Chapter 22: Future Dreams

Two weeks… they had been here for two weeks now! All the citizens of Ponyville had been evacuated because of ‘safety reasons’, something nopony could understand or knew anything about. The princess had been very vague and quartered the population in the guard barracks near the city limits. It was especially nerve wracking for the three very special fillies, namely Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. They found each other after the first few days in their new temporary home, each of them lost their sister, or in the orange pegasus’ case, her idol.

They quickly formed a bond as they told each other stories of their siblings or heroes, the fact that all of them bore no Cutie Mark only added to their quickly forming friendship. Sweetie Belle was the first one to suggest forming a club of some sorts, to find their special talents, but the idea was quickly shelved, this was not the time to think about that. They had to find their loved ones!

“Darnit! Ah can’t stand this any longer!” The little earth pony exclaimed. Currently all three of them played ball in a nearby park.

“Geez, Applebloom, if you want to play something else you could just ask, you know?” Scootaloo answered, balancing the bright-red colored ball on her nose. She had always been a good athlete, the best in her class at least, maybe it was just to impress Rainbow Dash, but still.

“That’s not what Ah meant! We’re sittin’ around doin’ absolutely nuthin’! Mah sister’s gone! Sweetie’s too, and even Rainbow is Celestia knows where!” She shouted angrily, two weeks passed without her sister, sure, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith still supported her wherever they could, but it wasn’t the same.

Sweetie just nodded sadly, Rarity was practically the only family she had, her parents always were somewhere around the world, exploring unknown places or something. Sometimes they were gone for weeks, and with this strange war thing going on it was unsure if they’d return at all!

“What are we supposed to do? We have no idea what is going on! Something happened in Canterlot a few weeks ago, it was even in the newspaper, something about a Twilight Sparkle, but after that, nothing! Now we aren’t even allowed to leave the city,” The orange pegasus replied, still trying to keep their game going, there wasn’t anything to do anyway.

“Then we’ll just leave anyway! Ah want to know what’s goin’ on, at least if the farm’s still alright… Ah’m sure mah sister is doin’ somethin’ to stop whatever’s goin’ on, but everypony needs help once in a while!” Applebloom exclaimed, earning a few sideway glances from Canterlot Noble Fancy ponies. The worst kind of personalities in her opinion, but even they were on edge due to the current situation. The constant twilight sky was a perfect indicator that something was definitely very, very wrong, sun and moon up at the same time… that was just not natural.

“I don’t know Applebloom… I want to find my sister too, but… well, don’t you think they have a reason for keeping us within the city limits? I just… If we really want to leave, how are we gonna do that? The gates are always guarded, the train is only moving on very special occasions, and the city is surrounded with a high wall. We’re just fillies, and don’t even have a Cutie Mark,” Sweetie explained sadly, she saw these things way more pessimistic than usual, but what could they do against this chaotic situation.

Scootaloo just sighed and kicked the ball away, seeing it vanish behind a small shop, “So? What if we are just kids and have no Cutie Mark? We’re not useless! Maybe we aren’t as strong, fast or smart as some random adults, but we can still figure out how to help our family and friends. We can start in Ponyville! There has to be a reason why they wanted us to leave the city. Let’s sneak outside this night, and then somehow hide on the train. Maybe it brings us near the city.”

“That sounds mighty crazy, Scoots. Why in Equestria should the train stop at the town that’s all locked up! The princess obviously doesn’t want us to go there,” The yellow earth pony said, pacing around in circles.

“I’d say we do it.”

“Sweetie Belle, ya can’t be serious! That’s insane!” Her friends couldn’t be serious. Of course there was a reason behind all of this, something all of them didn’t know about, but she had to admit that it was tempting… Applebloom missed her sister a lot.

“Heh, see? You’re outnumbered, Applebloom. Come on, either we do it together, or not at all!”

“Fine! We’ll take some supplies with us and try to get out… the train won’t move anyway, so we won’t even get down the mountain, then you two will see that it was stupid!”

The other two fillies nodded and exclaimed in unison, “Deal!” So it was settled then, in the next hours they’d try to get their hooves on as much supplies as possible, and meet after sundown.

