Luna paced back and forth in front of the throne, not speaking, or even really thinking. All she had was a quiet rage simmering beneath the surface, and no outlet for it. The Bulwark had been designed to hold Faust and the Mareitanians back for weeks if possible, but even if it weren't for Faust's surprise attack on the Crystal Empire, she doubted the bulwark would've held for more than a few days. As it is, it lasted two.

Then there was Faust's tactics in the Crystal Empire. Besides turning up rather unexpectedly in the one place they suspected wouldn't be attacked, her tactics in the battle were suspicious. Luna had come to suspect Faust had acted as she did because she wanted the city to be evacuated, which she could understand to a point. The Mareitanians wouldn't have had the supply lines to support the Empire, which would make sense if the Empire couldn't sustain itself, which it could. So why give time and space to evacuate the city? Her tactics almost sounded gentle in the Empire compared to Vanhoover, which was an almost unmitigated disaster, as her sister had reminded her several times now.

"Luna, please stop pacing. You're making me giddy." Celestia sighed as Luna glared at her then resumed pacing, her hooves clacking noisily on the marble floor when there wasn't carpet to muffle her movements. "Luna, please, we need to talk about this."

"What is there to talk about? You said yourself it was an unmitigated disaster. The Empire has been lost utterly, and they now have a hoof in Equestria by taking Vanhoover. We were supposed to hold them back for weeks Celestia, not two days!" Luna grunted and muttered, "She fights like Twilight."

"Faust you mean?"

"Indeed," said Luna, finally stopping her pacing. "I'm not sure Twilight ever really realised it, but she could throw some complete curveballs at times. At least I think that's the saying. That illusion of the army Faust created felt like something Twilight would do if she had the raw power to do such a thing."

"And what would Twilight do now?"

"How should I know?" Luna lowered her head and resumed pacing. "I'm not Twilight."

Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Then what do you think Faust would do?"

"Faust?" Luna went quiet for a moment as she thought. "If I were her I'd press the attack while we're still reeling from the loss of both the Empire and Vanhoover, but I don't think Faust would do that."

"Why not?"

"Because if what happened at the Empire was any indication, she wants us to see her coming, and have time to prepare."

"Why in the world would she do that?"

"To minimise civilian casualties," said Luna. "We can at least give her credit there for not wanting civilians to get stuck in the middle of this, which is precisely why she's not pressing her attack, even if it costs her own forces more. Frankly she seems capable of doing the extra work herself." Luna shrugged at Celestia, "Of course the other theory is that she's preserving both our ponies and infrastructure to use for her own ends later."

"That would fit in with what we know of Faust's plans," Celestia agreed. "You still haven't suggested what she might be doing now though."

"Now?" Luna shrugged again. "Fortifying her position in Vanhoover probably, while she rebuilds the railway between there and Mareitania, giving her a speedy and reliable supply line. If I'm right about that, it should give us a couple of weeks without incident to prepare. She also needs time to heal, so that may buy us time too."

"Prepare for what?"

Luna almost laughed at the question. "Anything!" she said. "As soon as I have some information on what's happening in Vanhoover, I'll be able to make some plans. If I'm honest, although I realise I pulled a lot of them early from their training, that extra month wouldn't account for how poor some of them performed. Especially the Air Corps."

"Just the Air Corps?"

"The Mage Corps were marvellous, but that's about it. The Earth Corps and the Uni Corps still need some work, while the Hard Corps were I feel ill suited to the sort of battle they were in. The only silver lining here is that with the Exiles' aid we were able to do significant damage to the Mareitanians griffon allies, meaning Equestria does at least own the skies for now."

"I still don't approve of you pulling ponies out of training early just because you found yourself short hooved."

"And I'm sorry for that," Luna said back curtly. "But between the unexpected attack on the Crystal Empire, and the effect that had on the crystal ponies, as well as everything else, we needed the troops. If we do have the time, I would like to have the Wonderbolts give the Air Corps a week or more of intensive training, while I keep my Night Guard and the Exiles available for duties."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at her sister, "And what duties might those be?"

"Once I know more, I'll tell you. Our reconnaissance flight should be returning before too long, and then we can make some plans. Until then, there's nothing more we can do, especially with General Stormguard off overseeing construction of the new Camp Freedom, and General Armour visiting the wounded with Cadence. Although, if you have some news for me concerning the Mareitanians employment of griffons, I'm all ears."

Celestia sat back and shook her head, "There's not much to say. From what I've heard off Deetra, there's no indication that the Emperor was involved, but that doesn't mean much. All it would take is one word from the right person to the Bloodfeathers to get them to offer their services to Faust, rather than have Faust ask them. I'm afraid we might never know the entire truth of the matter Luna."

"Then perhaps I better go visit our own intelligence ponies, to see if they have learnt anything."

