"They're coming!"

Those two words held such meaning, even without the added explanation that it was the Mareitanians that were coming. That part was fairly explanatory, and didn't require the sarcasm from Fleur, but still got it anyway.

"Oh gosh, for a moment I thought you meant the ice-cream pony was coming. I could only assume that was why you were so excited."

"Ma'am?"

Fleur waved a hoof in the vague direction of the pegasus scout, "Ignore me. How far away are they?"

"The Mareitanians? Or the ice-cream pony?"

Fleur sighed harshly, "Alright, I deserve that. The Mareitanians, please."

"They're coming by train, so it'll only be a matter of hours. How long it'll take them to get up the mountain now we've destroyed the railway I couldn't say."

"Right, okay, thank you." Fleur turned to her left, towards where Luna was standing not five meters away, looking miffed at why the report had been given to Fleur rather than herself when she was standing right there. "Did you get all that?"

"Yes, thank you Fleur," Luna said stiffly. "I don't suppose we know if they're all coming from the east coast, or if Faust is with them? Or indeed if they are bringing a packed lunch just in case this takes longer than they expect?"

Fleur looked back to the scout who shrugged. "There's been no sightings of Faust, and the griffons are making it difficult to gather any solid information of what the Mareitanians are bringing with them. There has been movement in Ponyville though, so it seems likely that forces from there are being mustered to join the rest attacking here."

"Very good," said Luna. "Well, not good as such. Pretty terrible really. Why aren't they taking the time to secure the east coast? Surely Faust would not be so arrogant to assume that she doesn't need more than the barest amount of time and ponies to do so?"

"Who knows what the hell she thinks?" Fleur said to Luna. "She's not wrong if that is what she's thinking though. We have nothing other than what's here in Canterlot to pose a threat to her."

"I'd rather hoped we'd have a little more time before they turned their full attention on us." Luna sighed and began to pace, "I guess there's nothing for it then, the Mareitanians are coming. General Armour, General Stormguard, prepare our ponies for battle."

Both Generals hurried away, leaving Fleur and Luna alone, save for a few other ponies still in the room. "It shall be interesting to see how our defences fare against their onslaught," Luna said quietly.

"If we can take their tanks out of the picture, the minefield and the cannons should make approaching Canterlot a tricky ordeal. If the Hard Corps are ready with their part of the plan, it should be even trickier. The biggest threat to us until they reach the city is the griffons."

"Not if our fliers are up to the task. We shall have to see. In the meantime I shall go prepare myself and my sister for battle, and order the citizens of the city to make for the shelter of the caves." Luna started to leave, then paused in the doorway. "Let us pray that the city they come out to is still in Equestrian hooves."

"That's a lot of Mareitanians," Rainbow murmured to nopony in particular. From the vantage point Cloudsdale provided, she and the rest of Equestria's flying forces could see for miles around. A large force of over ten thousand that already outmatched the Equestrians in numbers had come from the east coast, and another ten thousand were marching up from Ponyville, Appleloosa, and Dodge City. It was a lot of soldiers, and yet it wasn't all of them.

"We only need to focus on the griffons," Lightning said to Rainbow.

"Those same griffons that outnumber us three to one?" Rainbow nodded with false confidence, "Sure, no problem."

"We're supposed to be getting some extra support, but I don't think even Spitfire's been told what it is. Better be good to be worth keeping it that secret."

"I hope so, because I am not liking these odds so far. In fact, I think they're terrible, and I like having long odds to beat. Makes winning that much sweeter."

"Yeah..." Lightning shrugged at Rainbow, then turned away from the edge of the cloud and back to the large open area where the Wonderbolts, Air Corps, and Night Guard were preparing themselves. There wasn't even a thousand of them. "It's going to be pretty sweet for us then."

"Lightning Dust! Rainbow Dash!"

Both of them looked up as Fleetfoot flew towards them, shouting their names. She did not appear to be very happy, so both of them saluted her just to be safe.

"Is there something wrong ma'am?" Lightning asked as Fleetfoot landed in front of them.

"You could say that." Fleetfoot turned so she was facing directly at Rainbow, "Have you seen your wingmates?"

"No, not since last night. Why? Are they dressed funny?"

"That's not what I mean."

Rainbow furrowed her brow as she tried to work out what Fleetfoot meant, and a few seconds later she understood. "Do you mean they're not here?"

"I don't know! Are they? You're their wing's leader, so you should know where they are."

Rainbow's mouth flapped uselessly. She wanted to say that they had to be there somewhere, and that they'd turn up sooner or later, but deep down she knew that Cloud Chaser had run away, and had probably talked Thunderlane into going with her.

"Cloud Chaser was having doubts about fighting, but I'd asked Thunderlane to talk to her. I guess it had the exact opposite effect that I thought it would." Rainbow stood to attention, raising her chin slightly higher than normal. "I accept full responsibility for their actions."

"Do you really think we give a flying fuck about punishing you right now? We've just gone down two more fliers, and- and-" Fleetfoot growled and kicked the cloud floor, destroying part of it. "I can't believe this. Rainbow, you'll have to team up with Lightning and Vapor for now, and High Rise will join us in A squadron as a replacement for Misty Fly."

"Yes ma'am."

Fleetfoot flew away without saying another word, leaving Rainbow to sink down onto the cloud and use it to smother a shout as Lightning patted her on the back. "I can't believe they'd just abandon us like this! I can't believe they'd abandon me..."

"After what Cloud was like the other night, I can," said Lightning. She sighed heavily and sat down beside Rainbow, "Without Cloud, Thunderlane, and now High Rise, there's six of us. Six. B squadron is looking pretty piss poor these days."

"Why aren't you more bothered?"

"Is that going to bring them back?"

"No."

"Then I'm just going to wish them luck and not think about it. Honestly, they're probably being smarter than us right now."

Rainbow sighed and nodded, "I hate how right you sound about that."

There were multiple facets to Maud's wetness. Mostly it was because she was getting dripped on by water filtering down from the river. The other reason was because the interior of the Canterhorn mountain was breathtaking. Dozens of different kinds of crystals sparkled around her, illuminated by the light from her helmet that seemed to be amplified by the rich yet strangely uniform seams of diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems. It was probably the most beautiful place a pony like her could find. And they wanted her to destroy part of it. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she worked.

"Come on Maud, it's only a little bit of the Mountain," Pinkie said soothingly as she chipped away at the rock of the mountain with a pickaxe.

"It's a very nice part of the mountain."

"It's also the best place for this," Limestone reminded her eldest sister. "I'm not happy about this either, just so you know."

"We're destroying a piece of art millions of years in the making. I think I'm allowed to be upset."

Limestone grunted and glanced across at Marble, who at least had the decency to not get overemotional about this like Maud was. Azure didn't seem to give a fuck in the slightest, which was as refreshing as it was completely unsurprising. Crystal Moon was complaining about the conditions, which were pretty uncomfortable to be fair, but at least she wasn't complaining about the destruction, once she'd pocketed a few of the more valuable gems anyway.

"Guys! The Mareitanians are here! The Mareitanians are here!"

Limestone sighed as Lyra ran down the narrow tunnel as fast as she dared, her voice echoing loudly off the rocks. "So I'm guessing we're out of time?"

"Not yet, but you'll have to work double time if you want to get it done."

"Urgh... Pinkie, Azure, get started on setting up the explosives. Maud, Marble, Crystal, get digging. Lyra, keep us posted."

"Yes ma'am."

Limestone resumed digging, hollowing out around the four pillars of rock they'd left. Time was becoming an issue, and yet she found herself smiling, even though they could all die today. They were mining together as a family of sorts, which is as much as she'd ever asked for. Even Pinkie was humming happily as she worked.

They'd hit rock bottom, which is where Pie's worked best.