Fluttershy was still extremely confused, this whole situation should not be possible at all, but here she was, observing herself… and Rost. The columns around the ascending platform were connected with this strange barrier magic, it was really visible, but some dark-purple energy fizzled around it from time to time.

So she jumped down to the first level, using her outstretched wings to soften her fall. She’d wait until they arrived at the plateau and then get up there as fast as possible. The time freezing magic wouldn’t affect her if those demons didn’t see her coming… most likely. Then they could quickly banish them. The yellow pegasus had no idea what would happen after that, but that didn’t matter right now, saving Rosts life was her top priority. He worked so hard to protect this land, but in the end failed because of some unfair demon thing...

She heard the platform stop and waited a few seconds before pressing the first floor button on this weird machinery. Would that cause problems because that didn’t happen in her real timeline… thing? The mare did not know, and at that moment, didn’t care. At least it descended a lot faster, almost reaching her in ten seconds flat. The clouds over the mountain top were still moving that meant she still had some time. These damn barriers always stopped her from rushing things, they served no purpose other than delaying everypony. Otherwise she would’ve just flown up there, saving herself from seeing another friend die right in front of her.

After a quick hop over the small railing she felt the platform moving upwards again. It surely was interesting, moving without ponies or strong animals to pull it, that would make stairs obsolete. Fluttershy was no scientist, far from it, but she always had an interest for these strange machines. Especially since her father worked in a cloud factory with even more of these things.

A loud screech ripped her out of the deep mindscape she had been in. Now was not the time to think about family or her childhood. The ‘elevator’ (the mare did not know why, but it sounded fitting for a machine elevating ponies) almost reached the top floor. Her eyes narrowed and Fluttershy lowered herself, ready to take off the second it reached the top. She instinctively grabbed one of the floating beads with her teeth. This was the only weapon she knew how to use, and that the mare had in general, probably for as long as they stayed with her.

Mere seconds before Fluttershy reached the plateau the clouds stopped moving and everything changed into its negative colour. Her rosary began to emit a strong glow, stopping this strange magic from directly affecting her. It was definitely weaker now that those demons didn’t target her specifically. The elevator stopped and she took off with more strength than ever, even causing small cracks in the massive platform under her. In the blur of motion she could make out the silvery cane racing towards her friend. The pegasus cried out and swung the rosary towards it. What happened next was equally surprising for her and everypony else, the beads didn’t connect to a long whip, but rather shot towards their target like bullets. Extremely fast and sporting a trail of flickering fire behind them. All six fiery projectiles impacted with the cane, causing the surprised demon to let go of it. Fluttershy could see it crashing into the high railing of the mountain top, the beads just returned to her.

The negative color shattered like a mirror, fading out of existence. A faint smile crept its way onto her lips, seeing the confused, and partially terrified stallion fall to the smooth ground. Lechku and Nechku screeched and backed off a bit, the present Fluttershy skidded to a halt right in front of her past self, the beads glowing brightly. They seemed to resonate with themselves in a way… this could lead to problems…

A gasp could be heard behind the timid, but determined mare, “W-what? You… you’re m-me?” Present Fluttershy turned her head to see… herself collapsing and sobbing faintly. “You… I-I thought R-Rost would...”

“Well… he kinda… N-Nevermind, let’s just say I’m here to help you,” Present Fluttershy said, telling her that her companion did kind of die would not benefit her in any way. It had been a success at least, and she learned how to use these weapons more effectively. Rost also slowly got back to his hooves, racing over to them. This encounter was far from over though, the demons screeched again, both lowering their top hats… just like last time.

“Two… there are two of you?! How’s that even—”

“No time to explain! Just run!” She yelled, jumping to her right side and running further away. Her other self and Rost did the same. Both demons did the same thing, another bomb appeared in the hat of the golden one, and a strange sword protruded from the hat of the silver one. Fluttershy remembered its design from the floor, nine rectangular ‘branches’ giving it a strange, lightning-bolt like appearance, but how could that demons have the sword of this other creature?

