Luna inspected the hastily made repairs being made to the wall. A wall that was still barely standing after the battering the Mareitanian tanks had given it hours ago.

It had held though, if only just, and after some time the Mareitanians had given up their assault after losing a few more of their tanks. They hadn't left though, and were still waiting just out of reach of the Bulwarks siege weapons, ready to try again.

Luna suspected the defenders couldn't repel another assault. The dead were far too numerous around the Bulwark, and the living were... living in name only at times. Tanks and explosives were a whole different ballgame compared to what they were used to, and they were having to stand against such things using spears, crossbows, and faith that the magic of others would keep them alive. If the number of dead were any indication, that faith would seem a little misplaced, if unfairly so.

"Fie on this entire situation," Luna grumbled. "How are we few supposed to hold this without reinforcements? My horn still aches from the last battle, and I am likely far less taxed than most others here."

"Princess?"

Luna looked up as Stormguard spoke to her. "Excuse me, I am but thinking out loud."

"You don't think we can hold against another attack?"

Luna made a sweeping gesture around them, "You can see as well as I that we could barely fight back a dozen foals armed with candy canes right now General. If the Mareitanians had any idea how close they were to breaking our defences, they may not have withdrawn their forces."

"Should we withdraw then Princess?"

"And give up our most defensible position? Nay General, that would be foolish." Luna turned back to stare out over the mass of water that shared her name. An attack on Equestria coming from over the Luna bay... It was enough to make her blood boil if she let it.

"Is the city evacuated?" Luna asked, pushing her ire aside.

"As far as we are able to tell. No doubt there'll be some that refused to leave, but there is little we can do for them now, other than hope we can hold the Mareitanians off."

"Do you think we can hold them off?" Luna asked pointedly.

Stormguard swallowed as he delayed giving his answer. "No," he said after a few moments.

Luna nodded, "Correct. Unless we have a miracle influx of reinforcements, there is no chance we can hold this position for long. All we can hope for those ponies too stubborn to leave is that they remain safe as we are forced to fall back to the city. Why did you think I ordered the city evacuated if I thought we could hold them here?"

Stormguard didn't answer. He didn't need to.

"I'll take your silence to mean you know why I did it. Consider also then, the recent changes in our crystal pony allies. The loss of their lustrous coats, and the change to their demeanours, becoming rather... apathetic. What do you think that means?"

Again Stormguard was hesitant to answer. "I suspect it means the Crystal Empire has fallen to the enemy."

"I suspect it means more than that General. Either the city has been captured and the Crystal Heart removed from its place, or our forces took the Crystal Heart with them as they fled the city, which is both the better and worst of the two possible outcomes."

"Better and worst?" Stormguard asked, confused.

"Removing the Crystal Heart from the city would remove what holds back the frozen north from consuming the city. If our side took it, it denies the Empire to the enemy, which is good, assuming they also evacuated the city. However, it does also mean that the Mareitanian forces in the Empire are either on their way here, or intent to attack elsewhere."

Stormguard's mouth flapped uselessly for a moment, before settling on a single syllable. "Oh."

"Indeed," Luna sighed. "The war has barely begun, and already we are losing poorly."

"But if they attack us here, they'll trap us!"

"I am aware," Luna said pointedly.

"Then what should we do?"

"What would you do?"

"I'd fall back. There's no point getting us all killed if we stand no chance of succeeding!"

"But then the Mareitanians get through the wall unimpeded," said Luna. "Bringing with them their tanks and full strength, making this war even harder than it already is. Hence my dilemma over leaving this position."

"Can- Can we even win this war?"

This time, it was Luna who remained silent.

"Princess?"

"We can win General, but only when we have right weapon. Currently we do not possess that weapon."

"And when will we have that weapon?"

Luna turned back to face the Luna bay."I'm afraid that depends entirely on Princess Twilight. The key to winning this war isn't through defeating their army General, but through defeating their leader. If we take Faust out, the rest of their offensive will more than likely crumble." Or so we hope, Luna thought quietly to herself.

"So all these ponies might have died for nothing if she fails?"

"There is far more at stake here than you realise General. Nopony here will have died for nothing."

Both Luna and Stormguard stopped as one of Luna's Night Guard landed heavily on the observation platform. "Sorry to disturb you Mistress, but General Shining Armour has arrived with reinforcements. He'll be here shortly."

Luna nodded her appreciation, "Thank you. If you could inform him that I want to see him as soon as possible?"

"Of course Mistress."

Luna smiled tightly as the thestral stepped off the platform to deliver her message. While she was highly pleased to be getting reinforcements, if Shining Armour was here, the Crystal Empire was lost, and bad news was sure to be following him.

"So the Crystal Heart is secure then?"

"It is. Cadence and Celestia are working on restoring some of its functionality in Canterlot, to help the crystal ponies, and to aid in Canterlot's defence should it fall under attack."

Luna smiled at the two Generals, "Finally, some good news. What of the evacuees?" she asked Shining Armour.

"A large refugee came is being set up just north of Appleloosa to house the evacuees from both the Empire and Vanhoover, although things aren't great right now, as that's almost half a million ponies they're trying to house. I suspect even more will end up there as the war progresses. I also ordered the movement of Camp Freedom, in case Faust caught wind of its location and decided to attack there."

"Where would it be going?"

"Horseshoe bay, south of Baltimare," Shining told them. "Celestia assures me that locals would happily agree to help us construct a new camp. Hopefully this one will stay safe."

"And what of Faust?"

"She's... something else. Tore a hole in the shield protecting Empire like it was made of paper, and vaporised a pony so that all that was left was a shadow." Shining shook his head, "None of you were lying about her capabilities, were you?"

"Why would we? Our deceitfulness is what got us into this situation, and it certainly won't help us get out of it. I was, however, asking where Faust is now?"

"On her way here, with an army by her side if our scouts are right. I hate to say it Luna, but our forces are severely outmatched by theirs, in both aggression and skill. Not to mention numbers."

Luna knew that perfectly well, but showed no sign of agreeing as that would be tantamount to giving up the fight. She knew they stood a chance as long as they knew how to fight this properly. The key, she felt, was in having few, but significant advantages, such as air superiority. With the formerly Mareitanian pegasi now fighting for Equestria, they might be able to achieve that. Luna had to admit though, it felt like there was still something else missing from their efforts, but she couldn't think of what.

"Princess?"

Luna jerked out of her thoughts as Shining said her name. "Apologies, I was thinking. What would your assessment of our current situation be?"

"Right now?" Shining shrugged as Luna nodded. "Right now I think we have no chance of holding the Bulwark, and would only be putting ourselves into a terrible situation if we tried to hold it. We never designed it to hold off an attack from the rear after all. Truthfully, Faust's attack on the Empire has thrown all our expectations up into the air."

"So what do you think we should do?"

"If Vanhoover's been evacuated, I say we should hold them there. Lay traps, and ambushes, and get our fliers to take out their griffons if we can. If we can take out their griffons, our air forces could do some serious damage with bombs, or even without. It would also make it very hard for them to pin us down and trap us, because there's a lot of ways to escape a city. Stormguard? What do you think?"

The grey pegasus General thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "With Faust coming from the rear, holding the bulwark is untenable. Perhaps if some were to hold the bulwark while others distracted the rest of their forces in the city?"

"I do not think we can do both," said Luna. "If Faust were to go straight for the bulwark, our forces there would be massacred. I feel that Shining's idea is the best we currently have."

"I do have one request though," said Shining. "Return our crystal ponies to Canterlot."

"What?! How could you even think of doing that?"

