The next few moons dragged by. Between soothing the freed slaves, and filtering the commands from the command tent, I was busy at all hours of the day. My only saving grace, and my greatest shame, was that Sombra's slaves surrendered less then I expected, and far less then I hoped.

But as much as my heart ached when the dead were burned after each battle, I could do nothing but push onward. This was a cancerous boil that needed to be lanced post haste.

Sombra, the name left a disgusting aftertaste on my tongue whenever I even thought the name. He had at one time been the Empire's Court Wizard, but had decided to one day overthrow the otherwise peaceful nation. Why was anypony's guess. But the enchantments on the helmets stank of corrupt dark magic, and that's all I needed to know.

As ruthless and evil as his occupation of the former Crystal Empire was, it was ill prepared for the full might of Equestria's military. The lost villages were reclaimed, however their residents had been press ganged into military service by the mind controlling helmets. Most were accounted for, dead and now burned. The presumed missing, were thought to have been pulled back. Anything else would be speculation.

Finally, after months of watching helplessly as unwilling slaves threw away their lives because the voices in their armor told them to, the capitol itself was surrounded and laid siege to.

Timber groaned as trebuchets worked day and night to hurl boulders against the city shields. Pegasi flew directly overhead, keeping the skies clear of any captured ponies, and to pony their own artillery. These weapon emplacements were a fiendish holdover from ancient Pegasopolis, named "lightning throwers".

It was an apt name.

Made using lost pegasi alchemy, the lightning throwers were machines that utilized a compressed and violent thunderstorm to channel lightning down a series of rods, ultimately creating a line of sight siege weapon that held off unicorn spellcasters for millennia. And the tried and tested weapons proved their value once more as they hammered Sombra's shields, disrupting great swathes of the overall field, causing more then a few boulders and lightning bolts to sneak through.

The city itself was already in poor shape when the siege began. Whole buildings had been swallowed whole by a black cancerous crystal that seemed to sprout everywhere like a weed. Temporary tents and brick buildings huddled around the more grandiose crystal buildings, making the city look less like a city, and more of a constantly awake work camp.

The Ponies themselves were in worse straights. Chained and shackled together at all times of the day, they were forced to perform manual labor by their mind controlled fellows. Whenever a significant portion of the controlled soldiers were slain, whole blocks of slaves were made to wear helmets to replace the casualties. Even across no-mare's-land, and through a distorted shield, I could see the horror on the slave's faces just before their head vanished inside.

I hated it.

I hated seeing the hopes of the incarcerated ponies vanish under those helms. I hated the death of the personalities as they bore that armor. I hated that they fought to the death, refusing to give in and let the Equestrian Legionnaires free them. I hated seeing the piled bodies of the slaves just outside their outer walls.

This wasn't a war.

This was a war crime that needed rectifying with prejudice.

But alas, therein lay why the Equestrian war camp was nearly as bad. The siege equipment was set up in a ring around the city, just as I wanted. But the highest, and most strategically advantageous hill to put a trebuchet on was given over to the billowing cloth castle that the Royal Court refused to leave. If that weren't enough, the smells of a kitchen constantly cooking a lavish banquet drifted over the camp, scarcely a moment went by when a noble didn't have food in front of them. Made worse by the fact our supply lines were stretched, and food shortages was becoming a problem.

That there wasn't much I could do about, Celestia vetoed any attempt I made to decrease their food consumption. And it wasn't like I could make the supply caravans move any faster. Even worse though, as much as the ruling class was eating, they were also getting bored. Made evident by the fact they kept insisting that the army needed to rush forward and climb the walls. This was obviously a bad idea since we did not know if this Sombra had any secret weapon or spell, made ever more likely because he was willing to brainwash slaves to use as soldiers. No, it was a bad idea to assault the city directly. And any losses inside was an excellent opportunity to lose Legionnaires to those cursed helmets.

Pushing into the city was a suicide mission. Staying outside was to lose the war of attrition. Cannot move forward, cannot stay still. Between a rock and a hard place. Unstoppable force and immovable object.

