"Picking up or dropping off?" Gloves asked, giving Shining pause as he tried to come up with an answer.

"Dropping off?" he hazarded.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Of course, I was hoping you wouldn't say the other one either." Gloves swung the door to the New Hope Medical centre open to let Shining and the others in, "Come on then. I'm sure you have an interesting story about why you're here."

"Princess Celestia burnt our boat," Shining started to explain when the filly interrupted him.

"Now we're land hobos, instead of sea hobos."

"What's the difference?"

"Sea hobos have way better living conditions." The filly passed a disdainful eye over the cramped corridors of the hospital the refugees were using. "Waaayyy better."

"Sorry, no refunds, and you," Gloves pointed at Shadow, "how's your leg? Or lack thereof. You know what I mean."

"Well, as you may have observed, it's still missing. Infection's cleared up though, so thanks for that."

"No problem, and I heard about that thing with your people. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that you've lost your home."

Shadow shrugged lazily, "Eh, I think I'll give up on having one since I keep losing them. I'm kinda surprised you know about all that though."

Fleur cleared her throat, "Oh, I think the entirety of Equestria might've had some help finding out what Faust did. You just have to drop the right words onto the right ponies."

"Celestia went right to her defence though," said Gloves. "I'm sure if she'd asked nicely enough there'd have been mobs in the street hunting down thestrals. I don't know what Faust did to convince Celestia to join her, but it was definitely the right move where her public image is concerned."

Shining laughed, even though it wasn't really funny. "I'm guessing you didn't fall for it?"

"You guess correctly. Celestia went on about it being necessary to stop the terrorist actions of the pro-Luna, anti-Equestria Night Guard, but the story of her and an army going there to wipe the thestrals out completely got out first, so that's what I'm going to believe. You're just confirming it for me. Anyway, you said Celestia burnt your boat?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the entire story," the filly snickered. "One moment we have ocean-bound luxury, the next everything's on fire. Then we came here."

"Where you won't be staying for long. If Celestia's taken enough of an interest in what you're doing to burn your boat, then I can imagine that they'll be hunting you down soon enough. I think it should be fairly obvious that we don't want or need that here, thank you very much."

"Just tonight. Maybe tomorrow as well," said Fleur. "We just need to work things out a little bit, then we'll be on our way."

"Ngh," Gloves grunted, not really pleased with the idea, but unwilling to turn away ponies in need. "I suppose we can do that. But at the first sign of trouble coming our way, you're gone, so don't get too comfortable."

Shining nodded in agreement, "Understood. We don't want to bring you trouble any more than you want us to."

"I'm glad we understand each other then. While you're here though, I'm hoping you could help us with something. We had an unusual individual turn up the other day, claiming to be searching for her people. Normally I'd be like 'sure, let's find your lost family,' but there's nothing else like her here, and she says she's looking for her people, not just her family. Not sure how you lose an entire tribe, or whatever, of people."

"I'm assuming she's not a pony if you're bringing it up like this," said Fleur.

"She says she's a kirin, whatever a kirin is. I mean, I do know because she's one, but I'd never even really heard of them before she turned up here." Gloves made a face as Shining, Fleur, and the rest of them shared little glances, "Are you even listening to me right now?"

Shining took Gloves aside to whisper into his ear, "I take it you're unaware that the kirin joined Faust?"

"They did? Damn. Hold on though, she doesn't know either since she's trying to find them. And don't tell me she's lying and here for you, because she got here well before you did."

"I know, but I'm just saying we can't be too careful."

"It could still be worth talking to her," Bon Bon piped up. "She might know something useful we could use."

"I suppose so." Shining breathed out hard as he quickly made his choice, "Alright, we'll talk to her. You, me, and Fleur. Could you find the others somewhere to bunk down, Gloves?"

"I'm sure we've a broom closet somewhere we could squeeze a dozen ponies into."

"Nuh-uh." The filly clung onto Fleur's leg, "I'm not going anywhere without Fleur until I'm positive nothing else is going to catch on fire."

Fleur breathed a laughed, too tired to even bother arguing. "Sure, why not? Nothing you've done has ever pissed anypony off, so you should be great at meeting this new, unknown individual."

"I'm being serious!"

"I know, and it's adorable. Buuuut... since you're an emotionally vulnerable teenager, I'll throw you a bone and allow you to come with."

"And... wow, fuck you Fleur. I still want to come see this whatever-the-hell-it-is though, so don't think you got rid of me that easily. Lead on, mister Gloves."

"It's Doctor Gloves, not that you'd care." Gloves led them deeper into the hospital, ending up in a waiting room in one of the wards where a bunch of older foals were gathered around the kirin in question, being regaled with stories and jokes. "Alright guys, I need to borrow our guest, so you all better get back to your caretakers."

