You never got used to funerals being an immortal, and that suited Celestia just fine. She'd always sworn that if she ever got used to going to them, she would abdicate right there and then, because she was no longer fit to call herself a pony, let alone a ruler. As soon as you got used to funerals, and ponies dying, you could soon find yourself getting used to far worse things.

Still, even she could say there were varying degrees to funerals, and sadly Celestia could ironically call herself a connoisseur if she really felt like it. Some, where the deceased had lived to a jolly old age and had lived a fulfilling life, could be considered nice in their way. The pony had reached the end of their life, and while it was sad they were gone, it was somehow okay because they were old, and that was how the world worked. For the vast majority of ponies at least.

Others were considerably less nice, where the pony in question had their life tragically cut short by the great many dangers that exist in the world. Those funerals were always the hardest to bear, but even so, ponies always tried to make something nice about them, as much for their own sakes than for the deceased. Celestia thought this was because ponies, so often faced with their own mortality, were trying to avoid thinking about it. She also knew that she was in no position to really know, and could be dead wrong, no pun intended.

Still, she'd tried to make a little effort for Raven Quill's funeral, and had forbidden it from raining on the day. Raven had never liked the rain, and Celestia thought it was the least she could do to arrange something so simple. Truthfully though, she'd had to arrange most of it. Raven didn't have much in the way of family, and if only they had turned up, there'd only have been half a dozen ponies present at most. What Raven lacked in family though, she more than made up with in friends, and a large number of the castle staff, with or without Royal permission, had attended to say their goodbyes.

Rites were said, tears were shed, goodbyes whispered through raw voices, and all that was left was to move on with lives that little bit emptier than they were before. Slowly ponies trickled away until only two remained, save for some Royal Guards stood a discrete distance away as Celestia was finally allowed to remove her mask of Royal stoicism, and let her tears fall down the fresh pink skin of her healing cheeks.

Luna wasn't the best at comforting ponies like this, despite all her years of dreamwalking experience. Usually it was children she worked with, so right now, with a mare considerably past her childhood, she felt useless as she held her sobbing sister, which was also made awkward by the size difference.

"She didn't deserve this Luna. None of them did."

"I agree sister, but if only it were truly that simple."

"Please don't Luna, I'm not in the mood."

"Excuse me?"

Celestia managed a weak and tiny smile to give to her sister, "I know you don't like doing this, and every time you do you end up going all philosophical on me."

"Okay, fine," Luna huffed, "but you didn't have to say it like I slapped you and told you to put on your big pony shoes."

"Sorry Luna, I just... I don't know. I've been to the funerals of twenty four of my aides over the centuries, but this is only the second one in a millennia to have died in tragic circumstances. I really don't know how to feel about it."

"Beg pardon my morbid curiosity, but what happened to the first aide to pass on under such dire circumstances?"

"Tripped down the stairs," Celestia said sadly.

"That hardly seems like it should kill somepony."

"The stairs down the east tower, before we put the guard wall in."

"You mean one of the towers with the staircase going down on the outside?"

"That's right."

"Ah." There was a long sullen silence as both of them contemplated such an event. "I've always wondered about that foolish design."

"Luna, please!"

"Sorry, sorry." Luna opted to say nothing more, but kept holding her sister as time moved on. And more time. And more again. Luna was beginning to worry that she was actually heartless in not feeling too much about all this. Raven had been Celestia's assistant, and not her own, so their own relationship had consisted of little more than a friendly greeting in passing. It was only natural that Celestia be more upset, but it did make Luna wonder if she was herself upset enough.

Eventually Celestia stood up straighter and pulled herself out of Luna's grip. "The world doesn't wait for a grieving heart," she said, moving up to the very edge of Raven's grave until the very tips of front hooves were hanging over the edge. "Goodbye Raven. Thank you for everything."

Luna stood back and let Celestia pass her, then turned to follow her as they began the long walk back to the castle, a tradition they had always performed after funerals, where a gentle walk and some introspection was more welcome than getting carted away in some carriage. Admittedly, this was the first time Luna had done it since her return, but even as Nightmare Moon she liked to think she would at least have still have done this.

"I get the feeling that we'll be doing this a lot more soon enough," Celestia said in an almost dangerously conversational tone of voice. Wisely, or unwisely, Luna decided to say nothing. It's not like she could dispute it anyway. "Eventually anyway. If Faust could put off attacking us forever, I wouldn't complain."

"We have reason enough to believe she won't put it off much longer," Luna said, keeping her voice down as to not be overheard. "Now that she's regained her magic, it's only a matter of time."

"Why do it like she is though? She has power enough to sweep into Canterlot and defeat us, so why force ours ponies, and hers, to fight for every inch of a country they cannot keep?"

"Because she doesn't just want to defeat us, she wants to defeat Equestria as well." Luna smiled at a pony that was watching them pass, "Perhaps it would be best to hold off such conversations until we are away from the public's ears."

"Very well."

Celestia sat upon her throne and held her crown in hooves, studying each burn, scar, and pockmark the explosion that killed Raven had given it, much like herself. Apart from the lack of hair in some places, she was more or less healed. Her right wing did still feel weak after having been mangled in the attack, and she wasn't about to go flying until that feeling passed, but save from that, and her poor vision in her right eye, she was as right as she ever was. Even the charred patches on her horn had flaked off to be replaced by fresh white keratin. Another week and it would be like she was never injured in the first place.