Pinkie, Maud, and Marble sat quietly to side of Limestone's bed in Canterlot hospital, the only sound being that of the machines keeping her and dozens of other ponies alive until they had their time with one of Twilight's healing devices. None of them knew what to say to the others, which was helpful in some ways, as it stopped them saying the wrong thing.
Pinkie hated the silence though, and if nopony was going to say anything, then she was, even if it was irrelevant to the reason they were sat where they were.

"How's your shoulder Marble?"

"'s okay I guess. It aches a bit, but that's fine. I won't be able to get it healed until there's a device free, but that might take a while. I guess the queue's quite long if they haven't even gotten around to Limestone yet."

Pinkie nodded vaguely at Marble's words. "Are we going to talk about what happened?"

"What is there to talk about?" said Maud. "We lost, and Marble and Limestone got hurt. There are a lot of ponies who didn't come back at all, so you could consider us lucky."

"I don't feel lucky," Marble sighed.

"I do," Maud said back to Marble. "If Princess Luna hadn't found us, we could all be a lot worse off than we are now."

"What could be worse than this?" Pinkie asked.

"I could be dead for starters," said Limestone.

"Yah! Limestone!" Pinkie felt a smile tremble to life on her lips as Limestone half opened her eyes to look at them. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

Limestone chuckled weakly, "Not sure I call this okay Pinkie, but whatever."

"Should I call a nurse over?" Marble asked.

"Nah, I'm fine." Limestone started to push herself up, but gave up as her legs failed to let her do that, and the pain in her abdomen suggested staying still was a good idea. "Where are we?"

"Canterlot hospital," said Pinkie, her ears drooping. "A lot of ponies came here after what happened in Vanhoover."

"That was a bit of a shit-show," Limestone grunted. "Did we all get out? Where are Azure and Top Spin?"

"They're fine," said Maud. "They're getting something to eat."

Limestone sighed with relief and nodded, then remembered something. "Marble! Are you alright?"

"Mmhmm." Marble rubbed a hoof over the bandages on her shoulder, then stopped as she felt something more was expected of her. "I'm fine."

"Marble, you..." Limestone hesitated, not sure how much she wanted to bring the topic up again. "You said you didn't want to stay on the farm with me."

"I-uh... did, sort of." Marble shrank down, really not wanting to have this conversation, now or ever. The way Pinkie and Maud looked at each other didn't help either.

"Why?"

"Ummm..." Marble cursed internally as her voice tried to hide away. "Could we... maybe talk about this later?"

"No, I want to talk about this now."

"But there's nothing to talk about!"

"Yes there is Marble. Don't you try and pretend like you didn't say it. Tell me what you meant."

Marble almost didn't, but suddenly faced with this situation now, where Limestone for once couldn't do a thing against her. The only one she had to fight to be heard now was herself, as she screwed her face up trying to force the words out.

"Y-You... you-" Marble growled under her breath, and forced herself to say it, even if she had to shout it. "You bully me Limestone! You bully me! You talk to me like I'm dirt, you push me around, and you make me do horrible things! And you never do it when other ponies are around, and threaten to hit me if I tell somepony! Mother suspects you bully me, which is why she does so many things with me, to stop me being around you! Her hoof problems were cured months ago, but she kept up the pretence so I could get some peace. I never even helped her with it in the first place in fact!"

A shocked silence filled the room, and Marble curled up on herself as a lot of other ponies turned to look at her. "Sorry," she whispered, looking instead at the agonised expression on Pinkie's face. Maud appeared sad as well as she turned away.

"She really did that to you?" Pinkie asked squeakily, like she was nervous of the question.

"A week before you came home last she made me eat a worm. Pinned me down, forced my nose into the dirt, and made me eat it."

Maud turned her sad eyes back on Marble, "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Because I was scared to. Because I couldn't. I love you Pinkie, but the way you always talk for me left it so that I can barely talk for myself. And then you left, and suddenly I had no voice at all. Then you left as well Maud, and that's when Limestone started doing the things she did."

"Why Limestone?" Pinkie asked tearfully. She hated the idea of her twin getting bullied like that. In fact she hated the idea of it for anypony. "Why'd you do it?"

"Because... Because I'm angry! You and Maud get to go off and leave the farm and have fun lives, but I have to stay at the farm, and slave away, and basically have all my decisions in my life made for me! Nopony asked me if I wanted to inherit the farm! And nopony bothered to find out how I feel about having my life planned out for me! I'm angry, and Marble was the easiest target for me to take my frustrations out on, because I couldn't do anything to the two ponies making me so angry."

"Mum and Dad?"

"Exactly. Even now, I'm the one breaking my back to run the farm, yet Mum and Dad are the ones that get the final say in everything. I can't even count the times I've come up with new ideas, only to have them say 'that's not how it's done.' It's enough to make me scream at times."

