"What's the news General Stormguard?" Luna asked, finding herself in a strangely good mood despite everything. If what had happened last night worked, the Mareitanians would find themselves falling into a trap, and that ability to take control of the situation, even if for a short while, was worth being cheerful about as far as Luna was concerned.

"Not much news at the moment Princess. There's some concern over Faust splitting her forces and attacking both here and Ponyville, so I've taken the precaution of ordering the tunnel to Ponyville be rigged to collapse should they attack there, which would also, hopefully, further encourage them to attack down here. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'd rather we be prepared."

"Very good General. Assuming that we can hold them here, we may force them to go north, which is a dangerous route for them indeed." Luna smiled and nodded to herself as things were starting to look up. "Is everything prepared here?"

"The bridge is rigged to collapse, the cannons are set up and hidden, and the Hard Corps assure me that their part of the trap has been prepared, so everything should be ready."

"Excellent. All we have to do now is wait."

"I think you're determined to hurt yourself," Pinkie said decisively as she loomed over Rainbow Dash in the middle of getting her leg healed. "I think you should stop that."

"Thanks Pinkie," Rainbow said with sarcasm heavy enough for Pinkie to pick up on. "I'll be sure to remember that the next time I break my leg."

"And you should. I don't even want to imagine what would go through your head if your squadron was out fighting, and you had to stay here in this cramped little tent unable to do anything. You'd probably go nuts!"

"Do you seriously think I enjoy getting hurt Pinkie? Because let me tell you, I really don't. The only reason I did this was because I really needed to stop that griffon getting away. And... also because I didn't think this would happen." Rainbow moved her leg a little, hissing as pain shot through it.

"Y'know, this is going to take longer if you don't stop moving," the unicorn medic waving the healing device over Rainbow's leg grumbled. "It's not like I have unlimited magic either," she added. "I'm probably going to need some for later."

"Sorry," Rainbow sighed, resolving to stop moving.

"At least it's fixing your ear a bit," Pinkie said, seeing the look on Rainbow's face. "Silver linings and all that."

Rainbow didn't respond straight away, having something on her mind since the night before. "Pinkie, have you had to do something in this war that you really don't agree with? Besides the fighting and killing that is."

"I'm not really sure what else there is to disagree with there then," Pinkie replied seriously, sensing from Rainbow's tone of voice that this wasn't the best time to joke around.

"Alright, I probably could have said that better. Do you think there's a right way and a wrong way to kill in a war? Y'know, the difference between killing a soldier on the battlefield, and killing one while he's... unable to fight back."

"You mean like a prisoner? Everypony knows killing prisoners is wrong Rainbow. Did somepony make you kill a prisoner? Or did you kill them while they were trying to surrender? Or-"

"No Pinkie, there were no prisoners, so I didn't do either of those."

Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh good."

"I killed a pony... in his sleep." Rainbow cringed as Pinkie gawped at her. Even the medic turned her head away in what Rainbow assumed to be disgust.

"What? Why would you do that?!" Pinkie shrieked.

"I didn't want to!"

"Then why do it?"

"Because we were out with the Night Guard last night, and they altered our mission and made us... do what we did." Rainbow felt a lingering desire to cry, only partly at the way Pinkie was looking at her. That she couldn't bothered her almost as much as what they were talking about. "We weren't supposed to do that, and I shouldn't have to tell you that isn't what the Wonderbolts are about, but we did it anyway..."

"You should've refused."

"But refusing to follow orders is a whole different problem! And those griffons and that pony would've been killed anyway!"

"But it wouldn't have been you doing it!"

"I wasn't given a choice at the time!" Rainbow regretted telling Pinkie now. She wasn't even sure why she brought it up, apart from some self destructive need for somepony to tell her she was a bad pony, rather than hear the rest of her squadron reassuring each other it was the right thing to do. It wasn't, even if it somehow was.

"You always have a choice Rainbow," Pinkie said, lowering her voice a bit. "Would you do it again?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean 'I don't know.' I don't want to do it again, but we don't always get to choose."

"Of course you do! You don't want to- to- to kill ponies like that, and you don't have to! If you can't see that, then I'll just go to Luna to make sure this never has to happen again!"

"Who do you think gave the Night Guard those orders in the first place? They answer directly to Luna, Pinkie. Who do you think had them trained to do those kinds of things without hesitating? Luna understands what we're doing better than any of us, and she knows what it's going to take to win this war!"

"That doesn't mean what she orders us to do is right!"

"Are you seriously taking the high ground here Pinkie? You're helping to trap hundreds, if not thousands of ponies in what is going to be a massacre! On. Luna's. Orders. You can't seriously tell me that's any better than what I did to make sure that trap works!"