Celestia lit her horn with a golden hue, and swept her magic across the surface of her crown, removing every mark marring its surface until it, like herself, was physically perfect again. She was sure there was something symbolic in that, but she wasn't in the mood to go searching for it. She wasn't convinced it'd be a positive symbol anyway.

Like her crown, her peytral and shoes were mended, and one by one she donned them, finishing by lowering her crown upon her head. Once again she was Princess Celestia, whatever that truly meant. If anything it meant she was now ready to be thrown back into the bear pit of politics that passed for a good day as one of the rulers of Equestria.

"So you weren't tempted to leave your effects damaged?" Luna asked, sitting nearby as Celestia readied herself.

"I'd only end up with a thousand offers to make a new crown for me. The reasons as to why I left it damaged wouldn't mean anything to anypony really, at least in the long run. Best to simply fix it and get on with things, especially after what happened with the last attack in Mareitania."

Luna winced, and wanted to defend herself, even though she knew what Celestia had said hadn't been an attack on her specifically. "The addition of griffon mercenaries has made things unpredictable to be sure. Ambassador Deetra is yet to provide a reason as to why they were there."

"Isn't that rather irrelevant to the fact that they are there?"

"Not really. Knowing why they are there may give us an unexpected lever to remove them from there. At the very least it might point us at an hitherto unknown enemy."

"The Bloodfeathers have never been known to break a contract Luna. Finding out how and why they are there isn't likely to change anything."

"Then it will at least sate my curiosity!" Luna snapped angrily. "We're not the ones spending resources trying to find this out, so there is absolutely no harm in finding out!"

Celestia mentally took a step back surprised at both herself and Luna. She knew that finding out was beneficial, so why say all that? Celestia rubbed a hoof down her face, lingering for a moment over her right eye, the vision of which was still a little fuzzy. "Sorry Luna."

"It's fine, really. If it helps, you aren't wrong in that our situation isn't likely to be greatly improved by knowing, especially if they won't break a contract. Hopefully the griffons might find a solution even if we can not."

"Perhaps we-" Celestia almost bit her tongue as the doors to the throne room slammed open, giving rapid entry to a Royal Guard who removed his helmet and bowed deeply in their presence.

"My apologies your Highnesses, but I have an urgent message from Vanhoover."

"You may speak," Celestia said evenly, while inside she felt her stomach sink. She shared a quick look with Luna, who appeared to have come to the same conclusion as herself.

"Activity has been spotted at the border to Mareitania, two dozen steam tanks and thousands of troops."

Luna nodded, trying to maintain an air of confidence. "How long ago were they spotted?"

"Around four hours ago your Highness."

"Then at the speed those tanks travel, it'll still be hours until they reach our first line of defence. Thank you for the report. Send a messenger to the Wonderbolts' headquarters informing Captain Spitfire that I want all her available flyers in Vanhoover as soon as possible. You are dismissed."

The guard saluted and ran out to complete Luna's order, giving Luna a chance to sink back into her own seat and groan. "It seems the time has come sister. At least it wasn't too much to think that Faust wouldn't do something unpredictable."

"I wouldn't assume anything yet Luna."

"Indeed." Luna stood and stretched, then removed her crown, placing it upon her throne, followed by the rest of her own regalia. She wouldn't be needing it for a while. "Keep the home fires burning Celestia."

"And you stay safe."

If there was any silver lining in this, it was that the land around the north of the Luna bay that connected Equestria with Mareitania wasn't very wide. That made it difficult for the Mareitanians to truly attack the Bulwark en masse. If Luna were to guess, they intended to bombard the defences from a distance, then march over the remains.

There was one thing annoying her though, and that was the numbers being deployed here. While the number of tanks seemed to fall within the estimates she was provided, the number of troops was lacking, for both ponies and griffons. If their agents in Mareitania were right, there should have been twenty thousand soldiers in the Mareitanian army, and a couple thousand griffons, if not more. So far Luna could only could see maybe five thousand ponies, and barely five hundred griffons. Unless they were coming later, something was definitely up, and needed preparing for.

Luna lowered her binoculars, maintaining a calm demeanour for the ponies around her. As always it was easier said than done. "Send a messenger to General Armour at Camp Freedom asking him to prepare as many as he can of his more experienced ponies, including his Hard Corps, just in case. Hopefully it shouldn't be necessary."

"Of course Your Highness," General Stormguard, the now former Captain of the Royal Guard said, nodding at a pony to carry out the order. "Is there anything else?"

"The countermeasure for their tanks," Luna said bluntly. "Is it ready?"

Stormguard pulled a face behind Luna's back, "As much of it as there is, yes." He narrowly avoided cringing as Luna turned to face him.

"And what, precisely, does that mean?"

"Production of the dragonfire bombs is long and difficult. I'm afraid that the numbers produced have fallen far short of what we need."

"But we took steps to increase their production."

"That doesn't stop the bombs from being hard to produce."

"How many?"

"Your Highness, I-"

"How many?"

Stormguard swallowed the lump in his throat, "Four."

"Four," Luna repeated, totally deadpan.

"Yes, four."

Ignoring the temptation to completely destroy the binoculars in her grip, Luna calmly turned back to where she could see the enemy forces that were slowly inching their way towards them. "While I am disappointed that we have so few, we shall simply have to do what we can. Have the mines been laid?"

"Yes your Highness."