"That didn't mean you had to bully Marble," Maud told her.

Limestone stared up at the ceiling and sighed. "I know, and I know it's stupid of me to say this, but I always hated myself for doing what I did to you Marble, but that only made me angrier. I'm sorry Marble, I really am. I swear I will never do anything like that to you again."

"Promise?"

"I promise. I just want us to all go home safe after this is over."

Marble thought about it, and if she were honest with herself, she still didn't want to be around Limestone all that much, but when she'd got hit by that spell in Vanhoover, it was Limestone who was there to drag her to safety. Not Pinkie, or Maud. Limestone. It was also Limestone that got herself hurt trying to save them. Maybe she deserved a little forgiveness.

"I forgive you, but if you ever treat me like that again, I'm gone. I'll move to Ponyville with Pinkie, and you'll be left alone to do all that backbreaking work that I also helped you with, even when you were grinding my face in the dirt."

Limestone nodded, tears in her eyes, even though she still managed to look angry. "I won't. I swear I won't. Thank you Marble." Limestone rubbed her tears away, then barked a laugh. "I haven't done this in a while. Feels pretty good actually."

Pinkie rubbed her hooves anxiously, not sure whether it was over or not. She felt terrible for not realising what had been happening to Marble, and the news that Marble didn't appreciate her doing all the talking left her feeling guilty. "I'm sorry too Marble. You were just so shy back when we were young. I thought I was trying to help you."

"I know Pinkie, I know."

"Ahem." All of them turned to whoever had tried to get their attention, and all that could jumped up to attention as they saw it was Shining Armour. "At ease. This is a hospital, not a parade ground. I'm just here to have a little talk with Limestone."

Pinkie pointed a hoof over her shoulder towards the exit, "Should we go?"

"No, you can stay since this does affect all of you in a way. It's about your unit, and how it fared in the last battle."

"What do you mean?" Limestone asked.

"From what I heard, you really took charge in Vanhoover Limestone. A lot of ponies probably owe their lives to you. Not many could have stepped up like you did right at that moment, which is why I'm placing you in command of your unit."

Limestone felt guilty for a moment, getting put in charge of her sisters after what they'd just been talking about, but she wasn't about to argue with the General. "Thank you sir."

"I'm also changing the Hard Corps," he told her. "I think that perhaps a unit of just earth ponies isn't the way forwards. Not that I'm doubting your abilities of course, but I could tell you not only worked better with a mixed unit, but that fighting in the city wasn't perhaps your thing."

"Sir?" Limestone glanced questioningly at her sisters, then up at the door into the room where Azure and Top Spin were drinking their coffees and listening in. "What do you mean?"

"I've been given permission to shift two unicorns from the Mage Corps into your unit, as their skills would complement your own wonderfully as they did in Vanhoover. I haven't decided who yet, but I'll-"

"Lyra Heartstrings and Crystal Moon," Pinkie said quickly.

"Excuse me?"

"They're two unicorns we shared a tent with in basic training," Limestone explained. "Both of them went on to join the Mage Corps, along with Pyrelight, but she's kind of a..."

"Stuck up bitch?" Azure suggested.

Limestone nodded in agreement, "Not my words sir, but yes."

Shining held back a smile, "I guess that saves me having to work out who would work best with you. I also believe I heard the name Pyrelight going in for psych evaluation after getting injured in the Crystal Empire, so she might not be an option anyway." He turned to Azure, giving her a look. "Even if she wasn't a stuck up bitch."

"She called me tacky sir. Only my mother gets to call me that."

Shining's brain hiccupped for a moment, then decided to ignore it had just heard. "Anyway, since you've decided who should join you, I'll leave you to rest." Shining stood and saluted Limestone, then was about to leave when he remembered something. "Hold on. Pinkie?"

"Uh, yes Shining, sir?"

"Cadence asked me to tell you that Rainbow's here as well. Not for anything serious," he added quickly, seeing Pinkie's horrified expression. "Cadence thought seeing you might cheer her up a bit. She's in the minor injuries unit if you want to see her."

"Uh... um." Pinkie smiled apologetically at Limestone, who rolled her eyes.

"Go on Pinkie."

"Thanks Limestone, uh, sir, ma'am, sir. That's going to take some getting used to to. See ya later." Pinkie rushed out of the door and went left, following the signs down the clean white corridors until she found the minor injuries unit. Cadence was just leaving it, but stopped when Pinkie gave her a cheery greeting.

"Oh good Pinkie, I'm glad to see you're alright. I'm sorry your sisters got hurt."

"And I'm sorry your Empire got taken away by that mean ole Faust."

"We'll get it back one day Pinkie. For now though we still have the Crystal Heart, which is something. Or it will be once Celestia and I work out a way to get it working again, even a little."

"I'm sure you'll work it out. But what about you Cadence? Are you okay?"

