"You can't be serious," Fleur said to Bon Bon as the plan was explained to her. "Killing all those ponies just to get back at one? Even if they are all tied up in supporting the war. And Lord Hayfield..."

"That's why we're putting this plan to you Fleur. I know you knew some of these ponies, so I thought I'd let you decide if you want to go ahead with this."

Fleur frowned to herself, trying to think of whether such a plan could be worth it. The problem was, besides the horrific nature of the plan, was that she didn't think it would have as much of an impact as it could. She suspected that Faust, or whoever's ruling in her stead while she was occupied with invading Equestria, would just near seamlessly take over all those industries essential to the war. They'd have killed all those ponies for almost nothing. The only death of any real effect then would be Lord Hayfield's.

On the other hoof, it could have exactly the outcome they desired. Fleur couldn't tell which would be the most likely to happen, or whether it was worth doing just in case. "I think I might have to put this to Luna. I'll be in touch Bon Bon, but for now, keep doing what you originally planned."

"Understood. Over and out."

Fleur sat there for a moment, idly tapping a hoof next to the speaker stone as she tried to think. "I am so not getting paid enough to do this."

Rising from her cushion, Fleur set off through the castle towards the war room, hoping to find Luna there, and also hoping that she might have a better perspective on what Bon Bon had proposed. At the very least she could take the decision off herself, absolving her of some of the responsibility.

The war room was mostly empty when Fleur got there, save for a few ponies that seemed to be purposefully avoiding the aggravated looking alicorn that was poring over the map on the large central table. Fleur walked quietly over to her, not wanting to disturb her until the last possible moment where she delicately cleared her throat.

"Hmm? Ah, Fleur, I was planning to come and see you in a little bit."

"You were?"

"Indeed. I received a report last night from my Night Guards bombing Vanhoover, telling me that the city was devoid of griffons. I was hoping Equis might have heard something."

"Not that I know of, and I'm pretty sure this is something they'd tell you as soon as they heard of it."

Luna growled a sigh, and stomped a hoof lightly next to the map. "Well if Equis doesn't know where they are, then just where exactly have they gone?"

"Maybe they withdrew their services from the war?" said Fleur. "There can't be that many of them left compared to when this started, so maybe they left to save their own skins."

"Unlikely. Bloodfeathers have never been known to renege on a contract, even if it means their own death. No, I suspect something far more sinister is a-hoof."

"Maybe they're doing what we did with the thestrals in Mareitania. Sending them out to cause as much disruption as possible. It'd also distract our own forces from what's going on in Vanhoover."

"That's what I suspected, but so far there's been no sign of any griffons anywhere, and no attacks." Luna shook her head and finally turned to face Fleur, "Maybe time will have to tell on that one. Anyway, since you've come up here I suspect it might be for a reason, so come, tell me what it is you want."

"Uh, sure. Do you remember Flicker? She was a Shade during the rebellion." Fleur waited for a moment for Luna to say something, but the Princess remained blank. "She's the one Seeker accused of being a spy? Broke three of her legs?"

"Ah yes. I still don't recognise the name, but I know who you mean."

"Right, well, our team in Mareitania found her."

"Then I can assume that there's one less Shade in the world. Excellent news."

"Not... quite. She joined them, and says she has a plan that could wipe out most of the nobles in Mareitania in one go, including Lord Hayfield."

"Then it is clearly a trap."

Fleur frowned at Luna's blunt statement, "How so?"

"Because she's under the influence of Faust, and couldn't possibly be working against her."

"Actually, her horn was damaged by Applejack when the Shades kidnapped her, so she's free from Faust's influence. Or claims to be at least. She did assist Bon Bon with eliminating a target. Anyway, Lord Hayfield is hosting a gala in a couple of weeks, and Flicker wants to either bomb it or burn it down. If we help her we could potentially do some damage to the Mareitanians industry, besides those we've destroyed directly."

"Is that so? How can we be sure the Council wouldn't just take direct control of those industries, thus gaining us very little?"

"It's a possibility, which I why I thought I'd bring it to you. At the very least, even if we don't get the best outcome, we don't lose anything."

"Are you sure about that? Think on this for a moment," Luna said slowly. "You said this is a gala, correct? With all the nobles."

"That's what I've been told, yes."

"Including their families? Children too? Innocents?"

"Ah." Fleur was ashamed that hadn't actually occurred to her.

Luna nodded at the sudden change in Fleur's stance. "I cannot condone the murder of children Fleur, even if the best possible outcome of this were guaranteed. Tell Bon Bon that we do not approve this mission, and that if Flicker is to attempt it alone, she has our permission to stop her, if that is what she wants."

"Understood. I suppose I should have thought of that myself."

"I don't fully suspect Flicker herself has thought of that, or is quite deranged if she has and still wants to go through with it. Does she have something against the nobles to propose such a plan?"

"Something to do with being abandoned at birth by her noble parents for being a unicorn. Typical Mareitania bull-shittery."