"And the explosives placed to collapse the land into the ocean?"

"That was deemed to be impossible Princess. The ground is simply too hard to collapse. Instead we have placed the explosives at three intermittent locations to detonate as the enemy advances."

"Very well, that shall have to do. At the very least we should make them nervous about getting here." Luna lowered her binoculars again and placed them on the table. By her estimates the tanks would be in range in a couple of hours, but she hoped to make it much longer than that.

"Wait until most of them are past the first trap before blowing it, then do similar with the others. Between that and the landmines we should hurt them quite a bit."

"And the dragonfire bombs Princess?"

Luna twitched an ear and smiled grimly as a bang echoed along the ridge from where the Mareitanians found their first landmine. "Leave those to me."

The griffons were quick to deliver their vengeance after the land forces started finding more and more landmines. As a result they'd slowed their approach as they tried to locate the mines before they could be set off. Unfortunate for the defenders, as that wasn't the intended effect of landmines, but well within predictions, just as the griffon's retaliatory attack was, ineffective as it was with Luna conjuring a shield over the defenders.

"It seems the mines have little effect on their tanks," Stormguard observed as the Mareitanians drew ever closer. "It seems they're simply too tough to take more than a little superficial damage."

"Unsurprising," Luna said back calmly, her horn blazing with power. "Their designer had plenty of time to correct their flaws in the last few months. It seems she thought of more than even I would have to reinforce their underneath to such a degree. I doubt the tanks would survive the entire journey under that much duress though, and it would seem the Mareitanians agree since they're making efforts to dig the mines up first."

"And if they discover the traps?"

"Then we shall simply have to deal with them arriving a bit sooner than anticipated. If we keep them from destroying the wall, and fend off their griffons, we should be able to hold them for weeks."

"And if Faust should turn up?"

Luna didn't answer immediately, as there was no good answer she could give. "Then we should pray for mercy for all our souls," she said in a low mumble, not caring whether the General heard her or not.

The large wooden platform Luna and Stormguard were using to observe events from behind the wall rumbled beneath their hooves as a heavy-set earth pony galloped up the stairs, withdrew his helmet, and saluted both of them. "Captain Greywhisker reports that your Night Guard and the Wonderbolts are in position in high altitude, ready to attack the griffons on your command."

"Very good," Luna purred. "Tell him to hold his position for now, until the griffons are distracted. When the third large explosion goes off, that's when they should attack."

The soldier saluted again and ran off to deliver the instructions, again leaving Luna alone with Stormguard. "Are two thirds of their forces past the first trap yet?"

"Uh..." Stormguard picked up his binoculars in his wings and held them up to his face, "Almost. Good job they were already past it before they started looking for mines."

"Excellent. Prepare to detonate it once we've given enough time for Captain Greywhisker to receive the message."

Luna closed her eyes and breathed deeply as the General relayed the order. She was wondering whether she should be glad things were going as well as they were, but the number of enemy soldiers bothered her. Why commit all your tanks to a single battle, but not all your soldiers? Not that Luna would herself either, but with only one avenue of attack available, it didn't seem worth holding them back. Of course there was the possibility that they had more than one avenue of attack, and not all were suitable for tanks, but Luna couldn't for the life of her think where else they could attack without their fleet. The idea left her more than worried, and she had enough to worry about in front of her as it was.

Quickly making an excuse to Stormguard, Luna dropped off the platform, spreading her wings to glide down to the ground. She maintained the shield as she trotted through the assembled soldiery, nodding and smiling reassuringly at ponies as she made her way to where the munitions were kept, which was where she was hoping to find a little reassurance for herself.

A quick enquiry found her being carefully presented with a well padded case which she opened with the utmost caution. Inside it were four smaller containers, each one individually packed to protect their precious cargo. Luna cracked one of them opened, releasing a dim orange glow that shifted and moved as the contents of the enchanted crystal orb swirled and writhed. She picked it up and held it before her, staring at the mesmerizing dance of light the orb contained.

"Liquid dragonfire," she breathed, unable to keep the thought in her head. Truthfully the substance had never so much as seen a dragon, but the effect it had was almost the same as how actual dragonfire worked. It was a pity that there was so little of it, especially when Luna intended to keep one of them for a rainy day.

"Has a suitable method been found to fire these?" Luna asked the nervous looking crystal pony mare that ran the munitions store. She already knew the answer, but thought it best to ask so what she did next seemed less suspect.

"No your Highness. Most methods risk breaking the orbs on firing, which is obviously not ideal."

Luna nodded vaguely, "Then perhaps it is best that I keep them with me to use when I see fit." She placed the orb held aloft in her magic back in its protective case, and lifted the case instead. Hopefully now Luna would be prepared in case that rainy day did happen to come.

Rainbow twitched her ears irritably as the second in a series of powerful explosions set off, her helmet interfering with her ability to move them. It was only a short distraction though, because as soon as the third large explosion went off, there would be little time to think about such things.

Shielding her eyes, Rainbow squinted into the distance, trying to make out what was happening far below. It didn't take much to guess. Explosions along the ridge had decimated portions of the Mareitanians advance, although they were still coming. The Equestrian forces were still holed up due to the griffons, but they seemed less certain all the time as the explosions went off. The only real problem were the tanks, which didn't seem to be perturbed by anything much.