"I'm-" Cadence closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm keeping it together Pinkie. Between all this and losing the Empire, it's a lot to handle, and it's only going to get worse." Cadence's eyes went wide as she realised what she'd just said. "Sorry, I just- Sorry. I need to go see Celestia. It was nice to see you Pinkie."

"And you Cadence." Pinkie waved after Cadence as the flustered alicorn stopped just short of actually running away. Then she let her hoof fall back to the ground, sad to see Cadence so upset, even if she was trying to hide it. Knowing she couldn't do anything about it, she pushed the door open to the minor injuries unit and walked in.

There weren't as many ponies in here, with what few there were getting small cuts and scrapes seen to. Rainbow was easy enough to find as she grunted and cursed under her breath, her rainbow tail swishing irritably off the side of a bed as a unicorn stitched her injuries up.

"Aww Rainbow! Not your pretty face!"

Rainbow didn't even need to look to see who had spoke to her. "Thanks Pinkie, that makes me feel soooo much better."

"Oh. Heh-heh, sorry. What happened to you?"

"A griffon happened to me. Hooked a claw behind my goggles and did this. I think I came out slightly better than he did though."

"Oh? What happened to him?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, then winced as it stung. "I killed him Pinkie. What did you think I meant?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that you need to work on your definition of slightly."

"I'll get riiiight on that. Anyway, what are you doing here Pinkie?"

"Limestone and Marble got hurt in Vanhoover, and they brought them here to get fixed up."

"Oh, well, sorry to hear that." Rainbow went quiet as the unicorn finished with her stitches, then sat up so she could finally see Pinkie. Her face felt uncomfortably tight with the stitches, but there wasn't much she could do about it. The healing devices were being prioritised for ponies with serious injuries, so hers didn't even get a look in.

"Hmm, it's not that bad I guess."

"Still not helping Pinkie."

"Sorry." Pinkie smiled apologetically, "I'm not really sure what to say now. What about the rest of your squadron? Are they okay?"

It took a moment for Rainbow to answer, and when she did her voice was no louder than a mouse's. "We lost Fire Streak."

"Aww no." Pinkie held her legs open, offering a hug, but Rainbow waved her off. "Okay then. I'm sorry for your loss. Who's going to lead you now?"

"Lightning Dust."

"Really? Not you?"

Rainbow cracked a weary grin at Pinkie, "Nope. Apparently I'm too reckless."

"Is that- Is that like a codeword for awesome? It feels like it should be."

"It should be, but while Fire Streak knows I'm a great flier, he wanted somepony else to lead the squadron, which I'm actually fine with. I guess I do have a tendency to go and do my own thing in battle sometimes, and leading the squadron would only mess that up for all of us." Rainbow shrugged at the situation, "So yeah, not bothered."

"Wait, wasn't Lightning Dust way more reckless than you back at Wonderbolts Academy? Isn't that part of why she got kicked out?"

"Yep," Rainbow laughed. "Now it seems like we've gone and switched places. I do the stupid things trying to win, and she's, well, probably more sensible than me."

"As long as you don't go getting yourself really hurt doing something silly."

Rainbow puffed her chest out, ready to brag that nothing like that would ever happen to her, but she soon deflated as she knew it could, and she knew Pinkie knew that too. "I'll try," she said instead. "I wish I could stay and chat more, but I only came to get some stitches. We're going to be heading out to the Wonderbolts' h.q. soon to give those ponies in the Air Corps a week or two of intensive training. Gotta get them ready for what this war's going to throw at us."

"Aww, shoot. And here I was hoping to go on a shopping trip around Canterlot. Oh well."

"Yeah, no, and not just because I hate shopping. Seeing Rarity's shop..." Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "I'm not sure I can handle that."

"I guess. I miss them too." This time it was Rainbow who offered the hug, and far be it from Pinkie to turn it down. "None of this should be happening."

"I know Pinkie. I know."

If Rainbow hadn't been flying, her hooves would've dragged the entire way back to where the Wonderbolts were located at the edge of Canterlot park, which itself was at the edge of Canterlot. Bringing up Rarity's boutique had really bothered her, because now she was really thinking about it, and she did miss them a lot. A messed up part of her almost wished she'd been captured as well so she could be with them.

She knew that was stupid though, and tried to pay the thought no mind, because Pinkie was still here, and Twilight was out there somewhere. Rainbow winced as she thought of Twilight. There was a pony she owed some apologies to, although Twilight would probably be the one apologising for getting them into this situation, even if that wasn't really necessary. The fact was, both her and Pinkie had killed now, and even if they hadn't killed in the quantities Twilight, or with anywhere near the same proficiency, they still had no right to judge her.

Rainbow laughed shortly at herself, agonising again over what she was going to do and say the next time she saw Twilight. It was such a silly thing to spend her time thinking over when she had far more pressing issues to deal with.

