongst the trees, faces stoic as they cared for the wounded. The eight living attackers were shackled and placed in an armored carriage. The one body was tenderly placed in a body bag and loaded onto a stretcher. Twilight could only watch in silence as the bag was zipped close. The green eyes within continued to stare, unseeing until the bag was zipped shut by a medic. The image sent a frightened chill down Twilight's spine; that pony had been alive only minutes before, and she felt as though she was watching him being sealed off inside a small, dark room, forever.

"Your Highness?" Tulip Blossom called out, and Twilight was very glad for the excuse to look away. The mare was sitting on a stretcher, a whimpering Ginger in her lap, a concerned paramedic placing a blanket over her.

"Thank you for your help," Tulip said, managing a small smile. "You saved my life tonight. I won't forget that."

"We're just glad that you're all right," Twilight said, patting Tulip on the shoulder.

"You'll tell my father I'm all right?" Tulip asked.

"Of course I will," Twilight said. "You take care of yourself." Tulip nodded and settled down in her blanket, stroking her dog.

Turning away from her, Twilight's gaze fell upon Flash, who was sitting beneath a distant trees, having refused the attention of any medics. He continued to stare down at his hooves, his bloodstained sword still lying on the ground away from him. Twilight walked over and sat down next to him, and was very gladdened and relieved to see him look up when she did so. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

Flash swallowed, his shoulders heaving. "I think I'm going to be sick," he murmured.

With a flash of purple magic, a bucket appeared before him. Nodding his thanks, he lifted it up to his face and proceeded to heave and retch into it. Twilight flinched, but stayed by his side.

"I...I killed that pony," he whispered, as if afraid to speak it out loud, afraid to make it real.

"But you saved Tulip's life," Twilight said hesitatingly, touching his shoulder. "You did your job, right?"

"My job is to save lives, not take them!" Flash shouted, bringing his head down onto his trembling hooves. "I didn't have to kill him...I should have...I should have..."

There were no words, nothing that could be said. Slowly, Twilight brought Flash into her embrace, allowing him to fall apart in his hooves, swearing to herself that she would do what she could to hold him together. Her Guard buried his face into her shoulder, trying to hide from the awful reality of his actions. His sobs resounded through the woods.

There's a wall in the gardens in Canterlot where the names of Guards who died in the line of duty are inscribed. Their names are recorded for perpetuity, while their faces, their deeds, and the reason why they had to die a cruel and violent death at the hooves of another are forgotten.

More than two dozen names had been added to that wall tonight, Shining Armor thought, watching as yet another one of his Guards was loaded into an anonymous bag and lifted into an ambulance carriage by grim-faced paramedics. The backup that had arrived on the incoming ship could help them keep the surviving prisoners under control, treat the wounded, reassure the traumatized, and help repair the damage. But they couldn't bring back the ones who had died.

He looked around the courtyard under a dark sky that had mercifully stopped raining, observing the wounded being treated, watching shackled prisoners, their faces either of shame or defiance, being led back to their cells. Finally, he spotted Dr. Healspark, who was sitting with some of the other surviving civilians, holding a plastic cup of coffee that quivered in his magic grip. Somehow, Shining got the feeling that he wouldn't be dealing with any dangerous magical artifacts for a while now.

Finally, he saw Phillip, sitting on a stretcher and being fussed over by Dr. Patella. Shining walked over.

"I said I'm fine," Phil snapped, accepting an ice pack and placing it over his swollen eye. "Go help somepony who needs it." Dr. Patella sighed in annoyance and walked over to another patient on a stretcher. Taking this opportunity, Shining stepped up.

"You okay?" he asked. Dumb question, he realized almost immediately: there didn't seem to be a single part of Phillip's body that wasn't bruised, bandaged, or covered in blood, and he was bent over in exhaustion, his face drawn and weary.

"Too many ponies died tonight," Phillip said softly in reply, seemingly unable to look up.

Shining sighed and sat down on the cold, wet ground next to him. "Your plan was brilliant, Captain," Phillip added.

"You caught on pretty fast," Shining commented.