At least not until the third explosion went off, cutting across the rear of the column of tanks, taking out a few in one go. Rainbow would've cheered, but that was also the signal to attack. Staying in formation, Rainbow followed the Night Guard's lead as they dived down towards the silvery dome of Luna's shield, and the griffons that swarmed it.

As soon as they broke through the cloud cover, all of them drew their weapons. That was the only noise to be heard though, save for the sound of the wind whistling in their ears. The griffons seemed to be none the wiser to the Equestrians approach until they were almost upon them, and by then it was far too late as the leading ponies of the Night Guard cut into them, killing a couple dozen of the mercenaries before they even had a chance to react.

React they did though, and things quickly changed as the griffons bellowed their war cries and flew into the fray. Rainbow rolled out of formation with the rest of her squadron, and picked up the pace, hoping to strike the griffons at speed while their attention was held by the tougher thestrals. It was the only real tactic the Wonderbolts had with their reduced numbers, and hopefully it worked better than their last attempt at fighting griffons.

Rainbow's squadron looped around to the left and split up further into their wings of three as they headed back into the fray. Rainbow kept her blades close to her sides, so as to not accidentally hit any friendlies. There was a distinct possibility of that though, as the fight they were turning back to join was already a total clusterfuck of pegasi, thestrals, and griffons, duking it out in a battle to both kill and survive. Rainbow had no intention of letting the griffons do either.

Rainbow angled down and to the right as a trio of Night Guards chased after a heavily wounded griffon, using the opening they made to slip into the fight. Absolute chaos whirled around them as they dodged and weaved through the mass of struggling bodies. A duo of griffons came towards them, and Rainbow dipped and rolled, striking out with a blade, but only managed to cut a gouge into the foremost griffons chest armour before they'd passed over.

"This isn't going to work," Rainbow growled. The fight was simply too compact to manoeuvre and attack in at the speeds they were using. They were simply going to have to get down and dirty, a prospect that didn't exactly thrill Rainbow.

Rainbow led her wing back to the edge of the fight, skipping around the edge of it to pick their targets rather than simply rush back and forward through the battle without really doing anything besides get in the way. No griffons had decided to make them a target yet, giving them an opportunity to hopefully get some decent kicks in.

A griffon hen armed with a spear was hanging around the edges of the fight, and must have had the same idea as Rainbow as she tried to pick off targets rather than throw herself into the fight. Rainbow tried to lead her wing around in a loop that would bring them in behind the hen, but as the griffon followed a group of passing thestrals she spotted Rainbow as she flew in, and raised her spear to block the attack. Rainbow barrelled straight into the griffon, locking her blades against the shaft of spear, preventing the griffon from using it as Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane came around and attacked from the sides.

Rainbow pushed her enchanted blades against the spear as the griffon fell, cutting the weapon into two before letting it fall after its owner onto the shield below. Her legs ached from the pressure that entire few seconds had put on them, but it was nothing to worry about, not when there were plenty more targets around them.

Their attack must have drawn some attention though as the screech of a griffon drew their eyes up towards another griffon that was coming down towards them, a short sword in each claw. Rainbow was about to shout to scatter when a trio of Wonderbolts shot out of the blue and slammed into the griffon blades first.

"Nice of you to join us Lightning," Rainbow joked, telling who their saviours were more by the marks on their helmets and the colour of their tails than any recognisable features of the ponies themselves.

"Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" Lightning said back. "A pegasus that isn't moving, is a dead pegasus."

"We're not dead yet," Rainbow laughed, following Lightning into a climb that put them above most of the fight. The laugh came out hollow even to her ears though, and she felt a little sick at herself for even being able to laugh in that situation.

"Keep that up and you will be. Griffons at five o' clock." Rainbow looked back and to her right to where Lightning had said, seeing a small group of griffons break loose of the fight. She nodded to Lightning and pushed herself into a flip that carried them almost back the way they'd come, and back towards the griffons that had seen them coming.

Rainbow led her wing-mates to the right as Lightning took hers left, and held her blades out ready to strike. She rolled at the last moment, skipping under the griffon's weapon and landing a blow on its hindquarters that distracted it enough for Cloud Chaser to slash the griffon across the neck with a wound that would kill the griffon soon enough. Thunderlane followed up by viciously impaling another griffon that got distracted by its fellow's shout of pain.

A third griffon fell from Lightning's attack, and the remainder scattered, heading back towards the Mareitanians. A different cry to the usual one sounded amongst the griffons, leading to more and more of them to break away from the fight, fleeing towards the relative safety of their allies as the battle ended after mere minutes. Rainbow started to pursue them when the shouted orders to stand down reached her ears.

"But they're vulnerable!" Rainbow shouted back at whoever was bellowing the order. She still obeyed though, and fell back in besides Lightning, Sky Stinger and Vapour as they regrouped. "I can't believe they told us to not go after them."

Lightning shrugged, "I imagine they'll be back soon enough. We can have another go then."

"I guess. Still though, I think that went better than last time. I guess having the element of surprise really does help."

"Maybe, but I also think these griffons are sloppy as hell. I'm hoping not, but they might start learning a thing or two about teamwork if we keep this up."

Luna nodded with satisfaction as the griffons ceased crowding the skies above them and retreated back to their own lines. Clearly the practice in aerial combat their forces had been doing was getting put to good use. Now they were gone she could lower her shield and focus her energy onto other things. Such as catching the bodies that had ended up resting on the shields as they fell.