"At least they have a chance to surrender! That pony you killed didn't! That makes a whole lot of difference!" Pinkie wiped the moisture out of her eyes, unsure when the tears had built up. "You asked me if there was a right or wrong way to kill in this war Rainbow. I'm not sure there's a right way, but there seems to be an awful lot of wrong ones, and some of those are a lot worse than others." Pinkie stood and walked to the exit, then stopped. "Get well soon Rainbow," she said before leaving without giving Rainbow a chance to say anything else.

"Aww... fuck!" Rainbow cursed once Pinkie was gone, slamming her head down on the pillow in frustration. "Why the fuck did I even say any of that? I'm so fucking stupid!"

"Hey!" the unicorn growled. "Quit moving or this'll heal crooked... or something, I don't know, I have no idea how this thing works. But stop moving anyway."

"Who even cares?"

"I do, funnily enough," the unicorn retorted. "It's kind of my job to."

"Alright then, if you care so much, what's your opinion on what I did?"

"Seriously? You followed orders that you shouldn't have been given. I think that actually makes you the consummate soldier. In my semi professional medical opinion, you either deal with it, or you let it eat you from the inside. Your choice. You friend will have to do the same."

Rainbow gave the unicorn a sceptical look, "How are you just a medic?"

The unicorn shrugged back, "The difference between you and me is that while we both understand orders, only one of us could bring ourselves to follow them, and that pony isn't me. Now stop letting this get to you, because you killed one of the enemy, and they'd probably do the same to you if they had to."

"What's up with you?" Limestone asked Pinkie as the pink mare slunk back into their tent and sat down, hugging herself.

"This war's destroying everything I love," Pinkie said weakly, tears running down her cheeks.

"Ooookay..." said Limestone, drawing the word out. "I feel like I should remind everypony that we could have stayed at home, but that'd probably be insensitive of me."

"Our home lies between Las Pegasus and Appleloosa," said Maud, who was watching Pinkie very carefully. "I think I'd rather be here where we have a chance to protect Mother and Father from the Mareitanians, than on the farm with them when the Mareitanians come."

Limestone grunted, neither conceding or denying the point. Instead she sat next to Pinkie and tried her best to be sisterly. "What happened?" she asked, awkwardly patting Pinkie on the back.

"I had an argument with Rainbow. She did something really bad, but she was just following orders. I said she should have refused to, but she said that this trap wouldn't work if she hadn't, then said that what we're doing to help the trap was just as bad. Now I don't know what to think."

"What could she have possibly done that could be that bad?"

"She killed a pony in his sleep."

Limestone shrugged at Pinkie's revelation, having been expecting something that at least sounded worse. "That's not great I suppose. Probably beats bleeding out on the battlefield, screaming for help that isn't coming though. Almost sounds peaceful compared to that."

"What?" Pinkie gasped in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Killing a pony like that in cold blood is- is... it's horrible!"

"I'd rather them than me," Limestone said back. "I hate to say it Pinkie, but I'm agreeing with Rainbow on this one. Sure it sucks, but if that's what you have to do to win, then what of it?"

Pinkie blinked in disbelief, "Has everypony gone mad? You're with me aren't you Maud?"

Maud looked down and shook her head, "As bad as killing a pony like that is, what you want requires us to give mercy at a time when we can't afford to. I am sorry Pinkie, but I don't think I can agree with either side on this really."

"And this is what I meant when I said this war is destroying everything I love," Pinkie said, hugging herself a little tighter.

"Then you need to stop thinking you're above it," said Limestone. "You wanted to come here, so you don't get to bitch about not liking it. You knew killing would happen, and you knew we'd all have to do these things. Really Pinkie, speaking as both your sister and your commanding officer, you're kinda going to have to suck it up a bit, and not judge ponies for doing what they have to."

"B-but-"

"No. No but's. Now get up and pull yourself together because we have work to do. Marble said that she thinks some parts of the trap might not collapse right, so we better get back there and make sure it all works perfectly. Frankly I refuse to be the ones getting the blame if this fucks up."

"Knock knock," Lightning said as cheerfully as she could, entering the medical tent to find Rainbow flexing her formerly broken leg. "Oh hey, you're all fixed up?"

"I guess so," Rainbow said hesitantly. "It aches like you wouldn't believe. Doc says that should pass though, and that I'm fit enough for duty again." That Rainbow suspected the unicorn was maybe lying about it was irrelevant. She knew how much Rainbow wanted to be ready for when the attack came, and in return Rainbow appreciated her discretion.

"Is it good to go though?" Lightning asked, totally unaware of how the Sparkle Healing Devices even worked, let alone how fast. She was honestly expecting Rainbow to be out for a week, so having her ready to go in less than twelve hours was great. "Can you walk on it?"

Rainbow pushed herself off the bed and gingerly brought her leg to the ground, slowly adding more weight to it until she was standing naturally. It still just ached, which was neither good or bad. At the very least it didn't hurt. "I think I'm good."