"Right now Luna, those ponies are more likely to be a hindrance than a help, and will probably get themselves and others killed. Until we can find a way to reactivate the Crystal Heart enough to overcome their lethargy, they shouldn't be fighting."

Luna ground her teeth and groaned in the back of her throat, but didn't argue the point. It was probably best that they be kept back until they were capable of fighting again. "Very well, but you are reducing our forces considerably doing this."

"I know, but I doubt getting the Crystal Legion massacred was really the objective here anyway."

Luna conceded the point. "Very well. How long do you think until Faust reaches us?"

"A couple of hours at least."

"Then I suggest moving everypony into the city, and preparing a fireworks display to celebrate her arrival."

Rainbow was concerned. For all the things Pinkie did for her parties, she never imagined that could be translated into a passable knowledge of setting up explosives. Rainbow knew a bit because she'd been trained to do so, but Pinkie, she knew more about it on her own, and was entirely self taught. If Rainbow was honest with herself, she was a little scared of Pinkie at that moment.

"And we twist that little dohickey around there, connect it to that, add a little tape to make sure it's totally secure and doesn't fall apart, aaaaaaand... there! One more pillar set to blow! How're you doing Rainbow?"

Rainbow fumbled with the sticks of dynamite in her hooves, before letting Pinkie help her get them around another pillar. "You know Pinkie, when they asked for volunteers to set up traps like this, you were meant to be helping the ponies with training to do this. How do you know all this?"

"Do you know how much powder it takes to fire a party cannon full of confetti without damaging anything, or setting fire to the confetti and everything the confetti lands on?" Pinkie smiled as Rainbow said she didn't. "I do," she said, pressing her face against Rainbow's until their eyes were almost touching. "Down to the last milligram."

"Oooookay," Rainbow said, pushing Pinkie away. "That still doesn't explain how you know to do all this."

Pinkie shrugged as she started connecting wires to the dynamite. "All good party planners must have at least a passing knowledge of pyrokinetics, otherwise how would your parties have any bang to them?"

"That's still not an explanation."

"You're not an explanation!"

"What?"

"What?"

"...What?" Rainbow shut her mouth and decided to drop the issue. Instead she had something else on her mind that she wanted to ask her pink friend about. "How are you feeling after what happened in the Crystal Empire? You know, your first fight?"

Pinkie stopped what she was doing, and let her hooves fall back to the ground. "I don't know," she said, shrugging at Rainbow. "I guess I'm okay."

"Really? I was in pieces after my first fight. You're really me telling you're okay?"

"I'm not saying I enjoyed it, because I really didn't. I killed ponies Rainbow, and that felt really bad. The thing is, if we're going to make everything right again, we're going to have to do it. When I thought about what I was fighting for, it didn't seem so terrible." Pinkie blushed a little, "I must sound silly."

"No!" Rainbow said quickly, not wanting Pinkie to doubt herself. "No, you don't. What you're saying is pretty much the same as why I'm doing it. Not because we want to, but because we have to. Because we need to."

Pinkie nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I guess. I don't think Marble's okay with it though. She's calmed down, but she still hasn't said much since the battle. Maybe she's not cut out for the fighting, and should try something else. Perhaps she should just go home. I don't know." Pinkie sadly twisted a hoof into the ground, then perked up a bit. "Still, we all made it through that, and I guess that's the most important thing, right?"

"Right," Rainbow agreed, glad that Pinkie had managed to perk herself back up. She did worry that Pinkie was totally unprepared for the possibility that she would lose ponies though. Something made worse due to four out of six of her unit being herself and her sisters. Once again Rainbow felt that same uncomfortable feeling that the ponies in charge really didn't care what happened to them.

"Anyway, I sure hope those meanies like the surprise we're cooking up for them. Shame about the building though."

"You can rebuild a building Pinkie."

"I know that! I'm just saying this is a really nice building, and it seems a shame to do what we're doing to it. I sure hope the Mareitanians appreciate it anyway."

"I'm sure they will," Rainbow said as noncommittally as she could, because it was that or sarcasm. "Anyway, I think we're done with our section. Let's get out of here and see what's going on."

"Sure!" Pinkie followed after Rainbow, happy to be around at least one of her friends again, even if the circumstances weren't exactly the best. She knew that soon they'd be back to fighting for their lives, so until then she could at least derive as much happiness from being around Rainbow as she could.

Outside was considerably more frantic than inside the basement of the Royal Canter, the tallest building in Vanhoover. Things were being prepared to draw the Mareitanians down the main street of the city, towards the towering office block. From there things got even more interesting, although there were concerns as to why Luna seemed almost happy to destroy parts of the city if it meant slowing the Mareitanians down.

That was also why they were taking care to make sure every building along the way was clear of all ponies, but unless they wanted to spend all day doing it, which they couldn't, there was no guarantee. A fact that didn't sit well with many there.

"I guess this is where we split up again Pinkie," Rainbow said as she spotted other members of the Wonderbolts flying by, weaving through the streets far above the ground.

Pinkie pouted playfully at Rainbow, "Aww, and I was just getting used to having you around again. See each other again soon?"

"Definitely." Rainbow held a leg out, inviting Pinkie into a hug that the pink mare happily accepted, hugging Rainbow tightly until she was forced to wriggle her way out of it. "Catch ya later."

Pinkie's reply was lost to Rainbow as she soared into the air, putting some distance between them before she, Pinkie, or the both of them got too emotional. Her destination was the rooftop of one of the many other high-rise buildings in the city, where most of the other Wonderbolts were waiting for the attack to begin.

Lightning grinned and winked at Rainbow as she came in to land. "Have to admit Dash, that pink pony was pretty cute. No wonder you wanted to spend some time alone with her."

"Har-har, up yours Lightning." Rainbow punched the teal mare lightly on the side, then sat heavily beside her. "What's the news?"

"The news?" Lightning tapped her chin theatrically, "Let's see... Oh yes! Imminent doom is heading this way, and should be arriving within the hour, if not sooner, and our glorious leader seems intent to kill both us and them in a city sized fireball that could probably be seen from Canterlot. Also, I must have hit my head on something during our last fight, because there's a dent in my helmet, and it's a little bit uncomfortable."

Rainbow rolled her eyes at Lightning, "Quit being a smartass and tell me what's actually happening."

Lightning shrugged at Rainbow, "How wrong do you think I am? Okay, maybe the fireball won't be seen from Canterlot, and maybe Luna doesn't actually intend to kill her own ponies with it, but this plan is seriously messed up. Who blows up a skyscraper like this?"

Spitfire grunted at Lightning, having heard her complaining. "Your objections to the plan have taken onboard, and summarily thrown back overboard. As for the news Dash, the Mareitanians will be here in roughly twenty minutes, so if you want to grab something to eat, or say a prayer, now's your chance."

"...Shit."

"They're heading to the Bulwark," Shining said, watching the Mareitanians coming from the north through a pair of binoculars from the tower rooftop that had been appropriated as their command centre. "It seems you were right Luna."

"What's the state of their forces?" Luna asked, not caring about how right she was.

"Much the same as it was before. I don't see a lot of griffons with them though. Seems our new pegasus friends made short work of them because there's only a couple hundred left that I can see."

"It is possible there may be far more coming from beyond the Bulwark," Luna reminded him. "Let's not get too excited before we know the whole story. Just tell me what happens when she reaches the Bulwark."

It took some time before Shining had to speak again, as the Mareitanians didn't seem to be in any particular rush to get there. The griffons did fly ahead to scout, so it would soon become obvious to them that the Bulwark had been abandoned. A smart pony would only assume a trap. All of them suspected that the Mareitanians had plenty of smart ponies working that out, which is why they didn't bother to set a trap there.