"I see. All the same we shall take no part in this, and will seek to prevent it as best we can." Luna smiled gently at Fleur, "This is exactly why I put you in direct control of our agents in Mareitania. Because you have the sense to ask me these things."

"Happy to help. If there's nothing else I can help you with, I should probably get back to work."

"Actually," said Luna," there's one thing, although it doesn't require much work on your part, if any. Do you remember the crystals we implanted into Bon Bon and her team?"

Fleur nodded unsurely, "Yeah, of course."

"Good, because with Faust now in Equestria, we cannot discount her trying to spread her influence to our ponies. We suspect that might have been why she tried to capture the Crystal Empire, to use its magic for that end."

"Okay, and the crystal implants?"

"We will be implanting them into all the citizens of Equestria, beginning with our military bodies, and including Equis. I thought I better warn you of this."

"Is that even possible? Implanting those into that many ponies?"

Luna shrugged at Fleur. "Doesn't matter. If we don't want Faust to take control of our ponies, it must be done. As it is, given enough time she could turn our own ponies against us, and we'd be at even greater odds of winning this war than we currently are. I rather suspect we should have been doing this from the very beginning."

"I see. In that case, could I request that the filly has one when I do? If it's not a problem, that is."

"I was about to offer you as much," Luna said with a smile. "I would say that's nepotism at its finest, but she'd receive one anyway. The families of those serving would be given priority anyway, so our soldiers have one less thing to worry about."

"Oh, okay. Thank you Luna. Does that mean Fancy Pa-"

Boom!

Fleur shrieked as an explosion shook the room like a foal with a toy, knocking her off her hooves, along with everypony else in the room. A cloud of dust fell from the ceiling, and Fleur covered herself with her legs, holding on for dear life as everything shook, then stopped. The sound of ponies shouting reached her, and she braved opening her eyes to find the room she was in was actually intact, and save from some dust was mostly undamaged. The explosion had been further away.

Luna was the first to her hooves, and galloped out of the door towards where the explosion had originated. Fleur followed her at a more sedate pace, as she suspected exactly where the explosion had been, as it felt like it came from where the offices of Equis were. She ground to a halt as the realisation hit that she'd probably have just been killed if she hadn't gone to see Luna.

"Oh fuck..." Fleur pressed a hoof to her chest as her breathing became rapid. "Oh fuck!"

"Are you alright miss? Are you hurt?" a Royal Guard asked, stopping by her as she sank to the ground.

"I'm fine! Just... go help the others!" Fleur stayed where she was as he kept running, and didn't move as even more guards ran past her. The only time she did move was when she felt the tips of feathers brush up her back, and she looked up into the worried eyes of Celestia. "Princess! I-uh..."

"Are you hurt Fleur?"

"No!" Fleur blurted, annoyed at being asked again when she was obviously uninjured. "No, I'm not," she said a bit calmer. "I just- I could've been in that. I could be dead right now..."

"Don't think of it like that Fleur," Celestia said kindly. "Perhaps you should go somewhere else while others take care of this."

"No," Fleur said firmly. "I can't just be pathetic and sit this out." Fleur pushed herself into a swift stride, forcing herself to confront the carnage through the double doors into the offices of Equis.

Immediately inside the doors wasn't too bad, save for some smoke and dust, as well as some rather ominous cracks in the walls. The worse part was the noise of the ponies wounded in the attack, even if there were only a couple dozen of them at most.

More ponies of the Royal Guard pushed by, followed by Celestia, who clearly had more on her mind than wanting to follow Fleur as she stumbled around numbly. Fleur shook the feeling off and followed the Princess, stepping over the increasing amount of ruin that lingered around the epicentre of the bomb, which was just outside the doorway of Muckraker's office. Or what was left of it, and the offices around it. Muckraker himself was gone, little more than a pile of gore in the corner, while Eclipse, although badly injured, was still alive if only just. Luna was by her side grasping her hoof as the mare struggled to breath through her ruined muzzle, and choked on her own vital fluids.

Fleur chose to say nothing, but stood there dumbly as Eclipse gave up her struggle for life, her blood pooling around her body. Fleur remained there as Luna stood and uttered a small prayer for the thestral. She supposed that considering the near religious reverence with which the thestrals held Luna, having her by your side as you lay dying was probably the best way a thestral could hope to go.

Her mind still reeling and numb from what had happened, Fleur left them, not wanting to intrude further on what was probably an incredibly private moment, Fleur decided to go investigate her own office a few doors down, not that there was much left intact between where she was and her office. She was unsurprised to find she couldn't get in as the ceiling had collapsed into it, the destruction of the bomb having a different effect here where the walls were for little more than show.

She eventually wedged the door open, and put everything she had into lifting the large chunks of ceiling off of her desk and searching the room, hoping beyond hope that something could be salvaged from this mess, but it seemed she wasn't even allowed to have that as the shattered pieces of the speaker stone she used to keep in touch with Bon Bon and her team tumbled from the wreckage of her desk. She gathered the pieces carefully, hoping that the princesses might have a way to repair it.