Now that Nechku lost its cane the demons played serious. One silver claw grabbed the yellow hued hilt of the sword and swung it with a surprising precision, performing rapid stabbing movements, it looked more like some kind of fencing style than an actual fighting style suited for a sword like that. Regardless of that it was still deadly, it was almost twice as long as Fluttershy’s entire body, and even with its thin arms the massive blade moved with a very, very lethal speed. The timid mare focused so much on the sword that she didn’t notice the other demon already launching the bomb right at her.

Present Fluttershy turned her head towards the massive, midair explosion, seeing fiery projectiles flying back to Past Fluttershy, who was smiling faintly, “You learned fast… Thank you.”

Past Fluttershy nodded slowly, “You… well you made it look so easy, and it is, for us. And I… I could not let myself die, right? L-Let’s defeat them, and go home!” Rost grabbed his massive broadsword, ready to exact revenge for his clan. Meanwhile Present-shy wasn’t too sure if she would get to see her home again. It was more likely that she would just… well vanish or disappear, the mare really was no expert in these time things, so thinking about it just made things worse.

“You’re right, let’s show them what we’re made of!”

“Stalliongrad? Is there any specific reason why I should take care of that city personally?” The lavender mare asked herself, well… not really herself, but the conversation did take place in her own mindscape.

A deep and strangely alluring purring sound echoed through the endless black of her mind, normally everything was like a big library, clean, tidy and oddly quiet. Sometimes she wondered what the inside of Pinkie Pie’s head would look like, at least her interpretation of it. For now she just focused on the rich voice of her newest… ally, “Mhmm~ Of course, my shade. There is always a reason. Stalliongrad is the home of many great scientists of this era. More importantly, Equestria’s prime military research facilities and factories are located there. Supplying Celestia’s reinforcements with everything they need~ Advanced weaponry, highly developed armor prototypes, specialized equipment, you name it, they have it. That could be our chance to land a heavy blow against our enemy, and gain some valuable advantages for our own forces.”

She talked with the Nightmare regularly, but this ‘shade’ nickname was new, those were just minor details though, way more important questions rang through her head. Twilight sighed and replied, “That sounds lovely, but shouldn’t the city be extremely well guarded by now? Also, how do you know about this?”

Her ally chuckled, it sounded like a divine choir that just decided to play the most beautiful melody every single pony would ever hear, it was exactly what the lavender mare wanted to hear in the moment she defeated Celestia. Of course it was some kind of powerful illusion magic, but Twilight didn’t care, it was too heavenly to stop her. Then she continued, with her normal, but not less beautiful voice, “You are adorable, my little shade. Did the numbers of her guards ever stop you? Who would possibly able to even do as much as lay one hoof at you? Also, I know that because my dear nemesis never changes. Stalliongrad was founded for this exact purpose and has ever remained her central military city, extremely valuable in that regard.”

“You think I’m adorab— I mean… of course, that makes sense. She never liked changes, even disturbing her daily schedule was not a good idea. I always wondered about that, as a ruler you have to be flexible, and not rely on unnecessary traditions, or cruel ways to destroy little filly’s futures...” Twilight grew slightly irritated, of course her mind brought that up again!

The Nightmare gave her a knowing smile and kissed the lavender unicorn’s forehead, immediately calming her down. It felt like an electrical surge of pleasure every time she merely touched Twilight. What would it be like to go... one step further?

Before their bizarre conversation could continue she was ripped out of her mindscape by a smooth alabaster hoof tapping her shoulder. Twilight looked around, she didn’t even notice that she already was in the middle of the town square, wandering around absent mindedly could lead to problems sooner or later. The hoof belonged to one of her best friends, and strongest allies, Rarity, looking at her in concern.

The leader of the rebels never really thought about how beautiful the seamstress was. Gorgeous coat and mane, subtle curves, even her slight Canterlot accent just emanated the high class aura she possessed. Twilight should investigate her feelings later, with the fashionista of course~ For now there were more important things, “Good day, Rarity. How did your mission go?”
“Lovely to see you too, darling. It was surprising how willingly the civilians joined our cause,” She arced her right front hoof over the bustling town square. “Some even agreed to help out here, mainly blacksmiths, construction workers, and two pyrotechnicians. Are you… are you alright though? I’ve been trying to grab your attention for a few minutes now, darling,” The alabaster unicorn stated, having a genuine look of concern on her face.

