Chapter 23: Sweet Temptation

Both versions of the timid yellow mare released their best ‘furious battle cry’. These demons were standing between them, a peaceful land, and their friends. Just a few weeks ago Fluttershy didn’t even know that things like demons existed, maybe not in Equestria, but here they were ever present. She was sure that Equestria’s harmony had something to do with it, Princess Celestia made sure that no harm came over her subjects! What about now though? It had been weeks! Who knows how much destruction their friend already achieved. Twilight had been so… different when they meet her, a bit unfriendly and not willing to get out of her shell, but not this murderous maniac that would wage a war against the most powerful being in the land!

A combined barrage of almost flaming rosary beads came flying towards the gold demon who simply raised one of its giant, metal feathered wings to protect itself. It sounded like somepony was trying to break its appendage with a sledgehammer over and over again. The beads alone weren’t really anything special, but they packed some punch! Maybe even one of them would be enough to knock an average pony out… not that she would try something like that.

Present Fluttershy suddenly had an idea, her whole face lighting up, “Keep it up! Don’t let it retreat!” She stopped with her attack, flying behind the golden demon. Its head turned slightly, but it was forced to defend itself against this other pony’s attack.

“W-what are you—”

“No time to explain!” She grasped one bead with her mouth again, looking like she would try to use it as a whip again. Instantly the life beads reacted to her mental command, they connected like a solid object, the crimson energy pulsing through them. This time the yellow mare aimed for its head though, more precisely, its neck. The connected string wrapped itself around the demon’s throat, eliciting an angry screech from it.

It wasn’t her intention to kill it like that though, it could backfire against them. She tugged on it, hard, trying to bring it down to the ground. Strength filled her body, something Fluttershy never expected to feel, but her worldview had been turned upside down on more than one occasion though, “Hnnh! Haaaah!”

Lechku screeched again, the mortal ponies strength hurled him towards the ground in a wide arc. It crashed into the hard floor with enough force to shatter it slightly. This was their chance! Past Fluttershy swung her own rosary towards its unprotected body, and the other one began to spin around again, creating this weird magical heat that none of them could even remotely understand, nor explain.

Rost heard the crash, it had been way too loud to be one of… the Fluttershys, so it must’ve been the demon! He ended another deadlock with a mighty push, trying to get the other demon off of him for a second. The brown stallion ran towards them, seeing the partially stuck demon, “Fluttershy with the burning leg! Together!” He jumped, flipping in the air like some sort of rotary, his blade almost scraping over the stone floor. Fluttershy understood, flying towards Lechku’s next as fast as she could. They were mere seconds away from reaching its throat, flames and steel together. Then everything stopped…

“NO!” The time travelling version screamed. Not again… this couldn’t be happening again! Nechku’s clock had stopped, its three flipping pieces glowing in an uncanny blue light. The golden demon slowly freed himself, shaking shortly before flying again. “Quick! We have to… hngh… get out of this!”

The crimson light of all their weapons intensified, eliciting another confused screech out of the demons that backed off momentarily. Normal colour began to return, a thousand shattering sounds forced them to cover their ears. It seemed like this spell was not as strong if one of them was stunned or distracted.

Rost growled at the demons, skidding to a halt on the ground, these flips had not been a good idea, “We have to stun both of them somehow! One of them can stop the time whenever we get close to hurting the other!”

Both version of Fluttershy were by no means as athletic as Applejack, or Rainbow, the physical exhaustion was starting to get to them. It took them a moment to catch their second wind, the past version of herself replied, “What if we stun them with the rosary, and then defeat both with the help of Rost.”

“Do you really think they will just let us do that?” Her time travelling other self replied.

“M-maybe...”

“Unfortunately that’s the best thing we have so far...” The mare answered, arguing with herself felt weird… very weird. They should have the same thoughts… but the other one hasn’t seen the same things… she didn’t hold Rost in her hooves while he died… she wouldn’t let it happen again!

“Let’s do this, ladies! This fight will end now!” Rost exclaimed as well as it was possible with a broadsword between his teeth. They would not lose to the raging chaos, not now, and never again!

