The blows came fast and furious, forcing Rainbow Dash to skip back with a flap of her wings. Before she had even landed though, Spitfire was on the cyan pegasus. Two quick blows to the head followed by a knee sent Dash stumbling back. Quick as ever though, she had recovered from the blows. Lunging forward, she rammed the Wonderbolt's captain and followed up with a left hook.

The two separated, sweat dripping down their brows as they breathed heavily. Dash could still feel the sting from her opponent's blows despite the cloth wrapped around their hooves. Both dropped onto all fours and began circling slowly. As always, Dash was the first to move. Feinting to the right, she reared up and gave three quick jabs. Every single one was blocked. Acting on reflex alone, she managed to block the counter attack to the head before stepping to the side and avoiding a particularly ferocious blow.

Now inside Spitfire's guard, Dash delivered a hook punch before swinging her elbow up and around into Spitfire's sternum. The grunt of pain was music to her ears. With a flap of her wings, the Element of Loyalty disengaged once more. She could feel her prismatic mane part as the yellow pegasus just missed.

As soon as Dash felt her hooves touch the ground, she kicked off. Spitfire didn't hesitate for one second. She stepped forward, pivoted on her front hoof, grabbed Dash's outstretched one and threw her into the nearest wall. The thud that reverberated through the room made all the other combatants wince. With a groan, Dashs struggled onto her feet, swayed dangerously, then collapsed back onto the ground in a heap.

"Okay, I'm out," she said in a dazed voice. "Who wants to train with Spitfire?"

Silence.

"What are you all looking at! Back to training!" The flurry of movement accompanying Fleetfoot's yell was deafening.

"I'll give the pony a go." All eyes turned to Gilda as she walked down the slope. "It's not every day I see Dash getting her butt kicked."

"Be my guest Gilda. It's been a long time since I've sparred with a gryphon. Though no whining if I manage to kick your butt." Spitfire smirked as she stretched out her limbs.

"As if lame-o."

"As much as I want to stand around and watch Spitfire kick your feathery butt, I'm going to go see Fluttershy." Dash braced herself against the wall. "I think you gave me a concussion or something. Geez Spitfire, we were meant to be pulling our punches."

"Dude, I thought you were meant to be loyal," commented Gilda.

"Yeah, that's why I want Spitfire to kick your ass. Gotta keep that ego in check somehow."

Spitfire snorted. "That's rich coming from you."

There was a flash of light as Silvia appeared in the middle of the room, her tattoo swirls glowing brightly for a second before slowly fading. "Captain Gilda, Captain Spitfire, General Dash – you're all required in the conference room." The swirls glowed brightly once more and by the time everypony could see again, she was gone.

"I hate it when she does that," muttered Gilda. "Tomorrow Spitfire. Tomorrow we find out who's better."

With those parting words, she quickly walked out. Spitfire on the other hoof walked over to Dash to help her along. "I've been meaning to ask, why is Silvia missing a wing anyways? I'd ask her myself, but..."

"She's a seer in training. When a gryphon becomes a journeywomen or journeyman in divination they have to give up something of important. Some give up their tongues, others their eyes. She decided to give up her wings. When she becomes a master, she'll lose the other wing."

"Why would any gryphon do that?" demanded Spitfire with a shocked look on her face.

"Give her their wings or give up something important or be a seer at all?"

"All of those."

Dash shrugged. "Being a seer is the greatest honor a gryphon can have. It's like being in the Wonderbolt's for a racing pegasus. As for giving up a body part, well... it's got to do with their myth and history and stuff. Giving up the wings though, is considered one of the greatest sacrifices a seer can make and the greater the sacrifice the more honor they get."

"Hey slowpokes, hurry it up will you?" yelled Gilda from up ahead. "I thought you two were meant to fast."

The two ponies exchanged a glance before jogging up to Gilda who was already walking through the false wall. Pushing through themselves, they found themselves in the revamped conference room with new circular table, enough space for every creature, new more accurate map and other such delicious features. Good thing Rarity wasn't around or it'd be another week before the place was useable as she fiddled around with every single piece of furniture. The mere thought made Dash shudder.