"Okay, she's on the cliff over the Bulwark," Shining reported. "She's... yep, she's tearing the Bulwark apart." Shining's lips pulled back in a nervous grimace, "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing magic like hers in action."

"Powerful magic or not," said Luna, "she is still but a pony, and capable of making mistakes. Due to the steep terrain both north and south of here, the only feasible way to get her tanks into Equestria is through the city, which is exactly what we want. Let them come Shining Armour. They shall pay for every step they take on Equestrian soil."

Shining glanced at Stormguard, catching the pegasus giving him the same look as he was giving the pegasus. A look that said they both felt Luna was crossing lines. Lines they hadn't known were there in the first place. Silently, Shining returned to watching what the Mareitanians were doing, and swore loudly as he saw a lot more griffons.

"I suspected as much," Luna said, having asked Shining what the problem was. "I know not how large the Bloodfeathers are as an organization, but I suspected we had not yet seen their full strength. Hopefully they don't outnumber our own fliers once again."

"Orders?" Stormguard asked.

"Everypony should be in position and ready to attack. All we have to do now is wait."

Pinkie peeked over the edge of the window, seeing the tanks and soldiers passing by below, winding their way through the streets, feeling as equally pensive as they looked. They all knew this was a trap, but only the Equestrians knew when it was to be sprung.

She ducked down as a flight of griffons flew past, then took another look. The soldiers coming through seemed endless, even if she objectively knew they weren't. There were far more than had attacked the Crystal Empire, so she could only assume that most of these had come from across the Luna bay.

Pinkie dropped back down again, sighing as she watched Marble fiddle nervously with her rear hooves. There were maybe eight thousand Equestrian soldiers in Vanhoover, which had seemed like a lot right up until the point she'd seen the amount of soldiers the Mareitanians had brought into the city. If ponies had any sense, they'd all be doing what Marble was doing.

"They're almost to the Royal Canter," Limestone whispered. "That means it's almost time."

Pinkie nodded, and saluted the towering building up the road to her left. "Your sacrifice will be remembered comrade."

"It's just a building Pinkie."

"Why does everypony feel the need to remind me of that? I can see it's a building."

"Keep it down Pinks," Azure whispered harshly. "This is going to be an epic explosion, and I don't want to miss it."

Top Spin raised an eyebrow at Azure, "So I see you have zero ethical conundrums about dropping a building on a couple thousand ponies."

"There's a lot more than a couple thousand down there," Azure pointed out. "I also don't see you arguing against this."

"I realise that there are more than a couple thousand ponies down there, but the building's not going to hit all of them, is it. And no, I'm not arguing, because what would that do to help?"

"Oh hey!" Azure said, having got bored of listening to Top Spin. "Faust's in the lead down there. If we can get her now, we could end this whole war!"

Pinkie decided to not point out that being buried under a hundred tons of rubble was more of an issue to Faust than actually dying. The only thing she could think would happen is the Mareitanians got really pissed off.

"Something feels wrong," said Maud.

Before any of them could ask what she meant, the Mareitanians reached the bottom of the Royal Canter, and the trap was sprung. The world shook with the deafening explosion that spat a flume of smoke and dust down the street, and tore the tower's foundation to shreds on the side facing the Mareitanians. The tower teetered over, almost looking like it was falling in slow motion, an illusion produced by its sheer size as it broke apart and crashed into the street below, producing a massive cloud of dust that obscured everything for the entire length of the street.

"Now!"

Everypony that could fired their weapon or their magic down into the street, aiming blindly through the dust that lit up with a thousand colourful streaks of magic. Under other circumstance it'd be beautiful to see, and even under this one it almost managed it, if you ignored the wave of destruction produced when that magic hit the ground.

Pinkie and her team didn't participate, as throwing rocks into the street felt silly even to them. Instead they just watched, mesmerized by the lightshow the unicorns were producing, right up until Pinkie's eye twitched, her back itched, and her stomach flipped. "Eye twitch, back itch, stomach flip?" Pinkie's eyes went wide, "Get down!"

"What are you on abo-" Azure started to ask before Limestone tackled her to the ground, while Maud did the same to Top Spin. Marble was already hiding, knowing well enough to not question Pinkie's feelings.

A split second after all of them hit the deck a pulse of magic shattered the windows, showering everypony with glass. Screams started as ponies who had still been firing into the street, unheeding of Pinkie's warning, suddenly found themselves getting cut to shreds by the razor sharp debris.

"What the fuck was that?" Azure shouted as Pinkie stood and shook the glass off her back and out of her mane. She took a cautious peek out of the now glassless window, only to find the street clear of dust, ponies, and everything except for rubble and a single alicorn standing atop the remains of the Royal Canter.

"What? How? It was a trick? She was tricking us?" Pinkie gibbered. "She tricked us! All the ponies we saw weren't real!"

"Then where are they?" Limestone asked as she picked bits of glass out of her collar.

"Down there," said Maud, pointing back down the street to where the Mareitanian tanks and soldiers were sat safely behind a shield, totally undamaged by the collapsing tower. The soldiers were already spreading out into the streets, while the tanks were preparing to fire. All of them dived back for cover as the turrets of some of the tanks rotated towards them. Seconds later the building shook again with explosions, but none too near them.

"Run!" Limestone shouted, and not just to her team. Every pony there was in danger, and all of them needed to get out. Pinkie paused to grab Marble, but was surprised to find that not only was Marble already gone, but was holding the door open for them and everypony else as they piled away from the street facing part of the building, dragging those wounded behind them that couldn't drag themselves.

"How did she know?" Limestone panted as they ran into the nearest stairwell, heading to ground level, aiming to get out of the building before they got trapped inside by the soldiers. "How could she have fucking known what we were going to do?"

"She must've known we planned to do something," Maud replied. "I thought something seemed off about those ponies around her. There were too many with similar colours."

"And that's another thing," said Limestone. "How could she have possibly made that many illusions?"

"Who cares?" Azure yelled at both of them. "We are so fucked right now it's not even funny!"

"It could be," said Pinkie said hopefully. The clatter of hooves on stairs below them made them all stop, and a quick look down showed them that Mareitanian soldiers were running up as they were running down. "Okay, yeah, that's not funny."

"Motherfuckers!" Limestone screamed, grabbing a stone out of her bags and throwing it hard enough to embed itself into the skull of a unicorn. "Stop fucking everything up!"

They all ducked down as the soldiers below returned fire, then ran back the way they came, slamming serval sets of doors shut behind them and barring them with whatever they could find.

"Where do we go now?" a unicorn asked, her face bloodied from the flying glass earlier.

"We're trapped!" another pony screamed. "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!"

"Shut up!" Limestone shouted at the hysterical pony. "We're not dead yet. We just need to get out of here without using the ground floor, or going to the roof where the griffons can get us."

"Jump out a window?" somepony suggested.

"Not at this height," a different pony said back. "If it didn't kill us we'd at least break our legs."

"It's at times like this, I think to myself, what would Princess Celestia do?" a stallion said. He blushed as a large number of ponies stared at him. "What?"

"Princess Celestia has wings you dolt!" the pony next to him said. "She'd fly away!"

"Wait! Wouldn't there be a fire exit somewhere on the outside?" Somebody said excitedly, like they'd just had the best idea ever.

Limestone pointed a hoof at the pony that had spoke last, "Finally, somepony with a sensible idea! Some ponies go find it while the rest of us hold them back!" A crash sounded from the other side of the door as the soldiers broke through one of the others they'd closed. "Try not to take too long."