"It seems that even here isn't safe."

Fleur started at the voice, and quickly turned to find Luna stood in the doorway, her ears low, and her stance tired. "I'm sorry Luna."

"I don't believe you have anything to apologise for," Luna said back. She looked up at Fleur, and noticed what was held in her magic. "And the bad news continues pouring in," she sighed. "How could this have happened?"

"Can't you fix it?"

"Sadly not. If one stone is broken, you cannot repair it, or the connection between them. Did we not send spares with them?"

"One, but I kept my part of the spare in my desk, and..." Fleur gestured to the ruin of her desk, "Yeah... I guess that means that they're on their own now." She dropped the remains of the stone and sighed wearily.

"Nonsense," said Luna. "We shall simply have to deliver another to them."

"And how should we do that?"

"I'm afraid that is for you to decide."

"Me?"

"Indeed." Luna gestured for Fleur to follow her, leading her slowly out of the destroyed office. It struck Fleur that it seemed quieter now, and there wasn't a single wounded pony, or body, anywhere, leaving her to wonder just how long she'd spent in her office as she let Luna lead the way, ending up in part of the offices that weren't destroyed, or even damaged. "Not all of Equis was destroyed," said Luna, "but with Muckraker and Eclipse both... gone, it is currently leaderless."

"Oh boy, I can see where this is going."

"Can you indeed?" Luna stopped before the doors of the break room and opened them. Inside was a dozen individuals, consisting of ponies, two griffons, and a zebra. "This is all those that were neither killed or wounded in the attack. Our field agents are also still out there." Luna turned and smiled sadly at Fleur, "They are leaderless though, and I consider you the best pony here to lead them."

"I knew it. Seriously Luna? None of the ponies out there are even cold yet, and here we are sticking me in charge?"

"Without Equis, we have lost one of our eyes Fleur, and while I would like to stop and fix this properly, our enemy isn't going to wait for us. We need information, and we need a pony in charge."

Fleur groaned quietly, "Are you giving me a choice here?"

"Certainly."

Fleur snorted bitterly, seeing that choice for what it probably was. Each one of the people before her were just as qualified to lead, but because of her lovely past experience of being in charge of the Shades for a short time, the burden of leadership was being put on her. Once she hated not being at the heart of matters, and now she was getting her just desserts by being thrust into it. She could tell that Luna knew she wouldn't refuse.

"Fine, I accept," she said as begrudgingly as possible.

"Thank you Fleur. I still have much to do, so I shall leave you to it." Luna smiled sadly at Fleur again as she left.

Fleur stood dumbly staring at the floor for a moment, trying to think of what exactly she was meant to do now. The answer wasn't exactly rushing to her, as she now had to fix this before it fell apart further. Fleur had somewhat considered Equis to be a joke before, but now she'd reached the punchline it wasn't funny at all.

"Ma'am?"

Fleur looked up into the eyes of the cerise unicorn mare that had spoken to her, noticing the vivid streaks of colour under her eyes where her tears had washed the dirt on her face away. Fleur then blinked as she realised they were waiting on her. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I know this must be a shock to get put in charge like this. I mean, another shock after all that's happened."

"What? Not even twenty minutes after the bomb went off?" Fleur said sarcastically. "I find it amusing how this was the most important thing they could think to do." Fleur sighed as she noticed the way they were all looking at her. "Sorry. It's been a shit of a day."

"Actually, it's been more than an hour since the bomb went off," the male of the griffons informed her, not saying anything on whether he thought it was a shit day either.

"It has? Huh. Guess I spent more time searching my office than I thought." Fleur shook it off, "Anyway, while I would typically like to give you at least the rest of today off, it seems we don't have that luxury. Who was in charge of getting reports off our field agents?"

"That was Hessian and his team," said the unicorn mare. "They were all killed in the blast," she added quietly.

Fleur nodded and sighed, unsurprised by the news. "Okay, then first we need to salvage as much of their equipment as we can so we can at least maintain receiving information. Were they using speaker stones? Or something else?"

"Something else," said the unicorn. "Only unicorns can use the speaker stones. Our field agents were using a short distance communicator that consists of a gem matrix to generate a short wave-"

"Woah, I don't need to know how it works right now. What I do need is a pony capable of using this stuff. What's your name?"

"Celia, ma'am."

"Okay, Celia, I'm putting you in charge of salvaging our communications." Fleur pointed to a the rest of the ponies, "You help her for now." Fleur waited until they were gone, then pointed at the zebra stallion. "You, what's your job?"

"I'm a translator ma'am, and a code breaker. I speak most of the major languages from around the world." The stallion smiled sardonically at Fleur," I also make a mean cup of coffee, since languages and code breaking don't seem to be in high demand right now."

"Oookay... uh, since you don't have a high demand for any of that, can you start compiling a list of essential equipment we need to have replaced, such as communication devices, and stuff like that?"

The stallion nodded confidently," I can do that."