Blaze was ready, finally. It had taken her a few days until she figured out when everypony went to bed and was fast asleep. Another day was wasted with searching for some supplies and a saddlebag that nopony would miss. Luckily she was sharing her room with Silent, who also was loyal to Twilight, but didn’t seem to care enough about it to report her suspicious actions. She didn’t want to do this, but her former student’s plans were insane!

The yellow mare carefully opened the door, hearing light snoring out of the beige stallion’s room. Perfect. Everypony should be asleep right now, she wasn’t sure if there were more traps, but Blaze always found a way. Using magic was sadly out of question, this strange crystal was surely not just there to look pretty and give her more energy whenever Twilight decided to step in. It would instantly detect any traces of magic and would alert Twilight, or at least make her aware of it. She wasn’t really sure what to think of Celestia anymore, but this plan seemed so… extreme though. It could cause horrible food shortages in wide parts of Equestria, dooming thousands of ponies to starve. It was effective… no question, but cruel to no end. The princess had to know about this.

The streets were empty, just like she thought. It wasn’t really dark… still the same twilight sky, but the sleep cycles stayed the same for most. The yellow mare still looked around every corner, twice. If one of the leaders or even Luna would find her… Morning gulped hard, the thought alone was scary. Her lavender student had been friendly to her after the whole ordeal with the cell, but Celestia-knew how long that would stay that way if she got caught trying to betray her. Blaze definitely didn’t want to share Shining’s fate…

Shining Armor… the thought alone made her sad. She didn’t know him that well, but he always wanted the best for his little sister. He really had been alright… until Twilight happened… this had been more than a little traumatic for her.

She slowly shook her head, “Focus! I’m dead if somepony catches me!” It was unlikely that someone would even notice her absence until ‘dawn’, or at least until they started their mission. Once she was out of the town Blaze would have to teleport very, very quickly. Otherwise the yellow unicorn would never be able to reach Canterlot in time. It would alarm her… superior, but that was a risk she was willing to take.

Suddenly two voices approached her location, instantly her heart sank and she pressed herself hard against the shadow of the nearest building. The silhouettes looked like one of the last thestrals, really interesting creatures. Faster and stronger than normal ponies, with perfect night vision and increased sensitivity for noises. Her eyes were tight shut and the only sound coming from her was the ragged, but nonetheless, silent breathing.

“Have you ever wondered about Lady Twilight?” A smooth, and deeper female voice asked.

“What do you mean? She’s allied with Mistress Luna, that’s good enough for me,” The second, this time rough male voice replied.

“No, no, no, no! I mean… you know, how it would be like to… have a night with her.”

“Crescent, don’t even start with that,” Her thestral partner answered with a certain disinterest in his voice.

“Why? You can’t deny it, she’s smoking hot! And I heard that nearly all of the leaders already—” She stopped, hearing a faint, yet audible sound nearby. “Wait… do you hear that?”

Blaze’s heart seemingly skipped a beat as she heard that comment and immediately held her breath. The voices were quiet for a second before the male bat pony groaned, “Don’t you play invisible nightmare with me, I hear nothing, except your ridiculous crush.”

“No, really! It was… there… Ah, screw you,” ‘Crescent’ went quiet again, focusing really hard on the surrounding sounds, the yellow mare’s visions already went blurry. Normally she could hold her breath for much longer, but the stress and fear made it hard to focus.”Fine… I guess it was just my imagination. Sooooooo, back to what I was saying. Have you never thought about it?”

The stallion groaned again before the voices slowly faded into the distance of nightly Ponyville. Morning gasped for air, trying to calm down her ridiculously fast heart rate, “Holy… Celestia… this is… already… killing me.” It took her a minute to catch her second wind, at least it seemed like those were the only ponies patrolling the area. She never even noticed them until now, that was probably the reason Luna and Twilight assigned them to patrol in the first place. She didn’t just ignore the ‘her innocent student is hot’ part either, but now was not the time to think about something like that. No… it definitely wasn’t.