"Look at you being all take charge," Pinkie said to Limestone as some ponies ran off to find the fire exit.

"Well if nopony else is going to do it, I guess I have to." Limestone shoved Pinkie aside and turned back to the mass of ponies behind her, "I need some mages. Do we have any mages here?" A couple dozen unicorns held their hooves up. "Great! I need the best of you at making shields across the front here." Limestone drew an imaginary line across the hallway, "When they bust through the door, we're all going to open fire on them, then you're going to shield us before they can shoot back. The rest of us are either going to use your shields, or whatever cover we can. You got it?"

The unicorns nodded and picked six out of themselves to form the shields, just as the doors holding the enemy back cracked and bulged from the soldiers on the other side trying to get through. They prepared themselves, their horns glowing in preparation.

"We found the fire exit!" a mare shouted, running back into the hallway. "It's not very big though. It's going to take a while to get everypony out."

"Then start getting ponies out. Wounded first," Limestone told her. "We'll hold them-" Limestone flinched as the door cracked again. "We'll hold them as long as we can! Go!"

"Marble, go with them," Pinkie said to her twin, only to have her rapidly shake her head in refusal. "I mean it Marble! Get of here while you can!"

"I'm not going," Marble said, breaking her silence. "Not without all of you."

"I guess we're all idiots then," Limestone said as the door jumped again. "Get ready."

The door smashed open in a spray of splinters, and at Limestone's instruction they opened fire on the ponies that had kicked it open. Several ponies fell in seconds, pierced by arrows, or blasted by magic, but the Mareitanians had a similar idea to them, having their adepts put shields up to protect their forces. Fire was returned, but the Equestrian unicorns had already raised their shields to protect themselves and their fellows.

"Keep firing!" Limestone bellowed, encouraging everypony around her to keep the Mareitanians from pushing forwards. A stone delivered from her own hoof cracked a shield, which was quickly exploited by an arrow, taking down the unicorn casting it. With the gaping hole in their line, the Mareitanians started to lose more ponies, and were soon forced to withdraw to cover.

"Woo!" Pinkie cheered. "Go team!"

"Shut up Pinkie! Prepare yourself!"

"What? Why me?"

"I meant all of us!" Limestone stepped out of her cover and in behind the mages, keeping an eye on things as they waited for the Mareitanians next move. There were still too many ponies in the building to go by far though, and she growled under her breath as they had barely any space to back up if they needed it, the space already occupied with ponies. "What is taking so long? Pinkie, go see what's happening."

"But-" Pinkie stopped herself as she saw the look on Limestone's face. The one that bridged no arguments. "Yes'm" she said, running out of her cover and weaving her way towards the fire exit.

Through the smoke made by the smouldering carpets, the lights of fresh shields could be seen. Shapes could also be seen moving in front of them, which was all the reason Limestone needed to shout another order to open fire again. A dozen heavily armoured earth ponies charged through the smoke, shrugging off a lot of what was being fired at they, although two fell quick enough, their armour glowing from the magic striking them.

The rest slammed into the Equestrians, foregoing weapons in favour of just using their mass to trample ponies underhoof. The mage's shield collapsed as the juggernauts crashed into it, and the mages dived out of the way, letting others deal with them. Not that they could stop them very easily either as arrows and weapons bounced off their armour, and while magic was effective, the quantity needed would very easily result in friendly fire in such close quarters.

Maud leapt on the back of one as they stopped, and with a stone in each hoof, she slammed one against the sides of his helmet, bending it out of shape, and possibly the skull beneath as the pony collapsed to the ground, throwing her off.
Some of the others were being dragged down as well, while the rest ran back to the safety of their allies, creating an opening for them to open fire again on the disorganised Equestrian forces. Marble screamed as a bolt of magic burned into her left shoulder, and Limestone shouted for shields to get put up, running over to her sister as the unicorns set them up.

"Stupid, stupid idiot!" Limestone yelled at Marble, putting pressure on the wound as blood dribbled out of it. "You could have stayed at home where it was safe, but noooo, you had to go with Pinkie and be a big damned hero!"

"Because staying at home and being forced to do all the things you make me do was a much better choice."

Limestone was speechless for a moment, but only a moment. "Shut up!" she shouted, not knowing what else to say, then dragging Marble back as her mind tried desperately to come up with a plan that would get her sisters, and hopefully everypony else, out of here alive. They'd lost a few ponies in that last attack, but they still had enough left.

"Limestone!" Pinkie shouted, pushing through the crowd back to her sister. "I need some of those mage ponies!"

"What? Why?"

"Because- Oh my gosh! Marble!" Pinkie rushed over to her twin's side, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"She got in the way," Limestone growled, making Marble flinch. "Why do you need some mages?"

"Huh? Oh! Right! Well, the fire escape's not very big, and there are ponies from upstairs using it as well. It also turns out a lot of ponies suck at using ladders. I was thinking, if we had a few mage ponies, we could use their shields to make a big slide and get every pony out of here a lot faster. We're only four storeys up here, so it'll be fine. It could even be fun!"

Limestone nodded as she thought, agreeing with Pinkie's plan, although questioning how fun it could be. "You three," she said to three of the mage unicorns at the rear of the group, "could you use your shields to make a slide? To get ponies out of here faster?"

"Yeah, we guess so," one said after a quick discussion.

"Great. Go with Pinkie, and set up a slide down to the ground. Pinkie, take Marble, get her out of here."

Pinkie saluted Limestone, "Yes ma'am, being all in charge of things for some reason, probably because you're bossy. Come on Marble."

Limestone stopped for a breath as Pinkie dragged Marble and the mages through the press of ponies to the exit. Why the hell was she in charge of this situation? What the hell happened to the pony who was actually in charge here? Limestone supposed he was probably killed when the tanks attacked the building, and now the job fell to the bossiest pony, which so happened to be herself. "Lucky me."

"Is Marble okay?" Maud asked, sidling up to Limestone as she caught her breath.

"She will be. Pinkie's come up with a plan to start getting ponies out of here faster. Naturally it involved making a slide out of magic." Limestone shook her head ruefully. "What about the rest of us? Are they holding?"

"For now," said Maud. "I recommend taking out the pillars on both sides of the door, to collapse the doorway. That should slow them down for a while."

Limestone peeked around her cover to see what Maud was talking about. The pillars around the door were thick, and probably load bearing. Collapsing them could block the doorway, although it could potentially do a lot worse. "Are you sure that's all that will happen?"

Maud nodded once, "I am."

That was all the reassurance Limestone needed from Maud, and she quickly instructed for those mages not maintaining shields to start blasting away at the pillars. Chunks were blown out of them, but they adamantly refused to break. The Mareitanians were also catching on to what they were doing, and attempted to push through the entrance.

"Shit. Maud, we need to buck the pillars." Limestone dropped into a sprinting stance, ready to make a break for the doorway. "On three. One... two... three!" Both of them sprinted out of cover for the doorway, running as fast as they could for a pillar, with Limestone going for the left, while Maud went right.

Both of them turned and bucked at the same time, kicking the now fragile pillars and giving the last push they needed to break. It certainly had the desired effect as the sudden loss of support made a section of the ceiling cave in around the door, ironically dragged down by its attachment to the pillars rather than by the loss of support.

Both of them were forced to run if they didn't want to get crushed by the collapse. When the dust cleared though, they could see the way was blocked, although whether it would hold the Mareitanians back for long was another matter.