"Good. Go start with what Celia needs." Fleur pointed at the two griffons as the zebra left, a male and a female. "What's your job?"

"Aerial photography," said the male.

"I'm a field agent," said the hen.

"And what does that mean you do exactly?"

"Whatever you need me to. We're kind of trained to do everything that we might need to do out in the field. Recon, sabotage, you name it, we'll do it."

"Excellent. I have a special job for you then, although you're probably going to hate it. As for you," Fleur said to the male, "do we have up to date images of Vanhoover?"

"Sure, but they haven't been developed yet. You sent the mare that does it with the others."

"Do you know how to do it yourself?" The griffon nodded. "Then go do that, please." Fleur waited until he was gone, then turned her attention back to the hen. "Do you think I'm doing this right?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because a field agent probably knows more about this than I do. Anyway, I have a special job for you, and since you're a griffon you'll fit in nicely where I'm sending you."

The hen saluted Fleur, "Ready for anything ma'am."

"We lost our communications with our agents in Mareitania. Since we can't really leave them to their own devices, we need to re-establish contact with them. Basically, I need you to deliver a new speaker stone to them."

"Okay, no problem-"

"We're not entirely sure where they are though."

"Oh."

Fleur smiled sympathetically at the griffon, "As I said, you're probably going to hate this job. I can give you a list of places they might be over the next couple of weeks, but you're pretty much going to have to find them yourself."

"Understood. When am I leaving?"

"As soon as you're packed and ready to go. Obviously the idea here is to not get caught, but I'm not about to tell you how to go about this. I'll also have to organise one of those crystals that give you immunity to Faust's mind magic before you go as well. As soon as it's delivered, return here, and hopefully we might be a bit more organised by then."

Romantically speaking, Fleur wanted the throne room to be quiet, with ponies mourning the loss of those that had died that morning. Fleur also knew she was being stupid, because as she more realistically expected, it was hectic. Ponies scurried around, doing whatever was bidden by Celestia who was sat upon her throne at the far end of the room.

Fleur had actually been expecting Luna to be here as well, but the dark blue alicorn was missing. Who was there though, was Fancy Pants. "Fancy? What are you doing here?"

"Fleur!" The large stallion ran over and swept Fleur up in a hug. "Thank goodness you're alright! I've been so very worried!"

Fleur idly patted Fancy on the back, scared to move more as it felt like her bones were grinding together. "I'm fine Fancy, really. You didn't just come here to check on me did you?"

"While you were my main concern, you aren't my only one. The fact is that this attack was allowed to happen because a large number Canterlot's guard has been deployed elsewhere, leaving the city poorly defended."

"That's ridiculous Fancy."

Fancy looked like he'd been slapped. "Excuse me?"

"The difference between a dozen guards or a single one in this case is zero. We have no idea how this bomb got here, and any pony with the right passes could have waltzed in and planted it. Unless you're planning on restricting travel into the city to those without proper security clearance, the amount of guards won't make a difference. In fact, you'd need more guards, when there simply aren't any."

Fancy was stunned into silence for several seconds, and spluttered incoherently for even longer. "Are you saying that there's no way to prevent such catastrophes from happening again?"

"Not easily, and not without the risk of harming the liberties of Equestria's citizens. I doubt Celestia would ever agree to anything like that. What should have happened though, is that everypony coming into the castle should have been searched, but again, a pony with the right passes to get in the Equis offices would probably have been let off."

"As we are well aware," Celestia said, having walked up while the two ponies were talking. "I've already had my Captain question the ponies that were supposed to be checking those entering that part of the castle, and apparently they've not been searching ponies for a while now."

"What?" said Fleur, surprised. "Why not?"

"Because they came to recognise the ponies moving in and out of there, and got lazy. What we do know is that a stallion they didn't recognise entered the offices this morning, with the right passes, and since he didn't leave, we're assuming that the scant remains of the pony we found at the bomb site was in fact the bomber. Whether he intended to die in his own attack we don't know, but this does mean we have no way of finding out who he is, or why he did it."

"But how would he have the right passes?" Fleur asked, although she didn't expect an answer.

"That's just it," said Celestia. "I've had most of my guards questioned, and apparently this pony has entered and left the castle quite a few times over the last month, but today was the first time he's ever gone to the offices of Equis. I suspect they've been planning this for a while, and used their previous visits to either steal passes, or learn what they look like to forge their own."

"I guess we still haven't got all the Shades operating in Equestria then..." Fleur ran a hoof back through her mane and sighed. "Or we missed one, and this is a revenge attack. I would say Equis is on the case, but we really, really aren't right now."

"Surely Muckraker could spare a pony or two to investigate?" Fancy said, although a little unsurely as he saw the way Fleur was acting.

"Muckraker's dead, and so is Eclipse, and so are a lot of the other ponies that worked there."

Fancy Pants' mouth hung open, having not realised in the slightest just how bad the damage was. "But I've known Muckraker since we were colts..."

"I'm sorry Fancy," Fleur said softly.