"So what's up?" asked Dash as she plopped down into the nearest available seat. Gilda and Spitfire took the seats next to her and opposite was Silvia, Fluttershy in her disguise and Applejack.

"Silvia if you please." Fluttershy straightened up her notes while casting a look at the gryphon next to her.

"Last week after we met Corporal Foxtrot I had a dream of the Everfree on fire. I immediately sought out General Fluttershy who alerted the wild life in the area in case it was the most probable future."

"Ah suppose that explains all those fire drills y'all been having," commented Applejack.

Flutter nodded. "Exactly. We didn't know how probable that future was so we took precautions." She pushed a letter over to Dash's side of the table. "It's from Corporal Foxtrot. They're planning something though we don't know what, but it's definitely designed to flush us out. We're afraid that they plan on burning down the Everfree Forest, but the more concerning this is that they know we're here at all. It should have taken longer for them to find out."

"A traitor?" growled Dash.

"Ah don't know," said the orange earth pony slowly, "Ah personally vetted each and every single one of them and Ah can tell a truth from lie."

"Then who!?" Everypony shrunk back from Dash's frenzied gaze.

"Calm down RD," began Applejack slowly. "Ponies have been coming in every day. Ah'm guessing a guard or somepony caught a sniff of it an' decided to investigate."

"That's unlikely," commented Gilda. "If that were to occur, we would have heard about them shutting down one of our outposts. News like that is what they'd want to spread quickly and widely to demoralize our movement. Even if they wanted to keep it hush, hush to surprise us, Flutter- I mean, General Fluttershy would have heard of it through her minions."

"I agree," said Spitfire much to everybody's surprise. "While I doubt there is a spy amongst us, there must be a reasonable explanation. Maybe pure luck? After all, there are only so many places where the background magic can conceal spells... at least according to Echo."

"Does it matter?" Flutter spoke in a whisper, but with so much authority behind it that everybody shifted their attention back to her. "We know it's not someone here. The ponies at the other village don't even know we exist for all intents and purposes except the few that were here at the very start like Mayor Mare and Big MacIntosh. We also know that none of our outposts have been captured yet, though we can't discount them being trailed all the way here. What matters is that they're here and that they're planning something."

"The dweeb is right." Leaning forward and grabbing the map, Gilda studied it intently as she spoke. "We need to figure out what they're planning and how they knew we're here. If it is a spy, it needs to be taken care of immediately, but the current threat is their plan."

Dash gave an impressive whistle. "Look at you, all fancy in your armor and in full egghead-commander mode. Never thought I'd see the day."

"You try being drilled by Master of Arms herself." Gilda shuddered at the memory. "I'd rather go through that day back in Junior Speedsters."

"That bad?"

"Worse."

"Ah hem," interrupted Applejack. "Mind if y'all get back on topic?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your lasso in a knot." Gilda peered over the map for a couple more seconds with Spitfire by her side. "We can't stop their plan either. I mean, Everfree Forest is a waste of space and if we acted then they'd know for certain we're in here somewhere."

"Actually, I've got the most insane plan ever and trust me, it's insane," said Spitfire. "We're a good 720 kilometers from Ponyville if we travel in a straight line and the average large scale forest fire burns through 400 square kilimeters of forest before dying out – or at least that's my experience with forest fires. That means we are potentially safe from a forest fire if we stay where we are, but we'll need to tell ponies not to come in otherwise they could be caught."

The room exploded in words and gestures as everybody tried to voice their opinion at the same time. Some were agreeing, some were disagreeing while others were uncertain. From the looks of things though, the split seemed to be straight down the middle with no side having more votes.

"Enough!" Slamming his claws onto the table, Spike managed to bring silence back. "One at a time. Fluttershy, if you can start?"

"There's no reason why they couldn't restart the fire," said Fluttershy, "and that's even considering the number of poor critters that'd be caught in the flames."