"Let's go ponies!" Limestone said to the now redundant defenders. "Let's get the hell out of... here... What?" Limestone said to Maud who was staring at her wide eyed.

Maud pointed a hoof at Limestone's side, just in front of her hip. "You have an arrow in your side."

"Huh?" Limestone's head whipped around to see, and as Maud had said, there was an arrow sticking out of her side, right between two sections of armour. "...Oh shit."

Her legs went wobbly as the pain set in, like the fact that she knew it was there now was enough to break the spell holding the pain back. "Nnngh... fuck!" Her dark grey armour turned darker around the wound as blood seeped into the fabric, and she had to fight the urge to tear the arrow out, knowing it would only make things worse. Maud was there as soon as she was down, hooves pressing against the wound, but Limestone pushed her away and struggled back to her hooves.

"We have to get out of here," Limestone hissed, stumbling on her suddenly useless legs until Maud caught hold of her.

"But moving could make it worse."

"Staying here could make everything worse!"

Maud didn't argue the point. She silently supported Limestone to the fire exit, where the sounds of fighting were still going on, as those on the ground exchanged fire with the Mareitanians on the floor above. Given the lack of choice on getting down, Maud helped Limestone onto the slide, then followed her down, helping her off at the end.

"Where now?" Pinkie asked, eyeing the arrow in Limestone's side, but not saying anything about it.

"Seriously," Azure spoke up, "let's get the heck out of here. The meet up place to get out of here was the Canterlot rail line wasn't it? I say we head there and let other idiots fight this losing battle."

"So long as we help other ponies that need it along the way," Pinkie told her.

"Well, yeah, sure. I guess."

"If there's a medic pony there, I couldn't care less where we go," said Limestone. She stumbled as Maud removed her support, then yelled with surprise and pain as her sister ducked under her and picked her up entirely. "You could've warned me!" Limestone growled under her breath as Maud apologised, "Nevermind. Let's just get the fuck out of here."

The Equestrian army had fielded almost three thousand fliers of various depictions, between the Wonderbolts, Air corps, Night Guard, and the Exiles, as the formerly Mareitanian pegasi had taken to calling themselves, largely because it was easier, even if it was inaccurate to their position within Equestria.

Three thousand fliers... and they were completely useless. The griffons had gone to ground as soon as the battle started, and the fliers pretty much lost their purpose then and there. The bulk of the Mareitanian forces in the street had enough protection and firepower to turn them into a collection of well cooked turkey skewers, while the rest had taken the fight indoors where the Equestrian forces were located, which wasn't exactly the pegasi's forté either. Instead they were left to fly laps around the city, doing diddly squat. Air superiority meant nothing if you couldn't do anything with it.

"This is a fucking mess," Lightning said to nopony in particular. "How the hell are we supposed to do anything if we can't even get to the enemy?"

"I'll be surprised if Luna keeps command after this," said Thunderlane. "It was bad enough throwing ponies that hadn't even finished basic under the cart, but this is a fucking joke."

"Cut the chatter," said Fire Streak, their squadron leader. "The griffons could still attack us at any moment, so stay on your guard."

"Or we could attack them," Sky Stinger suggested.

"Absolutely not. Spitfire will get back to us with orders soon enough. Just maintain your position."

"But sir," Cloud protested, "we can't just do nothing!"

"Just hold your damn positions!" Fire Streak sighed and shook his head as he grumbled to himself. "Fucking kids."

Rainbow didn't pay much attention. Of all the things she should probably be doing, she instead found herself wishing Twilight were here, because she'd have known what to do in this situation. Better than Luna certainly, since the amount of time they'd spent flying around doing nothing didn't exactly suggest that she had a plan for if it all went wrong. Which it had. Spectacularly.

Minutes later Spitfire returned, alone. "Listen up ponies! We are pulling out! Our ground forces are doing what they can to get themselves out, and Luna is doing what she can to help those trapped. Our job is to fly cover for our retreating forces, and stop them from being followed. I'm not giving specific orders here, so split up into your squadrons and do what you think you need to. The Air corps, Night Guard, and Exiles are doing the same, so watch you don't all hit each other. Especially the Exiles, as they don't exactly have a whole lot of discipline. Now move out!"

"Finally!" Sky Stinger cheered. "I was going nuts up here."

"Don't get too excited," Fire Streak told him. "As soon as we start hitting the Mareitanians, those griffons are probably going to try and stop us, so keep your eyes and ears open."

Their squadron drifted left as they all spread out, and they could already see groups of pegasi diving down to the streets, trying to take the pressure off their beleaguered allies.

Rainbow spotted a group of a few hundred ponies running below, an almost equal number of Mareitanians hot on their tails as they shot after the fleeing ponies. Amongst those fleeing ponies she saw a spot of vibrant pink. That was enough for her. "Down there!"

Fire Streak looked down and nodded, "Okay, dive!"

Rainbow led the way down, pushing herself faster than the others, because if that was Pinkie down there, and something happened to her... Rainbow really, really hoped that nothing would happen to her.

They aimed for ponies at the rear of the group, for their own safety mostly, as hitting the ponies in front was just asking to get yourself shot. Rainbow struck first, being in the lead as she was, and her blades sank down into the back of a unicorn mare. She pushed off to free her blades, then darted forwards to strike another pony, and another, pushing her luck further and further with each pony she took down.

The Mareitanians had figured out what was happening by the time she'd killed her fourth, and she was finally forced to take back to the air, only for a group of Exiles to dive in from another direction and take the Mareitanians by surprise, taking down a couple dozen more before pushing off again.

A shield went up over the Mareitanians, stopping the pegasi from attacking them. It also stopped them from following the ponies they were chasing after, and since that was the point, nopony felt the need to attack any further. Not when they had other problems.

As Fire Streak had predicted, their attacks had drawn the griffons back into action, and the sky filled with the battle-cries of thousands of griffons, intent on regaining their air superiority. None of the pegasi had any intention of giving it back to them. Postponed as it had been, the battle for the skies over Vanhoover was back on.

"That's a lot of griffons," Cloud said in a low, fearful voice. The rest of them agreed. Maybe they could put the battle back off again, until next time.

"I think we should go down to the streets," Thunderlane said, sounding hopeful that his suggestion would be listened to. "I really, really, think we should."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Fire Streak replied, leading the squadron into a steep dive down to street level. All around them pegasi had the same idea, heading down to the narrow streets where their greater agility should give them a small advantage. Of course that mean they were in range of the Mareitanian ground forces again, but you couldn't have everything.

The griffons thundered down after them, their piercing cries echoing off the buildings, confusing attempts to tell which direction they'd come from, so they had to rely entirely on their eyes instead. A quick glance backwards told Rainbow that a dozen griffons were chasing after their squadron, and gaining, until a quick right turn up a street put some distance between them.

"Split up!" Fire Streak commanded as they came up to a cross roads. Lightning went left, while Fire Streak went straight on with Pizelle's wing. Rainbow banked right into a narrow street, and nearly flew straight into a washing line suspended between two buildings, her wing tips brushing the thin string. Dozens more like it went across the street, and Rainbow found herself having to rapidly weave through them.

The griffons that decided to follow them weren't so quick. The first one caught her wing on the first line Rainbow had dodged, and found herself flying towards a fire escape as the line on her wing knocker her off her trajectory. The clang of metal, and the sickening crunch of bones left no doubt that it was the last mistake that griffon would be making.

