"I never asked for this," Trixie whimpered, the miniaturised pony holding on for dear life inside Twilight's saddlebag that the alicorn had teleported to herself in the hopes of remaining undetected in the short time they had re-entered Starswirl's sanctuary to take the portal to the Castle of the Two Sisters, so they didn't have as far to fly to Mareitania.

It had still been a long flight though, and the entire journey had been an excellent opportunity to see what had become of Equestria in both their absences, if Trixie had been willing to look. Twilight was however, and she was not particularly impressed. The train in the river just north of Las Pegasus was one thing, but the damage done to Vanhoover as they moved north to follow the land bridge, was something else entirely.

"Woah, you ponies really don't mess around in a fight," Ember said of the destruction.

"Apparently not," Twilight said back. Rainbow had told her of the bombing, and of destroying the Royal Canter, but seeing it was very different. Now the city was mostly abandoned, and the damage gone unrepaired. It creeped her out.

"It seems so different like this," Rainbow said, but who she was saying it to was debatable. "Why did the Mareitanians abandon it?"

"Because it's a half destroyed mess?" Lightning answered her. "It feels weird that we did more damage to this place than the Mareitanians ever did."

Rainbow closed her eyes and shook her head, "We shouldn't have come this way. We should've just flown straight over the undiscovered west, and over the ocean."

"Still don't know why ponies call it the undiscovered west if you know it's there," said Mayfly. "Is it more that you haven't bothered to settle there yet?"

"Not now Mayfly," Twilight said to the changeling, sensing that Rainbow didn't want to be distracted by random chatter. There was a revelation about to be made, and Rainbow was about to make it.

"Do you think we tried too hard to defend Equestria?"

Twilight nodded with satisfaction.

"How could you say that?" Vapor gasped. "Ponies gave their lives to save Equestria! Sky gave his life for it!"

"But we still lost. We pretty much destroyed Vanhoover to stop the Mareitanians using it. We blew up a bridge, crashed a train, collapsed a tunnel, and destroyed significant parts of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Canterlot, but barely even slowed the Mareitanians down. We even blew up stuff in Mareitania, and it did nothing! Compared to a bombing in Manehattan and what those fucking griffons did in Appleloosa, we were far more destructive than the Mareitanians ever were!"

"We were denying resources to the enemy!"

"That doesn't mean what we did was right!"

"Actually, destroying those resources does help in the long run," Twilight said, smoothly inserting herself into the argument. "Rainbow may be onto something though. Luna could've fought the war much differently."

There was a sharp snort from Lightning, "And how exactly would she have done that?" she asked scornfully.

"By putting a greater emphasis on guerrilla tactics, and a hit and run campaign, instead of trying to fight the Mareitanians head on. Take out their supply lines, strike their soldiers at night, attacking and eliminate the griffons where you could to give you guys greater freedom to attack elsewhere, and setting traps and ambushes wherever the Mareitanians were going. Basically anything that spares ponies on our side, while making the Mareitanians scared of every step they took. There was no way you could win by fighting the Mareitanians on the battlefield."

Lightning looked sideways at Twilight, waiting for the punch line. "We tried all that."

"No, you set the occasional trap, but half of them didn't work. The one here in Vanhoover backfired on you in the worst way." Twilight shrugged at Lightning, "I'm just saying, it could've been done differently."

"Well maybe if the Mareitanians had never been a threat in the first place, none of this would ever have happened!"

"Here we go," Twilight muttered to herself.

"None of this is Twilight's fault!" Rainbow shouted defending Twilight before she could defend herself.

"It's fine Rainbow, let her. Then I can tell her that I never wanted to go there in the first place, and the Mareitanians weren't a threat until Faust made them to be. At the very least, if you're going to blame me, blame Celestia and Luna too."

"We shouldn't be blaming anypony for anything," said Rainbow. She glared at Lightning, "We should be finding a way to fix this instead."

"Except we're trusting the ponies that messed this all up in the first place to do the fixing! How is that a good plan?"

"Because," Twilight stated firmly, "unless you're willing to accept that Faust is going to one day try to turn you into a mindless, grass eating pony, leaving you as prey to get eaten by some griffon or timberwolf, then we're the only ones with even a hope of stopping that. It's not an ideal situation for any of us, but there's little we can do about that now."

Lightning laughed once, but it was far from happy. "There's a line to fill you with confidence. But fine, I know what's going on here, which is why I'm helping, but only because Dash has such faith in you."