Luna pulled the last strap tight, then stepped back to admire her work as the room they were in shone with a golden light, reflected off the armour her sister now wore. "As magnificent as the day it were forged."

"I assure you it took considerably more than a day to forge," Celestia replied dryly to Luna's comment. "A dozen master smiths working over a dozen weeks, and blah-dy blah-dy blah, all to create this ostentatious nightmare."

"At least the Mareitanians will know who to aim for," Luna joked.

"Yes, well, perhaps I had best advise nopony to stand too close to me then." Celestia picked up her helmet and placed it on her head, pulling her mane up through the slot on top so her mane flowed back and along her side so it didn't obscure her vision. "I would also have trimmed my mane and tail down, if I knew but how."

"Will it not cut?"

"Oh it cuts alright, but then it starts bleeding rainbows, and it gets everywhere."

Luna leant her head to the side, eyeing Celestia suspiciously. "I suspect you are pulling my leg. I don't start bleeding a night sky when I trim my hair."

"Then truly you are blessed."

"Celestia..."

"Yes it cuts," Celestia huffed, "and it doesn't bleed rainbows, but what it does do is look terrible. My mane is happy where it is."

Luna shrugged at Celestia, "Okay, I wasn't saying you should or shouldn't cut it. In fact, you're the one that brought it up." Luna shrugged again and started placing her armour on herself when Celestia's golden magic took over. Luna let it happen, only saying anything when Celestia got it wrong.

"Like a warrior princess," Celestia said once she was done. "I had hoped we would never have to do this again."

"What is hope but another word for desire." Luna smiled sadly at her sister, "I too desire for this to be over, if only for the sake of our ponies. My own desires are more complex."

"Not really. You want to crush Faust and the Mareitanians in their entirety for daring to attack our nation."

"It doesn't sound so complex when you say it like that!" Luna snorted at her sister as she composed herself, "Still, as basely as you put it, you're not wrong. Faust will pay for this, one way or another."

"One thing at a time Luna. First we need to hold Canterlot." Celestia lit her horn, summoning Solaris to her, the air around the spear shimmering with heat as it matched itself to her mood. "Nam gloriam Equestria," Celestia said, her voice firm with resolve.

"Nam gloriam Equestria," Luna said back. "Let's go kick an ass."

"It's some ass Luna."

"So it is. Apologies."

Ponies were streaming through the city towards the freshly made entrance to the mines in the mountain as Luna led the way onto the balcony outside the throne room. It seemed the news of the Mareitanians arrival had finally spread around, although anypony could look over the edge of the city in the right place and see them coming.

Fleur was also there, watching everything with a distant look in her eyes, like she was watching a film of these events, rather than being part of them.

"What news is there Fleur?" Luna asked, startling the mare out of her reverie.

"Not much. The Mareitanians still have some forces coming from Dodge City that haven't made it yet, but that hardly matters. They've set up camp at the base of the mountain, and will probably start looking to probe our defences soon." Fleur looked over at Celestia, seeing the golden armour she wore for the first time. "Woah."

"Yes, not quite my usual attire, I know."

"No, but your ability to look good in anything is really shining through here." Fleur coughed awkwardly, "No pun intended."

"Thank you Fleu-ah!" Celestia ducked her head as a loud pop sounded in the distance. "What was that?"

"It would see the Mareitanians have discovered one of our mines," Luna said casually, like she were discussing the weather. "Hopefully that'll keep them occupied for a while as they try to find the others."

"We've yet to locate the griffons," Fleur said as Luna smiled to herself. "They'll probably be planning something, so we should be ready for them."

"They'll likely be planning to attack Cloudsdale, to keep our air forces from aiding us down here. They can't be too far away." Luna wasn't concerned about the griffons right then. For all the damage the Mareitanians and griffons could do, they weren't the real threat here. Faust was probably down there somewhere, and she had the honour of being the real danger here, as well as being a bit of a wildcard since there was no way of telling how involved in this she would make herself.

"So we're just going to wait for them to turn up?"

"We've made our move," Luna said to Fleur as the mare watched her with confusion. "What happens next is up to Faust and the Mareitanians."

"So we are really just going to sit here and let this happen." Fleur nodded to herself, "Sounds like a plan."

"I'm not sure if you remember, but that was actually the plan."

"Couldn't we be bombing them or something?"

"They can see us coming and prepare adequately for such a thing. We'd only be wasting our now limited munitions. Much better they come here where we can truly hurt them."

"And how long until that happens?"

Luna looked up at the sky, seeing a large collection of dots in the distance, slowly coming closer. They weren't flying very high, and didn't even reach above the level of Canterlot. Luna suspected they were making it appear as though they were heading for Canterlot, only to pull up and attack Cloudsdale from below. Only an idiot would really fall for such a trick. Unless they actually attacked Canterlot, but that seemed unlikely. Either way they'd find out in ten minutes.

"Sister, I leave the defence of Canterlot in yours and Cadence's hooves." Luna gave Celestia a small but cheeky smile, "Try not to lose before I get back."

"I shall certainly endeavour to not disappoint you Luna," Celestia said with her own smile, holding it until Luna was gone. Then she lost it with a sigh. "I very much doubt it'll work like that though."

"Why not?" asked Fleur.

"The sun hasn't moved for an hour. I suspect that means Faust is keeping it still until the city is taken, and we are defeated."

"Oh. That's bad."

"Yes it is Fleur, yes it is."

The cloud bounced beneath Luna as she landed. Before her was the entirety of Equestria's pegasi forces, now severely depleted without the Exiles. That said, there seemed to be even fewer of them than before, which was something she asked Stormguard about once she located the general.

"We've had two Wonderbolts desert, and there's been a couple dozen desertions in the Air Corps as well. The only branch of our forces with no desertions so far is your Night Guard."

"I wish I was surprised, but I'm not. I suspect we'd have more if Canterlot wasn't so tightly guarded. It matters not right now. We have griffons coming from the south west, and they'll be here in five minutes, so we best be ready to face them."

"We're ready," Stormguard said, brimming with confidence. "We can attack when you're ready."

"Very good, although I'd rather the griffons think us unprepared for their arrival. They seek to ambush from below, then we shall ambush them from above. Get our forces into the air above the city ready to ambush. I shall distract the griffons in the meantime."

"At once Princess."

Luna stood back as Stormguard signalled for their forces to take off and head up. There seemed to be little else for her to do until the griffons arrived, so she took the opportunity to watch the Mareitanians over the edge of the clouds as they started to cautiously head up the mountain, keeping an eye out for mines. Apparently Faust intended to waste no time today.

The griffons were rapidly nearing though, so she backed away from the edge and stood still as wave after wave of griffon soared up into view, flying in a formation that would've worked for them to spread out in an ambushing manoeuvre had there been more than one pony there to ambush. The griffons kept spreading out, making themselves ever more of a target for anypony that might happen attack through the cloud cover from above.

Luna smiled as a group of griffons flew down towards her as the remainder spread out to search for the absent pegasi. They landed a reasonable distance away, and seemed to take a moment to decide what to do, so Luna took the initiative.
"Welcome to Cloudsdale," she said, keeping her tone cheerful. "Truly a lovely city isn't it?"

"It can stay that way if you surrender it to us."

Luna frowned at the griffon that had spoke. "You must be Commander Theron. Your father must be so relieved to know you're alive." Luna looked to the other griffon beside him as Theron growled, "And Commander Lurin. A pleasure to face an honourable griffon like you."

Lurin plumped up his feathers with pride, "You know of me?"

"A decorated soldier in the Imperial forces, who then went on to join the Golden Claws once your mandatory service was complete. You are quite the soldier to be leading them now. Too bad you're fighting for a madmare like Faust."

Lurin's feathers deflated at the insult, "Had you offered a price, our allegiance might have been much different."