"Aww," the foals all chimed together, giving Gloves a dose of puppy eyes.

"Don't try that crap on me. Now I mean it, vamoose!" Gloves waited, impatiently tapping a hoof on the floor until the grumbling mass of children had gone. "Sorry to ruin your fun Miss Autumn, but some of these ponies would like to talk with you."

"Ooh! Do you know where the kirin went? Tell me-Tell me-Tell me!"

"Uh..." Fleur went blank at the kirin, her excitable, puppyish attitude throwing her off. "We'd like to ask you a few questions first, if that's alright?"

"Oh, okay!" Autumn sat up and offered Fleur a hoof to shake, "I'm Autumn Blaze."

Fleur waited a tick before taking the hoof in her own, taking a moment to observe how it was cloven, but that sense of offness seemed to be part and parcel with the kirin. She was the right size and shape for a pony, but that's where the similarities ran out. The lustrous green scales covering her back and forehead, the strange tail that only grew hair on its end, the mane that went right down her chest, but mostly the large red horn that looked more like a smooth tree branch than anything else, all of it added up to something that clearly wasn't a pony.

"Hey, are you alright?" Autumn dipped her head into Fleur's view, "You've been shaking my hoof for like thirty seconds now."

Fleur quickly released Autumn's hoof like it had suddenly turned hot, "Oh, sorry, it's just that I've never seen a kirin before."

"Yeah, we tend to not get out much. Don't know why, because it's great out here! All you ponies have been so nice to me, and it's awesome having so many people to talk to."

"Didn't you have a lot of others to talk to back at home?" the filly asked.

"Not so much. As far as I could tell, I was the only kirin left that could actually talk, and I was sort of a little bit exiled for it."

"How did the others lose their voices?"

"They took them away themselves. I have a neat song explaining it all if you want to hear it?"

"We'll take the non-musical version, thank you," Fleur said quickly, making the filly grumble.

"Oh come on! I'll never get to sing that song. Anyway, the boring, music-less version is that kirin, when we get angry, tend to turn into niriks, where we basically turn black and catch fire. Not exactly ideal when we live in a forest. So, after some big thing where we all got angry over a lot of little things and pretty much destroyed our village, our leader decreed 'no more talking,' like that was the obvious solution. And after she said that we all went for a swim in the stream of silence, lost the ability to talk, and get angry, and then rebuilt our lives."

"But not you?"

"Yes me, for a while, but it was the absolute worst. Not being able to get my thoughts out there, I started to go a bit loopy, so when I found a cure I didn't hesitate in the slightest. Of course my fellow villagers weren't so keen, so I got kicked out."

"And how did that lead to you coming here?" asked Shining.

"Well... I went back to my village to get a few things I needed, and found it completely empty. Not a soul to be seen. Didn't even leave a note for me, which I thought was rude. Anyway, after searching around for a while getting super freaked out, I decided to try my luck in some of the other kirin villages, and while I did find some kirin, there was way less than I thought there should be."

"Couldn't the kirin there tell you what happened?"

"Uh... no, they couldn't talk either. Since their homes weren't charred in the slightest, I could only assume they did the same thing as my village."

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow at Autumn, "Couldn't you have asked them to put it in writing?"

"Pfft, I didn't have time for that! I had to find my people! So after exploring the other villages and getting nowhere, I came to Equestria, since the other direction involved a lot more swimming, and it seemed unlikely they went that way. After meeting some nice ponies, they told me the lost tended to come here, so that's what I did. No kirin here though, but I'd thought I'd hang around a while to spread some joy before moving on." Autumn held a hoof up to her mouth to whisper, "Between you and me, some of the ponies here seem really down."

"Can't imagine why," the filly deadpanned.

"Me either! Equestria's great! How could you be sad living here?"

"Still can't imagine why." The filly watched as Autumn lifted a glass of water to her mouth using magic, and saw some bands around her horn had lit up like a unicorns horn would. "You can do magic?"

"Yes and no. We can move things, but that's pretty much it." Autumn started moving the glass up and down, "Up, down, up, down, maybe around sometimes. I want to say we're a one trick pony, but it seems culturally insensitive to say that when I'm surrounded by actual ponies. Of course, that now means I've actually said it, so... oops?"

"Don't sweat it," Fleur told her. "Ponies tend to be pretty chill about casual racism, specism, and tribalism, considering how much we do it."

"That's an... odd thing to confess to."

"Call it more of an observation." Fleur quietly watched Autumn for a moment, the kirin politely sitting quietly as she did. The kirin seemed harmless enough, and didn't seem to know anything about the war, or what her people were doing, or what side they'd joined most importantly. Maybe she might even grant an insight into why the kirin would join Faust. There could even be potential to bring the kirin away from Faust if they were lucky.