“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m totally fine. Just had a lot to think about lately. Good to hear that it was going great though, more and more cities will join us if we keep this up. Soon Celestia will run out of options entirely and then the real fun will begin.”

“Twilight, darling, actually that is something I wanted to talk about with you,” Rarity stated, now walking with her lavender friend through the streets of their town. The fact that this town belonged to them still felt… wrong.

“Go ahead Rarity, you know how much I value all of your opinions,” The lavender mare replied. Those words certainly were not lies, but she was curious what Rarity had to say. Normally the fashionista was just happy to help her and stayed out of the ‘politics’. What caused this sudden shift in behaviour? Maybe she had been a bit too.... radical with her plans, they still had no idea what Celestia would do to preserve her precious Harmony.

The alabaster mare looked down the streets, a distant look on her voice, “Well… you know that we all trust you, darling. You rescued us from Celestia’s tyranny and saved us in battle at least once, but lately... ” She sighed deeply. “Some of us are wondering where you’re going with this? Where will this lead to?”

Twilight considered the questions carefully, now that she thought about it she had done that many, many times. It was not something to be answered within a minute’s walk, all the factors and details that occurred and changed over the last weeks played a role in what was happening at this very moment, “The world, Rarity.”

Her fabulous friend stopped for a second and blinked twice, “I… beg your pardon?”

“Celestia and her tyranny are just the first step. Certain… sources reassured me in that regard. Equestria is surrounded by corruption that just waits to lay their rotten claws, hooves, whatever you want to call it, around this nation’s throat. You may think this sounds crazy, but have you ever heard of changelings, for example?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” Rarity just listened to what her friend had to say. It sounded unbelievable, but Twilight was the only pony capable of doing exactly that, uniting the world under her own harmony. Maybe it was wrong… it most certainly was, but couldn’t it be the best for everypony? Even if they didn’t realize it just yet.

While Twilight spoke it seemed that the light grew even dimmer than it had been for weeks now, another thing they should really change as soon as Celestia was nothing more but history, “A creature that looks like a pony/bug hybrid, with wings and a twisted horn. They are capable of changing into any creature they desire, the perfect disguise. To survive they devour love, affection, every positive emotion in your body and leaves you as a lifeless husk, a mere shell of your former self, and the worst of all is that nothing known in this world can bring you back as far as I am concerned, a fate worse than death.”

“Oh, oh my…”

“They live somewhere outside our border, and attacked this land before. I found some recordings in the library about it, the last time they attacked, two cities completely vanished from the map, just annihilated without mercy. Or what about the east and west of Equestria? Giant oceans with dozens of inhabited islands, I could give you the name of at least a couple tyrants that are on par with Celestia’s cruelty. Their kingdoms and territories are anything but weak, my dear. Even the griffons are dangerous, they may be Equestria’s allies now, but their ways are barbaric at best. They can not be trusted, so we have to break and add them to our land first, don’t you think that is reasonable?” Twilight finished her, more than a little disturbing tale. Rarity had no idea this many threats just waited to attack their land.

“Is there… is there anything I can do to help you?” A determined expression found its way onto her face, she would not let her friend down. This was certainly bigger than any of them, so they had to work together!

“There really is something you could help me with,” Twilight answered, this would be the perfect opportunity. A silver tongue could accomplish so much with the right timing and choice of words, unfortunately that was the exact thing Celestia did too…

“Anything, darling. I’m truly sorry we doubted you for even a second.”

“Excellent, then we will travel towards Stalliongrad. One of the most guarded places in Equestria, more importantly, a hotspot for research and Equestria’s military, and we will conquer it to open a gateway for the others. Chaos gateways are basically a spatial link between two places using the curvature of—”

“N-no need to get into too much detail, darling. I will assist you no matter what, when shall we depart?” Rarity stated quickly, before this question ended in a two hour seminar about the basic laws of the universe.