"Sweet." Lightning nodded her appreciation to the medic then led Rainbow out of the tent, "We've heard from Equis that a large troop train has departed from Vanhoover, and Luna thinks the attack must be coming soon. We need to be ready for when they get here."

"And here I was thinking they'd be here sooner. What if they go to Ponyville?"

"Heck if I know," Lightning replied with a shrug. "I've heard the train tunnel was set to collapse if they try to go up there, so I guess Ponyville's probably safe enough."

"Oh good," Rainbow breathed, feeling relieved that they had a back-up plan to protect Ponyville. There was something else on her mind though, about what had happened the night before. "Is everyone alright after last night?"

"More or less. Vapor was a bit shaken up over it, but she's... managing with it. Honestly, as much as I love Vapor, I really would consider washing her out if we didn't need the ponies. We can't keep running into this problem with her, but if we lose her we probably lose Sky as well." Lightning shook her head, dismissing her worries. "The rest of us are staying on top of it though."

"And what did Spitfire have to say about it?"

"Plenty, but due to the success of the operation, Luna's just brushing it under the carpet. She claims that the Wonderbolts should be prepared for all kinds of missions, completely missing the problem where Captain Greywhisker pretty much hijacked our squadron for his own objectives, while ignoring what we were originally ordered to do."

"Oh good," Rainbow said sarcastically, "that just means it can happen again. Yay."

"Yeah, well, we'll see." Lightning led Rainbow over to the rest of their Squadron as they were preparing for the battle. Cloud and Thunderlane gave her a friendly smile and a nod, while the rest were wrapped up in what they were doing, amongst the thousands of other ponies doing the same. Lessons about overconfidence had been learnt over the last month by all of them, and they all seemed grimly determined to apply those lessons, hard learnt as they were.

"This'd look a lot more impressive if the Crystal Legion, Exiles, and Mustangians were here," Thunderlane said as she looked around the masses. "I hope they can hold the Mareitanians if Faust does go for Ponyville."

"Apparently they're going to blow the train tunnel if she does that," Rainbow said back, giving Cloud a smile as the purple mare passed her flight suit over.

"And do you think that's really going to stop her. What's to stop her pulling the same thing here with the illusions that she did in Vanhoover?"

"The difficulty of creating a convincing illusion of a train," Spitfire said as she wandered over to them. "At least that's what Luna says." Spitfire smiled at Rainbow, "Good to see you back on your hooves Dash."

Rainbow saluted Spitfire, a cheeky grin working its way onto her face as she spread her wings. "You know a busted leg wouldn't slow me down that much ma'am."

"Glad to hear it, but don't go pushing yourself for no reason. Anyway, I came to tell you that the train should be here in the next hour, although we've received reports that a second train has departed Vanhoover. Whether that train's coming here or going to Ponyville is unknown, but the Crystal legion has been informed, and hopefully they can handle it."

Rainbow shared a worried look with her wingmates, but neither of them had anything to say on it. If everypony says the ponies there can handle it, then maybe it might be true.

"What will we be doing?" Lightning asked as Rainbow swallowed and turned back towards Spitfire.

"The Air Corps are taking care of the bombing, so all we'll be doing is attacking the rear of the train to stop ponies getting away and telling whoever sent them about the trap. If we can catch another train in the trap, then all the better. I'm not going lie though, we'll be staying away from the train for a while because with that much iron and shrapnel flying around... yeah, you don't want to be anywhere close to that."

"So we're just going to stop them getting away with a warning?" Lightning asked, wanting to be sure. "What about the actual fight? What if griffons turn up?"

"Then the griffons become our priority, but our intelligence ponies still have no idea where most of the griffons are. It seems unlikely we'll see them in any serious numbers if at all. As it is, we'll be watching the rear, while the rest of them batter the Mareitanians into submission or oblivion. Whichever comes first. If the Mareitanians do put up a fight I'll leave it to you to decide what to do, since your squadron seems to make its own decisions anyway."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning said dutifully, saluting Spitfire. "Are we staying on the ground or in high altitude until the trap is sprung?"

"You know, Fire Streak never asked me these sorts of questions," Spitfire said with a sad smile. "We'll be sticking to the ground until the trap is sprung, but after that you have your orders."

Lightning saluted again, getting one in return. She held it until Spitfire left, then sighed. "Light on the details, as usual."

"Aww c'mon Lightning," Rainbow said playfully. "You know that just means we have flexibility."

"Yep, the flexibility to get ourselves killed, instead of letting those in charge do it."

Luna was waiting, trusty binoculars held in her magic as the moment of their attack arrived. The pit they'd dug around the cannon to lower it out of sight was chilling her hooves with its dampness, and the camouflage netting over it kept catching on her horn, but she honestly didn't care. The time had finally come to test the cannons out in a proper battle, and it left her feeling giddy as a schoolfilly.