"About time you got back," Spitfire said as Rainbow slowly flew in over the mass of Wonderbolts and Air Corps ponies. "We were almost ready to set off without you."

"Sorry Captain. I was getting my face stitched back together."

"Uh-huh, I know, but now you're once again as pretty as a picture, you should get yourself ready to move out." Spitfire suddenly took a less serious stance and sighed. "Maybe you should have a talk with Lightning Dust as well. I don't think she's taking to her new role very easily."

Rainbow saluted Spitfire, "Yes Captain." Rainbow held the salute until Spitfire returned it, then searched through the assembled ponies until she found Lightning Dust slowly packing her gear, like she was on autopilot. "Lightning? Hello? Ground control to Squadron leader Dust? Can you hear me?"

"Squadron leader Dust..." Lightning closed her eyes and laughed bitterly. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"Why not? You pretty much got promoted to a Lance Corporal when you were picked to lead your wing, so Squadron Leader isn't that big of a jump."

"Has it never struck you as odd that in the academy you train in pairs, but on active duty you work in threes?" Lightning waited for Rainbow to give an answer, but all she did was shrug. "Lead pony and wing pony. So simple, but now we have squadrons, and wings, and actual ranks, with an unspoken authority over the Air Corps, even when some of them might technically outrank you. I actually need to think about this stuff now, as well as the wellbeing of my squadron."

"Y'know, you could refuse the position if you want. Fast Clip's a senior Wonderbolt, so I'm sure he could take the position."

"He's also too cautious," said Lightning, "and so is Pizzelle's wing. I'm not entirely sure why you weren't considered, but if Fire Streak chose me, then he must think I can do it."

"He thinks I'm too reckless," Rainbow told Lightning with a laugh. "Apparently I've taken your old place in things. Guess he thought I'd push the squadron too hard if I was in charge."

"Maybe. Or maybe he doesn't think we're ready to weaponise sonic rainbooms yet."

Rainbow smiled at the idea, "As awesome as that would be, I don't think it'd really have the effect you want. Even if I could turn it into a destructive force, it'd be pretty... What's the word?"

"Indiscriminate?"

"Yeah, that."

"Then perhaps we could work on something else." Lightning glanced around surreptitiously before whispering to Rainbow. "You know the old stories about how pegasi could throw lightning off their wings?"

"Yeah, of course."

"I've been trying to do it, in my free time, and I think I might be getting close."

"Really? I'm not going to say it's impossible, because I've done plenty of impossible things, but you have to forgive me if I don't totally take you at your word."

"That's fair," said Lightning, "but I'm not joking. You already know how to do a lot of it with those lightning contrails you used in the shows. The secret is to take the energy from that contrail and direct it somehow."

"Somehow," Rainbow deadpanned.

"It's harder than it sounds, and I'm still working on the details yet, but yeah. If we can work this out Rainbow, we'll give ourselves a much better chance. Imagine how effective we'd be if we could attack from range!"

"Alriiiight," Rainbow said slowly, stretching the word out as she thought about it. "I guess that does sound good, in theory. If you think we can do it, then I'm game. Frankly it sounds way too cool to not even try."

"Sweet! I know we'll be busy for a lot of the time, but hopefully we can get some time to work on it. Maybe I can even pull rank to get us some private time to do it."

"So long as you don't call it that. You and me having private time? Ponies are going to talk. You already know the amount of talk that goes around about Spitfire's and Soarin's private time."

"Aww, but I might have the hots for you now you look like such a badass."

Rainbow placed a hoof on Lightning's chest and pushed her away. "You're a regular Casanova Lightning, but no thanks. Everypony already knows I'm in a polygamous relationship with Cloud and Thunderlane."

"You are?"

"Pfft, no. I wouldn't dream of getting into the middle of whatever those two have going on. Just like you'd never get into the middle of whatever Sky and Vapor have-"

"As soon as Sky works it out."

"Yeah. Do you think we should tell him one day that Vapor really wants nothing more than to ride his gigglestick?"

Lightning made a bemused face at Rainbow. "Gigglestick?"

"That's the kind of thing that happens when you hang around Pinkie too much," Rainbow groaned. "Anyway, what I was going to say before we went flying off course, was that I think we should get our wingponies involved. Six ponies could probably work this out faster than two. That, and watching Sky electrocute himself a few dozen times would probably be funny."

Lightning stroked her chin and smiled deviously, "You make an intriguing case Rainbow, as seeing Sky in self-inflicted pain can be amusing. Alright, let's do it. But try and keep it quiet until we really work it out. No point in getting ponies excited if we can't actually figure out how it's done."

"Awesome. Think of the difference this could make if we pull this off."

"I know, and if it can keep the squadron alive, all the better."

"Let's move it out ponies!" Spitfire shouted, pulling them away from their conversation.