Fancy closed his eyes and bit back a curse, only opening them again when he felt ready to. "So who's leading Equis now that Muckraker is no longer with us?"

"Me," Fleur said simply. "I think the technical term is Director, but I honestly don't care about that. It does give me a unique perspective on how well Equis is performing though, and since we missed this coming in the first place, it's not great news." Fleur patted Fancy on the side in a semi comforting way, then turned to Celestia. "I don't suppose I could request that you search everypony coming into the castle?" Fleur didn't say that she thought that was what was happening anyway. It certainly should have been in her opinion.

"I was planning on doing so, yes."

"Good. Thank you Celestia." Fleur gave the Princess a small curtsey, then turned to leave, thinking that Luna was probably in the war room if she wasn't here.

"Fleur, wait."

Fleur stopped as Fancy jogged up to her, his face creased with concern. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Fancy, I'm still breathing, and I have a job to do. I know you're worried about me, and that's totally fair if I'm honest, but really, I'm fine. I have too much to do to have a breakdown over this anyway. Speaking of too much to do, do you mind picking Swift up from school and taking her to her treatment?"

"But she usually goes on her own."

"I know, but I get the feeling she'll come running here if you aren't there to stop her. Honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't escaped school to come here already. Tell her I'm fine, and that I'll see her later."

Fancy seemed like he was going to argue for a moment, but he eventually relented. Fleur did feel sorry for him, as this was clearly too much for him to handle. "Very well, but I won't be held responsible for anything past her having her treatment. That filly's slipperier than an eel at times."

"I know. It's great isn't it?"

"Hardly the word I would use."

"I know." Fleur pecked Fancy on the cheek and smiled at him, "Thank you Fancy. I'll see you later."

"Fleur, please take care of yourself."

Fleur nodded and smiled again, then left, making sure to keep a small amount of bounce in her step. It was purely for Fancy's benefit though, because as soon as she was out of sight she stopped and leant against the nearest wall to groan in frustration. She must've knocked her head at some point today, because none of this was making sense to her. The bomb, ponies dying, getting make head of Equis... In her head she was still laying on the floor after the explosion.

"Fuck everything," she muttered, pushing herself back upright and making her way to the war room in the hopes of tracking down Luna. Thankfully the alicorn was where she thought this time, although Luna didn't seem to be in any position to be useful, slumped as she was over the centre table, all alone. "Luna?"

"Hmm? Oh, apologies Fleur."

"Guess I'm not the only one a bit put out by today." Fleur sat down next to Luna and crossed her legs on the table. "Do you want a pep talk?"

"No, no thank you. I was only thinking."

"What about?"

"About the fact that we've managed to teach the Mareitanians how to wage war better than even we can ourselves. The Adepts, the Shades, those earth ponies in heavy armour... Did they ever get a name?"

"Actually I don't think those were our idea as such. All our ponies had decent armour, and we didn't exactly have a need to break through unicorn shields. They just took the heavy armour idea and ran with it."

"Ah, my mistake. I would say that it was a good job that the pegasi left there since I wouldn't want to fight them as well, but they hired griffons instead. Although, I dare say the griffons were less effective than they hoped."

"Or we're better than we thought?" Fleur grinned as Luna snorted a single laugh. "Thank goodness we didn't do more to make the Mareitanians stronger. Imagine what would've happened if we let Trixie teach dark magic. Good job Twilight put a stop to that idea."

"Indeed, because that would nullify one of our potential advantages."

Fleur gawped at Luna, "You cannot be serious. Dark magic? Really? You're really considering it?" Fleur frowned as Luna looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "Good grief. Trixie was terrifying enough on her own, but a thousand more like her?" Fleur shuddered. "I guess the only good thing I can say is that the war would've been over in a fraction of the time."

"I had the thought back in Vanhoover," Luna murmured. "I had dismissed it, but today seems to have brought it back to mind. I have no plans to train thousands in its use, but even a few would make a difference." Luna shrugged, "It matters not, as I have no real wish to do such a thing."

"Good. And I mean that. We should at least try to maintain some integrity."

"Quite," Luna said, although she didn't really mean it too much. Integrity meant nothing to dead ponies after all. "Anyway, I doubt this was supposed to be a social visit. Do you have something you need of me?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Our griffon field agent here is going to deliver a new speaker stone to Bon Bon, but I need a stone to send with her, and I think she better get one of those implants that protects you from Faust's influence."

"Very well. Have her report to the medical staff in the castle for her implant, and I'll have the stones ready for you by the end of the day."

"Thank you Luna. Now, uh, no offense, but shouldn't there be something you could be doing instead of stewing here like this?"

"I've contacted our new training camp and other military bases, and none of them have been attacked, so that's something I don't need to worry about. Other than that, my ability to plan has been stymied for now until Equis gets back on its hooves a little bit. We don't know what Faust is planning in Vanhoover, and we don't know where the griffons are, or what they're doing."