"Why are we staring at each other?"

"Bon Bon, did you ever do anything with kirin when you were in Smile?"

"Not really. Their profile said that they weren't a threat to us so long as we didn't go too near their homes. Even then there'd be a stern warning to leave before any violence would be involved. I did read that they're very skilled with bows and blades though."

"And head-butting. We're really good at head-butting. I think that's why we put blades on our helmets."

"Including the kirin in your village?"

Autumn quickly shook her head, "Oh-no-no-no, my village was full of pacifists, y'know, when we weren't catching fire and trying to kill each other while burning everything down. We didn't really have any weapons scarier than a kitchen knife. The other villages though," Autumn levelled a hoof, "they were a bit more pushy about their privacy. They were all about the bows and swords and silly bladed helmet things."

"That's why Faust wanted them, I guess?" Shining supposed.

"Faust? Who's Faust?" Autumn gasped, "Did she kidnap my people?" A wisp of flame travelled up the length of Autumn's horn, then died off. "Because if she did, Imma gon' be so mad."

"Actually they joined her willingly in a military alliance."

"A military alliance?" Autumn sat hard and cocked her head, "Really? But why? As a rule, kirin tend not to concern ourselves with outsiders. Why would they join this Faust? Whoever that is?"

Fleur smiled sadly, "That's a bit of a story in itself."

"Could you maybe explain it with a song?" Autumn asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure I could cover it all with an hour long operatic piece, but I'll try to explain it all to you."

"Y'know, the more that happens in this war...thing, the longer it takes to explain," the filly whined as Fleur wrapped up her explanation. "I'm starting to think we should just make an informational pamphlet for these situations, and let whoever it is catch up in their own time."

Fleur gave the filly a look, then smiled gently at Autumn, who had gone quiet as she looked down at the floor. "As I said, there was a lot."

"You can say that again. No wonder my jokes had no effect on those crystal ponies."

"There's slightly more to it than that, but yeah, they aren't going to picked up by a funny story."

"I can't believe this. I can't believe the other kirin would join Faust when she's such a meanie." Autumn lowered her head into her hooves, "I've never been so disappointed to be a kirin."

"Eh, being something else ain't all it's cracked up to be either," the filly quipped.

Shining sat down beside Autumn and gave her an encouraging smile. "I'm sure your people had their reasons to do what they did, and we're hoping you might give us some clues as to what that is."

"Unless she's offered the other kirin a way to fix the whole nirik thing, I can't say I know. The thing is, a lot of kirin are into the whole living in harmony with nature thing. I can't help but feel that what you say Faust wants to do, some of them might agree with it."

"Even if they're included in it?"

"They probably haven't considered that, unless she purposely told them it wouldn't include them."

"You make it sound like kirin don't really like the rest of us," said Fleur.

"I'm not going to say they don't like you, but rather they don't agree with the way you live. Your cities, and your technology, and all that stuff that a lot of kirin find destructive to our world. Speaking of, that destruction could also make them want to fight so the war ends sooner and does less damage. Kirin hate conflict, mostly because of what it can make us into, so we tend to put a decisive end to it if we can."

"Hence taking away your voices and suppressing your emotions?"

"Yeah, just like that."

"Call me curious," Bon Bon said with a impish smile, "but I would've loved to have seen how negotiations went between Faust and the kirin when only Faust could talk."

"Well, each village leader would have to vote, and the whole process would've involved a lot of hastily scribbled notes." Autumn reached under her seat and pulled out a bag, then searched through it until she found a rolled up scroll. On it was a stiff looking image of the rest of Autumn's village.

"This is the last picture of my village. I brought it so I could show ponies what they look like, although, saying that they're kirin like me seems to work just fine." Autumn pointed the tip of a hoof to the tallest kirin, who stood a whole head above the others. "That's our leader, Rain Shine."

"Ah," the filly said as she viewed the image, nodding like she now understood, "you too pick your leaders based on how tall they are."

"Pfft, like there's any other way to pick who leads you."

"Then let me tell you a thing about lemurs."

"I could go for a lemur fact!"

Bon Bon huddled close to Fleur as the filly conveniently distracted Autumn, "Something tells me this overly chatty, pacifist, exiled kirin, is not really what we want to get the kirin away from Faust."

"I'm inclined to agree," said Shining. "Besides, I also think that's a little too ambitious for our current capabilities. We've just lost our safety zone, and are currently on the run as Shades are very probably hunting us."

"I know, I know." Fleur drummed a hoof on the floor, trying to figure out their options when they were so limited. As far as she could tell, they only had one. Good job she hadn't left the speaker stone on the boat while she was off in the desert with Chrysalis.

"I'm calling Twilight. Maybe she could have some ideas for us."