Ponyville’s northern gate came into view. The large double steel door was built into the massive wall that they erected. Blaze still couldn’t believe how fast and efficient they constructed such a big project, the town wasn’t too small either, something like this would’ve taken the government weeks of building, and even before that probably months of planning and deciding. Once again she had to involuntarily admire the rebel’s effective decision-making, the democracy and bureaucracy of Equestria made it really difficult to execute plans in the first place.

She had to either bust the doors open with sheer strength, or open them with magic. Twilight enchanted the entire construct personally, so destroying the wards and anti-magic enchantment would probably take her days, if she could do so at all. Even though her… precious friend had committed such horrible atrocities, she was still ingenious void walker. Her spell even negated the evading spells of Celestia’s top three Generals. Unfortunately Morning had never focused on these spells, she tried to master offensive elemental spells, and basic darkness spells. Nothing helped so far, at least not in the situation the yellow mare currently found herself in. It would probably take a couple of Archmages to even break this thing on her chest, not that it felt… unpleasant, her student’s energy was something entirely different, so warm… and comfortable, but a way to monitor her nonetheless.

The mere thought of the Archmages made her furious, they were supposed to be loyal to Celestia, but their leader was so painfully corrupt and incompetent.. This cursed Specter and Captain Winterlight, Blaze never trusted them. They always tried to remain hidden until the very last moment. Of course they completed every mission Celestia gave them, even though their faction was technically not part of the Equestrian Government, but all the reports were always very, very vague describing how they actually achieved a successful mission.

As of late her thoughts tended to wander around like that more often than not. Worse than that was Blaze’s completely open position, nothing was there to hide the treacherous act she was about to commit. The fiery unicorn shook her head quickly, nopony was in plain sight, so it was probably okay. She still had some time to figure a way out of the city before ‘dawn’ or rather until Twilight and Luna woke up.

Suddenly another thing ripped Morning out of her thoughts. thick fog began to form on the streets. It wasn’t just any natural event, the parts of her coat that touched this… magic spell immediately began to freeze, slowly coating her in a thin layer of ice. The yellow mare panicked as more and more of the icy mist surrounded her, “H-Hello? W-who’s there?” She tried to summon her weapon, or at least any magical energy to conjure a small flame. The crystal on her chest began to glow in a faint, purple light, annihilating any concentration she had until now.

“Ah, Morning Blaze, Captain of the fifth Solar Guard Division, and long time friend of my dear sister~” Blaze’s heart sank as she recognized the voice, the mist around her immediately rendered her immobile, almost completely freezing the mare up to her neck. In just a few minutes she’d be frozen solid, and no healing spell could bring her back then.

Luna emerged from the shadow of a nearby building, a cocky smile on her face, that alone was very uncommon for the usually calm and collected leader of the rebels. Her icy weapon hovered next to her, the saber that conjured the winds of the underworld, it could freeze even the strongest souls completely solid, “Almost uncanny, isn’t it? Twilight asked me to observe your house closely right from the start, maybe others sleep now, but I’m still the Mistress of the Night. It was adorable to watch you sneak past my slacking thestral children.”

“P-please L-L-Luna… it’s n-not what it looks like!” Her whole body shivered as much as this freezin prison allowed her. Not only from the cold temperatures, but also from the aura that she produced. It was like the full fury of the night condensed into a single being that was now staring at her with a deep and judging gaze.

A small chuckle was the only reaction to that statement, the blue alicorn circled the frozen mare slowly, her blade scraping against the ground, producing a trail of ice crystals behind it, “It’s not what it looks like… hm… that statement leaves a lot of room for interpretation, don’t you think, my dear Blaze? What was your plan? Telling my sister about this operation? Assembling troops that would already await us in the cities? Let me tell you a secret.”

She came closer and closer towards Blaze, the mare already saw her life flashing past her inner eye as Luna stopped and whispered into her ear, “We counted on you telling Celestia.”

Morning’s eyes widened in shock, “W-what? N-No… you can’t be s-serious!”