A faint plume of smoke was visible in the distance, slowly drawing closer. There had been no further news on the second train to leave Vanhoover, so for now they could only deal with what was in front of them, which so happened to be the first step of putting up some serious resistance after the debacles at Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire. Maybe now Faust would treat them as an actual threat. Maybe Faust would treat her as a threat.

"Two miles," Luna said out loud. "One mile," she said a minute later. The train was in full view now, and showed no signs of slowing, which was absolutely perfect. She gripped the plunger in front of her with her magic, keeping a careful eye on the train. Blow the bridge too soon and the train could maybe stop in time. Too late, and the Equestrians had several tons of steel flying towards them at speed, which was less than ideal.

Luna counted it down until the train was ten seconds from the bridge, then pressed the plunger down, igniting the bridge with a fiery inferno that destroyed it utterly, collapsing it into the river with a boom that threatened to deafen all there. It also left the train with nowhere to go, apart from down into the river as it sailed off the tracks, having not had the time to even put the brakes on, let alone actually slow down.

The long, sleek engine crashed down into the river, creating a splash that almost reached the Equestrians on the opposite side as the train's momentum carried it through the river and up the bank on the other side, dragging its carriages with it until its sudden loss of momentum made them start to violently pile up.

The first carriage was crushed beneath the second as the coupling broke, allowing it to ride up over the one in front. The carriage after that pushed to the left, dragging the ones after it until the speed of the carriages behind overtook it, piling carriage after carriage into the one before until the main source of their momentum joined them in the form of a quartet of tanks being transported.

The chains holding the tanks secure broke, allowing the tanks to fly free of the wreckage, but doing nothing to save the tanks themselves as they smashed themselves to pieces on the wreckage, and were similarly crushed by the next carriage, and the next out of the two dozen carriages there were, until there was no more to come, the last few supporting the weight of some that dangled off the end of the shattered bridge.

Luna had watched all of this, wide-eyed with shock, amazement, and horror. In her mind the train would simply crash down into the river and grind to a halt. She had never seen a train wreck before, and never had she envisioned the carnage involved in one. She watched as everything went still and silent, then more explosions started as the Hard Corps completed the trap.

"Do it!" Limestone shouted at Azure, prompting the purple mare to slam her hooves down on the plunger, setting off a string of charges through the carefully dug tunnel that went in a semi circle from the river bank above the train tracks, around the rear of the train, and back to the river.

Hours of digging by dozens of ponies besides those of the Hard Corps, had created a large tunnel that was shored up and rigged to collapse, creating a trench around the train that effectively trapped the ponies on a small island, unable to really escape as the waters of the river flooded through the newly created channel.

It was besides the point that the channel they'd created was far larger than required after Luna's misjudgement of how far the train would still travel during the crash.

"Oh yeah..." Azure sighed as the explosions set off, collapsing the ground they'd undermined. "I'm touching myself tonight."

"Shut up and come on!" Limestone shouted at her, dragging her deeper into the woods out of sight. "We need to get back to the other side of the river before they work out we're here."

"Alright, sheesh. Excuse a mare for liking things that go boom." Azure ran after Limestone through the woods, heading towards a small rowboat that had been given to them to make their way to safety after completing their task. The others were already there waiting for them as the two mares piled into the boat, letting Maud and Top Spin start rowing them to the other side.

"Who knew mining was a useful skill in a war?" Limestone remarked as they pushed out into the river. "Anyway, I'd call this a total success. Good job guys."

"Yeah, go us," Pinkie said sadly, watching traces of red in the water passing by.

"Should we open fire Princess?"

Luna shut her mouth with a click, her mind still caught on what was happening in front of her as it continued to progress. Even with the new channel, the train was still blocking much of the river, and the water building up behind it was starting to flood through the carriages. Those ponies lucky enough to survive the crash now stood a chance of drowning instead.

"Princess, should we open fire?" General Stormguard asked again.

"Nay, hold your fire until we know whether the survivors intend to attack us." Truthfully Luna wished to aid the survivors before they succumbed to the water, but she knew that was to invite a knife into her back as she had no idea how the brainwashed Mareitanians would react. Would they rather die trying to fight? Or would they recognise their defeat and accept their help? It didn't seem practical to risk her soldiers if the former was true.

Luna hauled herself out of the pit and carefully walked down to the river bank, stopping in front of where the crumpled engine was still hissing steam from the splits in its boiler. A pony was crawling up the bank towards her, his body covered in lacerations that left a trail of red behind him.

He stopped at Luna's armoured hooves, uttering his thanks to Faust for sparing him and having found somepony to help him, unaware of whose hooves it was before him until Luna's silence made him look up into her face and see the waves of pegasi taking to the air behind her. "Oh fuck."

More ponies started to fight their way out of the wreckage and make for dry land as the river washed through the stricken carriages. Luna pulled some of them up to safety, then took to the air to help others as the Wonderbolts and the Air Corps circled around, unsure of what to do.

"Your Highness!" Stormguard shouted up at Luna as she pulled more Mareitanians to safety. "What are your orders?"