"We had not the money to spare," Luna said bluntly. "Building an army is an expensive business, and we hadn't considered mercenaries at the time. Anyway, enough talk. As you can tell I didn't come dressed for negotiations."

"And what do you hope to do on your own against all of us?" Theron sneered as Luna limbered up.

"On my own?" Luna cocked her head curiously, "Who said I was on my own? Now!"

Luna's shout echoed around the sky, and was answered in kind by the roar of thunder as over a dozen bolts of lightning reached out of the sky to smite a dozen griffons. Hundreds of pegasi poured down out of the clouds, catching the griffons out, unprepared as they were from an attack from above.

Lurin immediately took to the sky as the ambush happened, leaving Theron to scramble after him as Luna fired a beam of magic at him, only catching the end of his tail. Luna grinned as another dozen bolts of lightning struck down even more griffons, and summoned her glaives to her. It'd been a while since she'd fought griffons in such a way, and she was keen to see if she still had it.

A half dozen griffons later, she suspected she still did.

Rainbow's wings smoked from the second bolt of lightning, and she could feel the strain as she tried to muster the energy for the third in such a small amount of time. She knew she risked injuring herself, but when you were flying into battle against a few thousand griffons, you needed every advantage.

By the time she mustered the third bolt she was almost within reach of the griffons, and fired the bolt point blank, smacking the griffon in front of her away like it was a ragdoll. The shockwave buffeted her, and she rolled away as she corrected her flight. She glanced back to see if her wingmates were with her, then very quickly remembered they'd run away, and she was meant to be following Lightning's lead.

"Shit." Rainbow pulled up, keeping her blades ready as she tried find where Lightning and Vapor had got to. Her gaze drifted towards Luna as she raced through the sky, blasting griffons with her magic, and cutting them down with ease with her blades. Wherever she went, griffons fell from the sky. "Guess that's our secret advantage."

Her gut told her to roll left as a griffon came screaming towards her, two hatchets in her claws. Rainbow felt a blade nick the tip of her left wing, and she put on a burst of speed to get away. The griffon followed, her single minded focus on Rainbow stopping her from seeing Lightning diving down from above.

"Thanks!" Rainbow shouted as Lightning kicked the griffon off her blades. "I kinda forgot I was supposed to be following you."

"I figured," Lightning replied dryly as Rainbow drifted into position on her right, opposite Vapor. "You just had to get that third strike off."

"You meant you didn't?"

"I'm pretty sure some of my feathers caught fire trying," said Lightning. The fact that some of her feathers were singed supported that. "I decided to stop trying after that."

"Hah! Guess that means I'm more awesome than you!"

"Vapor got four off."

Rainbow blinked at Vapor, "For real? My wings felt like they wanted to explode on the third." Vapor merely shrugged at Rainbow. "Okay, sure. What's the plan boss?"

"I think 'kill as many griffons as possible' covers it. Otherwise we have to hope Luna can thin them out enough for us to scare them off."

"That seems unlikely."

"Yeah, I know. Still, we have a job to do, so let's go do it."

Rainbow nodded as Lightning took them back into fray, which didn't seem as hopeless as she thought it would. Luna was cutting swathes into the griffons, and the thestrals were following her lead, spurred on as they were by the presence of their princess. The griffons still outnumbered them, but the numerical difference was slowly shrinking.

Of course that seemed a lot less noticeable as they dived into the battle. Rainbow's blades struck something as she flew, and she could only hope it was a griffon as the only proof she had of anything was the blood on her blades that the wind was blowing off due to the enchantments on it. Rainbow brought her blades closer to make sure she didn't hit a friendly.

Pizzelle and her wing flew up beside them, completing B squadron, cut in half as it was, and joined them as they struck. Rainbow deflected a spear with her left blade, thrusting her right forwards into the chest of her target. Claws scrabbled against her armour for a second, then the griffon was gone. So was Sightseer, one of Pizzelle's wingmates. Rainbow hadn't even seen it happen, but she could hear Pizzelle's cry as he fell away.

"Damn it!" Lightning cursed. She led them up and out of the immediate fray, hoping for a moment for the five remaining members of B squadron to recover. They were denied it as a group of griffons followed them, their shields held ready to charge the pegasi.

Pizzelle fled, her other wingmate Roller following her as she tried to get away. A trio of griffons split off from the main body, and seconds later the two pegasi fell to the ground, Roller dead, and Pizzelle screaming as the griffons had only hacked off half a wing that was still attached by sinews.

Rainbow pulled out of formation the instant she heard the scream, and raced after Pizzelle as the mare tried to fly on her ruined wing, only stopping screaming to suck in another breath for more screaming.

Thankfully her efforts did slow Pizzelle enough for Rainbow to catch her without pushing her herself to an extreme like a sonic rainboom, and Rainbow swung around to grab Pizzelle around the chest from behind, accidentally bringing a blade into contact with Pizzelle's half severed wing, finishing the job.

"Shit! Sorry!" Rainbow shouted over the wind as she flapped her wings hard to reverse their rapid descent. Gradually she shifted their velocity to something more manageable, and set on a path that would lead them towards Canterlot Castle, where she could hopefully get help for Pizzelle.

"Rainbow! Look out!"

Rainbow looked up and to the left at the shout from Lightning, and could do nothing but stare at horror at the griffons coming right for her. She could either drop Pizzelle and live while letting her fall to her death, or keep hold of Pizzelle and let both of them die. Objectively she knew the right answer, but there was no way she could live with herself if she let Pizzelle die like that, even if it meant her own death. Rainbow closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, and was quite surprised when she heard the shriek of steel shattering, and no pain at all.

When she dared look, the broken stub of the griffons sword was held an inch from her body by a tiny shimmering shield of rainbow magic. Both her and the griffon stared at it in shock, then each other. The griffons eyes then went wide in pain, and it's mouth contorted in a silent scream as Lightning caught up to it.

"Rainbow! Are you okay?!"

"Uh..." Rainbow looked back down at her side, seeing nothing there to show what had just happened. No shield, no wound, nothing, she was completely fine. "I'm... fine. Totally fine."

"How?"

Rainbow shrugged, genuinely not knowing. What she did know was that Pizzelle was heavy, and that she needed help. She resumed her flight towards Canterlot, escorted by Lightning and Vapor, and was relieved to be able to drop the now unconscious Pizzelle outside the castle near some guards.

"Help her!" she shouted, and waited a moment for that help to come before taking off back towards Cloudsdale. The battle was still far from over.

Celestia sighed with relief as she watched Rainbow head off back towards Cloudsdale. She'd genuinely thought that griffon had gotten Rainbow, and had to fight back a shriek until it became clear that Rainbow wasn't falling from the sky, and was in fact fine. She had no idea how though.

"They're coming," Fleur said, breaking Celestia out of her thoughts. "Tanks first to absorb the mines."

"Very well, let us see how far they get. Is the countermeasure ready?"

"Uh... what countermeasure?"

Celestia resisted rolling her eyes, and turned back into the castle. On a table next the dais where her and her sister's thrones sat, was a small wooden chest. Celestia flicked it open, revealing three vials of the roiling liquid known as dragonsfire. She picked one up and inspected it.

"Only three huh? That's too bad. Are you going to be dropping those yourself?"

"I suppose I shall have to." Celestia returned the vial to the chest and closed it, picking the entire thing up in her magic. "I suspect there's little more for you to do other than to get to safety Fleur. Go be with Swift Wings."

"I will head to safety once I deem it necessary Princess." Fleur smiled crookedly at Celestia, "Canterlot hasn't fallen yet."

"Let us pray that it never does." Celestia nodded at Fleur, then went back out to the balcony, taking flight out over her beloved city. There were still some ponies heading for the safety of the mines, but the city was otherwise rather empty compared to usual. It was a uncomfortable sight, it being one of the few things Celestia had never seen before. She didn't wish to see it again.