Twilight tried to reply to that, but found she had none. Faith would only get them so far. A plan would get them much further. For now they would focus on getting to Mareitania, and getting their friends back.

They flew above the clouds, of which there was an extortionate amount, far worse than there ever was during the reign of the Duke. Twilight wasn't about to say she knew what was happening, but if she were to hazard a guess, she'd say that Faust hadn't been back here to change the weather for quite some time. Her other guess was that the weather was possibly going wild without pegasus intervention.

"How is anything supposed to grow on the ground with this much rain?" Rainbow asked. "Is Faust stupid enough to let this country starve?"

"Seems so," Twilight said lightly. "Why is it raining so much though?"

"Heck if I know. They don't exactly tell us how magically produced weather is supposed to act. That's more your thing."

Twilight hummed thoughtfully. She hadn't considered Faust producing the weather with magic as making any difference, but it might. Perhaps if rainclouds used a higher concentration of magic to work, that magic would overpower other clouds, and turn them to rainclouds too. Or, as Twilight realised, she could be throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what stuck. She honestly had no idea why this was happening.

"We must be getting close now," Twilight said instead. "Time to get wet," she added, diving down sharply.

Rain soaked them before they were even halfway through the cloud layer, and the effect on their wings was immediately noticeable as the rain made flying much harder. Thankfully High Rock was visible to the south, and would only take ten minutes to reach at their slowed speed.

"That place is big," Vapor said of High Rock, the dark stoned keep towering over pretty much everything except the mountain it was attached to. "To think that used to be Unicornia."

"And the home of a certain Princess Platinum," Twilight grumbled. She kept her eyes on the keep as they got nearer, watching out for signs of danger, but there was nothing. The keep was still and silent, and felt a little bit eerie without any ponies around it. "Where are the guards here? Something is definitely wrong."

"All the better for us," Trixie said from within Twilight's bag. "I wouldn't mind having to do this without a fight, for once."

"Wouldn't the point of sneaking in be to do this without a fight anyway?" Ember asked, making Trixie chuckle.

"You're new here, so I'll forgive for not knowing how things normally go for us. If we've only had to fight a hundred soldiers off, it'll be called a success."

"I don't think there's even a hundred ponies here at all," said Twilight. "Even the main entrance is unguarded," she observed as they flew around the front. "Screw sneaking in, I want to know what's going on here."

"Are you kidding me?" Trixie protested as Twilight flew straight down towards the entrance. "You're just going to walk in and hope it all works out?"

"That's right."

"You're insane."

"Very possible."

"So long as you admit it." Trixie went quiet as they landed, and stayed that way even as Twilight picked her out of the bag and returned her to her proper size. Even though she'd been here since the events of the civil war, looking at this place still made her feel sick.

Twilight studied the doors of the keep, then tested the handles. They weren't even locked, and she pulled them open to reveal the interior of the keep, poorly lit though it was. There was still nopony to be seen.

"That creep factor is just getting higher and higher," said Rainbow.

Twilight nodded at Mayfly, and suggested she disguise herself, then headed in. She lit her horn to guide their way easier, and made her way through the keep. It was clean and tidy, which at least suggested that the place was being looked after, but who was doing that was still to reveal themselves.

"I like it," Ember said cheerfully, using a ball of flame held in her claw to light her way. "Has a real nice imposing feel to it."

"Cool and dark like the hive was," Mayfly said in what was possibly an agreement.

"I still don't like this place," Trixie said to Twilight. "I have this strange urge to attack pretty much everything."

Twilight smiled sideways at Trixie to try and reassure her that she wasn't about to do anything to the unicorn, if that was something Trixie was worried about. "Try and keep it to yourself, yeah?"

"Okay, but if anything sneaks up on us in here, I make no promises as to what condition I'll leave them in."

Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled, even as they came to a closed door blocking their way. If she remembered correctly, it led to the former throne room, which seemed like a good place to find anypony that might be here. She pushed the doors open, and had barely made it two steps inside when the voice of a young filly stopped her.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

"Excuse me?" Twilight resumed walking, and quickly found that the voice had come from the far end of the room, from upon the shattered throne of the former Duke, where a small filly was sat side by side with a colt. They seemed familiar, but it was Trixie who worked it out first.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"What?"

"Tracker and Opal. Pearl's kids?" Trixie added as Twilight continued to stare blankly. "Good job Fleur isn't with us."

"Right, yes. Why are you two on the throne?"

"Because this is our castle now," Tracker explained in a clear voice. "All intruders will be execute- What the hell is that?" Tracker pointed at Ember, his eyes wide with fear.