The still smiling alicorn backed off a bit, “What do you think I am? I, my dear Captain, am a millennia old demi-goddess. I know every trick, every mind game, every plan that you could possibly come up with. I was not bound to my duties as Celestia was, the art of war was my daily reminder that I failed once, and would not let that happen again. I wasn’t fully conscious while sealed on the moon, but that didn’t stop me from going through every possible scenario how this could’ve played out. We waited if you’d run away to alarm Celestia, but you wouldn’t even get past the gate. How disappointing, but now we’ll just continue as planned, the only thing you could have achieved with that, would be an enormous bloodbath on her side. Our rebellion never holds back.”

“W-what are you g-g-going to do to me now?” She asked carefully, still not believing how much they played with her.

The ice around her vanished, letting Morning tumbling onto the ground, “Nothing. We are no fools, Twilight and I know that you will probably never throw away your morals voluntarily, but you are still a valuable asset. That’s why you’ll still join her tomorrow, and kill as many guards as you possibly can. Maybe that will change your mind a bit.”

“P-please… no...”

Luna lifted the yellow mare onto her hooves, “This is the final decision, don’t let me catch you again tonight, or ever again, or you’ll end as a pretty statue before our gates. Twilight has her ways to convince you, but first get some rest, and get ready for some classic genocide.”

So she escorted her back into her assigned house. Blaze was completely unable to form any useful thoughts, her situation was hopeless, and tomorrow it would begin to get really bad, “Celestia, please… help me...”

The two versions of Fluttershy began to attack the demons simultaneously. It was important that neither of them could start summoning any more magic projectiles, are electrocute them with the demonic blade Lechku held in his claws. The silver demon’s flipping piece clock was still somewhat damaged, not moving as synchronized as the other demon’s normal clock. Past Fluttershy was still unsure why her other self was so serious about this, of course they had to defeat them, but until now they didn’t manage to finish them off with this time stopping. It almost seemed like she’d seen things, bad things in the future and was now trying to fix it. She wasn’t even sure how time travelling was even possible, so going along with it was the only thing the yellow pegasus could do.

Rost was helping the… normal mare out… the one that didn’t just appear out of thin air at least. He was distracting the silver demon who luckily didn’t have a big sword that would instantly slice him in half. The brown stallion managed to parry most of Nechku’s swings and swipes with his claws. The demon still hadn’t retrieved his cane which was very fortunate for them since they could now focus on interrupting the strange summoning magic the demon used to pull things out of his top hat.

Finally they made some progress, Fluttershy managed to slash the moving pieces directly with her still completely foreign energy whip. A fizzling could be heard from inside the machinery, sparks flew out of it. The entire area changed from negative to normal colors multiple times in the span of a few seconds, never able to maintain this time spell. Both demons screeched loudly, sounding like they shared the pain. The Fluttershy that took on the golden demon finally got a moment to breath. Its sword was way more dangerous than the other one’s illusions. She didn’t waste this opportunity though, “Now!”

Both pegasi did the exact same thing, launching the whip towards the demons’ neck, trying to get them into the ground. It was way more difficult, since they seemed to catch on to the trick, but finally two loud crashed could be heard, the large owl like demons laid on the ground, temporarily stunned. The next few seconds were like a raging storm of steel, flying projectiles and screeching, the ponies used their last ounces of strength to hack at their opponents.

Dozens of deep cuts covered Lechku and Nechku, they screeched one last time before they stopped moving altogether. They did it… they really did it! The demonic twin demons exploded in a massive floral burst, it didn’t stop there though, the fresh wave of spring expanded outwards, passing the heroes. It left the mountain in a trail of flowers and grass, for the first time in years it actually stopped snowing. It wasn’t like an instant change of season appeared, since this land always had been very cold, but the sun also began to shine through the thick clouds.

They all dropped onto their haunches, panting heavily, their weapon getting back to their usual position. It was like the calm moments before the real storm began, this was not the end, it was the mere beginning of a new, even more chaotic chapter in their lives, For now they’d earned this freedom though, getting into a group hug.

Both pegasi actually had tears in their eyes, but faint smiles on their faces. Rost still could not believe what happened mere moments ago, he could see the land below them, still covered in snow, but free of the demons, and ready to flourish once again, “You two… have my deepest gratitude… I… I can’t say how much I owe you.”