All of them stopped in shock as the deceased griffon smacked onto the ground below, and the remaining griffons glared at the three Wonderbolts. Rainbow saluted them mockingly, then kept flying as the griffons began to navigate the vertical maze of washing lines. For a moment Rainbow got frustrated at how slow they were, then remembered that they were trying to kill her. "Come on," she said, flying to the end of the street and banking left around the corner. She then promptly stopped, and gestured for Cloud and Thunderlane to squeeze in close to the wall and stay quiet.

They could hear the complaints of the griffons as they tried to follow the three ponies, and for a second Rainbow thought they'd given up when the two griffons flew around the corner. Rainbow launched herself at one, stabbing her blades deep into its chest, but not without getting clawed across the face for her effort, the griffons sharp claws cutting gouges into her helmet and muzzleguard, as well as hooking a single claw behind her goggles and dragging it down over her left eye.

"Ah!" Rainbow squawked, pushing herself off the griffon, and almost back into the wall. She dropped to the ground slowly, frantically trying to sheath her blades so she could tear her helmet off. Blood ran into her eye, and she cried with pain as she tried to wipe it away. A few seconds later Cloud was there, holding her hooves back from rubbing it more.

"Let me see," Cloud said calmly. Rainbow tried to pull away, but Cloud held firm. "Open your eye, and let me see Rainbow." Rainbow obeyed, ignoring her pain and opening her eye with a flutter that flicked blood off her eyelashes. More blood ran into her eye, and she quickly squeezed it shut again. "I don't think he got your eye. Can you see out of it?"

Rainbow flickered her eye open again, and although the colour she could mostly see was red, she could see out of it. "Yeah, I can."

"Good. Thunderlane, go back up to those washing lines and find me something to clean this blood up with."

"On it."

Cloud pulled Rainbow's head down a bit as she waited for Thunderlane to come back, seeing that a chunk had been torn out of Rainbow's ear as well.

"What?" Rainbow said as Cloud told her about it. She could feel it stinging now it had been pointed out, whereas before it non-existent compared to the pain of her eye. "Motherfucker. I'd kill him if I hadn't, y'know, already done that."

"Do you want to keep going Rainbow? Or should we head to the fall-back zone?"

"Nah, I'm good, I'm good. Just get me cleaned up and we'll get back in this."

"If that's what you want," said Cloud, holding her hoof out for whatever Thunderlane gave her as he came back.

"Y'know, that's probably going to leave an awesome scar if you don't get it healed," he said as Cloud gently wiped the blood from Rainbow's face. "It would look pretty badass. The ear's already pretty damn metal."

"Oh yeah? Let's do the same to you and see how you like it."

"Knock it off, the both of you." Cloud picked up Rainbow's helmet and wiped the blood out of it, then gave it back to Rainbow, who gingerly placed it on her head. "Alright, not to give credit to Thunderlane," Cloud said as Rainbow clipped the muzzleguard into place, "but the scratches on your helmet do look pretty cool."

"Sure, whatever." Rainbow blinked her eye rapidly to try and get it to focus properly. It slowly did, but it certainly wasn't rushing, and it was watering a lot as well which didn't help, nor did it stinging like hell. "For fuck sake. This whole thing is bullshit. Come on, let's get out of here and see what we've missed."

It was only a short flight back to where they came from, and they were surprised by what they saw. In the short time they'd been gone the Exiles were dominating the fight, flying with an almost supernatural synchronization, like swallows. Down here in the streets, the pegasi could pick the griffons apart piece by piece, and that was exactly what they were doing.

Not that it was going entirely the pegasi's way, as amongst the scattered griffon bodies were plenty of pegasi. Even though she knew how messed up it was, Rainbow was still cheered up by the success of the pegasi, and thought it was time to add some of their own contributions to the fight again.

Rainbow backed her wing up a bit from the entrance to the street, then put on a burst of speed, rocketing out of the street into the larger one. A group of Air Corps ponies were coming the other way, tailed by several griffons, who were unaware of the coming Wonderbolts. The Air Corps rolled to the side, giving them the room to pass by and strike at the griffons. One fell to each of them, while the others pulled up and broke off. Rainbow suddenly knew how they were winning the fight. They'd all been trained to fly and fight in close quarters. The griffons hadn't.

Tossing a salute back at the other pegasi, Rainbow pushed on, looking for more targets. Instead they found her as the remaining griffons that had been tailing the other pegasi looped around to follow them.

All of them put on speed to try and lose the griffons, but the four griffons weren't so easily shaken. Trying to outmanoeuvre them only bought seconds that the griffons stole back on the straights. They banked left as the griffons were hot on their heels, and swore as they turned into a dead end.

"Keep going!" Rainbow shouted, pointing to a window halfway up the wall at the end. Holding her blades out in front, Rainbow dived through the window, shattering the glass. She dropped to the ground, letting Cloud and Thunderlane pass over her, then turned back to the window as the first griffon reached it, thrusting with her blade and stabbing the griffon through the mouth before she was even half way through.

Rainbow yelled as the griffon gagged on the blade and bit down hard. Then the hen stopped moving, like her body had only just realised what had happened, and went floppy, sliding back out of the window. Rainbow held her weapons up, daring the three other griffons to follow, but none did. Thunderlane had already wrenched the door opposite open, and was ready to go, along with Cloud. Rainbow held her stance for a moment longer, then turned and flew for the open window. As soon as she did, the griffons tried to follow her. Or one did anyway.

Outside the door was a hallway, with a small window at the end to the left. Thunderlane took the lead, smashing the window and squeezing through, followed by Cloud. The griffon was running out through the door by the time Rainbow was squeezing through, and she pulled upwards as he leapt after her, flipping up and over until her hooves pressed against the wall above the window, holding herself against it like she was standing on it, even if she had to flap her wings awkwardly to keep herself there.

Rainbow started to laugh as the griffon struggled to get out, his larger frame and armour trapping him in the window. "Sucks to be you," she said, stopping her wings to drop onto him blade first.

"Does it ever occur to you that we're getting pretty good at this?" Thunderlane said as Rainbow pulled herself free.

Cloud gently smacked the back of her hoof across the side of his helmet, "Don't say things like that. Those are like the perfect last words right there. If you get yourself killed now, you got no-one to blame but yourself."

Rainbow flicked the blood off her blades as the other two bickered. While Cloud was just being silly and superstitious, Thunderlane did actually have a point. They did seem to be getting better at this, and not just the three of them. The rest of the Wonderbolts were racking up an impressive amount of kills now, and the Night Guard tended to speak for themselves, although their unique biology did give them one hell of an advantage. The Air Corps had yet to prove itself, but they might not get the chance as the Exiles were dominating the griffons. They were fearless, if them not wearing protection was anything to go by, and they were coordinated to levels that even Rainbow was jealous of. If today went well, for the fliers at least, Equestria might actually establish air superiority for the rest of the war.

"We should probably try to find the rest of our squadron," Rainbow said, cutting off the other two. "Probably before we get shot down," she added as Mareitanian ground forces passed by the end of the street.

Rather than fly over the obvious danger, Rainbow led them up out of range, and up out of the streets to try and get a better view of what was going on, and maybe find the rest of the Wonderbolts, if not their squadron. The battle seemed to be dying down, pulling in tighter to the city centre where the ruins of the Royal Canter building were visible by the smoke it was putting out.

"There!" Cloud shouted, pointing to the right where a cluster of ponies in the blue uniforms of the Wonderbolts were occupying part of a rooftop. The distance between them and the others was clear of griffons, so they flew directly to the rooftop. From the colours of the tails they could see it was mostly A Squadron, and a few dead griffons, but they were also gathered around something Rainbow couldn't see, not until they got closer. It was Fire Streak, and he was injured. Badly.