"I guess you kids haven't ever seen a dragon before?" Ember said to them.

"I didn't even think dragons were real! I thought they were just stories!"

Ember raised an eyebrow at Twilight, silently demanding an explanation. "You get that lot in Mareitania," Twilight explained. "Education wasn't high on the list of priorities around here."

"Uh-huh, right. Sounds like a poor excuse to me."

Twilight shrugged apologetically, then went back to Tracker and Opal. "Where is everypony?"

"We don't know," Opal answered. "I think the guards went to Equestria to help Faust, but it's not like anypony really tells us anything."

"What about the council?"

"Some of them went home," said Tracker. "There's been big problems with flooding, and food shortages, so they went to do what they could."

Trixie frowned at the two kids, "Isn't answering us like disobeying Faust or something?"

"We don't like Faust," Opal huffed. "She's a big meany. Things were better before she came along and made it all different."

Trixie laughed, "Who would've thought that Pearl's kids were the only two ponies we'd meet with sense around here? Seriously, I want to know."

"You should stop talking about her," Tracker said tightly. "I know you're the ponies that killed our mum."

"Then why are you talking to us?"

"Because... she was wrong." Tracker looked to the side as his sister hugged him. "Mum always told us that unicorns and pegasi were bad, and that earth ponies were good. Plenty of unicorns have been nice to us, and plenty of earth ponies have been horrible, so maybe the other things mum did were wrong too. I don't know. I try not to think about her too much."

"Why not?" Twilight asked gently.

"Because I want to remember the good things about her, but all the bad things make it harder to remember those."

Twilight was about to try and offer her condolences, but the small "uh-oh" uttered by Opal made her stop and look back at what Opal could see. It was Daybreak, the yellow unicorn that Twilight had once called an ally during the rebellion, then an enemy as he served Faust. Currently she didn't know what to call him.

"Twilight? What are you doing here?"

The caution in his voice made Twilight think that maybe there was a chance that the spell she'd hastily cast on him during their last meeting had stuck, freeing him from Faust. Unfortunately, Trixie didn't care enough to find out, and picked him up to slam him against the wall.

"So, Daybreak, if that's still your real name, we meet again."

"Of course that's still my real name!" Daybreak struggled to free himself, but soon gave up. "I see you haven't changed too much Trixie."

"I'm just treating you how I'd treat any servant of Faust."

"Then it's a good job I don't really serve her." Daybreak struggled to turn his head to see Twilight, "I don't know what it was that you did to me, but you saved me from Faust's control."

"Let him go Trixie."

"But-"

"Now please."

"Fine." Trixie released him, leaving him to fall to the floor and gasp for breath. Twilight waited for him to recover, but was confused by how she felt. She wanted to feel elated that he was okay, and free from Faust, but all she felt was a hardness towards him.

"What happened Daybreak? Why did any of this happen?"

"Because by the time we knew what was happening, it was far too late to stop it." Daybreak stood and sighed, "I don't know how much you know about this, but when the Viscount publicly revealed Faust's existence, when we didn't even know ourselves, we weren't left with many options. If we didn't investigate her ourselves, others soon would. We thought we could control the outcome if we did it, but she took control of us pretty quick."

"That's it?" said Trixie. "No apology or anything?"

"There's no apology I could give that would be enough."

"I guess you're all paying the price for obeying Faust as well now," Twilight said evenly. "She's left Mareitania in ruins."

"Ponies still follow her though, because of that blasted crystal." Daybreak shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Why are you all here, and with a dragon no less?"

"Where is everypony?" Twilight asked, ignoring Daybreak's question. "Tracker and Opal said-" Twilight stopped as she found the throne was devoid of the two ponies, then carried on. "They said the guards all went to Equestria, and everypony else left to help with the flooding. Is that true?"

"More or less. There's only a skeleton crew here to take care of the keep, and the other councillors are gone, leaving me on my own. As you said, Mareitania is in ruins through sheer negligence, and what you see here is just one small symptom of it."

"Uh-huh."

"Why didn't you tell us about her?" Daybreak asked suddenly, his tone angry. Twilight supposed she could understand that at least.

"I wanted no part in it really, and left it all to Celestia and Luna. The fact is, we didn't tell you because we thought others would find out and try to free her. We never considered that the Viscount would know."

"Yeah? Well he did, so I guess he got that revenge he wanted on all of us. Now why the hell are you here?"

"I want my friends, Daybreak. Where are they?" Twilight felt her chest tighten as Daybreak hesitated, and knew something was wrong. "What?"