The two versions of herself smiled, they suddenly knew what to do. They hugged each other gently, slowly merging into one, the past one’s memory and the present one’s mixed, they now had an idea what happened in this time travel. It was shocking at first, but they succeeded at their mission, Rost was still alive.

A surge of confidence ran through the now only Fluttershy, she shot forth, locking lips with the completely surprised stallion. It didn’t take him long to embrace and kiss her back though, melting into her caring and warm affection. Both had a heavy blush on their faces as they parted, the stallion was the first to chuckle a little and speak up, “I think I’d like to see this Equestria for myself.”

The yellow mare was leaning against him, resting her head on his neck, this was completely new for her. She had no idea how to act in a romantic situation, but it just felt right to kiss him, he’d been there for her, he was loyal, and… quite handsome, even if Fluttershy didn’t think about it all that often, “I’d like that too… i-it’s not over though. There are a lot of p-problems in my homeland.”

“I figured as much, but I’m here for you! We’ll get through that together and then… well, I’m sure we have a lot to look forward to,” He said, slowly rising to his hooves. The plateau was now just that, a completely destroyed and empty mountain top. Until he spotted a quite large… sword handle? It was entirely blue, and it looked like the blade itself, and some kind of ornament in the middle of the grip were missing. He quickly got up and grabbed it between his teeth. “Hey Fluttershy, what do you think this could—”

A bright beam of blue light suddenly shot out of the blade piece, racing towards the mountains, right into the direction of another adventurous duo. The shock almost made him drop the whole thing, but it was clearly pointing towards Equestria so it must be important for her!

“R-Rost what did you do?” Fluttershy asked carefully, following the small ray until it disappeared in the clouds of the mountains nearby. The yellow mare hadn’t noticed that they were so close until now, now that the raging blizzard had been mysteriously lifted they could get across! There was no time to be celebrated as a hero, even though that would be a nice change of pace for the often lonely pegasus, but now she had him anyway; and that was better than any cheer!

“Hmpffg!” He noticed his incoherent mumbling and carefully grabbed it with his front hooves, a slight current of magical charge ran through his body, not nearly enough to hurt him, but it was strange for a non-unicorn nonetheless. “Nothing! I just picked it up and boom! Magical beam.”

“W-well… I think it points towards Equestria though. Maybe we should follow it. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be good if those demons hid it away,” Fluttershy suggested looking at the glowing piece of steel. The beam slowly subsided, but the direction was crystal clear for them. Instead it began to pulse with this energy every few seconds, and it seemed to pulse faster if the brown stallion held it in the right direction.

“Hm… like some sort of compass… maybe to the rest of the blade? It looks very old and magical, I’m no expert on the matter, but I think you’re right. Let’s not waste any time then! We wanted to travel to Equestria anyway, we’ll go through this, together.”

The yellow mare only blushed and gave him a quick nod. Rost was willing to leave everything behind, just for her. It made her feel really special, even more than those handy beads of destruction that floated around her neck. It was a gift she intended to use to its full capacity. This scary Nightmare Moon would regret the day she attacked her friends!

Meanwhile, only a few days trip past the Neighara Falls the exact same thing happened for Sharpshot and Applejack. Due to the riddle they decided to travel towards the Frozen North, and the clearly magical beam of light only confirmed their suspicions, almost pointing in the exact same direction. Their journey from Canterlot towards the northeast of Equestria had been relatively uneventful, it wasn’t easy to go around in complete isolation, but they managed to get their hooves on a newspaper in a small village that wasn’t under control of the rebels. The entire east coast was still holding their ground and were not frequently attacked… yet. Still, the constant twilight sky and threats of a ‘civil invasion’ was not really helping to keep the spirits high. General uneasiness spread in between the population, normal, innocent ponies feared for their lives, their property and their freedom.

The country mare carefully touched the blade piece of the sword, also feeling the small magical current. She almost cut herself, despite its age and condition the double edged blade was still razor sharp, “Ah guess you were right, Sharp. Seems like this thing is pointin’ towards the mountains.”