"Move forwards and secure the wreckage. Help those you can and take them prisoner. Eliminate those that fight back, should there be any."

"You've got to be kidding me," Rainbow said in disbelief. "Now she wants us to rescue them? All this effort to set up this whole thing, and Luna wants us to save as many as we can because she, what, regrets it?"

"I really don't think there's that many survivors," Lightning said back. "I don't see how there could be. That crash was beyond brutal. Anyway, less bitching, more doing."

"Yes ma'am." Rainbow flew down to the roof of a carriage that had settled on top of the others, safely out of the rising waters of the river. She pulled the door open, and recoiled at the blood splatters and dead ponies within. However this carriage had ended up on top, it was not a peaceful journey. There was some survivors though, and Rainbow dove back out of the door as a unicorn shot at her with their magic.

"Hey assholes, I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to help."

"And how are we to know your help doesn't mean cutting our throats?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes and sighed, "Okay, I can see why you mightn't believe me, but we're really trying to help you. Put simply, if you surrender and come with me, you'll be taken prisoner, and get to live worshipping your Lady's fat ass. Fight back, and we'll be forced to deal with you. Your choice."

"And why should we possibly believe you after doing something like this?"

"Let me put it this way, if I'm lying, you're dead anyway, so what have you got to lose? And you're the ones invading us jackass. If you don't like how we're fighting back, feel free to go home and stay there!"

Rainbow huffed and crossed her legs as the ponies inside deliberated over her offer. Nopony else seemed to be having to talk it over as they pulled ponies from the wreckage and out of the river. She was about to yell at them for wasting her time when a crash to the left of her made her jump as the carriages dangling off the bridge lost their fight against gravity, along with the ponies inside.

"For fuck sake! Will you guys hurry up? Ponies are dying out here while you're wasting time."

"Alright, we surrender."

Rainbow sighed harshly with relief, "Finally. I want you to step out here one at a time and head right towards our forces. And leave your weapons behind, or I will remove them from you forcefully."

To reinforce her point, Rainbow drew her weapons and hovered by the door of the carriage as the ponies inside stepped out one at a time. Rainbow pointed in the direction they should go, and kept an eye on them as they clambered slowly over the wreckage, the injuries they sustained slowing them. For all the bodies Rainbow had seen in the carriage, only a dozen had survived.

Once they'd made it to the river bank, they were gathered up by the Equestrian ground forces and kept under guard on the bank, well in front of the threatening collection of cannons and unicorns that were prepared to attack should they try anything.

Rainbow moved on, sheathing her weapons once those ponies were somepony else's problem. Her ears pricked at a shout for help from the side of the wreckage facing upstream, and when she went to investigate she found a white stallion in a bloodied uniform struggling to free himself from between two carriages as the river rose around his chest.

"Hold on!" Rainbow zipped down to the stallion and grabbed his hooves, bracing herself against the carriage to pull him free. With a grunt from her, and a cry from him, she pulled him free, falling over backwards with him landing on top.

"Thanks," the stallion said with genuine sounding gratitude. Rainbow was about to tell him he was welcome when the earth pony slammed a hoof down on her gut as hard as he could. Rainbow cried out in pain, and didn't even try to stop the stallion as he ran. He didn't get far though as Spitfire landed heavily on the carriage in front of him, her blades held ready to fight.

"Hello Snowbright," Spitfire said with a hard edge to her voice. "Sorry, General Snowbright. How's the 'stabbing us in the back after all we did for you' business going?"

Snowbright scowled at Spitfire, "Don't act like you're better than us. You fight for ponies that betrayed both us and you by forcing you to fight a war you cannot hope to win."

"Sure, sure. Well if you're not too busy, I'll be accepting your surrender now. Let's see how Faust does without you holding her hoof."

"I think you'd be surprised how little she requires me to do that." Snowbright narrowed his eyes, making clear his intent to attack, then cried out in pain and fell as Rainbow dragged a blade across his back legs, cutting deep into the flesh above the knees.

"You have a really shitty way of thanking ponies that save your life, you know that?" Rainbow spat and sheathed her weapon, clutching her leg around her stomach which hurt considerably after the larger pony had hit her there. "Permission to make him a gelding ma'am?"

"Denied," Spitfire said with an odd amount of glee. "We have rules about mistreating prisoners of war, even though the ink that wrote them is barely dry yet." Spitfire grinned at Snowbright as he cursed at her, "That's right, you're a prisoner of war now. Congratulations. Rainbow, go get Luna."

Rainbow saluted and took off slowly, her hoof still held protectively to her gut. She found Luna overseeing the prisoners on the riverbank, and landed beside her. "Princess? We found somepony you might be interested in."

"Oh? And who might th-" Luna stopped as she saw Rainbow's hunched up stance, with her hoof held to her stomach. "Are you alright Rainbow?"

"Yeah, I got punched. I'll be fine."