"They aren't here any more. The guards that left this place took your friends with them."

"No!" Rainbow shouted as Twilight's rear sank to the floor. "You're lying, you have to be!"

"You can search this entire keep if you want, but I promise you they aren't here. Faust wanted them where she could keep an eye on them. She must've suspected you would come for them."

"Raargh!" Rainbow screamed, bucking a chair hard enough to smash it. "I can't believe this! We were finally going to get them back, and this happens!"

"I'm sorry," said Daybreak. "If I'd have thought you were coming to get them, I would've tried to keep them here."

"I don't want your apologies! I want my friends back!"

"Rainbow," Twilight said sternly, making the pegasus stop. "We'll get them back."

"But-"

"But nothing, Rainbow. I said we'd get them back, and we will, just... not now, apparently. Once we know where they are we can make a new plan, okay?"

Twilight knew Rainbow wanted to argue, she could see it, but with nothing to argue against Rainbow eventually relented with a small sigh. "Okay Twilight, I- Okay."

"This mightn't have been a total waste though," said Daybreak. "Now you're here you can destroy the crystal Faust uses to spread her mind control."

"What crystal?"

"I'll show you."

Twilight turned her head as she inspected the large, green glowing crystal, keeping back from the wisps of energy that came off it. Apparently it was the source of the mind control in Mareitania, maintaining the spell that kept everypony under Faust's hoof, even during her absence. Twilight wondered how it worked.

"Can't you just destroy it?" Trixie asked, watching Twilight with disdain. "You destroy it, and boom! End of problem."

"Except it isn't. I could destroy it, but it won't change anything. Ponies here would still be under Faust's spell. I might have another idea though."

"You're going to use it, aren't you?"

Twilight nodded, "I'm going to try. I doubt I could totally rewrite everything in this crystal, because this is some old magic Faust is using that I don't understand, but it's far from flawless. I think I could overwrite it with a new subtle message that could get ponies to doubt Faust, and get them thinking about what's really going on here. Hopefully that would be enough to get them to turn against her. Unfortunately it only reaches as far as around Mareitania as far as I can tell, so those occupying Equestria won't be effected.

"Okay, that's something at least."

"Hopefully this won't take long."

"Good." Trixie turned to Daybreak as Twilight set to work, giving him a smile. "So, how's Thorn?"

"Thorn's... gone."

"What?" Twilight said, her work quickly forgotten. "How? When?"

"She fell in Vanhoover, to an Equestrian bomb."

"Oh Daybreak, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Daybreak said back, his voice cracking. "Faust is the one I blame for all of this."

Twilight felt what was left of her anger at Daybreak die. She couldn't be angry at him now. Faust had cost him his daughter, a wonderful mare that Twilight had also called a friend during the rebellion. Twilight wished she could say something comforting, but words escaped her as she really saw how broken Daybreak was. All she could really give him now was justice by stopping Faust, so she went back to work. Sadly others didn't feel the same.

"We've all lost ponies in this war," Vapor said bitterly, eyeing Daybreak with undisguised hatred, refusing to appreciate how much of a victim he was since she didn't know who Thorn was. She lessened it a touch as Trixie explained that Thorn was his daughter.

"Who did you lose?" Daybreak asked her, his voice sounding tired.

"I lost my best friend Sky Stinger."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Daybreak said to her. Vapor didn't return the sentiment.

"What about Sugar Cookie?" Trixie enquired further.

Daybreak made a face, "She was proud of Thorn for giving her life for Faust. I couldn't be around her after that."

"Oh." Trixie twitched the corner of her mouth, feeling awkward for a moment. She decided to take the questioning away from Daybreak's family, to safer areas. "How's... um... Sawbones?"

"He's in Equestria with Suture. They're in charge of Mareitania's medics."

"Y'know what? I'm just going to stop asking."

The room went silent after that, save for the occasional grunt from Twilight as she tried to work her way around Faust's spell. Faust would likely detect it the second she returned here, but Twilight had made sure to cover for that, and make it so her own magic could only be stopped by destroying the crystal. A minor victory, but it was one she could enjoy for the moment.

The only thing bothering her was how the crystal was getting its magic through the warding around the keep. It shouldn't have been possible, but she could feel the thousands of tiny threads of magic that connected to the small crystals in the figurines distributed around the populace. It shouldn't have been possible, but it was, and it wasn't like they were all going out of the nearest window. It was breaking the rules here, but only one type of magic could do that. Chaos magic. The crystal had to have been tainted by Discord at some point.