I tapped absent mindedly on the arm rest of the office chair I had claimed as my own, sitting on that high hill in the castle tent, glaring in the direction of the rippling city shield, knowing I needed to save all those poor souls inside. But how?

"I'm telling you Tia dear, we would be home already if we just charged fowards." a posh noble recommended. My ears were tickled by Celestia giggling merrily.

"Patience dear Golden Roast." she admonished. "I'm sure Luna knows exactly what she's doing."

"Harumph!" harumphed a stallion who spent far too much time at a dessert table. "I say! Luna, you better get a move on! I'm getting awfully bored watching you hit their shield!"

I rested my head in my other hoof, and stared blankly at the portly twit.

"Oh no. Do tell." I blandly remarked. The stallion looked taken aback, but continued.

"As entertaining as seeing this farce drag on, I do have important things to attend to back home. Why I have Duchess Marigold's annual dinner party to attend!"

"Let me stop you right there." I interrupted as he paused for a breath. "Firstly, you are not needed here. You are free to leave at any time." I began. "Secondly, this is not a honor duel for you to gain glory from. This is a civility crisis. There are ponies behind that shield that are suffering greatly because of this war. Thirdly;" I turned my blank stare into a hard glare. "You remember Lady Hazelblossom's black eye I gave her? You remember why I gave it to her? I will not risk losing any pony to those things while I willingly have a choice. If the army were to do as you ask, there is no telling how many of our Legionnaires would be enslaved." I leaned forward and prodded him roughly on the chest.

"Luna!" Celestia admonished. I snorted angrily at my larger sister.

"Fine. I have a war to win so if you'll excuse me." I growled, leaping from my chair and cantering away from the silk monument to avarice. The fat excuse of a Pony blubbered behind me as I left.

I didn't stop cantering until I was on the direct opposite side of the siege, all the way around, so that the Royal Court tents were obscured behind the city. Here was far more tolerable. While not homey or comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, the bustle of soldiers and trebuchet operators had a quiet practical forwardness that was refreshing in its own way, never mind how loud bored soldiers with nothing to do actually got.

Finally releasing a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, I sat on my haunches behind one of the trebuchets, watching the crew fire and begin to rewind the mechanism to fire again.

In the distance, the boulder they had just launched hit the shield and bounce off.

"Bit fer yer thoughts milady?" asked a mare behind me. I turned my head to see the commander of this trebuchet legion. Still fully, albeit lightly, armored despite clearly sweating from helping one of her crews.

"I'll need more then one I'm afraid." I replied, gesturing for her to join if she wished.

"Reckon I'll have to win big at the card game later if I wanted everything." she snarked. I lightly snorted with a smirk.

"Have you ever been stuck between two options?" I asked after a moment. "Both options are equally awful, just in different ways. You can't do one or the other, yet you must choose one."

"Oh nothing as awful as that I suppose." she thought outloud. "I may worry, but I'm pretty sure mah worries are much lighter than yers."

"So you've never felt as if you couldn't go forwards in life, yet could not stay where you are?"

"Can't say that I have milady. I grew up amongst the peasant folk with Trottingham. Twas ethier work on mah family's farm or join the Legion. Obviously chose the less exciting of the two." She snarked again.

I decided I liked her.

"There are times when I envy the ponies I rule over." I commented. "Choices are hard, harder then they should be. When I was young, it was easy. Swing a sword, and a monster died. But now, I have to ask others to put their life in danger." Tears began to well in my eyes, but I did my best to push them back down. "But I can't order an assault, my gut is telling me we'll lose more Legionnaires to those helmets then we'd have out here. But at the same time, the gluttons of the Court are eating through our supplies, if we stay any longer we're going to have to retreat and abandon the siege."

"Aye... That lines up with mah gut too." she replied.

"But for the life of me, I can't think of a solution."

"Well I dun know about you Princess folk, but when a Pony comes to me asking for advice I always say the same thing."

"And what would that be?" I nearly choked.

"Get some shuteye. A good sleep will clear yer head."

"I've heard worse advice." I mumbled out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 17 The Memories Part 8 Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 35 Minutes