"We'll have some recent aerial photographs soon, and hopefully some up to date news once our communications are brought back up." Fleur stood back up and waited for Luna to do something, but all she did was trace a hoof over the table in a circle. "Luna, what the hell is going on with you? Get up. Do something."

"And I shall." Luna stood and looked Fleur in the eye. "Not even I am immune to despair Fleur. Faust is coming, and if she is to be believed, she has something unpleasant in mind for myself and every other alicorn. Then there's the fact that she's attacking Equestria, and, well, winning thus far. Then her agents almost destroyed Equis this morning, as you well know. Excuse me for taking a few minutes to gather my thoughts."

"I'm sorry, but I saw that look on Twilight's face enough times during the rebellion to know when a pony just wants to wallow in misery."

"And like her, I apparently have ponies willing to drag me out of it." Luna managed to give Fleur a tiny smile. "Anyway, you are right in that I do have much to do. I shall be with Cadence in the castle's observatory, working on the Crystal Heart if you need me."

"Please tell me there's good news," Fleur said to Celia as she made her way back to the ruined offices of Equis, where the ponies she'd sent to scavenge their communications were sifting through the rubble, along with a significant number of Royal Guards. There were also others there, shoring up the building, and if things weren't so dire, Fleur might have suggested leaving until they were done.

"There's some good news," Celia said, flicking her dusty pale violet mane aside with an equally dusty hoof. "We've managed to recover some of the sets, but I'd say we're probably not going to get any more out of this mess."

"How many is some?"

Celia winced, "Less than half. But, we can use one to contact multiple agents, so we can still get in touch with those out in the field. Msemaji has already listed what we need, and we'll have the requisition forms filled out soon."

"Muzzy-who?"

"Msemaji," Celia repeated. "The zebra."

"Ah, okay. Have you heard anything from anypony yet?"

"Not yet. I think the transmitter in the castle must have been damaged, because all I'm getting is a load of garbled nonsense. One of the others is up with it now, so hopefully we can get the sets we do have working."

Fleur regarded the boxy device in front on Celia, with all its switches, and buttons, and... other things she didn't understand. All she could do was take Celia's word for it. "Has our aerial photographer come back with anything yet?" she asked instead.

"Derrek said the developing stuff was ruined by the dust, so he's had to clean the whole thing and replace it all."

"Okay, I'll go check on him now." Fleur left them to it, and headed towards the rear of the offices to where the dark room was located. The damage didn't seem anywhere near as bad back there, with only some cracks in the walls, and a coating of dust hinting at anything having happened at all.

Again this all felt far too surreal to her, and Fleur found herself wondering what would have happened had this been in a public place. Was this all being kept relatively quiet because it was in the castle? Or was the lack of panic more noticeable because that's what you'd expect? All the things that should have happened, happened as they should, but then it all seemed to go back to relative normal instead of being a massive thing, which it was.

Fleur stopped with her magic gripping the door handle of the dark room. Was this bomb expected? Was that why it seemed to have absolutely no fanfare around it? Or was it herself that was missing things, focused as she was on dragging Equis back up out of the dust and ashes? Did it even matter?

Fleur decided it probably didn't, and finally pushed open the door. Beyond was as she expected; a dark room with a red glow, and a griffon developing photos which hung from a short line over the bench. She acknowledged Derrek with a quick nod, then picked up the nearest image on the line. It depicted some ponies hard at work clearing up the remains of the Royal Canter, clearing the way for their tanks and everything else to move through the city. That wasn't exactly new information though.

Fleur replaced the picture, then picked up the next, then the next, trying to find something new in the details, but all they seemed to show was the Mareitanians clearing up, repairing the train line, and otherwise making themselves at home. The only thing majorly different was the city getting increasingly damaged by the bombing the Night Guard were dropping nightly. It didn't seem to be having much impact though, not with the small bombs they were dropping.

"Notice anything missing?" Derrek asked Fleur after a couple of minutes.

"We already know there's no griffons."

"Not jus' them. There's no tanks either. They hid them after the first night, although I don't know why they needed to."

"I'm guessing to protect them," Fleur replied snarkily.

"Not what I mean. What I mean is, why hasn't Faust simply shielded the city? Did her lil bout with Princess Luna hurt her that much that she can't even do that?"

"Maybe," Fleur murmured. "Obviously we'll have to keep an eye on it." There was a short sharp knock at the door, "Come in."

The griffon hen from earlier came in, dressed in the mismatched yet effective armour the Bloodfeathers. "Sorry to disturb you. I've had the implant, and the new speaker stones have been dropped off, along with a spare set for them. Do I have your permission to start tracking Bon Bon and her team down?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Fleur was a little bit put out by the idea that these people needed her permission to do something, but she supposed it made sense, and it at least stopped her from wondering if the griffon had left or not. The perks and pitfalls of being the boss. "Hold on, do you even know where you're going?"

"On the map, yes, but actually finding them is the trick here."

"Alright then, but I suppose I better tell you that there's six of them now. The extra ones are a blue earth pony, and a dark grey unicorn."