"No wonder she needed this crystal specifically."

"What was that?" Rainbow asked, pulling herself from staring out of the window high above the ground.

"Nothing important. I do believe I'm done though."

"Sweet. So we can get out of here now?"

"Sure, I guess. Unless there's anything more you can think of Daybreak?"

"Nope, I can't think of anything."

"I can," said a newcomer from the doorway. All of them turned to her, finding a white coated earth pony with a mostly red mane and tail, save for the purple specks at the tips. She smiled at Twilight, then bowed deeply. "It's nice to see you again Princess."

"Uh, do I know you?"

"Hmm? Oh right, the disguise. I'm Bon Bon, from Ponyville."

"Bon Bon," Rainbow said flatly, "as in the sweet-maker?"

"The very same, but that wasn't always my occupation. I was once a member of Smile, the organisation that used to manage monster attacks and suchlike within Equestria until we were shut down. I was asked to join Equis at the start of the war, which is why I'm here now. I also have a message for you from Fleur."

Twilight perked up, "You do? How? No, forget how, just tell me what it is."

"She wanted me to tell you that she's escaped Canterlot with your brother and some others, including your parents, and is now hiding in Manehattan. I'm also to give you the means to get in touch with her, but I can't do that right now."

Twilight was relieved. Immensely so, and that only grew with the news that her parents and brother were also safe. "Finally some good news."

Daybreak stared flatly at Bon Bon, "I thought you seemed a bit too competent for a mare begging to work for food to feed your family. I let a bloody Equestrian spy in here," he added to himself in a mutter.

Bon Bon shrugged at Daybreak, "It was partly true, but that's not important right now. There's something else I need to tell you, Princess. In the short time I've been here, I've heard that there's another alicorn being kept in the dungeons somewhere."

"Another one? I- What? How is that possible? Do you know anything about this Daybreak?"

"She's not been there for long if that's what you're thinking. Faust put her there, although I couldn't tell you why. There's a lot of things she got up to that very few know about."

"And you didn't think you should mention this?"

"Faust said she was dangerous, and needed to be contained. I wasn't totally disinclined to believe her on that one."

Twilight rubbed her head as Daybreak shrugged, "Do you at least know what this alicorn looks like?"

The unicorn shook his head, "All I've heard is that she's black, like the night."

"Black like the- Nooo... it couldn't be..."

Rainbow cocked her head at Twilight, "You know what he's talking about? The only black alicorn I can think of is-"

"Nightmare Moon, I know. Try not to think of her as that, because she won't appreciate the comparison. Daybreak, take us to her."

Anxiety grew in Twilight's mind as Daybreak led them back down through the keep. She hadn't had much time to think about where Nightmare had gone on the day she disappeared, so to think she'd been here the entire time wasn't a nice thought, not when you considered how Faust felt about Luna.

Her worries were temporarily forgotten as she saw a pony in the dungeons that she recognised far too well, the former Viscount, Francis. His filthy and gaunt appearance suggested that he wasn't been kept to even a minimum standard of welfare, and for a moment she almost felt sorry for him. Almost. He'd have some work to do before she could feel particularly sympathetic towards him.

"If you're looking for your friends, you're too late," Francis informed them, not seeming too pleased about it himself.

"And now you're all alone again," Twilight replied, not caring. "You better not have laid so much as a hoof on them."

"From in here? How could I? Besides, the guards made it clear that such wouldn't be tolerated. Faust has views on such things."

"And I can agree with her about that at least." Twilight stared for a moment at the pathetic visage Francis provided. "So, how are you enjoying your revenge from in there? Are you ecstatic now that Equestria's fallen under Faust's control? Was it all worth it?"

"It most certainly was. At least now I have something to keep me warm in here between the scarce meals I'm brought. Seems to be a lot less ponies working down here these days."

Twilight looked to Daybreak who shrugged, not even needing to speak to say that Faust had pretty much drained this place of all its ponies she could use. How far that sentiment extended beyond High Rock wasn't worth asking.

"Who are the pegasi?" Francis asked, distracting Twilight back towards him.

"Nothing to do with you," Twilight answered tersely. "I'll leave you to your peace and quiet."

"That was the Viscount?" Rainbow asked as they moved on. "I thought he'd be more... I don't know, sinister?"

"He wasn't ever anything more than a prat with ambitions greater than his abilities. If he couldn't have sex with it, it didn't interest him."

"Ew."

"Exactly."