It was hours later, and almost exactly when Fleur had finally dropped off for a mid-afternoon nap, that Twilight burst into the waiting room, Swordy held high in her magic, and horn blazing with destructive magic.

"Where is it?! Where's the kirin?"

"Eep!" Autumn squealed as she dove behind her seat, putting it between her and Twilight.

"Don't think that chair's going to save you!"

"But it's all I have!" Autumn peeked up over the back of the seat, "If it makes you feel better I could try hiding in a different room entirely?"

"That won't be necessary," Fleur said as she walked up to Twilight and twanged her horn with a hoof, making her drop Swordy and lose the spell she had ready.

"Ow, Fleur, what the hell?"

"Don't give me that. If you'd had just listened for thirty seconds longer I'd have told you she was friendly, and wants to get her people away from Faust as much as we do. Honestly, you're worse than Trixie sometimes."

"Hey! I resemble that remark!"

"Oh good, two thirds of the gang are back together," Fleur said blithely. "This should solve all our problems, instead of making more." Fleur smiled patiently at Trixie as she pushed her way up and out of Twilight's bags, "Nice to see you, Trixie."

"I would say the feeling is mutual, but since you came flying straight out with insults, I think you can do one."

"Delighted." Fleur glanced back as the clatter of hooves reached her ears, and Gloves burst into the room, gasping for breath.

"I tried... to stop her... but she... ignored me! She has wings too! No idea how she... knew you were in here."

"Orthopaedics waiting room," said Twilight. "Fleur told me where she was, even if she only meant it as a joke. Fleur, who is this?"

"This is Doctor Rubber Gloves, de facto leader of the refugees here, and resident anarchist."

"How can he be an anarchist and the leader?"

"Yeah, I'm not actually an anarchist," said Gloves, having regained his breath enough to speak normally. "I just take issue with our current form of leadership, which is totally chosen by outside forces in a way that removed choice from the average pony on who leads them. Then there's the whole thing with most non-ponies barely even being recognised as second class citizens, and... you're a princess. Wait, you're Princess Twilight! Your brother said you might agree with me on some of my issues."

"Some, yes, but I'm mostly disgusted by the incompetency displayed by the princesses at times."

"But... you are a princess."

"I know! I can officially blame myself now! Isn't it great?"

"Uh... I'm just going to leave you to catch up. You know where to find me in the highly unlikely event that you actually need me."

"Thanks, Gloves." Fleur waved him off, then gave Twilight a funny look. "I'm pretty sure acting weird around one of the few ponies that might support your position isn't going to help."

Twilight shrugged, not really caring. "I have bigger concerns right now, such as the kirin in the room."

Autumn squeaked and dropped back down behind the seat, having been slowly rising from behind it. "Please don't kill and, or dismember me!"

"I'm not going to hurt you if you don't try anything."

"Speak for yourself," Trixie protested loudly. "That's a kirin, Twilight! I don't know if you've forgotten, but a large number of them tried to kill us very recently!"

Twilight sighed and pulled Trixie out of her bags, placing her on the floor and returning her to her proper size. "You aren't going to hurt her either. No buts!"

"Can I have an unless instead?"

"Alright, unless she tries to hurt any of us."

"Which won't happen," said Fleur. "Honestly you two, you're scaring someone who might help us."

"Alright, we're sorry."

"No we're not."

"Fine, I'm sorry." Twilight smiled apologetically at Autumn, "I promise we won't harm you-"

"Unless you give us a reason to."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Trixie, then looked back to the kirin. "Could you come out from behind that chair please?"

"No, I think I'm good here, thanks."

"Alright then, if that's what you want. Fleur says you have an interest in getting the rest of the kirin away from Faust. Is that true?"

"Actually, I'm mostly just trying to find them, but yeah, I don't think that fighting for Faust is the right thing, and probably won't get them what they want. Getting angry sometimes, and turning into niriks, it's part of who we are."

"Wait-wait-wait, you turn into the niriks?"

"Yeah, if we get angry enough we tend to lose control and turn into a nirik until we calm down again."

"Oh." Twilight rubbed the back of her head in academic embarrassment, "Boy did I misinterpret that. I think everypony did. So you think Faust's offered to fix your nirik problem?"

"Maybe? I don't really know."

"Do kirin legends have a character like Faust in them? An ancient, unknown alicorn that vanished long ago? Or is there someone like her that's part of your religion?"

"Kirin don't really have a religion, so no. Our legends don't really have ponies in either. There's the chimera that cursed us with becoming niriks, but I really don't think that's the same thing."

Twilight sighed inwardly. There was only one chimera that she could think of in that context, and of course Discord had to be the one that made the kirin turn into niriks. Considering the way kirin looked though, it was definitely Discord that made them in the first place. The mishmash of different creature traits had to have been him. Either way it made little difference to the reasons the kirin joined Faust, unless Faust had promised them revenge on Discord, which was possible.