"But they also have no way of controlling the fire." For once Dash looked thoughtful. "The weather is the Everfree is wild in every single sense of that word – there is absolutely no way for pegasus to control it. And with Ponyville is so close to the Everfree-"

"That they can't let the fire become uncontrolled," finished Applejack.

"Exactly," smirked the cyan pegasus.

"It won't work." Silvia's smooth voice bought Dash up short. "They can just set fire to the inner parts of the forest that's a safe distance from the village."

A bird suddenly flew in, and silence descended as it chirped to Fluttershy. From the widening eyes and paling skin, it was obviously bad news, but how bad was another question entirely. After it had delivered its message and flown off, she sat there, staring off into the space for a couple of seconds, mouth moving soundlessly as she tried to form words.

Closing her eyes, the pegasus took a deep breath before speaking in the calmest voice she could muster, "The plan will happen in three hours." Even as she spoke, her voice wavered. "And Nightmare Moon will be personally supervising."

"What about Twilight?"

"I'm sorry Spike, but still no word."

My eyes roamed over the reflection in the mirror. Tilting my head to the side, I could clearly see the scar that ran from the front along the left side and down across my back. It had faded over the past two months, but it was still obvious – from the slightly discolored fur to how thin it was in areas, only a blind person could miss it. The only thing that prevented me needing surgery was my enormous pool of magic I had at my disposal and even then there were originally doubts.

The sound of hoofbeats made my ear twitch, but when there was no knock on the door I went back to my reflection. Though Nightmare Moon tended to heal me after each session, my body still remembered the abused it had taken. The fur around my ankles were worn and stained red from the shackles. If I looked closely enough I could still see the imprints they had left behind. Even the spikes she had shoved through my limbs had left marks. Slightly thinner fur and the white flesh beneath it were the obvious signs, but it had left deeper scars than that. Even now I couldn't feel the cold marble underhoof and yesterday when I stuck a hoof in a stream of boiling water, it barely registered above warm. The nerves had been cut to threads, though it wasn't that much of a loss truth be told.

My gaze drifted over to my mane and I pushed it out of my eyes. It had grown past my shoulders to the point of almost touching the floor and it was a ruffled mess. The ends were uneven, the ends were split, bits stuck out at random angles – all in all it looked as though I had run a marathon in a storm then climbed the highest mountain I could find. I'm sure Rarity would throw a fit if she saw it.

Rarity...

With a sigh and shake my head I squashed that thought. Now was not the time. But look at me! Standing here in front of a full length mirror, looking over my body as though I actually cared what I looked like. Ha! If Spike could see me now he'd think I was sick or something. After all, who needs to look nice? Somepony should like me for what I am on the inside and not the outside and that's not even mentioning the amount of reading I'd be missing out on if I bothered with how I looked. Nonetheless, this was the first time I could properly see myself since this whole nightmare started and while I was afraid of what I'd see, I needed to know.

Taking a deep breath, I fixed my eyes on my face. It looked sharper, leaner, but also older. I had lost weight and I have seen so much... done so much. Unlike the rest of my body, it was relatively unmarked except a scar along my cheek, but that had already faded to the point of not existing. My eyes though... I couldn't look at myself in the eyes. I was too terrified of what I'd see there.

Once more my mane drifted back to cover my eyes. With an irritated snarl I picked up the knife – the same knife I had used in my first kill four months ago – and irritably hacked away at my mane until it was just below my shoulder. Sure, it was messy and looked horrible, but I'll live.

There was a polite knock on the door. Slotting the knife back into the sheath on my left leg, I grabbed the black cloak from off the floor and slipped it on. Buttoning it up at the front, I shot one last look over my shoulder as I walked out. It draped over my entire body with ease to end slightly above my ankle and on the left side my cutie mark was printed on for the world to see.

Unlocking the door, I stepped right into the grinning face of Nightwish. "You know, when most fillies spend almost thirty minutes in the bathroom, they tend to come out looking prettier than when they went in."

Tossing my mane to the side, I shoved past him. "I'm not most fillies and time spent prettying up is time that could have been spent studying."

"You look like you've been living on the street your entire life." He fell into step next to me. "We're heading to the main court yard."