Twilight stopped as Daybreak led them to the entrance to the lower set of cells where Faust had previously been imprisoned, back in what Twilight was tempted to call the good old days. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Faust put Nightmare down there, but it did make Twilight wonder whether Faust planned on having herself, Luna, and Cadence down there as well. Maybe even Flurry too.

Twilight tried to put the thought away as she started down the stone stairs into the darkness below, hers, Trixie's, and Daybreak's horns lighting the way, while Ember made another torch in her claw. The place seemed to have been cleaned up a bit since the last time Twilight had been there, back when she discovered Faust was free, and it only served to multiply her concerns.

"I think I'm going to have to go on the run after today," Daybreak said conversationally as they descended. "Once Faust finds out what happened here, there'll be no more feigning my obedience."

"Back to the tunnels under Neigh Orleans then?" Trixie asked cheerfully.

Daybreak snorted a laugh, "That does seem fitting. Perhaps from there I could start some kind of rebellion to remove Mareitania's tyrannical leader."

"Sounds good. You could call it the 'Mareitania Liberation Front,' or something along those lines."

"Indeed I could." Daybreak smiled sadly, "I'll have to take Tracker and Opal with me. I'm pretty much the only one that looks after them these days. I'm sure they'd appreciate the adventure." Daybreak stopped outside a bricked up doorway to a cell, save for a tiny hole that was probably left for air. "This is it."

Twilight pulled the corner of her mouth back in disgust, "They bricked her in? Seriously?" She placed her ear to the bricks, but couldn't hear anything from within, but that didn't mean much, although it did make her feel sick about what they might find.

Twilight stepped back and turned to buck the wall, cracking the bricks and mortar with each blow until it was easy enough to tear the rest apart with her magic. She could see the others being extremely uncertain about what she was doing, since none of them knew of Nightmare, or her accidental creation, or that she was at least friendly. Twilight was thankful that they didn't question her. Especially Rainbow, who knew far more of Nightmare Moon than the others.

Twilight growled as she came upon a thick sheet of metal behind the bricks, and really started to wonder what she was going to find. Her imagination was presenting her with a great many options. Some of them were downright bizarre, but not one of them wasn't unpleasant to some degree. Unfortunately the wall of steel was stopping her from finding out.

"They really wanted to keep her in," Trixie commented as Twilight strained to break through the steel.

"Maybe we should respect that," Rainbow said, her stance looking as though she was ready to fight if need be.

"She's not dangerous," Twilight told Rainbow, not that she was going to stop even if Rainbow asked her to.

"You haven't even told us who 'she' is!"

"It's complicated."

"That's not an explanation!"

"Fine, you're right. Ember, I don't suppose you know some way of getting us through that?"

The dragoness stepped up to the steel barrier and rapped a claw against it, listening closely to the sound it made. "Shouldn't be a problem. You might want to stand back a bit though."

"Okay, I'll just be over here explaining what's behind that door. Or at least what I think's behind it." Twilight ushered the others out of Ember's way, and tried to explain as best she could what exactly Nightmare was, how she was made by accident between her and Luna in the dreamscape, and that she wasn't Nightmare Moon, or a threat. None of them seemed very convinced, and Trixie seemed annoyed more than anything.

"I didn't realise you were keeping secrets from me."

"Both Luna and Nightmare asked me to, so yes, I did. The last thing we wanted was news of this all getting out, especially to Celestia. I'm sure you can imagine what she would think of all this, and I can assure you forgiveness wouldn't be close to what might be going on in her head."

"Even though you said this Nightmare was blameless," said Lightning.

"Celestia would probably only ever see the monster that took her sister away, even though that monster was only ever Luna herself." Twilight sighed as Lightning raised an eyebrow at her, "Look, none of that is my business. I was asked to keep it a secret, so I did. That's all. All you need to know is that Nightmare isn't a threat, and could even be a useful ally."

Rainbow whined in the back of her throat, "I don't know Twilight, what if we unleash something worse than Faust?"

Twilight laughed. She wish she hadn't, just to spare herself the hurt expression Rainbow was giving her, but it had slipped out before she could stop it.

"Not even close, Rainbow. Nightmare's no more powerful than myself or Luna, so between us I think we can manage her if she gets ideas. That's the wonderful thing about there being more alicorns now, we can keep each other in check."

"Except Faust," Mayfly pointed out.

"If she was just an alicorn it'd be fine," Twilight muttered defensively. There was a clang from the cell, so Twilight rushed back to see what was going on. Ember was stood, grimacing as she shook a claw that was glowing with heat.