“Tomorrow morning, we’ll need a day or two even with using shadow travel. I know it’s already late, but would you inform our leadership about our mission? Including Silver and Silent, I think they still sleep in the hospital. Blaze is around them most of the time, and Nightmare knows where Rainbow Dash is, and you know, Pinkie is Pinkie, she’s around somewhere.”

Rarity ignored the Nightmare bit, that was none of her business, but she did agree on the rest. Finding them shouldn’t be too hard, and she would finally get the chance for a real mission again, alone with Twilight. That should be interesting, “Will do, Twilight. See you in the morning.”

“Have a good night, Rarity. We both will need it.”

“Psst!”

“Ouch, be careful with your hooves!”

“Quiet now! They could hear us.”

Those three voices echoed through the emptied streets of Canterlot at ‘night’. Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo finally got their hooves on some basic supplies and their saddlebags. It had been hard enough to find a reasonable excuse why the earth pony filly needed her saddlebags all of a sudden. It was not like they could make a journey around the town and camp on the streets. Officially, they now were on ‘Cutie Mark Crusading’ looking for a not so obvious way to escape. ‘Sadly’, Scootaloo’s plan to just march through the front gate didn’t quite get the amount of praise she had expected.

They came ever closer to the gates of the city… under a cardboard box. Sure, it wasn’t the most professional disguise, but most guards had better things to do than inspect a lonely, unmoving box in the streets of the hectic town. A pegasus who couldn’t fly, a relatively weak earth pony, and a unicorn not yet able to use magic, trying to rescue their loved ones out of the most dangerous place in all of Equestria, for normal civilians at least. The whole plan was insane, but they simply had no other choice, to imagine what horrors their siblings, or idols must be going through was unbearable for them.

Suddenly they heard two other voices approaching, “Isn’t that a box from our stock in the east?”

Applebloom and Sweetie glared at the orange pegasus, she was responsible for their disguise, and of course Scootaloo had to pick one that would be noticed if somepony inspected it closer.

“Yeah, but our shift ends in two minutes, and I don’t want to run through the whole town for a box,” The second, presumably, guard answered with a trace of laziness in his voice.

“You’re kinda right, but… what if the next shift sees it and blames us for that? No thank you. The princess has been in a very bad mood lately, and I don’t want to be caught in a crossfire with her.”

“Sweet Cel... A-Alright… let’s do it, quick!” He began to lift the box. “And it’s not like—” What was the single most unexpected thing one could find under a cardboard box? A question only the goddesses could answer, but in that moment the guard believed he came pretty close to finding it. The three little fillies stared at him with a shocked expression.

Scootaloo coughed awkwardly, “Ehehe… this is totally not what it looks like.”

The guard gained a serious expression, looking down at the fillies, “Well how does it look like?”

“We were just… inspecting the boxes for Admiral… Easyglider?”

“Wrong rank, wrong time, nice try though. Let’s take them to the princess, I’m sure she’s very interested to hear your story," The guard said, but stopped before leading them towards the castle. "By the way, next time you try to find an excuse, don’t use one of the most famous Wonderbolts in history, that lived about 800 years ago!”

The three had to follow them, their heads hanging and a sad expression adorning their faces. This was not how they imagined it to go… not at all. Now they had to explain it to Princess Celestia, who would surely punish them for treason or something awful like that!

The fight began anew. Both Fluttershy’ took off and flew towards the gold demon, it seemed to be somewhat damaged, the clock’s ticking was accompanied by little sparks flying out of the intricate cogwheel machinery. Lechku once again summoned several bombs out of its top hat, hurling them towards the pegasi. This time they were prepared for it though, a literal barrage of glowing red beads intercepted the demonic weaponry midair, causing a massive explosion that was strong enough to stun the demon for just a moment. It screeched again, the metallic sound echoing around the frozen mountain,

Instead of more explosives it summoned what looked like a faintly glowing bud, its leaves were colored in a deep crimson, glow sporting the same colour. The two of them stopped, not sure how to approach it, slowly the bud opened, releasing six, deeply purple colored balls. It seemed like they were just made out of demonic energy, or whatever fundamental force that kept this pure magic in a perfectly spherical form like that. They they suddenly launched towards the two pegasi, Past Fluttershy barrel-rolled out of the way, but three of the spheres simply changed course and followed her. No matter what she did they were closely behind her, one already singed the last strands of her tail.