"If you say so. Now, who is this pony you found?"

"General Snowbright. The Captain's keeping an eye on him.

"Take me to him," Luna said quickly, surprised that such a high profile pony like him were here on a mere troop transport. She flew ahead of Rainbow when she saw both Spitfire and the General, and landed on the carriage roof with a solid, intimidating thud. "Hello Snowbright," she said coldly. It was gratifying to see him like this, but that wasn't enough to override her anger.

"Oh good, Princess Luna. Just the pony I was hoping to see."

"Is that so?"

"It is, although I was hoping our places would be the other way around. It's good to see you're sticking with the destructive, overblown tactics typical of you Equestrians. I'm sure Twilight would be proud, wherever she is."

Luna smiled at that casually tossed out bit of information there. It seemed that the Mareitanians really didn't have any idea where Twilight was, which was a relief. It was just too bad that nopony besides Twilight and her friends really knew where Twilight was.

"A lot of this is your fault Snowbright, more than you know. Your dislike of Equestria is what she based a large amount of her mind control magic on."

"Mind control magic? What mind control magic?"

"The mind control magic that allowed her to take control of you, the Council, and the entirety of Mareitania in the space of a few months and lead you into this foolish war. But of course you wouldn't know about that, as that's how mind control works. Perhaps we should start with a simpler question. How many ponies are on this train?"

"A couple thousand," Snowbright replied easily, not even trying to hide it. "I imagine there's a lot less now."

"And what were you hoping to accomplish by coming here?"

"To set up a vanguard for when the rest of our forces arrive. Come on Luna, you don't need to be a tactical genius to work out what we were going to do here."

Luna scowled at Snowbright, "You say that, but here you are falling into our trap. I take it you had no idea we'd be here?"

"Our griffons reported that you'd driven them from the south, and had attempted to push them further north than the Smokey Mountains. We thought with you so focussed on finding them, we'd be able to get here without too much difficulty. It seems we were wrong."

"Very wrong."

"Princess, we have a problem."

Luna closed her eyes and sighed through her nose, then reopened them to find a pegasus of the Air Corp hovering nearby, looking nervous to be the bearer of bad news. "What is it?"

"A couple hundred of the survivors have organised themselves on the island," the pegasus said, pointing across the river to the land now cut off after the Hard Corps collapsed their tunnels. "The other survivors are heading towards them now. We've also lost some that were swept downriver, so there's a chance they might get a warning back."

"And today was going so well." Luna dragged Snowbright up by his collar until they were face to face, "Tell them to stand down."

"Sure, I'll just walk over there shall I?"

Luna spread her wings and took flight, dragging Snowbright up after her. She held him in front to discourage any of the Mareitanians taking pot-shots at her, and stopped just within shouting range. "Go on then, tell them to stand down."

Snowbright sighed and nodded once, "Stand down soldiers. There's no point in getting yourselves killed when you can't win. Hint-hint," he added, looking back at Luna out of the corner of his eye.

"We'll have to see how good your odds of winning are after today," Luna growled back quietly.

"I'd say they're still considerably in our favour."

"Mm-hmm..." Luna hummed as her fliers moved in on the survivors. "The second train that left Vanhoover after yours. Where is it going?"

"Ponyville."

"I don't believe you."

"Oh, well, it's coming here then." Snowbright grinned cockily back at Luna, "What? Still don't believe me? There's only two places they can possibly go to, so take your pick."

Luna ignored him and tried to think. The problem here, Luna considered, was numbers. Not her own, but that of the Mareitanians. Faust had tens of thousands of soldiers at her disposal, and yet had sent a couple thousand here on a train, and a couple thousand more on another. What about the rest of her soldiers? What were they doing.

"Y'know, I am bleeding quite heavily here," Snowbright said as Luna was thinking. "I'm not above asking to not bleed to death."

Now she was listening, she could hear the pain in Snowbright's voice. "Very well, my questioning of you shall have to wait anyway until I know what will happen next at least." Luna breathed deeply and lit her horn, forming a bridge over the river using her magic. Shortly after her ponies started shooing the prisoners across it. "Captain Spitfire?"

Spitfire saluted crisply, partly to make a show of it for Snowbright. "Yes ma'am?"

"Begin organising your Wonderbolts and the Air Corps to start performing sweeps of the woods to find any Mareitanians hoping to get this news back to Faust. I also want you to send your fastest flier up to Ponyville, because I suspect that they might be in trouble soon. If Ponyville is under attack, they have orders to tell them to collapse the tunnel and start making their way down here. In fact, they have orders to tell them to do that even if they aren't under attack."

"Down here? What about Ponyville?"

"The mountains will protect Ponyville, for now at least, but that won't help us here. You have your orders Captain."

Spitfire saluted again, "Yes ma'am. Rainbow, did you get all that?"

"Off you go then, and try not to take too long."