Nodding once, I took the left turn out into the garden. "In my opinion, it fits me." A new look for a new Twilight.

"Well I've been tasked with protecting you and that measly little dagger is not enough in my professional opinion." He jerked his head to the side to point at the short sword strapped to his back. "That's for you to use when we're going into dangerous territory."

Unbuckling it, I slipped it under my cloak and positioned it so that the sword rested on my right side with the hilt just behind my shoulder. Grabbing it with my magic, I unsheathed it and held it up to the moonlight, marveling at how it reflected the light just so. "Not afraid I'll kill you with it?"

"There's not much difference between a dagger and a short sword. Shove it in somepony's back and they're dead either way."

Chuckling, I gave it a couple of telekinetic swings before putting the blade away. "That's certainly true." Turning out of the gardens, we made our way down the main steps into the courtyard. "Where are we going anyways?"

"Ponyville. Nightmare Moon wishes to oversee the operation that's going to take place down there and from my understanding, you'll be leading a squad of your own while we're down there."

"A squad is eight to thirteen ponies right?" He nodded in response. "Who's in charge of the squad, what's the composition and what will we be doing?"

"You're in charge and I'll be acting as second in command. There will be another three unicorns, two pegasi and three earth ponies not counting us. We'll be positioned between Ghastly Gorge and the Everfree, and our job is to make sure no ponies slip through the net by any means necessary though Nightmare Moon wishes them to be taken alive if possible."

Nodding, I adjusted the collar around my neck. "Very well, let's get this over and done with then."

It was only now that I realized all the gathered ponies were looking at me. Every single last pony. This time though, there wasn't anger and hate like a couple months ago, instead there was something akin to curiosity and cautiousness in their eyes. Considering last time they were convinced I had turned on them ended up with me shooting cutlery at Nightmare Moon, I didn't blame them.

"Nightmare Moon."

"Twilight Sparkle."

And then I yawned, breaking the staring contest.

"General Sunset Horizon, ready the mass teleport." Seven crystals the size of a pony's head levitated into the air as magic surged through the teleportation anchor matrix. The amount of energy being channeled raised everypony's mane and those standing too close even got zapped. "On my mark."

"Three..."

The alicorn's horn flared to life and the magical energy doubled. The crystal's dimmed and the humming sound became a small whisper as all that energy became focused into the mass teleport. Already I could feel the familiar lightness in my body and out of the corner of my eye, the background was blurring as though a second view was superimposed onto it.

"Two..."

The blurring became more pronounced and I was starting to see double of everything. The fresh scent of the Everyfree Forest filled my nostrils and I could hear the sound of birds chirping despite the magical hum in the background.

"One."

Everything suddenly snapped into focus. A couple ponies looked sick and one even threw up, but for the most part everything was perfectly fine. There were probably two thousand ponies in total and every single one was teleported without incident. If it wasn't done by Nightmare Moon, I would have been gushing and demanding the technical knowledge behind it, but as is I was content to watch everything behind guarded eyes. If I had a bit more magic available I could have cast a true sight spell to figure out how the matrix worked within the day. I mean, seven crystals. Seven! And channeling that amount of energy with shattering a single one was unheard of. The mere prospect made me giddy. Well it would have if I wasn't about the go into battle, possibly meet my old friends, kill some ponies and take them in alive for a fate worse than death at the hooves of a tyrannical ruler and part time torturer known as Nightmare Moon.

Stepping down, I made my way to Nightwish. "And where is the rest of our squad?"

He gestured to the pale orange unicorn beside him. "This here is Thunderfall and he'll be teleporting us to them. Apparently they got deployed early by accident or something."

I inclined my head in greeting, but otherwise did not bother acknowledging him. "Very well then, take us there immediately."

Once more a second world was imposed on the first followed by a very jarring snap that left me seeing double and making me lose feeling in my legs. That was probably the worst teleport I've ever been through. If it were any worse – which is pretty much impossible – we'd be dead. Or missing a limb. Or an organ.