"Understood ma'am. Hopefully I won't be gone too long."

"Hopefully," Fleur repeated as the griffon saluted and went on her way. "Hopefully you'll find them before they do something terrible."

"Ma'am?"

Fleur jolted as Derrek spoke to her, having completely forgotten he was there. "Sorry, what?"

"Why would Bon Bon and her team do something terrible?"

"I'm hoping they won't. It doesn't matter. When are you next due out to take more photos?"

"T'night, if I can."

"Good. Hopefully we'll have something off our people out in the field before then." Fleur rubbed her face tiredly, "So much to do. So very, very much."

"Equis will rise again, eh?"

"Yeah, like flatbread."

"I'm telling you Bon Bon, it's not working. There's only so many times I can keep trying before I come to that conclusion. The stone is dead. The spare is dead. They are both dead."

"Then how are we supposed to ask Fleur what we're meant to do about this whole Hayfield thing?"

Crème shrugged at Bon Bon, "Heck if I know. Maybe it's just a temporary issue or something, and Fleur'll get back to us as soon as she can."

"Or something's happened back at Equis," Rocky suggested. "Maybe she broke the stones."

"There's only one reason I can think of that would make Fleur do that," Tootsie said apprehensively. "Equis has fallen. Maybe all of Canterlot. Maybe even Equestria! What if the war's over, and we lost, and we don't even know it?"

"I'm sure somepony would mention the war being over at some point."

"Not that quick," said Tootsie. "What should we do Bon Bon?"

"We should stop overreacting for starters. I doubt the war ended since this morning, so you can stop that line of thought right now. As for us..." Bon Bon glanced at Flicker, who quietly stared back. "We'll follow our original plan for now. Hopefully Fleur will back to us soon with instructions. If not, we'll have to decide for ourselves."

"You know there's only one decent choice here," said Flicker. "Just think of the benefit this could bring to your side."

Honeydew huffed at Flicker, then looked imploringly at Bon Bon. "It won't make as much of a difference as you think. All you'll be doing is killing a lot of innocent ponies to get maybe a few collaboraters. It's not worth it."

"There are no innocent ponies amongst that lot," Flicker said nastily. "Come on Bon Bon, you know the right thing to do."

"Shut it, both of you." Bon Bon stared both of them down, but reserved most of it for Flicker. "As I said, we'll go through with our original plan, by which time Fleur should have gotten back to us. If not, then I guess we'll have to decide for ourselves, one way or another."

Cadence set another small gem in place on the elaborate golden cage she, Celestia, and currently Luna, had constructed around the Crystal Heart. She wired the gem in place using a thin strand of gold, then used her magic to melt it all onto the frame. She stepped back and sighed, yet again questioning what the hell it was they were doing.

"Are you and Celestia really sure this'll work?"

Luna blinked at Cadence a few times, "You're asking me? You're the expert on the Crystal Heart and its workings Cadence, so if you don't know, we certainly don't. I mean, the science is there. Use the gems as a focus much like the tower in the Empire, and reflect the Heart's energy back on itself so the runoff of energy is reduced, allowing you to use it for longer. I mean you'll still have to recharge it once a day, and will have to feed it to maintain a shield, but... yes, this should work. In theory."

"All so my poor crystal ponies can fight and die in this stupid war."

Luna raised an eyebrow at Cadence, "You aren't thinking of back out are you?"

"Of course I am! I never wanted this in the first place." Cadence met Luna's gaze, "I'm not going to though, if that's what you're thinking. My ponies aren't going to want to give up after losing their home, and I don't want them to be forced into another kind of slavery by Faust."

"You're making the right choi-"

"Don't tell me I'm making the right choice Luna!" Cadence yelled. "For all I know I'm making a terrible one that's going to cost my ponies dearly, all because of the foolish choices you and Celestia made, starting with sending Twilight to Mareitania in the first place! You should've gone yourself! Or nopony should have gone!"

"And you would be content to let all those ponies continue to suffer under the rule of the Dukes? You know what they did to the pegasi."

"Is it any worse that the war you've dragged us into?"

"Yes. Cadence, do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pegasi lived and died in slavery over the last thousand years of the Duchy's rule? Because it was a very large number. Then there's the unicorns that suffered and died under their rule too, and probably a large number of earth ponies."

"Then why didn't Celestia do something about it sooner?"

"Because we didn't really know for the longest time, and we had many of our own issues to deal with as well. Then I fell from grace, and Celestia... she's not a fighter. She tried diplomacy, and diplomacy failed."

"And Twilight paid the price for it."

Luna sighed and took up another gem in her magic, setting it into place. "Cadence I know what you think of us right now isn't great, but we never intended this. In hindsight, yes, it was a mistake to send Twilight, but not even she thinks deposing the Duke was a mistake. Our current troubles have nothing to do with our intentions when we sent her, as we didn't even know Faust existed. Twilight finding her was as much a surprise to us as it was to her."