Rainbow had seen the smoke for a while, and it was with considerable relief she saw it was coming from the west side of the mountains, and not Ponyville itself.

Still, the smoke was bad news, and as she got closer she could see an army preparing to attack, three times the size of the one that was going to attack Las Pegasus. Six tanks, and thousands of ponies all set up to attack a peaceful farming village. It was enough to make you sick, especially considering that Ponyville held no particular advantage to either side, other than as a halfway point between Vanhoover and the east coast. It just happened to lie along the train tracks, which seemed to be dictating the direction of the war.

Rainbow angled away from the Mareitanians towards Ponyville, seeing that their side was preparing to put up a fight. Either they hadn't seen what they were up against, or they were determined to follow their orders to the letter. It didn't take a birds-eye view to see that when those tanks rolled in it was going to be a massacre.

Over the mountain was a different story, and where the Exiles were all waiting on the ground for their next move, whatever that was. Rainbow suspected they were planning an ambush, but it would only take one of them in the air to see how fruitless that would be. A hundred adepts could hold off that ambush long enough to get their forces through the tunnel.

There was a small island of calm amongst the pegasi, and it was there that Rainbow found Shining Armour, grimly watching the tunnel like he expected the Mareitanians to come running through at any moment.

"Shining Ar- I mean, General Armour!" Rainbow landed hard besides Shining Armour, panting from the flight up. "What are you doing? There's like six thousand Mareitanians about to attack you!"

"I am aware Rainbow Dash, and I've planned for it."

"You have?"

"Indeed. I was planning to draw them in then detonate the tunnel. You didn't think I was just going to leave my ponies out there to die did you?"

"Uh..." Rainbow cleared her throat awkwardly, "Sorry sir. I guess this means they approached our bait in the wrong way by attacking here where we were supposedly strongest."

"Or they saw right through it," said Shining. "Did your trap fail?"

"Nah, it worked fine. We didn't even need those cannon things because the train crash was enough to take most of them out, and the rest surrendered. We also captured General Snowbright."

Shining hummed thoughtfully, "I see. Faust must be pulling the strings herself and be leading this attack then, unless she's picked up some other ponies to be in charge." Shining shrugged and shook his head, "I suppose that makes little difference. Anyway, was there something you wanted Rainbow?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I have orders from the Princess. She wants you to blow the tunnel and start heading towards Las Pegasus. I think she wants to funnel the Mareitanians down towards us there."

"No."

"No?" Rainbow was speechless for a moment after hearing that, and had to force the words out as she gestured wildly. "What do you mean 'no?'"

"I mean no, or at least not yet. I have a chance to thin our enemy out a little, and I intend to use it. Once that's done I will be sure to start moving to Las Pegasus as soon as I am able. If you have to, tell Luna we were already engaged when you got here."

"But- But-" Rainbow dragged her hooves down her face, only to get frustrated as they met her goggles. "You can't disobey the princess!"

"And I'm not. I'm assuming she gave orders on the premise that we might be under attack?" Rainbow nodded. "Then let's pretend that's what actually happened. Heck, give it a minute and it might be happening anyway."

Rainbow tapped a hoof as she thought, and found her objections to Shining's plan to be based entire on him not jumping to obey, which seemed like a flimsy thing to object on when he was a general, and probably knew what he was doing since his plan was pretty solid. "Alright, what can I do to help?"

"You could join the Exiles if you must, but I would suggest sitting this one out myself."

Rainbow thought about it and shrugged. Maybe she'd spent enough time in the line of fire recently, and it wouldn't kill her to pass up the opportunity to maybe get herself killed again. "Alright then."

It was nearly twenty minutes before the first explosion rang around the mountains as the Mareitanian tanks began their advance. That meant for Rainbow that it was nearly twenty minutes of sitting in Ponyville feeling like a guilty piece of shit for being part of the war disrupting Ponyville's peace and quiet. More than a few residents were watching from a distance despite Shining Armour's insistences' that they head to safety.

It was almost a relief when the attack began and she could think about that instead, even if she was only watching, overhearing the cracks of explosives, and the hollow booms of shields from those few Mage Corps unicorns they had to protect themselves with.

From their position they could see right through the tunnel, although the far end was little more than a pinprick of light that gave few clues about what was going on out the other side. If Shining Armour was right, their ponies should be pulling back, drawing the Mareitanians into the tunnel, and what would be a bottleneck on the Ponyville end. An advantage for the Equestrians, but the Mareitanians had to push through if they wanted to win the day. The reality would be much different.

The light in the tunnel changed colour, filtered by the shields protecting their forces as they pulled back through the tunnel. Then the light was cut in half as something large entered, and Shining cursed under his breath.

"What? It's only a tank."

"I know, but that's a problem. The Mareitanians are likely planning to use it as cover at this end, and we'll struggle to stop it if it makes it through. We'll have to blow the tunnel sooner than I planned. Oh well, costing them a tank is probably worth it."