"Illusion spells can change the way you look and sound, but they don't change the way you smell," Phil replied. "You might want to ease up on the cologne a little, sir," he added by way of explanation. Shining couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"Your Highness!" Warden Lockup called, hurrying over to them. Deputy Warden File limped up behind him. "You can be rest assured, we will be performing a full review of our security after this."

"Yes, there are some interesting questions left," Phillip said, looking up for the first time, still holding the ice pack to his eye. "How did Zugzwang get that pick past the scanner? How did he communicate with the prisoners? How did he smuggle in that equipment? And how did he know about the horn in the first place?" He looked around at the three stallions before him. "Only one possible conclusion: there is a traitor here."

The mood had turned even grimmer and darker than before, the weight of the accusation thickening the air. Slowly, Phillip's eye turned and focused on Closed File.

"Why, Deputy Warden?" he asked in a whisper like the wind before the oncoming storm.

"Wh-what?" File stammered. "How can you insinuate...you have no proof!"

"It was your hoofprints in the lighthouse. You opened the hidden laboratory, gave Zugzwang access," Phillip said. Without warning, he reached out and grabbed File's hoof, lifting it up for everypony to see the specks of black paint caught in the frog of his hoof that repeated washing had failed to remove. "That limp of yours is very distinctive," Phillip added.

The Deputy Warden's eyes widened into the look of somepony who has just realized that they are backed into a corner. He desperately looked up at his superior, whose eyes had seemed to shrink into his skull in shock, to Shining, whose eyes were slowly darkening in his stony face.

"I...I didn't want to!" he stammered out. "He found out somehow that I was having an affair...threatened to go public if I didn't cooperate...I saw Dr. Healspark opening the secret door once and told him about it, and he made the plan...but I didn't think so many would die! I didn't—"

"MURDERER!" Shining roared, seizing Closed File by the throat in his magic and lifting him up off the ground, choking him, trying to deal out some fraction of the pain that he felt, to punish, to kill. "You killed my Guards!"

"Your Highness, stop!" Warden Lockup shouted, but Shining did not seem to hear: all his focus was on the struggling traitor, on slowly crushing the life from him...

Slowly, Phillip reached out and touched Shining's shoulder. Somehow, this touch broke through and Shining turned his burning gaze upon him. "Enough," Phillip spoke softly. "Nopony else needs to die tonight."

His chest heaving with breath, Shining turned back to File, who stared back in silent pleading. With a furious grunt, Shining Armor flung him to the ground. "Guards!" he barked, calling over a pair of armor-clad ponies. "Take this traitor away."

The ex-Deputy Warden was immediately shackled and guided away, his head bowed low in shame. Tight Lockup watched his former assistant with regret in his eyes.

"Rest assured, Your Highness," he sighed sadly as he walked away. "This is the last time we will be housing any secrets."

"It'd better," Shining Armor said through his teeth. The anger had ebbed away, leaving only the cold emptiness of death. He wished for his bed back in the Crystal Palace, to fall asleep in the comforting embrace of his wife and forget about everything.

"Here's my ride," Phillip said, noticing two paramedics walking towards him with determined expressions. He extended a hoof to Shining Armor, fading to hide a wince as he did so. "Thank you, Captain. It was an honor."

"The same for you, Phillip," Shining said, accepting the hoofshake. Stepping back, Phillip forced himself to attention and saluted.

"The war goes on, Captain," he said softly, turning as the paramedics guided him back onto the stretcher and carted him away to an ambulance carriage. Shining returned the salute, watching as the white covered carriage took to the sky and made for the journey to Manehattan Hospital.

"The war goes on," he repeated.

Author's Notes:

This was one of the hardest chapters in the hardest story I've written so far, both in terms of length and complexity, and in content. Carrying through the bittersweet tone that I was going for was a bit of an effort. The idea here was to show the real nature of violence, and how hollow a victory achieved through death and violence is; further, to show just how difficult and stressful being a soldier/law enforcement officer can be in situations like this.

I also decided the best idea would be to do the complete wrap-up in two chapters, and release them simultaneously.