"That took some scales off."

Twilight tried to see what she meant, but apart from the glowing door shaped line traced in the steel, there wasn't much to see. Then she noticed that Ember had gone through the steel and had cut herself in the process. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just wasn't expecting it. Hold the middle bit steady so I can finish this."

Twilight did so, from a distance, and watched as Ember exhaled a narrow breath on the steel to keep it hot, and worked at it with her claw, slowly cutting through it until Twilight was able to pull the middle section out.

A foul stench wafted out of the cell as Twilight discarded the cut out section, and a highly muffled shouting could now be heard from within. Twilight cooled the doorway as fast as she could, while Ember stood wide-eyed, staring at the sight within. It wasn't hard to understand why, as Twilight did the same a moment later.

"Dear Celestia," Twilight whispered, frozen to the spot at the sight of Nightmare chained up in the room, forced to remain standing with her wings half spread and kept that way by the rings pierced through the webbing of her bat-like wings, and around the bones in them. Glowing bands of an easily recognisable metal was wrapped around her middle, hooves, and horn, while her mouth was muzzled with steel, leaving only a gap for her to breath through, a task made harder by the tight band of metal around her throat. Her eyes had been left uncovered though, and they brimmed with tears of relief as they locked on to Twilight.

"Fucking hell," Trixie cursed, unable to believe what she was seeing. "Faust did that?"

Twilight tried to run in, but a strong claw on her tail stopped her before she even made it two steps. Twilight was about to yell at Ember when she reached out with a claw and cut a thin wire that was near invisible in the dark, the plink as it was cut suggesting it was under a lot of tension. A split second later there was a clang from the rear of the cell as two weights crashed to the floor. It wasn't terribly difficult to figure out it was a trap designed to behead Nightmare if she tried to break out.

"Woah, thanks Ember."

"Eh, no problem."

"Now could you please cut her chains loose?" Twilight asked, hoping the dragon wouldn't refuse as she ran in and started the slow process of cutting through the steel band around Nightmare's neck. Trixie started working on the muzzle as she did, while the others just watched, no longer making the effort to doubt Twilight.

"Al-most got... it!" There was a ping as the collar came apart, and a rapid intake of breath from Nightmare, who had clearly missed being able to breathe normally. Her wings drooped as the chains holding them were cut, and she was able to lower herself to the floor as the final chain connected to the band around her middle was severed, a series of muffled thank yous coming from her muzzle.

"This is sick," Lightning said as Trixie tried her best to get the muzzle off. "If Faust's supposed to be the spirit of order, or whatever, how could she do this?"

Trixie gave Lightning a sly look, "I can imagine her as saying 'make her suffer,' and not put any actual thought or effort into it herself."

"I suppose that's possible."

"They certainly put effort into this fucking muzzle though!" Trixie grit her teeth and strained, and for a moment her magic turned black until the metal broke apart, freeing Nightmare.

"You... you have no idea," the black alicorn wheezed.

Twilight wet her lips as Nightmare tried to do the same, "I-" Twilight shook her head, not sure what to say. "I had no idea you were even here."

"How could you have?"

"Why would she do this though?"

Nightmare sighed a laugh, "The price of helping your friends."

"You've seen our friends?" Rainbow asked, suddenly sounding a lot more interested. "Wait, you helped them? You?"

Nightmare nodded, "They were falling under Faust's spell. I tricked her into letting me help them. That may have pissed her off a bit."

"So they're okay then?"

"Last I saw them, yes. You're welcome, by the way." Nightmare swallowed hard, her dry throat itching with the need for water. "I don't suppose something to drink is out of the question?"

Twilight turned to Daybreak, who acquiesced and ran off, leaving the dark to become slightly deeper without his horn to combat it. "So, you have a body now," she said as they waited for his return.

"Faust couldn't talk to me without one, so she gave me one. Good job she messed up and let me do the designing so I came out as an alicorn. I'd probably be dead now if I wasn't."

"Let's try not to think like that, shall we?" Twilight started removing the metal rings from Nightmare's wings, but the rune laden bands around her horn and body were uninterested in cooperating. It was time to see if Ember could do as promised.

"My claws are going to be fucked after today," Ember grumbled. She breathed a stream of her purple fire onto a single digit until it glowed, then ran it over the runes of the band on Nightmare's horn, cutting into the metal and stopping the runes from working. After that it wasn't much work for Twilight to cut through the metal and remove the band entirely.

"Oh thank goodness," Nightmare breathed. "Wearing that stuff was like being blinded."