She braced herself, then they impacted with the barrier her rosary provided, the feeling of nails scraping against chalkboard inside her mind returned in full force, eliciting an agonized scream out of her. Her time travelling other self was not faring much better, still flying around better than she ever thought possible. Suddenly Present Fluttershy had an idea, the timid mare focused the beads to concentrate on her right hind leg again, just like in that parkour room. They rotated faster and faster, until the familiar, flickering layer of flames danced around her whole leg. She flared her wings to ascend faster, then the mare let herself fall back, directly towards the glowing projectiles. The momentum of her improvised looping was enough to kick into the first ball with a tremendous force, causing it to turn from purple to a flaming red, launching it towards the other two.

Her leg bled a little due to the force of the impact, they seemed to be made out of some kind of semi-transparent energy, only hard when they needed to be. The explosion created a purple smoke cloud, both were sure that flying into it was not the best idea. Past Fluttershy let herself sink down a bit, breathing heavily because of the physical and magical exertion. She was not as strong as an earth pony, nor had the magical capabilities of a unicorn. This rosary was drawing energy from her inert pegasus magic, making flying harder while she used them. The demon backed off shortly, placing the top hot back where it was before.

Present Fluttery also breathed heavily, the barrier always came with a price, this sound could drive her insane if she wasn’t careful, “Good… idea… why did I… not think… about this?”

Her other self put a hoof to her chin before shrugging, “Well… you did… kinda. I don’t know how this is possible, or why these beads can act like they do, I really don’t. Come on, this is not over yet.”

Just a few meters next to them Rost was taking on Nechku himself, finally he had to chance to repay her for everything she’s done, and get revenge on these winged bastards. The brown stallion’s double-edged broadsword was just around a third of the silver demon’s sword, but he managed to stand his ground. The sword had grown really hot during the fight, Rost could almost see the flames flickering over it.

Heavy strikes were exchanged between him, and the demon. He parried a horizontal swing with hooking his blade into a branch of the opponent’s sword, that gave him the opening to jump onto Nechku’s blade. Rost figured that way he could attack the demon’s face, but as soon as his hooves touched the yellow hued steel he recoiled. The entire weapon was under an enormous amount of voltage, little bolts of lightning arced and fizzled around it. Somehow his blade was able to nullify the electricity, but, of course, his body was not.

He grabbed the sword with his own and went into a combat stance once again, smoke was rising from his front hooves, and it felt like they had been fried which was partially true. “Dammit! How should I get past its defense now?! I can’t just stall it until… the Fluttershys finish off the other demon!” The frustrated earth pony thought to himself. He had absolutely no advantage over Nechku, barely able to stand his ground against its simple swings and strikes.

The ‘dawn’ of the next day arrived, at least that was what Luna said. She returned from Manehattan, the Princess of the Night left Captain Winterlight in charge. The dark blue mare did not trust those Archmages one bit, but he seemed to be quite smart and capable of handling the city for a while. Next to nopony did not immediately follow Luna after their story had been told. Sheep, every single one of them, but even sheep could slow down a wolf with their sheer numbers.

All the leaders gathered on the town square, sitting in a loose half-circle around Twilight and Luna. Even Silver Night managed to finally get out of bed, he still looked pale and thin due to his severe malnourishment in prison, but at least he was able to participate in their meeting, without his signature wingblades, but they would be reclaimed soon enough. Morning Blaze had been quite shocked after she heard what happened to him after the stallion sacrificed himself, only the princess had been allowed to transport him… and that was what she did…

“Alright, listen up everypony!” Twilight exclaimed, silencing the light chatting of her top allies. Silent Flare also looked alright again, unusually thoughtful, but that was probably because he almost killed his brother, that… would affect even the most cold-hearted pony. It was very hard to read that stallion, but they had other things to focus on right now. “First of all, thank you Rarity for delivering the message.”

The fashionista beamed at her, now that they discussed their differences and Twilight even gave her a chance to join her on this mission nothing could go wrong anymore, “Oh please. That’s hardly worth mentioning, darling.”