Sharpshot examined it for a while, holding it into different direction after the beam faded as well. Never before had he seen something quite like this, it almost had a magnetic force towards, presumably, its other piece. This one would be hidden somewhere in the Frozen North, not a very precise area, but the destiny of this land was at stake. After that he had the strong suspicion that the last piece would definitely be located on this demonic island, and for that they needed both pieces anyway, “Seems like it… I don’t want to get our hopes up though, but this event makes it way easier to find the other piece. It pulses stronger if I point it towards an exact location that seems to be moving though, Celestia knows who is currently in possession of the second piece. Let’s get going, the mountains are only a few days trip away.”

“Do ya know if we’ll run across another lake or river anytime soon?” AJ asked while walking next to him.

“Uh… yes, actually. We should see the same one that ran past the Neighara Falls. Why?”

“Ah’m okay with gettin’ down in the dirt, ya know? But Ah’m still a mare that likes to shower every so often, and It’s already been a while, if ya catch mah drift,” She said quickly, not wanting to get into any more details. It was already hard to concentrate with a stallion next to her the whole time, her work never allowed her to think about this any further, but now...

“I… you mean… Oh… I see,” He looked away from her, of course they were only travelling together until they manage to banish this nightmare, but… he couldn’t deny that the country mare was quite… attractive. Not that is would mean anything… and he was not thinking about her washing herself in a lake… Definitely not. “L-Let’s get going then!”

Finally, no more waiting, Twilight had been so excited right after they announced their plan. Of course she wouldn’t show that she was actually somewhat giddy to fight again, but it was always such an adrenaline rush. The lavender unicorn could fully understand why Silent loved fighting with others, maybe he was just doing that for satisfaction though, the beige stallion was kinda hard to read and the Nightmare didn’t want to be bothered with such absolutely not mandatory things.

She had stopped thinking about consequences ages ago, there was only the present to live in, and this was her only chance to take the queen, literally. Either Celestia, or Twilight would not see the end of this civil war, she made that choice on her own, and the point of return was also long crossed. Nearly every single pony in Equestria knew her name, her face, her abilities by now, or at least they thought that they knew her, but only Luna and the Nightmare knew how she really felt. Even her so-called friends could be tricked or persuaded in one way or another, in Blaze’s case their option limited down to will-breaking, but even that wouldn’t be too difficult. She used the exact same tactic as Celestia, but it was way more simple than actual caring or getting to know each individual, especially now that they had a big city under their control, and more to follow after today. Twilight didn’t really want the throne, nor the fame, it could all be broken down to a mere hunger for revenge. The Nightmare, Discord and even Luna pressed her to take the throne with them though, sometime that would surely cause problems in the future. The alicorn wanted to have a diarchy together with her, Discord wanted to be her ‘Minister of Chaos’ or something crazy like that, and Twilight wasn’t too sure about the mysterious Nightmare’s plans.

Half an hour later, after her daily routine which was mandatory for her, she waited near the town hall for her allies, or friends, depended on the mood she was currently in. The lavender mare would not hesitate to test their loyalty to her, and after Luna contacted her via the mind link, Twilight was all too happy to let her ‘friend’ slay a few guards. Pinkie and Rarity were already waiting with her, and since they shared her boutique it was probably due to the energetic pink mare that they were already up.

Pinkie bounced around the two mares in a circle pattern, giggling every so often or even telling jokes to pass the time until everypony was up and ready, “Oh this is so exciting! We get to tell everyone the truth and throw a big party at the end!”

The lavender mare sighed, slowly shaking her head, “Sounds like a plan, Pinkie, but I don’t think we have—”

Suddenly the pink mare was mere centimeters away from her face, staring into the rebel leader’s eyes with an unforgiving gaze, “There is always time for a party, always.”

“Y-yes… of course, would you mind getting out of my face, Pinkie?” Then the pink mare was already continuing her joyous bouncing as if nothing ever happened… Twilight swore that she was a disguised unicorn...