"So you really don't know why they'd join Faust?"

"Not for definite. It'd had to have been a pretty good offer to convince so many to leave their homes."

"Right." Honestly, Twilight could find nothing in this to build a plan on, which was all the reason she needed to give up trying for now. "Thanks for the insight, Autumn. Hopefully we can come up with a plan."

"Oh, no problem." Autumn came out from behind her seat and gave Twilight a shaky smile, "If I can help more, feel free to ask."

"I will certainly keep that in mind, thank you. Fleur, where's my brother and the rest of them?"

Fleur kicked the way out open with a back leg and held it there. "Follow me," she said, leading them away from the waiting room and Autumn. "Do you really think we could make a plan to get the kirin away from Faust?" she asked once they were out of hearing range.

"Maybe? The fact is we don't know why the kirin really joined her. We don't even know where they are right now. You've been attacked and lost your boat, the thestrals have had to leave Equestria, and then there's the Chrysalis thing... I'm not sure this is entirely worth chasing up if it gets us nowhere."

"You are going to try though, right?"

"Yes I'll try. I'm not about to advocate wiping out most of a species because I can't be bothered with not doing that. I'm just saying I'm not going to keep pushing and pushing if it isn't working. I could be saying the same about the yaks if I'm honest, but they seem even less likely to change their mind than the Mareitanians themselves are. Saying that, I have put a plan in motion to help with that."

"Which is working better than our plan to get to Zebrica," said Trixie.

"Why can't you get to Zebrica?"

"The portal there needs some maintenance," Twilight explained. "Luna's working on it now, so hopefully she'll have sorted it out by the time we get back."

"Oh. So what now?"

"Now I'm going to see my family, and see what we can do about your situation."

"You don't need to do anything," Fleur said firmly. "We have it well in hoof." She pouted as Trixie laughed at her.

"Oh yes, you are so very clearly on top of everything that Celestia sank your boat and forced you to hide amongst refugees. You'll have this war won in no time."

"Hey, we're trying."

"I didn't say you weren't trying. I was merely making light of the fact that you are so not on top of anything right now."

Fleur stopped at a door, and held a leg in front of it to block Trixie's path. "Look, I know we've had a setback, but we're determined to take out Black Rose and the Shades. We've taken out a lot of them so far, so it can't be much longer until we reach their leader."

"Uh-huh. Still not sure what you think doing all that is going to achieve, but you do you."

"You're an asshole, Trixie."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

Fleur lowered her leg and let them enter the room. Like a shot, Nightlight, Twilight Velvet, and Shining ran over to Twilight, grabbing her in a group hug. Fleur left them to it, taking a moment to see who else was there, and finding that Shadow was the only one absent. Hopefully she was keeping an eye on things outside.

"I'm sorry you lost your boat," said Twilight.

"It doesn't matter," the filly said back, surprising her. "It was just a boat. The important thing is that we're all okay."

Twilight Velvet smiled at the filly, "Well said. Of course that still leaves the question of what we're supposed to be doing now."

Rocky smacked one hoof into another, "I say we strike back. Show them we aren't afraid, even if they have Celestia with them."

"And that would be suicide," said Flicker. "No thanks. We need to hide, and we need to regroup. We lost pretty much everything when we lost our boat. Weapons, armour, our healing thingy, all of it, except for what Bon Bon and Crème had on them. We'd have trouble upsetting a foal's birthday party right now, let alone tackle whatever it is you want us to do."

Crème nudged Rocky on the side, "She's right you know. If only we could get into the Smile armoury in Canterlot. Then we could have all the weapons we want."

"Out of the question," Bon Bon barked. "In fact, going to Canterlot is so far out of the question it's laughable. However, there is a place we can go that would have everything we need, and give us a place to lay low."

"Where's that?" asked Shining.

"Here. Guys, I'm not sure how to put this to you, but I really don't think we can keep going, or should. We've lost most or our stuff, our mobile base of operations, and if we keep going we're highly likely to lose our lives. I'm not even sure we're making that much of a difference, or have even slowed Faust down in the slightest. We keep going on like stopping the Shades will be some monumental tipping point, but for the number we've killed, there always seems to be more, and they always seem to be just as capable. It's pointless to keep trying."

"But think about what we just did," said Fleur. "We stopped the development of a dangerous, magic driven tank. That's more than nothing!"

"Yeah, except that Chrysalis brought us the intel, and she and her changelings were more than capable of destroying that tank without us. We might as well have been there as observers."

"She's right," Honeydew agreed. "You even bothered to bring me along because tanks were my creation, and I was still useless. In fact I almost goaded Chrysalis into killing Thorax and myself, which was probably not the best idea I've ever had. If Thorax hadn't been strong enough to stop her..."