It suddenly occurred to Rainbow that they were about to collapse the tunnel on what could be hundreds of ponies, then further figured out that she was actually rather indifferent to it, which might have been why it took her that long to figure out. Rather than sitting where she was agonising over it, she didn't really feel one way of the other very strongly. It was just something that had to be done.

The last of their ponies ran out of the tunnel, and Shining set his hoof on the detonator as they made their way to their hastily set up defences, waiting for the tank to be most of the way through before triggering the explosives. It was only when the tank was almost to the exit that he pushed his hoof down.

Explosion after explosion set off down the tunnel, tearing it apart from the inside. A hastily made shield around their end saved the Equestrians from the plume of flame and rock that erupted out of the tunnel. The Mareitanians weren't so lucky.

Massive chunks of rock rained from the ceiling, filling the tunnel completely. You could only hope that the explosions killed them before that, but either way it was a quick demise, unlike that of the tank which was crushed under the weight of the collapsing tunnel. Then it exploded further as the pressure triggered its payload, and Shining Armour's shield couldn't hold it back.

Shouts filled the area as the exploding tank sprayed shrapnel in a concentrated blast that tore the nearest defences, and the ponies behind them, to shreds. Those shouts turned to screams as those ponies still living made their agony known.

"Shit!" Shining swore. "That wasn't supposed to happen! Uh..." Shining grabbed his hooves in his head, no longer sure what to do. "Rush! Make your attack! Go!" The white and blue pegasus nodded and took off, the large number of Exiles following after her. Rainbow saw them fly over the mountain, then dive down, giving Rainbow enough of a clue to work out they were striking the Mareitanians in the confusion following what had just happened. "The rest of you, help the wounded!"

Rainbow ran forwards as the others did, skidding to a halt next to a crystal mare that had been shredded by shrapnel. Her face and chest were covered her blood, and her eyes... her eyes were something Rainbow would never forget. Rainbow tore her helmet off, then stood there not knowing what to do in the slightest as the mare screamed and screamed. All she had was a growing appreciation of the guts that medic pony that fixed her leg had to have to be able to do this while under fire, and felt bad for thinking otherwise.

"Move!"

Rainbow jumped aside as a medic ran up to the mare, took a quick look at her, then pulled a small package out of his pack. He tore the end off in his teeth to reveal a needle which he jabbed into the mare's flank. Seconds after that the mare relaxed slightly.

Rainbow looked up as the Exiles returned from their attack, most of them with bloodied blades, and some of them with injuries of their own. How they fought without armour Rainbow had no idea. She was so intent in watching them that she missed the medic shouting at her until he threw a stone at her.

"Hey! You listening?"

"Yeah! Sorry, I-uh... yeah."

"Good. See that stallion there?" The medic pointed at a large crystal stallion. Blood was pouring from a deep wound on his side. "Put pressure on the wound, and keep it there until I tell you to stop."

"Got it."

Rainbow experienced a new thing that day, which was to have ponies die when you were desperately trying to save them. Normally she was purposely trying to end the life of ponies, but to have them die when you wanted them to live? That was something else. It was worse than losing Fire Streak had been, because at least he knew it was coming, and had a chance to say his goodbyes. These ponies just expired in a haze of blood and agony.

The stallion had died despite the pressure she'd placed on his injury. The blood had kept coming, if only slightly slower, and from the dozen lesser cuts he'd sustained in the explosion. It had left Rainbow feeling so helpless it hurt as he gave up his fight to live.

The Mare had pulled through, even with all the cuts, and the loss of her eyes, and as Rainbow sat cradling her helmet in the quiet aftermath, she couldn't help but wonder if dying was a mercy the mare had been denied. She'd make a full recovery now, thanks to Twilight's invention, but the words 'full recovery' only really covered half the story.

Rainbow shuddered, and tears spilled down her cheeks, feeling strangely hot. She hugged her helmet to herself and cried, and personal image be damned, she felt a hell of a lot better for doing it. She only stopped when she felt a hoof touch her shoulder. It was Shining Armour.

"Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you particularly, but I'm afraid time is a luxury."

"How many did we lose?"

"More than we should have, but there's nothing we can do about it now. I've requested a train from Canterlot for the wounded and deceased, so once they're on their way we can start the trek down to Las Pegasus. Chances are we're going to need everypony to hold the Mareitanians back after today. I want you to head on back to Luna and tell her to expect us in two days or less, which will hopefully be before Faust gets there."

Rainbow nodded and rubbed her tears away, "Alright. Are the Exiles coming with me, or sticking with you?"

"They'll go with you in case Luna needs them."

Rainbow nodded and brushed a hoof back through her mane before dropping her helmet back onto her head. "Alright, two days. Piece of cake."

Author's Notes:

A foot of snow has fallen today, but I picked something heavy up and fucked my back, so I can't even enjoy it. Fml.