She also didn't like seeing the city so fortified. Defensive emplacements had been set up through the lowest level of the city, ending at the bridge up to the next level that was rigged to collapse should the Mareitanians push them back that far. The fact that they'd planned for that eventuality was depressing in itself.

Similarly the wall separating the city from what lay beyond it was heavily fortified with sandbags and those dreadful cannons Luna had concocted. The colourful gatehouse looked massively out of place surrounded by military hardware, let alone that it had been closed for the first time since the changeling invasion. It had been kept open considerably longer before that. It was also where Shining Armour happened to be.

"Princess," Shining said in greeting as Celestia landed next to him. "If those happen to be orbs of liquid dragonfire, I suggest you put them somewhere they won't melt through our defences."

"They shall be used soon enough I imagine. How far are the Mareitanians from reaching us?"

"At the speed they're creeping along at, they're going to be a while. I guess they're counting on their griffons to win Cloudsdale in the meantime."

"I do believe Luna has already accounted for that." Celestia placed the chest on the ground out of harms way, and took the binoculars Shining offered to her. "They're not far from our trap," she observed.

"No, but they'd had to have planned for that kind of thing. Frankly, our tactics are a little too predictable at times."

"Any sign of Faust?"

Shining shook his head, "Not yet, but I imagine she isn't far away. Only she could drive the Mareitanians into such a reckless attack."

"It would seem as though she is determined to end this today," Celestia agreed. "Unfortunate."

"Maybe she thinks we're planning something, and wants to end this before we can do whatever she thinks we have planned. Her attack reeks of desperation."

"Her attack reeks of overconfidence." Celestia lowered her binoculars as the Mareitanians passed over their trap. "Overconfidence is a terrible thing really."

Bits of rock dropped onto the helmets of the Hard Corps as the tanks rumbled over the ground directly above them. None of them dared move out of a fear that it could collapse at any moment as that was what it was designed to do, partially.

"We're too late," Azure whispered, only just being heard over the racket coming from above.

"Not yet we're not," said Pinkie, hurriedly finishing off setting up the explosives they needed to complete the trap. "Get the rest of the team out of here while I finish up."

"We're standing right here Pinkie," said Maud.

"Oh yeah! Okay, you guys get out of here, Azure sets up the detonator while I finish up here, then we all go back to Canterlot as muddy heroes." Pinkie shooed them off with a hoof, "Go on, get moving!"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in charge," Limestone pointed out in a grumble.

"Guys, we need to blow this now!" Lyra shouted down the tunnel.

"You heard the minty unicorn," Pinkie said to Limestone. "Get outta here!"

Azure ran over to Pinkie, her expression frantic with worry. "I'm not leaving you here on your own Pinkie!"

"Sure you are."

"What? How can you say that?"

"Reasons." Pinkie grabbed Azure's collar and pulled her into a kiss that the other mare happily reciprocated after a second.

"But I thought you didn't like me like that?" Azure said with a pant as soon as they broke apart.

"I never said I didn't, you just caught me by surprise, and while I was upset."

"Sorry."

Pinkie shrugged, "Eh, it's fine. Anyway, the world as we know it might be about to end, so maybe it won't hurt to go into that knowing somepony loves me. Now seriously, get out of here."

"But I have even less of a reason to leave you now!"

Pinkie smiled at Azure, "You're cute when you're concerned, but you need to set up the detonator, or this will all have been reeeeally pointless. Don't worry, I'll catch up to you."

Azure started to leave, then darted back towards Pinkie, kissing her again. "Just wanted to be sure I didn't imagine the last one." Azure grabbed a spool of wire and ran off up the tunnel after the others, the sound of Limestone saying they owed her a lot of bits coming down after her.

Pinkie smacked her lips thoughtfully, "Kissing mares is weird. Trust the one pony I really like to be a mare. Hardly seems fair. Hopefully it's something I can bear, especially when it comes to doing stuff down... there. Teehee! Rhyming is fun... and I'm talking to myself. Again."

Pinkie worked quickly, pushing in all the things that needed things pushed into them, which seemed to be all of it for some reason, then grabbed her gear consisting of one incredibly bemused Pinkie, tinkled pink by what had happened with Azure, and ran up after the others. "It's ready! Blow it!"

"But you're not clear!" Azure shouted back.

"I said blow it!"

A grey hoof belonging to Marble pressed down on the plunger before Azure could stop her, and the ground shook violently as the explosives detonated, knocking Pinkie off her hooves. The tunnel above her cracked, caving in from the direction of the explosion, raining large chunks of rock down towards Pinkie.

"Aaah!" Pinkie curled up, waiting for the cave in, then waited some more, and some more. She peeked an eye open, seeing the tunnel above her had cracked, but not fallen, and shimmered with a faint rainbow like sheen. "Huh."

"Marble! Are you insane?!" Azure screamed. "You could've killed her!"

"I know my sister better than you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Pinkie stood, relief drowning out the horror she felt from nearly getting crushed. Despite what Marble might think, Pinkie knew getting crushed by giant rocks would hurt a whole bunch, and not even she could bounce back from that. She took a few cautious steps forward, her legs feeling like jelly, and yelped, jumping round on the spot as the tunnel collapsed where she'd just been standing.

"Okay, that's... weird," she said, getting a little freaked out. The feeling grew as those same rocks started to move of their own accord, retreating back down the tunnel. "Okay, that's weirder. Rocks don't normally move on their own."

"They're not now," Crystal said to Pinkie. "Somepony out there us using some really powerful magic to do this. Somepony like Faust. I vote we get out of here."

"Vote carried," Limestone said as rocks at the far end of the tunnel started to glow with heat and flow together into a solid mass. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Celestia gripped the binoculars tightly in her magic, threatening to crush them as Faust landed on the roadway up the mountain, pulled the dead and wounded out of the collapsed section of road, and started to repair the damage. Adding insult to injury, she was using the same magic Celestia used to try and seal the entrance down to Faust's cell back in High Rock keep. Within minutes the Mareitanians were able to resume their march up the mountain.

"Please tell me the drawbridge over the river has been made secure," Celestia said to Shining Armour, referring to the river that rushed past several yards in front of the gatehouse, one of several parts of a larger river that passed through the city.

"The drawbridge is secure, and all of the bridges have been made to collapse, although I don't think this one will make much difference."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Those tanks won't fit through the gatehouse anyway, and the streets are too narrow, so they don't have to worry about getting those in here. It's the infantry that's the main problem here, and getting them across won't be too big of a problem if Faust is here."

Celestia nodded unenthusiastically, "Of course. How long until they're in range of our cannons?"

"Not long. They have orders to fire as soon as the tanks are in range."

"Ignore the tanks."

"Princess?"

"You know they can take the cannon fire. They're nothing more than a distraction. Fire on their infantry instead, and I shall deal with the tanks."

"As... you wish."

Celestia stood quietly after that, waiting for the Mareitanians to draw nearer. It seemed Faust was pushing everything into this attack, especially if she was willing to halt the cycle of day and night for it. She knew it was too late, but she should've put more into advancing their efforts against the Mareitanians, and begged the other nations for help. Especially Griffonia. The Emperor could have had Mareitania if he so wished after all this.

"Enemy in range," Shining said after a few minutes. "Open fire."

The cannons shook the wall as they fired, great plumes of smoke concealing the rapid departure of their payloads towards the Mareitanians at speeds the naked eye couldn't follow. The only way to tell they had landed was by the earth that was thrown into the air, the clang of tank armour being struck, and the shouts of ponies. Celestia felt sick.

"Reload! Fire!"