"Guess we better teach these scrubs how to fly properly first though," said Lightning.

Fleur massaged her eyelids, trying to ease the strain of looking at, well, anything. Equis had been busy over the last few days, trying to pull off an operation that had resulted in the capture of several Mareitanian Shades, which was great, right up until the invasion began. Now it seemed so insignificant in comparison, and judging by the attitude of some within the organisation, a total surprise.

Fleur had often been left with the feeling that some ponies in Equis had thought they could avert the invasion by ending the short term threat posed by the Shades, as those had been the only active threat within Equestria. Until now at least. Fleur hadn't thought like that once, but that could be down to a better understanding of how Mareitanians operated. You think us sneaking around your country couldn't get worse? Hold my beer.

"And now we're all going to hell in a hoofbasket," Fleur muttered to herself, forcing her eyes open to once again read through the reports she'd been given. The last twenty-four hours since Vanhoover had fallen seemed to accrue a large amount of paperwork, a lot of it saying the same things.

Fleur was about ready to scream quietly into her coffee when somepony knocked at the door to her tiny office. Before she could even pull together the mental wherewithal to tell the pony to enter, the door was pushed open, letting Luna into the room.

"Luna! Uh, hello! Um..." Fleur quickly gathered the mass of papers into some semblance of tidy. "Sorry about the mess."

"That's quite alright Fleur. I'd rather see you being messy and busy at this time than otherwise."

"You're not wrong there. I'd be worried if we didn't have anything to do after all that's happened. I don't suppose you've come to ask about our new prisoners?"

"New prisoners?" Luna pulled up a cushion to sit opposite Fleur. "I've not heard anything of any new prisoners. Who are they?"

"Shades. We found some decent information on some Shades operating within Equestria, so we pulled together an operation a few days ago and captured some. I think you were on your way to the Bulwark at the time, so you may have missed it."

"That is indeed good news, but it's not why I'm here. Did you at least get some useful information out of them?"

"Not as yet," Fleur said tiredly. "They're as tight lipped as the Shades Twilight captured back in Ponyville. Fanatical to the last, every one of them."

"A pity. Still, we have higher priorities now. Have your reconnaissance flights over Vanhoover turned up anything yet?"

Fleur pulled a face. "Yeesss, but I really wish you hadn't stopped us from using the Wonderbolts, because they were so much better at it."

"Forgive me, but the Wonderbolts have other duties to attend to."

"And I appreciate that, but I'm still saying that they were so much better than our own fliers. Our fliers don't seem to want to get that close to things, meaning that we might miss something important."

"You have misgivings about how they operate?"

Fleur hesitated, not wanting to throw anyone under the cart, but she also felt now was as good a time as she would ever have to get some things off her chest. "If I'm honest Luna, I have misgivings about how the entirety of Equis operates."

"Oh?" Luna raised an eyebrow at Fleur, "Do tell."

"Alright, well, for starters... what is it Muckraker and Eclipse actually do?"

"What do you mean? They are the heads of Equis Fleur, their position is very important. The decisions they make could affect a great many things."

"Really? I thought that as the Supreme Commander, or whatever you are, that you would have the final say in those decisions."

"I can't do everything Fleur."

"So if I told you that our agents in Mareitania captured Honeydew, the Mareitanians Chief Engineer, while destroying the remains of the airship you parked in their tank production facilities, you're fine with letting us get on with that?"

"What? I wasn't informed of that?"

"They thought it was beneath your notice."

"I think I'll decide what's benea-" Luna stopped, suddenly catching on to what Fleur was saying. "I see. Perhaps I ought to have a little talk about this with both Muckraker and Eclipse. Since we're here though, why did they capture Honeydew?"

"Actually they found her, and she surrendered for the same reasons she defected during the civil war. She just wants to get away from ponies using her to build weapons for wars she wanted no part of. In exchange, she was willing to let our agents use her knowledge of Mareitania's inner workings."

"And she was unaffected by Faust's mind magic?"

"She did seem to be."

"Then I see no issue with giving her a chance. If she could help slow down the Mareitanians war machine, all the better."

"That's what I thought. Muckraker and Eclipse thought differently."

Luna went quiet, and Fleur swore she could feel the disappointment radiating out from her. "What did they do?" she asked coldly.

"They ordered her death, to stop her falling back into Mareitanian hooves."

Luna closed her eyes and sighed angrily. "I can understand their line of thought in that, but did they not think that a slight modicum of effort from our agents, and maybe a disguise, would prevent that? Do I still have a chance to rescind that order?"

"This was almost two weeks ago now." Fleur kept her face emotionless as she watched Luna's face fall. She knew Honeydew was alive and well, but wasn't about to share that fact until she was sure of Luna's reaction.