"Oops," Luna muttered as a griffon plummeted to the ground, not even really trying all that hard to catch it. Other ponies were a little less discerning than Luna was feeling, catching as many as they could since a rain of dead griffons wasn't exactly on the cards for the day. Luna couldn't blame them.

All in all things were going remarkably well, which to Luna meant that it was time for something to go wrong. The Mareitanians advance had been ruined, the griffons had taken serious losses in their arrogance, and the wall hadn't taken so much as a scratch. Things were going almost too well which was making Luna nervous. Either they were missing something, or the Mareitanians really were caught out by the Equestrians preparations.

"What are your orders now Princess?" Stormguard asked, a faint smile on his face, born more out of relief that things had gone as they did than out of any actual happiness.

"Now? Now I give them a reason to consider turning around and going home, where hopefully they can fully think about whether they truly wish to do this or not."

"And how do you intend to do that?"

Luna smiled crookedly and opened the case containing the dragonfire bombs, lifting one up to hold between them. "By seeing if these are truly as effective as advertised." She lifted another two of the glowing orbs up to join it. "Hold the fort while I'm gone, although I suspect I shall not be gone long."

"Are you not taking all the bombs with you?"

"Not this time. I'm saving the last one just in case I need it."

"Just in case of what?" General Stormguard asked slowly.

"Believe me, you'll know her when you see her," Luna replied before teleporting away into the air and flying towards the front of the Mareitanians lines. The three bombs circled around around her, ready to be used, but first she wanted to have a better look at what was happening.

On observation it appeared as though the Mareitanians were retreating, but after the third explosive trap had rendered a fair number of their tanks at the rear of the column inoperable, that retreat was proving difficult. Their solution seemed to be to use some of the working tanks to shove the wreckage of the destroyed ones into the ocean, clearing a way to escape through. If Luna were in charge she'd press the advance, but if Luna was in charge she'd be relieved to not be up against herself.

Beyond the tanks, the infantry seemed to be as numerous as ever, but that was largely down to the eye not being able to really tell the difference between five thousand and four thousand, especially when they stretched back into the distance like they did. If was also ambitious to think that they'd taken a thousand ponies out of the fight, when the actual number was in reality probably less than half of that.

The simple answer was that they still had the numbers to press on, but weren't, and that made Luna nervous. She didn't know for sure who was in charge of the Mareitanians here, but she suspected it was likely General Snowbright, and from what she had learnt of him through the Mareitanian civil war was that he was not one to be overly cautious, not without a good reason. It was probably too much to hope that what had happened so far had scared him.

Luna tried to put it out of her mind, putting her concerns down to pure pessimism. All she could really do was react to the situation, and right now she was in a position to slow the Mareitanians down even further.

Luna swooped down from the sky, heading directly towards the front of the tank column, which consisted of the tanks that had found most of the landmines if the dents and blast marks were any indication. She lined the dragonfire bombs up and released them as she pulled up, letting each one fall towards a different tank.

The effect was drastic, and the small tinkle of shattering crystals was a deceptive start to what felt like the birth of a miniature sun. Even at the speed Luna was moving away from the developing inferno, she could feel her tail and feathers singeing. She turned back towards the wall, but stopped, because despite the danger, she had to see what was happening.

For all the heat being released, the size of the flames were actually very small, albeit bright, and only coated a small part of each tank. It was more than enough though, as the heat produced by the volatile liquid was enough to cut through steel, and more than enough to melt through the tanks' thick shells.

Luna laid her ears flat as screams from the tanks' occupants reached her. They didn't last very long, not as the bodies of the tanks first glowed red, then white, as the dragonfire burned through it. Rivulets of metal ran down from the edges of the inferno, and slowly the tanks drooped and bent out of shape, no longer able to support their own weight as their support structure was made soft by the heat.

Luna now had an appreciation as to why the bombs were so hard to make.

As ferocious as the liquid dragonfire was, it soon burned itself out, and as the flames died down all around could see the gutted and half melted remains of the three tanks as they still glowed with heat. Behind them, Luna could see plenty of tank crews make a hasty exit out of their own vehicles, not wanting the same to happen to them. That, or they'd been close enough to become uncomfortably warm from the dragonfire.

"Bugger me," Luna said slowly, totally stunned by what had happened. "We are going to have to acquire us some more of those," she said as she took to the air and flew back to her viewing platform.

"Did they work as intended?" Stormguard enquired as Luna landed on the platform next to him.

"You mean you couldn't tell from here?"

"Indeed I could your Highness, but I wasn't really sure if that's what they were meant to do."

"They were meant to stop tanks," Luna said, lifting her binoculars up to her eyes to look again at the tanks. They were still glowing. "I daresay they were more than adequate at doing so."

"So now we wait?"

"Indeed. Hopefully the Mareitanians don't have a surprise as good as ours was. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ponies I wish to talk to while we wait for their next move."

Food was never just food. Sometimes it was a comfort, or an experience. Sometimes it was a talking point, or a burden when you're busy. Sometimes, like now, it was a distraction, because Rainbow wanted desperately to not think about how she managed to genuinely laugh at her own mortality in the heat of battle. Some things were just too messed up to want to think about.

"How many griffons do you think there are?" Lightning asked, providing another welcome distraction as they sat around the mess area, quickly shovelling a simple meal into their bodies before A and C squadron had their turn. "I'm only asking because that was less than there were in Stalliongrad."