"Woah-woah-woah," Twilight pushed herself out of the familial hug she was enjoying. "Chrysalis tried to kill you?"

"A little?" Honeydew flinched at the look Twilight gave her, "I mean it was partly my fault, so I don't think you can hold it against her, and Thorax beat her anyway-"

"Which explains why she was so determined for me to keep Thorax away from her," said Fleur. "At least that makes sense now."

"Oh for goodness sake..." Twilight sighed harshly, "Is this enough to end our allegiance over? I'm asking because this is unusual circumstances."

"She also executed two dozen captives," Shining added.

"Okay, so the deal is off. I should've known that she couldn't be trusted."

"I'm afraid I might've given her another chance." Fleur shrugged at Twilight, "I know neither of us would agree with it, but we had a take no prisoners rule back in Mareitania, until we took Whiplash at least. I'm afraid that rule might have some applications here as well."

Twilight breathed in slowly, then released it as one. "Damn it. I suppose the whole Thorax thing was mitigating circumstances as well, and since it was already bad enough for her, I'm not surprised she tried to attack after being goaded. Fine, she gets her last chance if you want to give it to her."

"There's still the matter of us apparently giving up," said Shining. "Are we really giving up now? Really? What do you think, Fleur?"

"Me? I don't particularly want to give up, but," Fleur gestured to Bon Bon, Crème, Rocky, and Flicker, "I'm not the one doing the dangerous work. If they want to stop, who am I to tell them no?"

"The leader?" said the filly.

"A leader that doesn't respect their followers isn't a leader for long. Do the rest of you agree with Bon Bon?"

"I don't want to say I do," said Rocky, "but it does feel like we're trying to bring down a castle using meringues and insults. Maybe she's right."

"I'm fine either way," said Crème. "I'd love nothing more than to bring Black Rose down, but I can't do that on my own."

"Flicker?" Fleur said to the dark unicorn as she sat unmoving, not giving her own opinion.

"Stopping the Shades is pretty much all I have, so no way in hell do I want to stop. If you stop, I'm gone."

"Fair enough." Fleur didn't bother asking the rest of them as she knew that Shining was unlikely to want to give up, while the rest of them were probably fine with doing so. It felt like the decision was hers after all, and while she knew Bon Bon was maybe right, she also knew the Shades weren't going to give up because they did.

"We aren't stopping," Fleur said after thinking about it for a while longer. "We can't. The Shades are after us now, along with plenty of others, and they aren't going to stop until we're dead or captured. The simple fact is that we can't stay here, so we're either going to have to live on the run, fighting for our lives, or we fight hard enough to make them think about not chasing us."

"What's our target," Bon Bon asked dispassionately, like she had just given up hope on getting out of this alive.

"The Shades headquarters in Canterlot."

"What?" Bon Bon said dumbly. "Are- Are you serious? That's suicide!"

"No, it isn't. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous either though, but we said we weren't going to hold back any more. How have we gone from that to giving up so soon?"

"But there's no way we could possibly do that!"

"Not right now, but we can do it." Fleur looked to Twilight, who had been sat quietly with an expression that travelled back and forth between shock and thoughtfulness. "When will you be ready to start making your moves against Faust?"

"Uh, do you mean when we're ready to start fighting back?" Twilight grimaced as Fleur nodded, "I don't know then. It could be weeks, a month, two months... it's hard to tell. Why're you asking anyway?"

"Because a strike against the Shades at the right time could be exactly the kind of chaos you need to make your initial strikes."

"I suppose that's true, but..." Twilight trailed off into her thoughts. An attack on the Shades like that would be the perfect accompaniment to launch a surprise attack.

"You know I'm right."

"I know," Twilight admitted. "I'm just not brave enough to say it out loud." Twilight glanced between her brother and parents, then Fleur and the filly. "I feel like I have a lot to lose if this goes wrong."

"Oh, yeah." Fleur cursed herself for not thinking of that sooner, but she knew it didn't change anything. The coming war would go much better if the Mareitanians' intelligence was blown sky high.

"Volunteers only then," Shining said while Fleur was distracted. "If you're willing to do this one last mission to destroy the Shades headquarters in Canterlot, and finish the task we set out to do, raise a hoof."

Shining raised his hoof, followed by Crème and Flicker. Nightlight and Twilight Velvet raised theirs shortly after, along with Rocky and Thorax. Honeydew anxiously chewed on the edge of her hoof for a second, then raised it. Pleased with what she was seeing, Fleur raised her hoof, and was surprised as the filly raised hers.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Do you really need me to answer that?"

"No, I suppose not," Fleur sighed. "So how about it, Bon Bon? Are you in?"