"No!" Rainbow shouted, slamming down on the rooftop and running the rest of the way over. Fire Streak could barely look up as she pushed her way through the other Wonderbolts, and she fell to her knees in front of him. He was bleeding heavily from a wound on his chest, and a trail of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Even Rainbow could tell he didn't have long left.

"Nice to see you're okay guys," Fire Streak croaked. "Have you seen the others?"

"No. I guess they're still out there," Rainbow told him, removing her helmet and revealing her own injuries.

"Heh, mine are better," Fire Streak joked.

Rainbow turned to Spitfire, "Why aren't you getting him help?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Most of our forces are now outside the city," said Spitfire. "To get him help we'd have to carry him, and as soon as we do that..." Spitfire shook her head. She didn't need to finish that sentence.

"But... Fuck! No!" Rainbow slammed her hooves down on the rooftop. "I thought we were winning?"

"We are," said Fleetfoot. "We've pushed what's left of the griffons back to their shields, although I think the exiles did most of the work. But with our ground forces pulling out, we have to as well."

Cloud squeaked as she worked out what Fleetfoot was saying, "You're just going to leave him here?"

"No, of course not, but he's not going to survive the journey if we bring him with us, and we'd rather have his last moments be around his friends, rather than in agony." Fleet sighed and rubbed a hoof back over her mane, her eyes stinging with tears. "Don't think this is easy for any of us Cloud. Fire Streak trained some of us. Heck, he was even my favourite when I was a filly."

"I-" Cloud backed away, until Thunderlane held out a leg to stop her, and she pulled off her helmet as she leant against him. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to-"

"It's alright, really. It's hard for all of us."

"Who's going to lead us?" Thunderlane asked, feeling guilty for doing so when Fire Streak lay there, dying. He was only asking for the distraction from his own feelings.

"Replacing me already?" Fire Streak laughed. He flopped a hoof as Thunderlane started to stammer apologies, "I'm joking, I'm joking. Mostly," he sniffed, before launching into a coughing fit that looked like it could have killed him if the wound didn't. "I- I wish I could say it was a hard choice, but it's not. You three are fine fliers, and I couldn't have been prouder to lead you, but you're headstrong and reckless. Too reckless. With Spitfire's blessing I'm passing command of B squadron to Lightning Dust. Any arguments?" All of them shook their heads. "Good. She's a good filly Lightning. Keeps her head well in a fight. You'll need that-" Fire Streak trailed off into horrible wet coughs as his breathing became harder. "Altius Volantis Wonderbolts."

"Altius Volantis," they all replied, saluting him and holding it until his breathing stopped and he slipped away moments later. It took a while before somepony gathered up the courage to speak.

Spitfire sighed and rolled her helmet in her hoof to place it on her head. "Fast Clip, Soarin, take care of him. The rest of us, spread out and start telling whatever fliers are left to get the hell out of here. This battle's over; there's no point in losing any more of us."

"This way!" Luna stopped to let her soldiers pass between two buildings, intending to protect them as they fled to the distant purple dome where Shining Armour was protecting their extraction point. Ponies should already have been getting loaded onto trains to get out of there, and if Luna had any say in it, a lot more would be joining them. Ever since the battle had gone south, she'd put all her focus into making sure as many of her ponies got out of there as possible, even if it meant getting her hooves dirty, which she honestly didn't mind too much.

Luna stepped back around the corner as the Mareitanians got closer. The first fell to a blast from her horn, while another fell to her glaives. She jumped to the side as an Adept returned fire against her, then teleported to the offending unicorn, bringing her blade Apollo into a downward strike that decapitated the stallion. She pulsed her magic, sending ponies flying into buildings as she let loose, having no fear of harming her allies while she was alone. Her horn glowed as her magic and weapons put down as many soldiers as she could before they recovered, and she found herself even more alone after that as they fled back into the depths of the city.

She let herself sag against the side of a building as exhaustion hit her. She'd been fighting for hours before the attack on the city even began, and had hardly taken a moment of respite since the Mareitanians first attacked the Bulwark the day before. Luna sighed and let her rear slip to the ground, and watched the pegasi fly above her as they too decided to flee the battle. Two days into the war, and all they had done was lose and retreat before the Mareitanians. Before Faust, who had been conspicuously absent since the destruction of the Royal Canter.

The Equestrian forces had put up a noble fight, but they were outnumbered and outmatched, for obvious reasons, and less obvious reasons. She could tell enough that they had taken back control of the skies from the griffons, which was at least one silver lining to this whole debacle, but for the most part that control was useless while the Mareitanians had the power to shoot down any pegasi that got too close to their forces. Then there was the magic issue. Equestria had been practicing magic for centuries, yet even with highly skill unicorns fighting at their side, it seemed to make little difference as the Mareitanian Adepts could protect well enough from most of what they could do.

Moreover, the Equestrians just lacked a certain something. They lacked that push that the rebellion had possessed in their fight against the Grand Army of the Duke back in Mareitania, even if they'd been fighting an army of just earth ponies. Sure the rebels had Twilight fighting with them, which made a significant difference, but not to the level that they were useless without her, as the absence of Faust proved in this battle. There was something missing though, that had made all the difference when the rebels were fighting armies twice their size, and prevailing.

Trixie. Luna sighed as she worked it out. Trixie had been brutal in the civil war, and it often felt like she could sway the outcome of a battle through her actions alone. The Grand Army had been terrified of her, and Twilight as well, albeit for different reasons. Trixie's dark magic had torn through the Grand Army's ranks like she was fighting sock puppets rather than soldiers, and the Equestrian army had nothing like that.

Luna stopped herself before she followed that line of thought too far. Even if you ignored the ethical ramifications, there are a lot of ponies that would oppose the idea, herself and her sister included. Perhaps it best she focus on the here and now.

Luna pulled herself back to her hooves. There might still have been ponies trapped in the city, and she didn't have the time to sit around and daydream. She spread her wings and took off, searching for signs of fighting, of which there seemed to be less and less. The city had almost become unbearably quiet as the Equestrians retreated, and Luna hoped that meant there were no others to save and she could leave herself. Faust was likely looking for her, so, given the lack of much else to do, she turned to leave, and only just spotted the flash of magic out of the corner of her eye towards the outskirts of the city.

Pumping her wings she raced to the source of the magic, finding a large group of her soldiers trapped in a courtyard, hemmed in on all sides by enemy soldiers. They were shielding themselves, but with nowhere to go it was only a matter of time until the Mareitanians broke through.

Luna teleported into the shield, almost getting herself attacked as she appeared amongst the tense ponies. She ignored that though, and the ping of magic bouncing off her armour, and quickly reinforced the shield. Around her was five hundred or more ponies, all crowded into the courtyard. How they'd managed to get themselves stuck like this was beyond her, but the facts were irrelevant.

"Princess Luna!" the familiar voice of Pinkie squeaked. "Thank goodness!" Pinkie ran up to Luna and jumped up, pressing her two forehooves against Luna's chest. "We need to get out of here! My sisters are hurt, and if we don't get Limestone help she- she might-"

Luna pushed Pinkie back to the ground, but kept a hoof on her shoulder. "I understand Pinkie pie, but it is not that easy to get all of you out of here when you're surrounded on all sides. How did you get trapped here anyway?"

"We were leaving, but heard some ponies cornered in a building calling for help. We got them out, but now we're all stuck. At least until you came along."

Luna nodded vaguely at Pinkie's words, her thoughts already turning more towards how to get them all out. They were backed up into the corner of two buildings, and there weren't any doors near them, while the windows were both high up and narrow. Honestly the solution was pretty straight forward for her, but she doubted many other ponies here had the strength or power left to carry it out.