"Less is good, right?" Sky Stinger said, looking to the others for confirmation. "Right?"

"This time, sure," said Thunderlane. "When you really think about it though, it doesn't add up. Considering you have us, the Night Guard, and the Air Corps when it's finally ready, why would a few thousand griffons sign up to fight against those kinds of odds? That's suicide, unless there are a lot more of them than we think there are."

Lightning almost choked on her mouthful as she thought that one over. "But that would mean there are literally thousands of griffons fighting for Mareitania! No way could there be that many!"

Cloud Chaser shrugged at Lightning, "There are plenty of griffons that don't like Equestria for some reason or another. I imagine there are plenty that would sign up just to fight us."

"But w-what have we done to them?" Vapor asked, her voice still a little shaky after the battle.

"Nothing," said Cloud. "I imagine they just hate us because their parents told them to hate us, and their parents hated us because their parents told them to hate us, and so on and so forth. Racism is learnt, not inherited."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Cloud Chaser, "Says little miss 'it doesn't bother me to kill griffons because griffons aren't ponies.'"

"Meh," Cloud said with a shrug. "I'd be more upset, but every griffon I meet these days seems to want to kill me for some reason. I don't actually have anything against griffons if that's what you're thinking."

"I'm not thinking anything," said Rainbow. "I just want to get some chow in me and get back in the air in case they come back."

"You seem keen," Sky Stinger said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Do you even get what's happening here Sky?" Rainbow asked brusquely. "Do you realise what this really means?"

"It can't mean that much since we held them off so easily. Why Rainbow, what do you think this all means?"

"That they're trying to invade us you idiot! This isn't some little test of our defences Sky, this is them coming to invade Equestria! Yes I'm 'keen' to stop them from doing that!" Rainbow lifted her bowl to her mouth and drained the remainder of its contents, then got up and placed it on a nearby table. "Really Sky, are you even paying attention to any of this?"

"Of course I am, but all I can see is a bunch of assholes over there that are too scared to keep attacking because we kicked their asses!"

"And how long do you think that'll last? How long before they work out we blew all our traps stopping them from getting this far? It's not like we can send ponies out there to set more, and we can't do anything to slow them down because of all the griffons. Once they clear those burnt out tanks out of the way, there is nothing stopping them from getting to the wall, and if they get through that, well... that's it, they're in Equestria."

"And that's not going to happen," Sky insisted.

"Hopefully not." All of them looked up to see Princess Luna had quietly walked up to them while they were talking. "No need for that," she said as they dropped into bows, "although I suppose you are technically meant to salute. I'm not sure about that." Luna smiled as the Wonderbolts sprang out of their bows and saluted her instead, a salute which she happily returned. "At ease, all of you."

"Is there something we can help you with?" Lightning asked as they retook their seats.

"Actually I came here hoping to speak with Spitfire," said Luna. "I wasn't intending to intrude on your conversation at all. I don't suppose you've seen Spitfire down here?"

"She's still in the air," Rainbow told Luna. "It'll be her squadron's turn to have a break once we get back up there."

Luna nodded, "Very well. If you could inform her that I'd like to see her when she lands, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course."

"Good. Other than that I feel I should say well done for chasing those griffons off. Clearly your practice is paying off."

"If you don't mind my asking Princess," Rainbow said a little nervously, "why aren't there that many griffons here? There were loads more in Stalliongrad."

Luna mulled over whether to answer the question, or just brush it off. It didn't take her long to realise that the two things were actually almost the same thing, because she didn't know why the Mareitanians were fielding all of their tanks, but not much else. "I wish I knew Rainbow. All we can do is prepare for the possibility that not all is as it seems here. Still, we can only deal with what we know about, and react to everything else." Knowing that answer was not what they were looking for, Luna saluted and left.

"Well that was helpful," Thunderlane muttered. "And strangely awkward."

"You can't exactly blame her for not knowing either," said Lightning. "If this was their big push into Equestria, they're not exactly pushing very hard."

"But where else would they attack?" Cloud chaser asked. "We burnt all their boats, and I doubt they've built more."

"Unless those griffons also have boats," said Rainbow. "Or airships. Ugh, that's a scary thought."

"I'm sure the Princess would have planned for that if they did," said Lightning. She pricked her ears as a shrill whistle sounded, and saw it came from Fire Streak, their squadron leader. "Guess that's our cue to get our butts back in the air."

All of them quickly finished what remained of their meals and took off towards where the other Wonderbolts and a large number of the Night Guard were patrolling the skies above the Bulwark. Rainbow lazily flew over towards Spitfire where she was having a quick conversation with Fire Streak. "Sorry to disturb you ma'am, but Princess Luna asked us to tell you she wants to talk to you when you land."

Spitfire sighed and nodded, "No rest for the wicked I guess. Alright, if the griffons come back, get together with the Night Guard and let them do the bulk of the fighting. If the tanks and that start moving towards us again, but no griffons show up, stay back and wait for orders." Spitfire tossed a quick salute at them, then descended to the ground, leaving them to start patrolling the sky.

Thankfully all seemed to be quiet. The Mareitanian forces had huddled up in the distance, and weren't showing any signs of changing that. The three half melted tanks were still smouldering with heat, blocking the way for the Mareitanians to advance further. There was no real way to tell what the Mareitanians were going to do. With any luck they might just give up.

"Well this is unexciting," Thunderlane moaned as they flew another lap over the Equestrian bulwark.