Bon Bon stared incredulously at the rest of them, then laughed and raised a hoof. "I guess I am. What's the plan, Ma'am?"

"Okay, first step is hiding for a while until the heat is off us. Then we're going to need some stuff, like weapons and explosives. Then we need to find a route into Canterlot, so that when Twilight says it's time, we're ready."

"So nothing too strenuous then."

Fleur lazily waved a hoof at Bon Bon, "There'll be more details when we need them." Fleur turned and grinned at Twilight, "They volunteered, so you can't blame me now."

"That really doesn't make me feel better, but since you're all so determined, far be it from me to even attempt to stop you. That still leaves the kirin situation though."

"Since Equestria declared war on Zebrica this morning, I think you'll find most of the kirin there."

Twilight jumped as whoever that was spoke, and her eyes landed on a pale maroon crystal pony that blended into the décor of the room. She was sat in the corner, and had gone completely unnoticed until she'd said something.

"Have you been there the entire time?"

"You're Paradise, aren't you?" Shining said as the mare nodded at Twilight.

"You remember me?"

"Yeah, you brought us to Gloves the last time we were here."

"I think you're missing the point," said Fleur. "What was that about war with Zebrica?"

"I was in town earlier, and there was a lot of ponies talking about Faust declaring war on Zebrica. If that's true, then the kirin will be there, and if you want Autumn to talk the kirin out of fighting, she needs to go there too." Paradise blushed as they all stared at her, "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?" blurted the filly. "Not telling us sooner?"

"Just... sorry."

"I'll give you sorry," the filly grumbled before looking to Twilight and Trixie. "I guess that's your cue to run off to Zebrica and save the day?"

"I guess it is." Twilight stood and stretched her wings, "Assuming we're not already too late. All of you take care, and try not to get caught or killed, well, ever."

"Princesses orders," Trixie said with a nod.

"Consider it official then," Shining laughed. "Come on, I'll show you out."

"Okay, give me a moment."

"Soooo..." Trixie said to Shining as Twilight hugged her parents, Fleur, and the filly goodbye, "are motivational speeches a specialty of yours?"

"Getting ponies to bravely go into situations that could easily kill them is part of the job, unfortunately."

"Well shit, nopony's ever given me a motivational speech. The most I get is a request from Twilight to not die. I feel like I'm missing out now." Trixie sidled a little closer to Shining, "Do you have any other ways to motivate ponies to do what you want? Maybe involving whips and chains?"

"Oh look, Twilight's done saying goodbye so we should get a move on now."

Trixie sniggered at Shining as he hurried off, leading Twilight out of the room. "You only had to say no. Bye Fleur, bye filly. Don't die."

"You either you crazy mare," the filly said back.

"I'm trying not to." Trixie gave them one last wave and trotted swiftly after Twilight and Shining, catching the end of a conversation.

"-Without them, we won't stand half as good a chance. We need their alchemy to overcome the Mareitanians magic."

"Help them save their country, and I'll bet the zebras will be more happy to give you what they want. Come on Twilight, you got this."

"I hope so. I really hope so."

Trixie stopped as they entered the waiting room where Autumn was, seeing no reason to follow them. She was mostly wondering why she'd even bothered to come since she'd done nothing of particular note, or anything if she was honest.

"I miss when there was only six of us. I felt more useful then." Trixie twitched her ear as a whistling sound reached her, and had barely a few seconds to think about it before Shadow came hurtling around the corner. Trixie ducked as Shadow pulled up right before trying to land, her single rear hoof not giving her what she needed to do so safely as it slipped from under her, sending her sprawling to the floor to slide to a stop.

"Nyaargh! Fuck having three legs!"

"What the hell's your rush, you crazy bat!"

Shadow looked up like she only just noticed she wasn't alone, "Trixie! Good! Celestia's just arrived at the station with a train load of soldiers, and is coming here right now!"

"Oh." Trixie blinked as an important memory crept into her head. Such as the one where Celestia wasn't on their side. "Oh shit!" Trixie practically kicked the door down, rushing into the waiting room. "Twilight! We have a problem!"

"I heard," Twilight said as she quickly helped Autumn pack her stuff. "Shining, go tell the others and get them out of here. Trixie, you're taking Autumn to the roof and waiting there. I'll pick you up once I'm done."

Trixie stepped aside to let Shining out, "And what are you hoping to do?"

"Me? What do you really think I'm going to do?"

Twilight stood alone in the road leading up to the New Hope Medical centre, a hundred yards in front of it. She'd spent the last couple of minutes listening to the sound of marching hooves, and growing impatient at the lack of speed displayed. When they finally made it to where she could see them she was relieved, even if it meant a full minute in a staring competition with Celestia.