"Damn and blast! Honeydew was a victim of circumstance Fleur, and certainly deserved no such fate. I found her company to be quite pleasant in the short time I spent with her during the rebellion."

"Then it's a good job I convinced our agents to spare her."

Luna quickly breathed a sigh of relief, "Confound it Fleur! Couldn't you have told me that in the first place?"

"I wanted to be sure of your reaction. It's not as though I have the authority to countermand Muckraker's and Eclipse's orders."

"Not yet," Luna stated firmly. "I shall be having words with those two once we are done here. They shan't be pleasant. Although I shall keep your defiance of them quiet if you so wish?"

"Yes please. I already feel as if I'm doing half their work as it is without them having an actual reason to dislike me."

"Very well. Have our agents found any use for her knowledge yet?"

"Not as such," Fleur admitted. "Security has been increased considerably since their last mission in Stalliongrad. They want to pick their targets wisely if it's going to be worth the extra risk."

"Is that where the remainder of Faust's forces are?" Luna said thoughtfully, before brushing it off. "No matter. I am giving you full authority to decide our agents' actions in Mareitania, and will leave that all to you. I will still be having that talk with Muckraker and Eclipse though."

Fleur smiled gratefully at Luna, "Appreciated, although we should probably get on and discuss what you actually came here to talk about."

"Don't think I had forgotten Fleur. Now, please tell me there's some good news coming out of Vanhoover."

Fleur flicked through the papers on her desk until she found an aerial photo of Vanhoover that was at this point, eight hours old, but it was still the most recent they had. It was admittedly not much different to a photo of Vanhoover from before the war, save for the now destroyed Royal Canter building, but you could at least see where the Mareitanians were.

"With the Royal Canter blocking the main route through the city, they do seem to be taking a bit of time to clear it out of the way, which will take a while. They're also reconnecting the railway, as I believe you expected. Between those two things, they won't be doing much for a couple of weeks if they want the numbers to do those jobs quickly. In the meantime, they're fortifying their position in the city, and sending their griffons out on scouting flights around the city and down around Tall Tale. They don't seem to be going any further though."

"Probably afraid of being attacked while out on their scouting missions. I take it there hasn't been an increase in the number of griffons as yet?"

"None more than took place in the attack on the city. I couldn't say for certain if that means you've crippled the Bloodfeathers, but until we see more we can only assume this is all they have left."

"Yes..." Luna leant against Fleur's desk and rested her chin on a hoof. "Perhaps the situation isn't as immediately dire as I feared. With Faust possibly wounded, and with them clustered in Vanhoover, rather than both Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire, we do still have a chance to slow them down."

"Only slow them down?"

"We don't have the numbers to push them back from a fortified position, or even contain them if they decided to attack elsewhere, but with their griffons so reduced we have a chance to hurt and slow them."

"Uh..." Fleur glanced down at the photo, then back at Luna. "How? If you don't mind my asking?"

"By bombing the stuffing out of them. Thankfully we had the foresight to place most of our production of war materials on the east coast, far away from any potential fighting. That means there is nothing of much use to them in the city, and nothing we should fear destroying ourselves. Yes, nocturnal bombing strikes upon the Mareitanians should keep them distracted, and stop them from thinking we are so easily defeated."

"I'll leave that to you," said Fleur, and she meant it. The idea of doing that to ponies irked her, but not to the point she'd argue against it. Military stuff was for military ponies, not her. "Is there anything else I can assist you with until we get more information?"

"No Fleur, that'll be all for now, thank you. I will remind you that should you have issues with Muckraker and Eclipse again, you can come to both myself and my sister. Even Cadence has some authority over Equis, although I doubt she would care to exercise it."

"Of course." Fleur grinned cheekily, "What are you going to say to them?"

"Besides the obvious message to keep myself or Celestia in the loop, and that their authority is not absolute, I will take pains to remind them that neither of them are irreplaceable." Luna stood, followed by Fleur, the latter offering a small curtsey. "Good day to you Fleur."

"And you Luna." Fleur kept standing as Luna left, and was about to sit and get back to work when the filly scurried in through the still open door, followed by Octavia and Summer, who seemed disappointed that Luna had brushed past them without so much as a hello. "I wasn't expecting to see you two," she said, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Are you even allowed in here?"

"Apparently we get off lightly for our previous service to the country. Frankly I consider that to be bullshit seeing as how that service had led to our current problems." Octavia shrugged nonchalantly, "I suspect the truth is they don't care enough to stop us."

"Besides, they let me in," the filly said, jumping on the cushion Luna had vacated seconds earlier. "I'm probably the least trustworthy of all of us."

"That's another thing," said Fleur. "Why aren't you at the hospital for your treatment?"

"Probably because of all the wounded ponies there," the filly replied. "Didn't have any healing thingies spare to use on me, so I have to go back tomorrow, or the day after. I was on my way back here when I ran into these two."