"Actually I'm totally fine with this," Cloud snickered. "Not almost dying in ridiculously fast paced fights, is better than almost dying in ridiculously fast paced fights."

"So we're just going to keep on flying back and forth until something happens? Sure, sure, sounds great. What if this lasts for a week or something though? Us flapping about up here for all that time?" Thunderlane shuddered at the thought, "No thanks."

"The Mareitanians would just be wasting their own time and resources doing that," said Rainbow, adding her own thoughts to the conversation. "They'll do something soon enough, I'm sure of it."

Thunderlane huffed loudly, "Define 'soon.' Is soon today? This week? Next week? When Rainbow? I wanna know!"

Rainbow slowed herself to playfully shove Thunderlane, "Quit being an ass. I'm just saying I doubt that the Mareitanians would take more than a few days to get moving again. In fact, I'm going to bet that they won't even make it to tomor-"

"Guys, shut up!" Cloud interrupting them suddenly. "I just saw something."

"Saw what?" Rainbow asked quickly, the interruption forgotten.

"A griffon just flew in," Cloud told them, only to get laughed at by Thunderlane.

"You saw a griffon. My word, how unusual."

"Shut up Thunderlane! I saw a griffon fly in from the north! Why would it do that, huh? Tell me that genius!"

"Maybe it got drunk and flew the wrong way," Thunderlane said dismissively.

"Or maybe it's worth mentioning to somepony," said Rainbow. "Good eyes Cloud."

Cloud beamed at Thunderlane, who rolled his eyes and scoffed. He didn't say anything else, and stayed quiet as what was seen was reported to Fire Streak, who moved on to report it to Spitfire, who had the final say on whether to report it further. That done, Rainbow returned to patrol.

"From the north?" Luna murmured to herself, pondering Spitfire's report. The only place to the north from there was the rather inhospitable frozen north. Unless of course it wasn't exactly to the north, in which case it was possible to say the griffon came from the direction of the Crystal Empire, but that also seemed unlikely. Unless...

"We have movement!" Stormguard shouted, shattering Luna's thoughts as she snatched up her own binoculars to see what he was looking at. All at once the Mareitanians tanks all started rumbling towards them, heading over the ground they'd already cleared of traps and landmines, totally without fear or hesitation as they slowly raced towards the Equestrian defences, the infantry right behind them, and the griffons flying above them.

"This must have been their plan all along," Luna whimpered as it struck her. Now they were really attacking, and after carefully clearing the mines, and setting off all the traps, the Equestrians suddenly had nothing to stop them with. "Arm the catapults! Prepare to fire!"

There was a crash as the tanks collided with the burnt out remains of the tanks that Luna had destroyed, roughly shoving them out of the way as the tanks continued on their path towards the Bulwark. At a signal from Luna the four catapults fired, their explosive payloads scoring hits on two of the tanks while the others struck the ground causing little damage. Not that it seemed to matter as the tanks that were hit carried on regardless, blackened and dented, but not deterred. Whoever was driving them had some serious guts.

Luna set up a shield as the tanks came into range to fire their own weapons, backed up by every unicorn capable of doing so. Other ponies took their positions, reloading the catapults, or firing their magic and ranged weapons at the Mareitanian soldiers not safely ensconced inside the tanks. The shield flashed as the first volley of explosives from the tanks crashed against it, and ponies were deafened by the explosions. The shield held though, although it was debatable how long it would against that kind of punishment.

The griffons swept ahead of the tanks, swooping down to pick ponies off while Luna was forced to shield against the tanks. The Night Guard and Wonderbolts were quick to grab their attention, viciously attacking the griffons to spare their fellows below, although plenty of them fired back against the griffons as well, some scoring hits, others putting the fliers on their side in as much danger as the griffons. They were soon ordered to stop firing and to let the fliers take care of the griffons.

Things were quickly spiralling out of control. The sudden aggression of the Mareitanians was totally unexpected, and without the traps and mines to slow them down, they were hitting as hard as they could. The catapults fired again, bombarding the tanks and soldiers, but now they were so close it really did seem far too little to try and even slow the Mareitanians, let alone stop them.

Luna growled in pain as the leading tanks pressed up against the shield. Stopping the bombs they were throwing was one thing, but to try and resist that much weight and pressure being placed on the shield was simply not possible. Unicorns around her were dropping to their knees as they tried to give their all to stop the shield from collapsing. It was a pointless effort, and after mere seconds the shield broke, allowing the tanks to reach the wall. It also allowed them to fire over them.
As soon as she had the mental wherewithal to do so, Luna erected another shield above the Bulwark to catch the bombs the tanks threw over the wall. The wall was pointless if the defenders behind it could be obliterated with such ease. To her shame, Luna suddenly found herself short of ideas on how to turn this around.

Rainbow couldn't believe what she was seeing. Within minutes the Mareitanians had not only reached the wall, but had put the defenders severely on the back hoof, desperately trying to hold back the attackers. Rainbow had soon found herself thrown back into the fight as the griffons attacked again, and now was fighting for her very life as the griffons took a far more reckless and vicious stance in their fight.

Rainbow dipped and rolled right, avoiding a wing of griffons that were coming right for her and her own wing, and she didn't even have a chance to try and attack them before they were gone. This time Rainbow didn't stop to complain about it, and instead focused on other griffons that were unaware of their presence. Leading with her rear hooves, Rainbow dropped onto the lead griffon, hitting him in the middle of his back and plunging his right blade through his neck and out the other side. The other griffons scattered before Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser could even try to attack.