Thankfully she'd predicted things well, and the Mareitanians didn't launch into an attack as soon as they saw her. She'd never expected Celestia to, but the soldiers were a bit harder to work out. Instead they stayed a dozen paces behind Celestia, even as she came to a stop in front of Twilight.

"I must confess that I wasn't expecting to see you here," said Celestia. "Not that I'm surprised either since you're friends with these terrorists."

"You're looking well," Twilight said politely, and she meant it. There wasn't a mark left over on Celestia from what had happened in Nostralis. "Shouldn't you be on your way to Zebrica though?"

"Don't try and distract me, Twilight, you know what and who I'm here for. After I destroyed their boat I knew they'd have to run somewhere. Since you're here as well, that only confirms our intelligence was correct. Now step aside, or I will force you to. Ideally though, you could surrender as well, even though I know you won't."

Twilight stomped a hoof as Celestia started to walk forwards, stopping her. "Don't do this, Celestia. This is a hospital sheltering refugees. Refugees from the war Faust started! Don't you dare attack them!"

"And why would you care?"

"Because I do! This image of me you have in your head isn't real. Faust planted it there to turn you against me!"

"You turned against me! You make these baseless accusations against my mother because you can't handle the guilt of your betrayal."

Twilight bit her tongue, knowing it was futile to argue, but also because she knew she was going to end up pushing Celestia to do something rash which could end up getting ponies killed. She didn't want that, and neither should Celestia.

"Who's right or wrong doesn't matter. What matters is that you aren't the kind of pony to attack defenceless refugees, even if you don't intend to hurt any of them. They will panic, and there will be deaths, accidental or otherwise. Don't do this."

Celestia turned her gaze up to the hospital for a while, then sighed. "I'm afraid I don't have a lot of choice, Twilight. Unless you go in there and bring those terrorists out, I will have no recourse but to go in after them."

"You know I can't do that." Not least because the others should be running from here as fast as they could go by now.

"Then I'm sorry, Twilight." Celestia lowered her horn to cast a spell, but Twilight had already teleported away to the roof of the hospital. With a flash of her horn a purple barrier sprang up over the hospital, blocking entry to Celestia and her forces.

"That didn't last very long," said Trixie.

"I'm surprised she was that talkative considering how well our last get together went. Did the others get out of here?"

"They should be at least a couple of miles away if they didn't slow down." Trixie raised an eyebrow as Celestia started to batter down the shield, "She has to know they're long gone by now, right?"

"Probably, but with no way to track them, all she can do is hope I was bluffing." Twilight looked between Trixie and the patiently waiting Autumn as she started charging her horn, following her beacon back to the Retreat. "Whatever, let's get out of here."

"Wait, I've never telep-"

Autumn staggered out of the teleport, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach as such. "Oh heavenly boughs, that was horrible." She wiped her mouth on her leg, even though she hadn't thrown up, then looked up into the eyes of two angry looking alicorns, another less angry alicorn, an alicorn foal, a dragon, a number of unicorns, and one strange looking bug pony thing. "Oh boy."

"Twilight, why have you brought a kirin here?" Luna asked coldly.

"She's looking for her people, and we're hoping she can convince the other kirin to break off their allegiance with Faust. She's really not the problem we have right now though."

"You mean it gets worse?"

"I'm not that bad," Autumn muttered. "I'm Autumn Blaze by the way, not that any of you probably care that much right now."

"Nice to meet you," said Cadence.

"Oh, thank you. Uh," Autumn pointed at Twilight, "you probably really should listen to her though."

"Celestia sunk Fleur's boat, thankfully not killing any of them, but they're on the run now. They're hoping that they can pull together for one last mission to take out the Shades headquarters in Canterlot, creating some confusion for when we attack, whenever that is."

"A capital idea, if they feel confident to do it. I'm afraid they might be waiting a while though."

"That's where things get worse. Faust's declared war on Zebrica. I have no idea on what basis, but I get the feeling she doesn't care about having a good reason. Whatever it is, we need to get to Zebrica now, before it's too late."

"Then it's a good job the portal is almost repaired."

"Good. Pack your things then, ladies, because we'll be leaving as soon as it is."

"Ladies?" Moondancer asked. "As in all of us?" She pointed a hoof at herself, "Including me?"

"Yes including you! We need your help to pick out the best crystals for the oubliette and armour."

"Right." Moondancer adjusted her glasses, somehow making the motion seem melancholy. "Joy."

Author's Notes:

Far too much talking in this chapter, or so it feels to me, but hey ho. But we now have one adorable kirin with us, and are off to Zebrica! Progress, am I right?

By the way, the lemur fact is that lemurs pick their leaders based on how bad they smell. The smelliest lemur gets to do the leading. Seems as good as any method of picking your leaders to me.