The cannons roared again, and again the Mareitanians felt their fury. The tanks sped up, hoping to close the gap between the cannons range and their own, and Celestia knew the time had come to take down some of them. She opened the chest and pulled out the three vials of liquid dragonfire, then took flight to deliver them to their targets.

Celestia sped towards the tanks with all due haste, a shield protecting her from the sporadic fire the Mareitanians could muster towards her. She threw the vials, then veered away to loop back, seeing as she did that none of the tanks were aflame, and that the vials were floating in a haze of blue magic conjured by Faust, who hovered menacingly above the tanks.

Celestia fired wildly towards the vials, hoping to break them, but Faust jerked them out of harms way. She had no idea what Faust planned to do with them, and no desire to find out as she summoned Solaris, the spear appearing as a line of fire as she dived towards Faust, who caught the weapon on a shield without flinching.

"I grow tired of these games Celestia."

Faust flexed her magic, and with unerring accuracy, launched the vials of dragonfire at speed towards the gate house, towards Shining Armour. Celestia screamed hoarsely, teleporting towards the gatehouse before the vials landed, slamming bodily into Shining Armour and knocking him off the wall.

An unbearable heat bloomed up behind them as Celestia grabbed Shining and twisted so she landed on the ground first, smacking hard against the ground and rolling until she stopped with Shining rolling away in a different direction, not unhurt, but definitely alive. Sadly the same could be said of the other ponies on the wall as the heat from the dragonfire cooked ponies alive just from proximity. Even a couple dozen meters away, Celestia could feel the heat from it.

Ponies screamed, jumping from the wall to escape the fire as it melted through the gatehouse, turning the drawbridge into ash and slag that dripped away onto the ground. The nearest cannons succumbed to the heat, their wooden frames catching fire, and the tubes warping from the heat until the gunpowder ignited, finishing them, and a large portion of the wall off. By the time the explosions ended, and the smoke cleared, the gatehouse was no more.

"What have I done?" Celestia gasped, shock filling her as she saw the massive hole her actions had left in Canterlot's defence. Burnt and blistered ponies crawled away from the wreckage of the wall, and through the gap she could see Faust advancing with her forces.

"Shields up! Shields up!" Shining shouted, forming a shield over the gap. The unicorns of the Mage Corps added their strength to it, and after a moment Celestia did too, even as she marvelled at Shining for recovering so quickly. "You!" he shouted at a random pony, "Get to Princess Cadence, and get her to get the Crystal Heart working now! The rest of you, prepare to repel invaders!"

The battle for Cloudsdale was quickly turning south for the invaders. Even with the ambush, and Luna fighting with them, the griffons were simply too numerous. Luna was finding herself more and more outnumbered, and her body ached from fighting. Bodies littered the city, and it was quickly becoming time to give in and retreat, exactly as planned.

"Retreat! Retreat to Canterlot!"

All the pegasi and thestrals turned towards Canterlot, disengaging as fast as they could to flee the losing battle, leaving Luna behind. The griffons gave chase, but were deterred by the unicorn and weapons fire that came up from Canterlot to cover the fliers retreat.

Luna drifted down to the clouds, landing as she dismissed her weapons. The griffons circled her nervously, until the two commanders of both forces flew down to meet her again. "Hello again gentlegriffs."

"You will surrender this city, and the battle immediately," Theron screeched, "or the city and its inhabitants will be used against you until you do."

"Are you threatening to harm civilians Commander Theron?" Luna tittered, noting the disgust Lurin displayed for Theron as the younger griffon spoke. "How uncouth."

"If it ends this battle now, yes."

"I see, I see." Luna smirked at Theron, "And what if I told you the city is completely empty, because we're not foolish enough to give you an entire city's worth of ponies to use as leverage. I also very much doubt Faust would condone such an action."

Theron spluttered at Luna, earning himself a smack off Lurin, "I think you've said enough, boy." He offered Luna a cautious smile as he ruffled his feathers, "My apologies Princess. Believe me it was not my intention to cause harm to innocents, here and in Appleloosa. As for Cloudsdale, do you surrender the city to us?"

"Of course I do, but there's one thing I need to do first." Luna pulled a remote detonator out of her armour, and pressed the button on the top. A split second later the weather factory rumbled with a series of explosions, and the city lurched as a fierce gale tore out of the funnel on the side, propelling the cloud city away from Canterlot. "It should stop after thirty miles or so. Farewell."

Luna teleported away below the city, and flew the rest of the way back to Canterlot, a fleeting smile on her lips that lasted up until she could see what was happening at the entrance to the city. "Oh Celestia, what have you done?"

Luna quickly flew for the carnage by the gatehouse, aiming for the golden armour of her sister as she put her focus on aiding the shield along with all the others. It took one look at the molten remains of the gatehouse to see something had gone disastrously wrong.

"What happened?"

"Faust caught the dragonsfire, and used it against us. She was more than ready for me when I tried to use it."

"Curses! She couldn't have asked for a better entrance to the city! What of the cannons?"

"Seven destroyed, one damaged but functional, four undamaged," Shining said to Luna, his brow covered in sweat from the pounding the Mareitanians were giving the shield. "We've also lost the explosives on the bridge. I've got somepony running to Cadence to get her to raise a shield over the city."

"Then that's the best we can do for now." Luna glared through the gap, seeing Faust standing calmly amongst her forces, aggravatingly assured of her own victory. Even more aggravatingly was that she might be right. "I don't know what we were thinking, holding onto this place for months. A day seems like a stretch right now."

"We'll hold," Celestia told her. There was a change in the texture of the air, and a bright flash emanated from the highest point of the castle, forming into a blue shield that descended to protect all parts of the city, ending just outside the shield they'd made to cover the gatehouse. Celestia ceased casting, as did the others, letting their magic fade away, while the Mareitanians maintained their bombardment on the new shield. "We have to."

"General Armour, we have griffons inside the shield!"

"Of course we do," Shining groaned. "I'm afraid that is outside my jurisdiction Princess," he said to Luna. "I'm going to go make sure Cadence is protected until they're taken care of."

"We'll have them dealt with in no time."

Lucky Do didn't ask for much in his life. A nice little cottage somewhere, with a pleasant view and maybe a dog for company would do for him. He certainly didn't want to be put in one of Canterlot's many towers, trying to shoot down fast moving griffons while trying to not hit friendly fliers. He certainly didn't want to be there when the griffons took notice of him.

He desperately reloaded his crossbow with his magic, firing it again and again as a large male griffon hurtled towards him, dodging every shot he took. A frantic cry left his mouth, along with a prayer that got answered by a rainbow haired and blue uniformed angel that swept over the back of the griffon, performed a little twist in mid-air and struck out with her blade before flying on, leaving the griffon to crash face first into the tower somewhere below Lucky Do's hooves.

"Thank you!" Lucky Do shouted after the pony that had saved him.

"Now you're just showing off," Lightning said to Rainbow as they zoomed between the towers of upper Canterlot.

"Face it Lightning, we've already lost, so we might as well go for style points now."

"Style points? Are you kidding me? I don't know what that griffon did to you, but it must have involved brain damage, or maybe some kind of drugs. We should be probably be putting more effort into not dying, rather than trying to look good."

"Eh, why not both?"

"Ugh... you agree with me don't you Vapor?"

"I like to think Sky would agree with her, so I will too."

Lightning wanted to say that siding with the choices a dead pony would supposedly make was not a healthy attitude towards life, but that wound was probably too raw to poke it yet. All she could really do was try to keep up with Rainbow as the mare tried to kill griffons with razor edged aerobatics. "I'm going to be killed by style points. I've never been so betrayed."

"Relax, there's only a couple hundred of them." Rainbow sought out her next target, finding it, along with a large number of others, aiming for the highest point of the castle. It didn't take a genius to work out that they were going for the source of the shield. "Come on!"