Luna walked to the corner of the building and tapped a hoof on the wall. It didn't seem too thick. "Pinkie, get everypony ready to move," she said, focusing her magic and aiming at the wall. A second later she unleashed the spell, punching a hole in the wall into the room beyond, destroying the furniture of whoever's living room it had been. She cast the spell again, punching a hole on the other side.

"Flee to the extraction! Do not stop for anything!"

Luna held the shield as ponies piled through the hole she'd made, shrinking it slowly as ponies left to concentrate it's strength as the Mareitanians stepped up their efforts to break the shield down. It took a few minutes to get everypony out, and by the time Luna was able to follow the courtyard was filling with soldiers. To stop them following she tore at the building with her magic, filling the hole with enough rubble to put the soldiers off from following the same way as she turned and sprinted.

The space beyond was clear, but the sounds of soldiers running after them was clear. Luna encouraged them all to run faster, while firing her magic back at the Mareitanians to encourage them to run slower. It seemed to be working as they got closer to Shining's shield, and the soldiers stopped chasing. Luna breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that they had escaped.

"Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!"

"What?" A flash of magic struck the ground, throwing up a wave of rock and soil. Luna stumbled and fell from the force of the impact, and she struggled for breath as the shockwave winded her. Her head also swam as she tried to work out what had just happened.

"Found you."

Luna looked up and around as a shining white alicorn descended gracefully from the sky and landed a dozen meters from Luna. She scrambled to her hooves, her head spinning as she moved well before she was ready to.

"Faust."

"You," Faust said back, her voice laden with scorn. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you leading the efforts here. Your poor tactics and lack of organisation speak volumes of you as a leader."

"You try to build an army in so short a time, without brainwashing ponies, and we'll see how well you do," Luna retorted. Luna stood up straighter as her head cleared, and she mentally prepared herself to fight. "Of course, without the brainwashing you probably wouldn't have succeeded at all."

"You'd be surprised actually," Faust said lightly. Luna didn't believe her. "But this is not why I'm here. I would naturally be delighted to say that it's appropriate that you should fall first, but I already have your sad little doppelganger, so you could say I have already defeated you once."

Luna was surprised. She'd just assumed Nightmare was hiding in the dreamscape, and had gotten better at doing so over the last couple of months. She never assumed that she wasn't there at all. "What have you done to Nightmare?"

"After the deceit she laid upon me, I've given her everything she deserves, just as I shall give the same to you." Faust dropped into a fighting stance, which Luna didn't mirror. Instead she chuckled.

"I guess that rainy day has come already." Luna summoned the crystal orb of liquid dragonfire, and tossed it into the air. Faust summoned a shield to intercept it, but Luna hadn't thrown it at her. She'd throw it up, and as it fell back down she fired a single bolt of magic at it, shattering the crystal and spraying its contents over Faust in a wave of brightly burning liquid.

Faust had barely reacted. "And what was that supposed to do?"

"You'll see." Luna grinned at the panic that arrived on Faust's face as the dragonfire burned intensely on her shield, heating its inside to uncomfortable levels within seconds. Luna smiled at her dilemma, as Faust could either hold the shield and cook herself, or drop the shield and have the burning liquid drop directly onto her. Neither option was particularly pleasant.

Faust seemed to make her choice, and dropped her shield, choosing to teleport away, but not before some of the dragonfire could land on her. Luna heard the ghost of a scream as the larger alicorn vanished, and as she failed to reappear where Luna could see her, she could only assume Faust wasn't coming back. At least not soon.

"Arrogant cow," Luna grumbled. "At least now she has an even better reason to hate me." Luna turned and ran for the train, leaping up inside the last carriage where Shining was waiting to greet her.

"Glad you could make it. I thought you were done for when I saw Faust attack you."

"I see you decided to not help me."

Shining shrugged apologetically, "Sorry, but if you couldn't get yourself out of there we wouldn't be able to do much. How'd you get her to run away like that?"

"I think you'll find I'm full of surprises Shining Armour. Now come, we can discuss it once we're safe in Canterlot. I didn't beat her so thoroughly that won't be coming back, and I very much doubt that would work twice."

"Why not?"

"I don't have any more vials of dragonfire for starters."

"That's what you used on her?"

Luna smiled sideways at Shining, "As I said, I'm full of surprises. Or I was at least," she added, her smile fading. "I'll have to find some more for the next time we meet."

Author's Notes:

So it turns out the movie was pirated super hard, so lucky me. It also means I can ramble about it to people that clearly hold my opinion in the highest regard. First off, I liked it, and I very much enjoyed Tempest, even if she does still look like an edgelord. I am shipping Templight super hard now, and I don't even do shipping. I mean really, that little blush they gave each other was adorable.

I do have an issue where some parts were a bit rushed as they tried to squeeze too many locations in, but whatcha gonna do? Fluttershy also seemed a bit too pathetic to the point that it was jarring. She's better than that now dammit. I would have liked to see a lot more of Klugetown, for being a happy little lawless place, but also for other reasons I'll get to in a bit. Besides that and a few other gripes, I did like the film though. I also enjoyed Twilight's character arc through the film as it does make my rendition of her seem less unlikely.

Anyway, there were a couple of thing I want to discuss, so if you want to avoid proper spoilers, stop right here.

1. Celestia.
Oh my fucking god Celestia. Could you be even more pathetic if you tried? Equestria is under attack, so instead of putting up even a modicum of resistance, I'll send my sister far away to get help from the hippogriffs because we're all super helpless, and my amazing power clearly won't do a thing to help here. Oh wait, shit, I stood still and did nothing, and now I'm a statue. Darn.

I feel sorry for Celestia these days. She used to be a figure of such mystery and potential through season 1 and right up to the end of season 2. Since then she's been made out to be more and more pathetic every time she comes up against even the slightest bit of adversity. It's embarrassing. Over seven seasons and the movie, she's been captured six times, and lost her magic twice. I really think she could use a kickass moment to shine at some point. I mean really.

2. Ponies in the big wide world, and how they're treated.
I'm probably not the only one to notice this, but the way the mane 6 were treated in Klugetown was... interesting to say the least. They weren't seen as just another bunch of people, but more as a commodity. People were looking to buy them, or enslave them, or any number of things, and that strikes me as unusual. Do ponies tend to stick to Equestria not because they like it there, but because the rest of the world wants them pets? Slaves? Sources of magic? Is this how ponies are viewed? It certainly makes the ponies seem less important in the larger scheme of things if this is how they're treated by the world. It would certainly make leaving Equestria a terrifying prospect to be sure. It's get even worse when you consider the fact that they share a continent with these asshats.

What about other pony places, like Saddle Arabia? Or wherever the zebras come from once it has a canon name? Do they have the same issues? Yaks and griffons too? Is there some thing where bipeds are dicks to quadrupeds? Or are quadrupeds somehow seen as inferior by bipeds? They have no issue with owning or enslaving ponies because they're not really people in their eyes? Is this why the quadrupeds all seem to have friendly relations? For mutual safety from a world that sees them as little more than merchandise? Interesting stuff to be sure.

I'm sure I had more points, but I've forgotten them now. Oh well. Wait, yes there is. I have it in my stories that horns can grow back. Tempest's ruined that, but since it isn't actually explained I can make it canon in my universe that she suffers from a genetic condition that prevents a horn re-growing. As a quirk though, it structures the horn differently, and allows for the rudimentary casting of magic even after being severed, although with crude and typically destructive results. Problem solved.