"And yet, here we are," Cadence said coldly. "You gave her the perfect platform to take over a country still trying to rebuild itself. If you had just let her go, maybe things would have been different."

"Indeed," Luna said sternly. "It might have been even worse."

"And how do you possibly think it could have been worse?"

"I'm sure Faust would have found a way. Cadence, I know you think us monsters for sealing Faust away, but was to be a mere temporary measure. We only wanted to keep her there until we found a way to contain her ourselves, and until Mareitania was stable so did happen, wouldn't happen."

"And what would happen once she was contained?"

"For my part, nothing," Luna admitted. "Faust despises me, so the less time I spend around her the better. The goal though, was to treat her nicely, and slowly get through to her. Befriend her, until she was no longer a threat. Celestia tried that while she was in Mareitania, but she didn't have enough time, and Faust refused to listen, which was why we were going through with that plan."

"Instead she got free, and now here we are."

"We hadn't counted on the Viscount knowing of her. If it weren't for him this war wouldn't be happening."

"Ah, so this is all his fault," Cadence said mockingly. "Of course."

"The pony's whose fault this is, is Platinum's," Luna growled.

"Right, of course. How silly of me to think otherwise..." Cadence trailed off as Luna jerked like she was shocked, and whipped her head around to look out of the window. "What?" Cadence asked as she turned to look at what Luna was watching. All she could see was the sun setting... almost an hour early. "Is the sun supposed to be setting yet?"

"No," Luna replied as she cantered over to the window for a closer look, "it isn't." She kept watching as the sun dipped below the horizon, her concern growing with every passing second. "Something's wrong here."

"Why would Celestia set the sun early?" Cadence asked, her anger from earlier gone, only to be replaced with worry.

"Celestia wouldn't set the su-aah!" Luna collapsed to her knees, a sharp pain shooting up her horn. Cadence started to look like she was panicking, and kept asking what was wrong, but Luna ignored her, forcing herself up to look through the window as the moon slowly rose, totally without her guidance.

Eventually the moon slowed in its path, and the pain subsided, allowing Luna to get back onto her hooves. "I need to find Celestia," she said, turning and galloping out of the observatory, Cadence close behind her. Both of them raced through the castle, dodging around ponies they could avoid, and leaping and gliding over those they couldn't. They hadn't gone too far when Celestia galloped around the corner towards them, and all three of them crashed into a heap in the middle of the corridor.

"Luna!" Celestia gasped before she even attempted to stand up. "That wasn't you was it?"

"Urgh..." Luna raised her head, then pushed aside one of Cadence's legs that was resting on it. "No sister, that was not I. I'm assuming that since you're asking, it wasn't you either?"

"Of course not! I wouldn't set the sun so early yet!" Celestia disentangled herself from the princess pile-up and brushed herself off. "I guess there's only one explanation then."

"What's that?" Cadence asked, having hauled herself back to her hooves.

"Faust has taken possession of the sun and moon," Luna explained simply. "We no longer have control over them."

Cadence's eyes went wide, and she gibbered for a moment as she tried to comprehend what exactly that meant. "W-what do we do?"

"For now, nothing," said Celestia. "I would at least hope that Faust knows better than to harm the world by altering the orbit of the sun and moon. Hopefully the schedule she keeps for them is not much different to our own."

"But how? How could she do this?"

Luna barked a short bitter laugh, "I'm sure if we were to ask her, she would only say she was reclaiming her property."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Cadence asked.

"The sun and moon rose and set long before unicorns performed the task. Who do you think was responsible for that?"

"Oh." Cadence went quiet, no more sure of what to say to either of them that they were to each other. "What should we tell our ponies?"

"Absolutely nothing," Luna replied quickly. "To tell them we have lost control of the sun and moon would only create unnecessary panic. I feel it best that we pretend everything is fine. At least assuming Faust doesn't do something with them that we cannot defend or explain."

"Oh great," Cadence growled, "more lies."

"I'm afraid Luna is right," Celestia said soothingly. "We should maintain that everything is fine, so as to not cause undue panic."

"Undue panic?" Cadence took a step back from both of them in surprise. "I think some panic is incredibly due by now!" she said, sucking in short sharp breaths as she tried to think around her renewed anger. "Just what exactly have you dragged us all into?" Neither Celestia or Luna provided an answer, or even met her gaze.

"You know why we have to do this Cadence," Luna said eventually. "This is bigger than just Equestria."

Cadence narrowed her eyes at both of them, but said nothing, instead turning on the spot and going back to the observatory, her mind racing as she tried to think of ways to end this peacefully. If she couldn't talk Faust down, maybe she could talk Equestria down instead, even if she had to go behind Celestia's and Luna's backs to do it.

Author's Notes:

Self derogatory comments on chapter, explanation on how I'm not too bothered and posted it anyway. Sounds about right. I know I could have filled this chapter out a bit more to not make it all seem too rushed, but I've been struggling with finding time to write, and I'd rather move onto the next chapters instead.