"I'm in fucking charge here Rainbow!"

"And?"

"And come on!"

The griffons were acting much faster than usual. Probably out of desperation as the remainder of Equestria's fliers closed in on them. They smashed a window and poured into the castle, clashing with the few defenders Cadence had around her. Rainbow followed them in, trying to kill as many as she could before they got to Cadence, who cried in terror even as she maintained the shield over the city.

A flash signalled the arrival of Luna and Celestia, who placed a shield and themselves between the griffons and Cadence. Celestia swung her spear, the weapon glowing with white hot fury, and the griffon it impaled fell to the floor, his flesh turning to ash around the wound, and continuing to do so for several seconds.

The crystal ponies guarding Cadence rallied with the arrival of Celestia and Luna, and between them, the princesses, and those fliers that had followed the griffons in, the griffons were swiftly overtaken. Bodies littered the ground in the observatory, all centred around the pink form of Cadence, who cowered beneath her shield with her eyes tightly shut.

"Do you think that was all of them?" Rainbow asked, sheathing her blades so she could land, then thinking better of it as she saw how much blood there was on the floor.

"Probably," said Lightning. "Guess that means we're safe for now."

"Cool." Rainbow flew over to Celestia, who was trying to coax Cadence into opening her eyes. "Princess, I'd just like to say you're kind of a badass."

Celestia scowled half-heartedly at Rainbow, "Thank you for that generous input, Rainbow Dash."

"You're welcome." Rainbow hovered in place for several seconds, not sure what to do with herself. The feeling grew as Shining Armour charged into the room, froze as he saw the carnage, then ran over to Cadence. "I have no idea what we're supposed to be doing now," she admitted.

"We should probably find Spitfire," said Lightning. "Wherever she is."

"Right here, Lightning."

Lightning followed the voice to its source, finding Spitfire slumped against the wall near where the griffons broke in. A pony was treating a wound on her belly, but it was pretty clear that she wasn't getting up in a hurry. The rest of the Wonderbolts were there too. There was fifteen of them altogether.

Lightning saluted the Captain, getting a bemused smile back from Spitfire. "What are we supposed to do now ma'am?"

"All we can do is wait now," Spitfire replied, taking a moment to suck her breath in through her clenched teeth. "I have no idea how long the princess will be able to maintain that shield, but if it does fall, those griffons are going to be all over the city. Don't engage them unless you have to. Let the ponies on the towers take care of them, and only engage if the griffons get too close." Spitfire coughed, and smacked her head back against the wall as the motion hurt her stomach. "Ugh, son of a bitch. Soarin, I'm done here; you have command."

"What about General Stormguard?" Rainbow asked.

"He fell back in Cloudsdale," Fleetfoot told her. "We're now technically in charge of the Air Corps as well."

"And Greywhisker?"

"He's outside somewhere, but with the loss of General Stormguard we gain command of the Air Corps." Fleetfoot went quiet as Soarin kissed Spitfire and whispered to her. Spitfire kissed him back, then leant back to let the medic work.

"Alright guys," Soarin said, walking over to them. "Spitfire's orders still stand. Gather the Air Corps in the courtyard outside so we can brief them, then all we have to do is wait. Move-"

"Aaah!" Cadence cried suddenly, making all the ponies in the room jump. She collapsed to her stomach and pressed her hooves to her head as she panted rapidly.

Celestia ran back to Cadence's side, "What? What is it?"

"She's trying to break through! She- She- I can't hold this Celestia! I- Annngh!"

"Come on Sweetie," Shining said, trying his best to support his wife. "You can do this."

"I can't! I couldn't hold her back at the Empire, and I can't do it here! We... we need to surrender before they kill us all..."

"Not yet," Luna said firmly. "If we can fall back to the middle level and blow the bridge, her forces will be forced into a bottleneck, and we'll be able to hold a while longer."

"But what's the point?!" Cadence screamed. "Are you really willing to let every pony here die just to keep Faust away from you?"

Luna looked around the room, seeing a lot of the ponies there were now watching her. "No," she said after a few seconds. "But I'm not willing to give up so easily either. We'll fall back, destroy the bridge, and stymie their invasion for now. If they can make it past there, we will consider surrendering. Is that acceptable?"

"They'll make it past," Cadence growled, "but fine, I accept. Shiny, I could use your help."

"Alright." Shiny cast his magic on the Crystal Heart, letting his magic interweave with that of Cadence's, strengthening her shield and easing her burden if the way her expression slackened was any indication. "We'll hold it as long as we can, but until then you'll have to manage without me."

Luna nodded once at Shining, "Understood. Everypony get moving. You all know what you need to do. Celestia, come with me."

"But-" Celestia started to say, her eyes lingering on Cadence.

"But nothing Celestia, Shining will get Cadence to safety once the shield falls, and we will have plenty else to do."

The source of Cadence's pain became pretty obvious as Celestia and Luna returned to the city entrance. Faust was there, her horn ablaze as she cast a beam directly at the shield that threatened to burn through it. Luna didn't need to be creating the shield to know that it was rapidly failing. The Heart fed on love, and in its current state, Canterlot wasn't exactly brimming with such emotions, and neither was Cadence herself. Luna wasn't sure whether she should be scared for Cadence, or of her.

Ponies were fighting to get the remaining functional cannons down from the wall, taking care to stay away from the gatehouse as it still shimmered with heat. Luna quickly added her efforts to get the cannons down, and instructed the crews in charge of them to get them set up at the entrance to Canterlot's middle level.

As that went on, ponies crowded the defensive positions through the lower level, armed with their newest weapon and ready to put up a fight. Unicorns occupied the tallest buildings to discourage the griffons, but with their air forces so weak, it seemed doubtful that the griffons wouldn't be a problem.

"I hope you are ready sister," Luna said to Celestia as they stood side by side, watching Faust as she tore her way through the shield. "This is likely to be quite the battle."

"If it spares our ponies, I will gladly be their shield."

Luna rolled her eyes, "You're being dramatic."

"Oh, excuse me," Celestia said back sarcastically. "I meant, bring them on! I'm really not standing here to make up for my massive mistake from earlier, which resulted in Faust getting just what she needed to break through our gates."

"You know she hardly needed the dragonsfire to do that."

"Those gates were enchanted steel Luna! We'd have trouble even bending them with magic, let alone cutting through them!"

Luna was quiet for a moment, then smirked humourlessly. "Was the gatehouse itself enchanted?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Was the gatehouse magically toughened? I suspect the strength of gates would've mattered little if their housing was vulnerable." Luna smirked again as Celestia failed to answer her, "Perhaps we had best prepare Canterlot better for the next time this happens."

"The next time this happens, we're going to weigh our options a little more sensibly first, and not rush headlong into the first plan we come up with."

"Oh, well, sorry if the biggest mistake here was listening to me," Luna said with a pout. "Perhaps we'd all be better off if we listened to Cadence. Oh wait no, she agreed with me as well. At first at least. Heavens forfend that this plan would've worked perfectly if not for dear mother over there!" Luna pointed a hoof at Faust, "How are we supposed to compete with that?"

"We aren't, and we shouldn't have tried to."

"Isn't that the truth," Luna sighed. "Still, here we are in this situation with little choice but to try and hold them off."

A loud, resonant boom came from the shield as cracks started to run up it. Faust intensified her magic, breaking through the shield and letting her magic travel past it in a narrow beam that went between Celestia and Luna, narrowly missing both of them, and impacting against a building, blasting a large chunk out of it. She then tore the gap wider until the shield could no longer support itself, and collapsed.

"I'm glad you're here with me Celestia."

Celestia opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she saw the smile Luna was giving her, and instead smiled in return. She looked back at the sound of rushing water, seeing Faust pull a large amount of water from the river and direct it to the gatehouse, cooling it enough to allow her ponies to pass safely.