Luna continued their meeting, “As you all know, we now have full support from one of the biggest cities on Equestria. I opened a chaos gateway right to the town square of Manehatten. It is located in the town hall on the second floor. If any of you wish to check the city, or in case something goes wrong, we now have a very important advantage that Celestia refrains from using. Now to the really tricky part. From Manehatten we will start a large scale invasion of the entire east border of Equestria.”

Their friends locked shocked for a moment, their plans always revolved around subtlety and little actions, most of the time at least. And now they should secure an entire border? Morning Blaze spoke up, “T-That’s crazy! Occupying Manehatten, Baltimare and Fillydelphia would effectively annihilate Equestria’s best trade routes! No small settlement can produce that much food, and it would cause Celestia’s subjects to starve!”

“Oh~ She’s a smart one. Let’s keep her close, my shade. Test her loyalty, it will be fun~” The nightmare suggested quietly. Not even Luna could sense it, even though she did almost the same in Twilight’s younger years.

Twilight chuckled, partially because another surge of electrifying pleasure rang through her body, that Nightmare sure knew how to please her allies, “Why that’s the idea, Blaze. Either they join us, or fall into anarchy, I’m interested to see how long Celestia’s oh-so important Harmony will be able to prevent half-starved ponies from revolting.”

Once again Luna picked up the conversation, “As I was saying, we will occupy those major cities along the east border, causing as few casualties as possible and spreading the truth around. For that mission half of Manehatten population will assist us in getting the message across, as well as five hundred of Capone’s mercenaries to ensure that Celestia is not able to freely move her troops around. There is a very high probability that we will encounter a General in one of those cities, maybe even more than one.”

Pinkie and Rarity shivered in perfect unison if only for one second, one word, or rather, one name escaped their mouths, “Mistral.”

The Lunar Demi-Goddess nodded, “Indeed, or Law, his injuries have been taken care of most likely, and he seemed to be very angry at Twilight. Mistral was stationed in Baltimare before, so we have to be careful there, and Dawn Comet will most likely stay in Canterlot or travel around with his powers. Four of you will come with me, we have to get this done almost simultaneously, otherwise Celestia has time to launch a large scale attack.”

Rainbow cocked her head, “What if we encounter resistance in the cities. I’m like not an expert on Celestia’s army, but she has a lot of well-trained soldiers.”

“Most of them are stationed around and in Canterlot because nearly all the population from Ponyville is there. Now I’ll assign who will come w—”

“Wait!” Rarity shouted. “The entire population of Ponyville?” That meant her sister was also there… she was safe for now, but the fashionista would come for her once this was done!

“Yes, indeed. They have been evacuated before we took this city. That shows that despite her dwindling army Celestia is everything but stupid. We can not let our guard down and start more single missions. Isn’t that right, my dear Deathbringer?”

Twilight huffed and looked at the ground, “Quiet you… You’re not innocent yourself, who wanted to rescue Silver all on her own, huh?” That caused both Silver and Luna to also look at the ground, none of them really were the best at discipline, but it worked.

“Now, as I was saying, four of you will join me. Namely, Silent Flare, Silver Night, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash,” Luna stated, finally finished her endlessly interrupted sentence,

“Hihi! It’ll be like a big party!”

“No casualties? Boring,” Silent stated, but he would join them nonetheless, There was always the possibility that some guards showed up.

Rainbow Dash just nodded, it was not as good as going on a mission with Twilight… but at least she was helping. The corruptive magic had her completely under its control. Pleasing the lavender unicorn was literally everything she cared about.

Twilight had the word now, clearing her throat, “While that happens a team of three will occupy a very valuable city that could prove to be quite helpful in the future. Stalliongrad, the freezing fortress. The names come from the heavily guarded walls around the city, the countless guards, weaponry and technology trained and built to defend it, oh and because it’s located at the edge of the Frozen North. Quite the challenge, but Equestria’s prime military research laboratories and weapon manufacturers are all gathered in this one, extremely secured city.”

Morning had to hold back a gasp again, they were playing a very dangerous game, “Pray tell, who will follow you into that death trap?”