A shadow fell over me and I was immediately on my hooves with my dagger and sword in front of me. A second later I realized they were pointed at an earth pony who had a hoof extended downwards – no doubt he was just trying to give me a helping hoof. Without a change in expression I put the dagger away, but kept the sword out and aimed at the pony's throat. I was alone in a forest surrounded by unfamiliar ponies with no ponies around to hear my screams if I ended up being attacked. I would be an idiot to put away my weapon.

"These the ponies in our squad?" My eyes didn't move an inch.

"Yes."

"Very well." My blade lowered and I surveyed my surroundings. I wasn't sure why I bothered, after all we were in a forest so there'd just be trees, trees and more trees, and I've been in the Everfree before. "Nightwish, gather the squad and take look out up top."

The look he gave me told me he knew exactly what I was doing, but he complied nonetheless like a good soldier. Taking a deep breath, I regarded the ponies around me as I mentally went through my faded knowledge on tactics and warfare.

"What's the topography like?"

"Flat all around though one hundred paves behind us it starts entering a gentle slope," replied a stormy grey maned pegasus. "Going further back results in us ending up at Ghastly Gorge and there's no way down from where we are, not to mention there's nothing there anyways."

"Alright, I want the three earth ponies up front in a V formation. Unicorns will be at the back in a straight line spread. I want another pegasus up in the air with Nightwish while the remaining two will join the earth ponies in the V spread at the end. I'll take central position and if I am unable to lead, Nightwish takes command. Understood?"

All the ponies nodded and spread out into formation. If they had any questions or doubts they did not show it at all. For an hour we waited in silence before the first flames erupted off to the west, lighting up the night sky and reminding me of just what sunrise used to look like. Within a span of a minute, more than three dozen different locations were set ablaze and overhead pegasi were waiting on standby with rainclouds in case things got out of hoof.

A roar from within the Everfree Forest snatched everyponies attention as they scrambled to gather their wits. At first we watched in complete silence, ears straining to hear something other than the muted roar of the flames while eyes flickered at the smallest hint of movement. After a minute though, the ponies before me began to relax and that's when we felt it –a dull vibration that shook the very ground we stood upon.

Once more the roar came and something in the back of my mind began calling out to me. It was so familiar as though I've heard it before, but that was impossible, I lived in the city all my life and I've never been camping before. The tremors intensified. Whatever it was, it was coming our way.

"Manticore!"

Nightwish's warning came too late. The creature burst through the dense branches and before anypony could react, the lead earth pony was thrown into a tree with a sickening crack. A blink later and a second earth pony had her entrails spread across the ground. Its tail came around for the last one, but a quick telekinetic shove from one of the unicorns pushed her out of harms way. All the remaining ponies kept to a safe distance.

Two seconds, two dead.

Dark green chains wrapped around the beast and one of the pegasi dashed in. Five steps away though the chains burst apart and down came the claw. A last second barrel roll saved his life, but he too went down in a heap.

"I need a flare and a long duration sound at twenty-five hertz," I ordered as I moved forward. "Pegasi harass, but stay out of reach. Earth ponies fall back. No direct magic, manticores are resilient."

Blinding white light flooded the forest and the manticore roared out in pain. Diving under its flailing claws, both my weapons found their mark. They tore through the tendons and flesh as I sliced through both biceps. Dodge rolling to the left, I came out just in time to see the tail swinging my way. A white shield surrounded me and I was thrown into the nearest tree. Bruised and battered, but alive.

"I need that sound!"

"Working on it."

"Work faster damn it!" I dived to the side yet again, the tail piercing the ground right next to my head. "Flare!"

Light flooded the area once more. This time the manticore remained calm and when I approached, its tail swung around. Thrown violently to the side, my head slammed into the ground with a dull thud. Going with the roll, I bled off the momentum until I could dig my hooves in and climb back onto my feet. Both blades laid at the manticore's feet, out of range for my weak telekinesis to pick up. Blood trickled down my forehead.

The manticore suddenly roared out in pain.

"Sounds up!"

"Disengage! Flare double intensity, three second intervals." Even before my order had faded I was running straight ahead.