Ten minutes later Rainbow Dash and Silver joined them. They had been talking about his wingblades, and if it would be possible to get a pair for the bold mare. She didn’t want to stay at the sidelines anymore, and that meant the corruptive magic completely broke her inner will. Before this the two of them only talked briefly, but now they noticed some shared interests. Both were glad to take any challenge, loved races and didn’t fear any enemy. It was good to see her ‘team’ getting along so well. Silver practically emanated a burning desire to help his queen, now more than ever since she saved him from misery yet again. Not many of her children survived, but Luna already had plans to spread her blessing under the very best of the population. The thestrals would rise again, bringing their superior power down on the neck of her sister’s army.

Another short wait later Blaze and Silent arrived. The yellow mare looked terrible, dull coat, bags under her eyes and frazzled mane. Of course Twilight knew about what happened last night, Luna was very strict when it came to treacherous behaviour, Morning’s punishment would be so delightful. Killing her own former allies, perfect cruelty. Luna was right behind them, a confident expression on her face. Today was no time for hesitation, think fast, act faster and kill your enemy before they can kill you. Basic rules of leading a war, the Lunar Goddess knew that, Twilight new that, and Celestia knew that as well. Until now the Sun Princess had hesitated, her confusing feelings for Twilight made her blind.

Every higher ranking leader of the rebellion was now present, this day would be remembered for a very long time. Twilight looked around, seeing determined faces with just a few exceptions. Silver Night rarely showed any emotions other than complete devotion for their cause, so his neutral expression was not unexpected, Silent Flare, who wasn’t too happy that he didn’t get chosen as Twilight’s fourth member, the mysterious stallion with connections to a Captain of Celestia’s Army was as excited to fight as ever. The lavender mare didn’t doubt his loyalty though, everyone present had been observed the whole time, using bat ponies or the crystal gem they all had on their chest. Lastly, her lovely personal plaything, Morning Blaze, she would break her soon enough, the Nightmare urged Twilight to corrupt her with darkness magic, but she would do it on her own, much more efficient, and way more cruel. It worked very well with her other ‘plaything’, Rainbow was undoubtedly loyal now, the lavender mare wondered if it was physically possible for her to even think about leaving. Twilight abandoned feeling guilt about these thoughts surprisingly quickly, her original plans had been thrown out of the window anyway, This was like the first Chaos war, but now not even Discord saw something like this coming, usually he played a bigger role in these kinds of conflicts. Chaos is chaos, so even a literal God of Chaos could play along for his own amusement.

Twilight began to speak, immediately causing silence in between her other leaders, “First I’d like to thank you all for coming so… early, according to Luna. Anyways, as you all know, today we will start our Operation Eclipse.” That caused a few to tilt their heads in confusion, that name was definitely new. “Good, I was checking if all of you were paying attention because this mission is of great importance. If we succeed three major cities plus the heart of Equestria’s military research facilities will be under our control. A short summary to make sure everything is going as smoothly as possible. Silver, Silent, Rainbow and Pinkie will team up with Luna and go straight to the heart of Manehattan which is already under our control. From there you’ll split up, take about two hundred of the civilians and Capone’s mercenaries with you, and invade Baltimare or Fillydelphia. Kill all guards or police forces you may encounter, including higher ranking Captains or Generals, but don’t cause unnecessary casualties, we need them to join us, not rot in a dead city. Simultaneously a little team, consisting of Rarity, me, and Morning Blaze will use that distraction and shock over this sudden change of pace to annihilate opposing forces in Stalliongrad, reinforce the city, and open a gateway. After that we’ll let our rebels enter to keep us supplied with weapons. These missions are an all or nothing attempt. Either we succeed, or die. There is no option for retreat. Any objections?”

She waited for a few seconds, especially focusing her gaze on her former mentor, who frantically looked around to find just about anything she could use to get out of this Nightmare. Unfortunately the yellow mare didn’t even find the courage, nor the strength to speak up, just slowly shook her head, accepting her inevitable end. Twilight smiled victoriously, “Very well. I wish all of you good luck, and a good hunt. For a future without tyranny!”