The lavender mare chuckled, “Funny that you ask. Rarity and you will follow me. Be ready to face a lot of aggressive and elite guards on the way in! We will either disable and capture, or kill all of them. That city is too important to ignore, and too valuable to be careless.”

Seeing Morning Blaze’s shocked expression was priceless, Twilight knew that her old mentor still had problems with this old ‘going against Celestia’ thing. The lavender mare simply couldn’t have any hesitation in her rebellion… in their rebellion. She would test the yellow mare to see if she was worth keeping alive, not that Twilight would kill her, but Morning could not expect any protection if she was still loyal towards Celestia.

“T-Twilight, you c-can’t be serious! You know that I—”

Her now superior student interrupted her harshly, “That you what, Blaze?! Try to stay in the background and spy on me? So that when Celestia eventually has enough of this you can give her valuable information about this rebellion? Do not think I’m a fool, old mentor! I give you this one chance to prove yourself, come with me, conquer Stalliongrad and kill every Solar Guard standing in our way. If not you’ll earn a stay in our cells, indefinitely.”

“You’re… you’re making me choose?”

“I don’t, I give you a chance to be free of her influence, to end this tyranny and to be right next to me… to all of us when this is over. Forces all around Equestria threaten to overwhelm us, forces that Celestia is too arrogant to acknowledge. The entire land is just hers to play with at the moment, Harmony was just a fake creation that ensured her reign. Don’t be foolish, Morning, you knew me since I was a filly. Is my way not the better one? Even your old friend Silent agreed to join me, maybe just to cause trouble for Celestia though, now that I think about it.”

“Hey! Yeah… alright, you have a point,” Silent grumbled with a faked irritated expression. He just wanted Celestia’s life to be miserable, for whatever reason. Only his brother would be able to know, but Thunder Flare was currently, well… not on top of his game, thanks to Silent at least.

“Yes, because he’s a lunatic!” Morning exclaimed, still unsure what to do now. She needed more time, stalling was kind of dangerous with her volatile student though. This crystal on her chest prevents any outside influence, except Luna and Twilight’s. She couldn’t activate the link between the princess and herself which was very troubling for her.

The beige stallion grumbled again, but shrugged after a while, “Heh, I guess you also have a point there, firebutt.”

“You’re stalling~” Twilight commented with a dangerously sweet tone. Blaze has never seen this kind of… psychopathic behaviour in her student… not once. It could not be Luna or Celestia alone that drove her to this… madness.

Luna giggled as well, just a normal, amused laughter. She had a fair share of insanity while annihilating the guards in Manehatten. The Nightmare may have left her mind, personally at least, but a little piece of it still rested inside of her. All her shades would corrupt someday, Luna wondered when her second breaking time would come. Immortality did not really solve that problem either, being linked to chaos also only made it worse. She lacked Discords abilities in manipulating her surroundings, and her sisters near unlimited power source. Comparing the two of them to Discord was quite difficult though, they had been… normal ponies once, Luna had been born as a pegasus, and her sister as a unicorn. Discord however was a literal god, the manifestation of chaos in this land, or even the entire world. Who knew what the spirit was doing while not bothering or taunting them.

“A-Alright… I’ll come.. with you,” Blaze said with near inaudible volume.

“Come on now, don’t be shy. Who are you loyal to, my dear mentor?” The lavender unicorn asked mockingly.

“... you.”

“That’s right. You’ll join Rarity and me, and show that, in every way possible.”

The fashionista walked over to Blaze and put a hoof on her shoulder, smiling at the yellow mare, “It’s not so bad, darling. They deserve it, and we get a chance to be fabulous! Maybe even in the newspaper!”

Blaze couldn’t believe it, Twilight actually forced her into this, and Rarity acted like this was some sort of game! Innocent ponies’ life were at stake, and Equestria biggest source of dangerous weaponry… dear Celestia…

Twilight smiled again, “I believe that is everything. Luna and her team will attack the cities at once, using a coordinated team tactic. Rarity, Morning and I will attack shortly after. Nopony will notice what happened before it’s too late. Now do what you like for the rest of the day, relax and gather your energy for tomorrow. You all will need it.”