The bursts came fast and hard, leaving spots in my vision. Once I was close enough, I picked up my sword. Closer. I needed to get closer. If I didn't, there was no way I'd have enough power behind my swing to cut through. Swerving to the side, a random tail thrust parted my mane, but missed. A second thrust left a shallow cut along my side. The beast lunged forward, mouth wide. Diving forward and down, the wild attack missed and left its neck wide open. Picking up my sword, I plunged it up and in, straining against the tough hide with everything I had – magical and physical. My reward was fresh, hot blood spilling over my face and chest. Despite my heavy breathing and protesting muscles, I ripped the blade free and quickly rolled to the right. The dead manticore fell over with such a massive thud I was thrown onto the ground.

Silence.

Standing on shaking legs, I picked up my sword and retrieved my dagger before finally collapsing in a heap on the ground. My entire left side was numb thanks to the manticore poison and I could barely see out of my right eye thanks to all the blood. How much of it was the manticore's and how much was mine was an entirely different question.

"And that's how you kill a manticore," I managed to say between pants. "And check the wounded. If it's bad teleport them out of here. Also give me a count on how many ponies are left."

"You are one crazy mare, you know that?"

I looked up at Nightwish with a faint smile. "I learnt from the best. A particular weather pony who could clear the sky in ten seconds flat. Or so I'm told." Glancing around, I watched as the rest of my squad dealt with the injured and dead. "Think you can take care of things while I rest?"

"I am second in command." He sat down next to me. "How'd you know how to deal with manticores anyways?"

"When I was a filly I had to write a report on mythical creatures. Of course I couldn't just select one randomly, I had to make an informed choice. So I found the largest bestiary I could find, read all three thousand pages before settling on studying dragons. Of the entries that caught my attention though was manticores due to their natural magical resilience and I decided to study up on that in my spare time. I knew they're nocturnal, had night vision and hard acute hearing. Taking those into consideration I figured blinding and high frequency sound would render it blind and free to attack." There was a brief pause. "And remind me to get every unicorn in my squad a sword or arrows. Without one winning that would have been a major hassle."

One of the unicorn's trotted up to us. "Status report ma'am." I wiped the blood away from my eye as he began speaking, "Two dead, one seriously injured, one concussion, one broken leg and two fully drained unicorns. Including yourself and Nightwish, we're left with two functioning pegasi and two unicorns. Permission to teleport wounded to base."

Nodding once more, I added, "See if you can bring back some reserves and tell Nightmare Moon about the manticore. If I'm right, the fire woke it up and a manticore is probably the tamest creature in these woods." There was a loud roar that shook the very ground we stood on. "That was a dragon." A second, louder roar filled the woods, causing everypony to cover their ears. "And that was an Ursa Minor. Let's just hope an Ursa Major doesn't decide to appear."

The unicorn I was speaking to was shaking in fright. Running over to the wounded, he teleported away using so much magic that the excess was discharged as a flash of light so bright it left me dazed for the next minute. Blinking rapidly, the pegasus above gave a sharp whistle to signal an approaching pony and I was immediately on my hooves with both blades at the ready. Though my legs protested at being used again so soon, my magic was strong enough to keep the blades from showing any sign of the fatigue my body felt.

We waited in a tense silence. After a couple of second though, the sound of a pony crashing through the forest was evident and after a minute, we could see a faint outline making their way towards us. But that outline was enough. I could see they were muscular, an earth pony and most importantly, she was wearing a hat. A stetson to be precise.

"Do not interfere." My voice was completely emotionless as I stood up, stumbling slightly as my left side responded sluggishly. "This is a private fight."

The orange earth pony finally broke through the dense vegetation and stared at me with those green eyes of hers.

"Twi?"

Her familiar southern accent reminded me of a simpler time. A time when good and evil were so clearly defined, where the sun was bright and the stars so enticing. A happier time when everything made sense and laughter came so much easier.

"Tha' you?"

"Hello Applejack." Please forgive me. "It's been a while. Six months to be precise."

I lunged for her throat.