"Rainbow!" Rainbow looked back as Thunderlane shouted her name, and saw him pointing upwards to where some of the Night Guard were getting swarmed, and were in need of help. Rainbow nodded and quickly led them upwards, dodging around both ponies and griffons to strike the griffons attacking the thestrals from below. Keeping her blades close to herself, Rainbow aimed herself close to the side of a griffon, timing it so she passed him as he raised his wing to flap. Just as she was going to pass him, she held her bladed out, not severing the wing, but removing enough feathers to make flight impossible. With the griffons Thunderlane and Cloud had attacked also taken out of the picture, the thestrals suddenly had an opening to escape the swarm of griffons around them. A gap that was made bigger as Rainbow led her wing back down for another go.

Given the opportunity, the thestrals pushed back against the griffons, and with their reduced numbers they were forced to fall back. Rainbow sighed with relief, and returned to the thestrals to ask if they were okay, and was surprised when she ran into the familiar face of the thestral Shadow Seeker.

"We're okay thanks," Shadow gasped between breaths as she wiped blood from a shallow cut on her neck.

"What were you doing to get surrounded like that?"

"Protecting her." Shadow pointed back at a pony that was flying in the middle of the thestrals. It was a crystal pegasus in the crystalline armour of the Empire's Imperial Guard. She was wounded, but it didn't seem too bad since she was still flying okay. "She has an important message for Luna, so we need to escort her there."

Rainbow nodded, "Then let's get moving before those griffons come back with friends." Rainbow and her wing joined the group of thestrals surrounding the crystal pegasus, and took a direct line towards Luna, smashing through the griffon forces to get there as soon as possible. They quickly pulled up and changed direction as another volley from the tanks crashed against the shield, filling the air with a short lived inferno that they did not want to get caught in. Instead they headed to the rear of the shield, and slipped under it to safety, allowing a few unicorns to deter the few griffons following them.

Rather than waste time walking, they flew above the heads of the defenders, while most of the thestrals peeled off and headed back into the fight. Rainbow didn't join them, slightly to her shame, but she wanted to know what was so important that this pegasus was willing to fly into a vicious dogfight just to deliver a message.

"Mistress!" Shadow shouted as they got close to Luna. "We've found a messenger coming from the Crystal Empire," she continued once she had Luna's attention. "She says it's important."

"It must be if it's worth risking herself like this. Speak guardsmare."

"The Crystal Empire is under attack!" the mare shouted. Now Rainbow wasn't fighting, she could see the wild and panicked look the mare had in her eye.

"What? How?"

"The came from the north, the Mareitanians I mean. Thousands of them! Princess Cadence has shielded the city, but without any forces to fight them off with, it's only a matter of time until they break through! Faust's with them!"

Luna froze, almost unable to process what she had just been told. The Mareitanians were attacking the Crystal Empire from the north? And had Faust with them no less? It didn't seem possible.

Luna kicked herself as she thought about how it would be possible. The crystal ponies of Caverndown had used a secret way to escape to Mareitania from the Crystal Empire during King Sombra's reign a thousand years ago. Nopony knew where the hidden way was anymore, but there was one pony who might; the alicorn Faust. They hadn't been surveying northern Mareitania for mining opportunities, they'd been searching for the tunnels!

Luna looked back out over the mass of ponies trying to break through the wall, and knew she couldn't leave, but she couldn't do nothing either. "Blast it! Stormguard, send a messenger to General Armour informing him of the Empire's plight. Then send another messenger to Canterlot to inform Celestia of all of this, and ask her to find Windy Rush and send her to the Crystal Empire. Rainbow Dash, get back out there and find Spitfire. The Wonderbolts are the only ponies here we can send right now because it'll take too long to send any others."

All of them saluted her and rushed off to fulfill her orders, leaving Luna to hold the shield alone, apart from the Imperial Guard that had delivered the message. "You, can you still fly?"

The mare nodded confidently, "Yes your Highness."

"Good. Fly to Vanhoover, to the Mayor's office." Princess cast a small spell, creating a small token with her seal on it, so that whoever saw it would know that the message was from her. "Tell him to begin evacuating the city."

Author's Notes:

Not my best written chapter, but I'm not in the mood to totally rewrite another one so soon. I do at least think it makes the point that Equestria do be in trouble. I'm also aware of the similarities between the dragonfire bombs, and balefire eggs from FoE, which is why I did my best to make them different, because I don't want to suck that much as a writer.

Anyway, it do be October, and unless you've been living under a strange little rock that only blocked your view of certain things, you're fully aware that pony.mov the movie is out in six days. I have to say that I'm a good deal more excited about it than the initial trailers had me being. Seems like they really polished it since the last trailers came out. And from what I've been seeing, there's a real dark vibe to this film. Twilight gets captured and caged, ponies get enslaved, and there's some good old fashioned betrayal. Sounds like my kind of pony film. Too bad I probably won't get to see it until it comes out on dvd, or blu-ray if I'm feeling fancy. No fucking way am I going to the local cinema to see it, and no way am I going on my own. I have too public a job to get caught doing that, and I'd probably never live it down.

But to all you people who are going to see it, I hope you enjoy it immensely, you lucky ducks. Hopefully it gets pirated real hard and turns up somewhere I can see it.