"Here we go," Luna said, summoning her weapons as the heavily armoured figures of Mareitanian juggernauts charged through the steam. "Open fire!"

A collection of glass orbs flew up over the defences towards the juggernauts. The tinkle of glass as they impacted was overcome by the roar of thunder as the lightning within was unleashed. The lightning grounded on the nearest thing it could find, which was the metal armour of the juggernauts in this case, chaining between the imposing metallic figures.
Luna's jaw dropped at the same time as the juggernauts hit the floor. Some had survived, and were attempting to crawl away, but the majority were very much dead, and smoking a little. As a bonus, there was practically no damage to the city.
Luna pulled her mouth shut with a click, as her sister continued to stare wide eyed at the bodies of the juggernauts. "I now wish we had made more of these."

"And sometimes your capacity for destruction astounds me."

"Actually, these are all Captain Spitfire's idea. I wasn't sure they would even work."

They weren't given too much time to think about it as a cry sounded from the other side of the gatehouse, and a large number of nervous yet determined Mareitanians started to race through the gap. Both princess started firing their magic into the mass of soldiers, aided by their ponies, trying to push them back to the gatehouse where they could try and hold them back. Their attacks did nothing except highlight the shield protecting the Mareitanians, the lightning from the orbs crawling over it until it could ground itself in one of the buildings. As soon as the Mareitanians were in mêlée range, the shield dropped.

Celestia blasted the nearest soldier to her, sending him flying backwards, buying herself a moment to attack. Solaris sang through the air, striking pony after pony, killing each one with a single fiery strike, but it was too little as the Mareitanians advanced like a flood. Within seconds both she and Luna were forced back to the first line of defences.

Fire poured down from the nearest buildings onto the Mareitanians, who responded in kind with their Adepts, who shot their magic back rather than form a shield. Luna could only guess that they'd been ordered not to, to drive the attack forwards rather than take a defensive stance and form a stalemate.

More of the lightning orbs were thrown by the Equestrians, and this time weren't interfered with by a shield, the thunderous booms blocking the screams of the Mareitanians. The pressure eased for a moment, allowing Celestia to find a firmer footing. She thrust her spear forwards, then turned it sideways to block a blow, the soldier's weapon deforming from the heat of her weapon. Beside her, Luna crossed her blades and swept the out in a arc that cut deeply into those Mareitanians in front of her.

The moment soon ended though, and another volley of lightning orbs could only deter the Mareitanians for so long as they fell back into their usual tactic of shielding themselves. Celestia pressed the tip of her weapon against the shield, cutting through it enough that she could channel her magic through the spear and behind it. The section of the shield in front of her collapsed as the intense heat she channelled burned the casters, as much as it sickened her to do it.

"Incoming!" All of them looked up at the shout, seeing the trails of smoke racing through the sky as the tanks beyond the river fired on the Equestrian positions. Shields were put up to defend against the explosives, but their aim was too poor to know where they would land with any certainty. Some landed beyond the shields, killing ponies further back that weren't even directly involved in the fighting yet, while other landed on buildings, sending deadly debris falling into the streets below.

Celestia looked to her sister, getting a nod from her. She held her position as Luna called for their ponies to fall back to the next line of defences, where a space could be made for fresh soldiers to attack the Mareitanians. Celestia threw up a shield, then retreated herself, buying enough time to make herself ready as the shield fell.

A barrage of magic, arrows, and lightning bombs fell on the Mareitanians as they tried to close the gap, and their hastily made shield wasn't enough to stop the magic of two alicorns on top of a large number of other unicorns, besides what else was throw at them. The Equestrians maintained the pressure until more fire from the tanks forced them to change tactic.

The Mareitanians were also starting to spread out, while the Equestrians were occupying the main street through the city section that led to the bridge to the next level of the city. It was only a matter of time until they were being attacked on all sides.

"Those cannons better be in position," Luna said over the racket of the battle. She winced at the tanks' fire impacted with their shield. "We shan't hold against an onslaught like this for long."

"I don't get it," Rainbow said, gesturing to the empty sky above them. "Where the fuck are the griffons? Why are we here defending against something that isn't even attacking us?"

"But they could be," said Lightning. "You know that the moment we turn our backs they'll be here."

"No, I don't know that, but what I do know is that our forces are taking a pounding down there." Rainbow pointed at the battle taking place in the lower city. "We should be helping them since the griffons aren't here."

Lightning looked towards the battle, and chewed her bottom lip anxiously. "You know we can't just disobey orders Dash."

"That's why we go to Soarin and convince him that the orders we want him to give us are the right orders. Come on Lightning, you know I'm right!"

Lightning turned her gaze back towards the sky, which was still empty, save for clouds that could be hiding the griffons. "I don't know Dash, this is the kind of thing that gets us in trouble. As soon as we go to help, the griffons could be right here."

"Oh for crying out loud! I'm only talking about making a bombing run. If the griffons turn up, we can totally go back and fight them in seconds."

"Alright! Alright... let's give it a shot. I do have to admit that I'm curious what those lightning orb, bomb, thingies, can do to those tanks."

"Woo! Now we're talking!" Rainbow raced ahead, leaving Lightning and Vapor to catch up as she sought out Soarin. She found him in the courtyard, along with a sort of pink pony that she didn't expect to see there. "Uh, Pinkie, why are you covered in dirt?"

"We were digging a trap out under the Mareitanians, although that silly ole meany Faust fixed it in seconds. That was a waste of a day..."

"Not entirely," Azure purred, kissing Pinkie on the cheek.

Rainbow blinked at the pair of them, "Uh, what was that? Did she just kiss you?"

"Huh? Oh right! Okay Rainbow Dash, since the rest of our friends are either in prison or far away, you get to be the first to find out that me and Azure are together now."

"Together... as in marefriends?" Rainbow screwed her face up a little as Pinkie nodded, "Pinkie, I honestly had no idea you were gay."

Pinkie giggle-snorted at Rainbow, "Me either, and I'm still totally into stallions and stuff, and so is Azure, so maybe we're just gay with each other? I don't know, but I like the way it makes me feel tingly inside." Pinkie lost her smile as Rainbow continued to stare blankly at her. "Aren't you going to say anything? Maybe congratulations, or good on you, you crazy pair of lovebirds? Anything?"

Rainbow rubbed a hoof between her eyes, "This is so not a conversation I thought I'd be having right now, not when I was coming to convince Soarin to let us attack the Mareitanians. Besides, me and the others had you pegged to be the second most likely out of us to meet a stallion and have kids."

"Oh? Who's first?"

"Applejack."

"Really? All she ever really does is work. How is she supposed to meet somepony? Wow I sound mean saying that."

"Fluttershy was third."

"But she's even less outgoing than Applejack! How is she third?"

"Because Rarity doesn't really want kids, and neither do I. Pretty sure Twilight isn't looking either thanks to her hang-ups over her immortality."

"Uh! But I'm the most outgoing-est pony there is! How am I second?"

"Because Applejack is all about the family thing, so it made sense. There's also the thing about you now being with a mare that probably puts you behind Fluttershy, but still way ahead of me."

"Why is this even a topic of conversation?" Azure asked the both of them, halting their discussion. "Aren't you, like, happy for us?"

"I suppose, yeah. I hope you're happy together-" Rainbow glanced back towards the battle, "- for however long that might be."

Pinkie huffed at Rainbow, "Thank you for that rather disingenuous sounding approval of our relationship."

"Ugh, I'm sorry, and I am happy that you found somepony you like, but I'm also really confused by it at the same time, because you've never even hinted towards liking mares that way."

Azure smiled cheekily at Rainbow, "Why? You try to find out yourself?"

"I'm not gay!"

"Seriously? Then why the blatantly gay hair colours?"