"Oh, yes. I suppose that's rather obvious in hindsight." Fleur rubbed the side of her head, hoping to dislodge the fatigue clouding her mind. A solid eight hours of sleep sounded like a distant dream at this moment though. "Sorry," she mumbled, realising she'd gone quiet. "What brings you two here?"

"I'm sure you've heard that the camp at Rainbow Falls was abandoned," said Octavia. "On hoof as well, to avoid taking the train past the Crystal Empire.

"I guess that makes sense. Doesn't explain why you're here though."

"It's a long walk from Rainbow Falls to Manehatten, and during it, Summer and I decided we'd done enough. We've passed on what knowledge we could, and now we're returning home to Ponyville. We thought we'd head straight home from Manehatten, rather than go all the way to Baltimare, but then we decided to come see you as well."

"Oh. Well, I wish I could be more entertaining for you, but I'm afraid that I'm rather busy."

"We understand," said Summer. "We only wanted to make sure you and the filly were okay."

"As okay as we can be," Fleur sighed. "I wish I could say better, but-"

"I know Fleur," said Octavia. "I know. Not to change the subject too abruptly, but I do have something I wanted to ask you, since I thought you might know."

Fleur offered Octavia a smile, "That depends entirely on the question, but I can at least try to help."

"Right, well, I was wondering, since I still feel bad about not going with them, has anypony heard off Twilight and Trixie?" As soon Octavia finished asking she suspected something was up as Fleur made a face and chewed on her bottom lip. "What's wrong?"

"We've lost contact with them."

"What? When?"

"Weeks ago. Celestia suspects their speaker stone was damaged or destroyed."

"And you didn't tell us? Are they okay?"

"I have no idea. None of us do, because we lost contact with them, hence our dilemma. I only know this much because I heard a bit of conversation between Celestia and Luna talking about it. They seem to think that they're fine, and since this is Twilight we're talking about, I'm inclined to agree."

"But what if they're not? This entire war depends on them succeeding. What if they're... I don't know-"

The filly grinned at Octavia, "You were going to say dead weren't you."

"Yes, and that could still count for three out of four of them," Octavia replied haughtily. "I'm just questioning whether it's right to keep fighting when there may be no chance of winning without Twilight's solution."

"I guess we just need to have faith," said Summer.

Fleur pointed a hoof at Summer, "Exactly. Twilight won't let us down. All we have to do is make sure she has the time she needs to fix this."

Octavia crossed her forelegs and gave Fleur a cool stare. "War is pretty famous for creating problems, not fixing them."

The filly shrugged lazily at Octavia, and spoke before Fleur could. "It worked in Mareitania."

"Yes, and now look at the problem it created."

The filly held a hoof up, but let it drop as her argument died before it could even begin. "Shit."

"Indeed." Octavia stood and smiled tightly at Fleur and the filly. "I really do wish we'd gone with them. I feel so stupid now for refusing at the time."

"I said we should have gone with them!" the filly squeaked irritably.

Fleur ruffled the filly's mane with a hoof, "I know, and we should have listened. Too late now anyway. I guess from the way you're standing that means you're going?" she asked Octavia.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I was hoping for better news. Now I feel even worse about this whole situation than I did before, and there's no point in us interrupting your work any longer just so we can mope. Our train to Ponyville leaves in a bit as well, so it's probably best we get out of your mane."

Fleur smiled gently at both Octavia and Summer. "I'm guessing we won't be seeing you for a while?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Octavia said back. "While I have no intentions of leaving Ponyville for a while, I suspect we'll see each other at some point. Goodbye Fleur. Goodbye filly."

"Bye," both Fleur and the filly said, neither of them feeling particularly enthused as the two ponies turned and left.

"This is super depressing," the filly sighed, flopping onto the cushion opposite Fleur.

"No kidding." Fleur cupped her chin in a hoof and stared blankly at the wall for a few seconds. "Filly, I don't know about you, but I fancy moving to Ponyville once this is all over. Canterlot seems to have lost its charm these days."

"Uh-huh. When this is over, good ending? Or when it's over, bad ending?"

"Good ending preferably."

"Then yeah, count me in. The ability to annoy Trixie full time is way too good to pass up on." The filly rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't suppose you have some good news somewhere do you?"

Fleur reached into her desk and pulled out the speaker stone she used to keep in contact with Bon Bon and the other agents of Smile in Mareitania. "Let's find out shall we?"

"Am I even supposed to be here to hear all this?"

"Y'know what, I don't even fucking care any more."

Author's Notes:

It's come to attention that General Stormguard shares a name, sort of, with the Storm Guards from the movie. This is purely coincidental as he was named long before the film was announced. Still kind of annoying though, so I may have to kill him off.

Also, this chapter was weird and disjointed, and is one of those that leaves me feeling like I don't know what I'm doing.