After almost two hours of waiting, and a constantly panicking Applebloom that paced around and exclaimed ‘I told ya it was a bad idea!’ every now and then the princess was finally ready for them. The three fillies had no idea what would happen now, nor what their punishment would be. Maybe Celestia would even help them, it didn’t sound so crazy, since she cares about her subjects. The war that was going on around them left them completely blind to the outside world, it was frustrating, but what should they do?

The two guards that caught them opened the large gates of the throne room, or rather the Center of Command now. All kinds of maps, documents, little figures that resembled ponies and much more of that laid scattered around the room. In the middle of it all, Celestia, Monarch of the Sun, Tactical Genius and the literal manifestation of Harmony in this land. Everything was starting to crack, ponies were in panic, or just angry at everything, easy targets for the rebel’s manipulation. Time was ticking for her, but for now she had to calm three also very frustrated young ponies. Nothing could be heard in the giant room, not one rattle of two armor plates clattering against each other from the guards, nor the sound of simple breathing. Just the combined, tiny hoofsteps of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle who were almost shivering while walking towards their omniscient ruler.

Princess Celestia sighed quietly, she’d have to be very careful, otherwise she could scare these fillies out of their minds. They were just as innocent… as her little Twilight used to be, “I have received reports that three, little fillies tried to leave Canterlot using a cardboard box and blatant lies in front of a commanding officer, all of that despite the clear rules against it.” Her gaze softened a bit, this was unnecessary, but she just had to gather as much information as she could. “While I do appreciate creativity in my subjects, I must know the reason that led you to believe that leaving Canterlot was the best course of action.”

They exchanged glances, not willing to speak up, finally Scootaloo nudged Sweetie forwards, signalling her to start. The small unicorn squeaked, but finally spoke up, “W-we wanted to… t-travel towards Ponyville, y-your Highness. P-please don’t banish us!”

Her inner voice gasped, just what did these little fillies think about her? What in the world could’ve given them the idea that she would banish everyone that did something as trivial as that? Ponyville… why would they… Her eyes widened for a second, then she remembered Morning Blaze’s reports, the ponies that joined… her, or vanished… some of them had little siblings, “Why do you want to return? It is not very safe around there for now. The evacuation had been a little… unorthodox, but necessary to ensure the highest possible amount of safety for my subjects.”

“We wanted to save our sisters!” Applebloom blurted out, immediately covering her mouth afterwards. Right… nopony should know about their plan, screw it. She sighed and began anew. “Mah name is Applebloom, this here is Sweetie Belle, and that fluttering pegasus over there is Scootaloo. Our sisters are Applejack, Rarity and well, kind of Rainbow Dash.”

“Almost, she’s almost my sister,” Scootaloo said, stopping to buzz nervously with her wings. She hadn’t been able to fly with them yet, they were just a little too small, but maybe one day she’d soar in the skies with her idol and hero.

Celestia mentally kicked herself again, of course it had to be them! One of them was in exile, doing who knows what, and the other two were already in the grasp of… Twilight’s or the Nightmare’s corruptive magic. There was no way they would return, or even enter the city. It was unlikely that Twilight would kill innocent foals, but letting them leave again was a whole other story, “I… see. It seems like you three have been through quite a lot, but… I cannot let you venture out towards Ponyville all on your own. I… I promise that your sisters will be fine, and happy to see you again, once all of this is over.”

Now she had to catch all of them alive, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror. Her train of thought was interrupted by Applebloom speaking up again, she didn’t sound very satisfied with those answers so far, “What exactly do ya mean with ‘all of this’. Ah’m sorry if this sounds rude, but nopony told us anythin’ so far! The adults are always so nervous, but won’t tell us just what is goin’ on around here.” The other two just nodded,

“Sometimes… secrets are secrets for a reason, young ones. I know how frustrating this must be, but something is very wrong with this world right now. We are all trying to bear this burden alone, so that our future, all of you, don’t have to. Believe me, your parents just want the best and only want to protect you. Return to them now, and please, don’t try to leave again until it’s over,” Celestia replied, genuine emotion apparent in her voice. Of course this was hard for her, seeing families being torn apart by her own weakness, and it all started because she could not just speak honestly with the pony she cared so much about...