"It's natural! Not dyed, natural!"

"Oh, my bad, I just kinda thought that-"

"Yeah, you and half of Equestria," Rainbow grumbled, before she reined her anger back in. "Sorry, but I kinda have a bit of a thing about this. Before you think it, I don't hate lesbians, I know not to call you filly-foolers, and I am happy for you both, but right now I'm also confused, and there's a battle going on just over there that I really need to get myself involved in, so if you two crazy love birds will excuse me, I have stuff to do."

"That's fair," Azure said as Rainbow turned away. "I get the feeling that we're going to have to talk about this with her again," she said to Pinkie.

"Actually, I think the battle over there might be a priority. Maybe we should leave her to it."

Rainbow walked up to Soarin and saluted, "Sir, permission to-"

"Permission granted."

"Huh?"

Soarin nudged his head towards Lightning and Vapor, "They already discussed it while you were arguing with the happy couple over there." He pouted at the two earth ponies, "Wish I had time to sit around and whisper sweet nothings into Spitfire's ear during a battle."

"You literally do that all the time," said Fleetfoot.

"Not true. I'm usually doing other stuff at the same time and multitasking like a pro. Anyway, permission granted, just give us time to gather the other Wonderbolts and the Air Corp for a proper strike."

"Uh..."

"Grab an L-bomb and get yourself ready."

"L-bomb?"

"Lightning bomb," Fleetfoot explained. "Very different to the L-bomb those two lovers just dropped on you."

"Right." Rainbow saluted and walked away, muttering to herself. "Of all the things I expected today, being really confused was not one of then."

"Problem?" Lightning asked as Rainbow came and sat next to them.

"Pinkie and Azure are together now."

"Okay, good for them."

"That's all you have to say about it?"

"Since I don't really know either of them that well, yeah. Really don't think it's something worth worrying about right now."

"Yeah, you're right." Rainbow sat and waited as the rest of the fliers assembled, doing the exact opposite of not worrying about it, but right now, if it made Pinkie happy, then maybe things would work out fine.

"Okay," Soarin shouted once the fliers were all assembled, "you all get one L-bomb each, then it's blades after. The princesses need our help, so lets not disappoint them."

Rainbow was the first to fly over and grab one of the bombs, juggling it in her hooves as her flight suit stopped her gripping it properly. Pegasi might be more resistant to lightning than the average pony, but there were limits to what they could survive. "Careful, these things are slippy."

As soon as they all had their own orb, they all took off, with the Wonderbolts taking the lead. "Wanna find out what these will do to tanks?" Rainbow asked her wingmates.

"If cannon fire barely scratches them, probably nothing," Lightning said flatly.

"Mmhmm, but what about the ponies inside them? It'll make things easier if some of the tanks aren't firing."

Lightning shrugged, neither arguing or conceding the point. Frankly the three of them knew that curiosity was going to make them do it, so when they flew over the Mareitanians in the city they kept hold of their bombs, and flew out over the wall towards the three nearest tanks by the river.

The three of them aimed their throws without slowing down, and felt the boom as they whipped past their targets and circled back around. As predicted the visible damage was practically nothing, but they weren't firing, and one of the tanks was pushing against the side of another, its operator having slumped against the driving levers. After several seconds it reached the edge of the river and fell in, the angle it fell at, and the weight of the water rolling it along until it went right over the waterfall.

"Dude, that was awesome!"

"I get the feeling that we should have invented those months ago," said Lightning. "Whatever," she shrugged, drawing her blades, "Let's buy our ponies some time to get out."

Luna could have cheered as the pegasi flew over, dropping their lightning bombs. She did cheer as they came back and started to attack, but kept it short as there was plenty to do. They weren't holding the Mareitanians here, so they only had one course of action left.

"Retreat! Retreat back to the second level!"

Luna stood her ground as her forces broke and fled for the bridge to the second level. It wasn't exactly a wide bridge, so time would be needed to make sure everypony got across. Luna and her sister, along with the pegasi, would buy them that time.

Thankfully the Mareitanians had the sense to get to cover after the pegasi had bombed them, and their continued attacks were keeping them there. It did come to Luna to wonder why the pegasi were able to attack like this, but there wasn't a griffon to be seen. Perhaps the battle in Cloudsdale had damaged their numbers to the point they had withdrawn.

Luna staggered as an arrow struck her shoulder, ricocheting off the edge off of her armour into the exposed flesh between two plates. She cursed her lack of focus, and pulled it out, casting it to the floor. The Mareitanians were beginning to realise they were about to lose their prize, and were risking the pegasi and princesses to reach the bridge.

Luna swung a blade at the first to try and run past her, removing two of his legs. Celestia threw herself in front of two others, using her height to rear up and smash her armoured hooves into their faces. They then ducked as a squadron of pegasi swept in from behind the Mareitanians, and Luna found herself having to blink their blood out of her eyes. A distraction she didn't need as an Adept blasted Celestia.

Celestia cried out in pain as the magic burned into the exposed area on her side where the armour was absent to allow free movement of the wings. If Celestia hadn't had her wings spread, the wing would've borne the brunt of the attack instead. Even so, she staggered and barely kept herself upright.

Luna threw one of her glaives at the Adept and ran over to Celestia, catching her and leaning against her as she tried to stay on her hooves. "Damn it Celestia! It's times like this that I wish your generous flank wasn't such a big target!" She grit her teeth as the Mareitanians began to close in on them, "Can you run?"

"I- I-" Celestia gave up on speaking, and nodded instead.

"Good, make for the bridge!" Luna ran with her sister, keeping an eye on both her and what was behind them. The cannons seemed to be ready to fire, so Luna ushered Celestia over the bridge with the last of their forces, then turned back to fire a powerful, yet totally unaimed beam of magic to deter their pursuers for a moment. She then ran over the bridge, destroying it as she ran, leaping to safety as it collapsed into the river.

"Fire the cannons!"

The cannons boomed, and a shield boomed with them as the cannonballs struck a shield that appeared in a flash between the cannons and the Mareitanians. The Equestrians readied themselves as Faust calmly walked up to the broken bridge and stopped. She then raised her head, her horn shining as she finally allowed the sun to sink to the horizon. A moment later she raised the moon. Her point made, Faust turned and walked away, the Mareitanians following after her.

Luna fell to her rear and gasped for a breath she didn't know she'd been denying herself. "It seems we've been granted a reprieve. I never thought I'd be grateful for the day we received mercy off Faust." Luna sighed, then twitched her ears at the lack of a reply off her sister, then jumped back to her hooves as she remembered Celestia was injured.

"Is it bad?" Celestia asked breathlessly as Luna tore her armour away. She didn't want to look herself, but it felt bad.

"The good news is you're not bleeding rainbows. The bad news is you are bleeding blood. Quite a lot of it." Luna cupped her magic over the wound, trying to keep it in Celestia's body. "My diagnosis is that you're an alicorn, so you'll be fine. Cease being such a baby."

"Do you even know the last time I bled?"

"Was it shaving your moustache this morning?"

"Mousta- Luna! Hundreds of our ponies have just died to buy us a day's worth of time. A day! You should not be making jokes!"

"I know, and I'm sorry." Luna looked around as the wounded were seen to on a platform barely meters away from enemy territory. So much had been lost just to buy them a day, but for what? It occurred to her that she didn't really know why they were still fighting. It got them nothing.

Celestia laid her head down, fighting back tears, and not just from the pain. So many lives lost, all for one purpose that was going unfulfilled. They were supposed to be buying time for Twilight, and were failing to, but that didn't override the one problem they had with that plan. Where exactly was Twilight?

Author's Notes:

Did a big ole chapter. Thought this part of the story needed it. And then, just as things get interesting, we'll be off to see how Twilight and co are next week. Sorry about that.