A minute later a jug, highlighted in blue magic, floated towards them, it's carrier Daybreak barely visible behind it until he reached the patch of light in the cell. He passed the jug over to Nightmare, who drank greedily, even though she spilled half of it down herself. He then quietly passed a bread roll to her, and kept his thoughts about her fangs to himself as she tore into it with relish.

"Oh my goodness, actual food," Nightmare said between mouthfuls. "You have no idea what it's like to try and remember how things taste when you're trapped in the dreamscape." She shoved the rest of the bread in her mouth, and happily chewed it for a while before swallowing. "So I'm guessing that since you're here you won the war?"

Twilight grimaced at that. "Not so much."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning the complete opposite. Faust won the war, Celestia's missing, and don't really know what to do right now."

"Celestia's missing?"

Rainbow scowled at Nightmare, "Try not to sound too happy about that."

"Oh please, anything that puts off the inevitable confrontation we're going to have over the affront that is my very existence, is welcome in my books. Hopefully she'll turn up sooner or later though." There was a clink as Twilight tore the last band off Nightmare, "Thanks. Now could we get out of here? It stinks in here."

Twilight rolled her eyes, but supported Nightmare as she struggled to her hooves and started placing one hoof in front of the other until they were out of the lower dungeons. In the better light they had, it was easier to see how thin Nightmare had become during her imprisonment, and how badly she needed a wash. Nightmare seemed none the worse mentally though, at least compared to normal, and even had the energy to bare her fangs at the Viscount as they passed, just to scare him.

"I know you're saving me, but it would seem pertinent for me to ask how we're wandering around High Rock unmolested. Where is everypony here?"

"Gone, mostly," Twilight told Nightmare. "You would think we should've seen somepony by now though," she said, glancing at Daybreak for an answer.

"You do realise it's like eight in the morning, right? Only the guards and kitchen staff would be up now, and the guards are all gone. We will start seeing ponies soon though, so it's probably time you got out of here."

"That I can agree with," Nightmare muttered. "If Faust finds out I'm free..."

"By the time she finds out it'll be too late," said Twilight, hoping to reassure Nightmare. To contradict what Twilight thought earlier, Nightmare was starting to tremble and display signs of panic, so clearly she wasn't as unaffected as she made out to be.

They reached the top stairs of the stairs out of the dungeons, and set for the main entrance to get out. From there Twilight hoped to find a spot to teleport away from, but the sight of Bon Bon with three others stopped her, especially when she recognised one of them. "Flicker?"

"Oh crap," Flicker swore, surprised that Twilight had remembered her. "Uh, I mean, hi my Lad- Ma'am, Twilight, ma'am. Um..."

"Relax Flicker."

"Sorry."

Bon Bon walked up to Twilight, giving the black alicorn leaning against her suspicious glances. She held out a hoof, upon which was the speaker stone that paired with the one Fleur had. "She's expecting to hear off you."

"Well she's going to have to wait a little longer because we need to get out of here first." Twilight inspected the other unicorn, and the stallion with Bon Bon and Flicker. "I get the feeling you want to come with us."

"There's nothing more we can do here, so yes, we would like to go."

Twilight counted around the ponies, dragon, and changeling with her, not including Daybreak since he wasn't leaving. Twelve was considerably too many for her to teleport, even with a beacon, so there were going to have to be compromises. "I can't teleport this many, so those of you that can are going to have to fly back to Equestria. Sorry guys."

Rainbow groaned loudly, "But we just flew here!"

"As I said, I'm sorry. You, Vapor, Lightning, Ember, and Mayfly are going to have to fly. Head to the castle. I'll be waiting."

"I can't believe this..." Rainbow pouted at Twilight, then led those named outside to start the long journey home. "I didn't even get to do anything while I'm here."

That still left seven for Twilight to teleport, which still pushing it, but without wings there wasn't really any other way to get back to Equestria, and Nightmare was in no condition to fly anywhere. "This is going to hurt."

It was still raining outside, to the surprise of none of them, although Nightmare seemed happy enough about it as she staggered out into it, leaving Twilight to say her farewells to Daybreak. She could also see Tracker and Opal as well, lurking where they probably thought they couldn't be seen.

"You make sure you stay safe," Twilight said to Daybreak. "The last thing I need is to worry about you on top of everything else."

"I'll be fine. If I can't hide in Neigh Orleans, I know plenty of other places I can go. Besides, you're the ones planning on taking down Faust. Perhaps it's you that should take care of yourselves."

"I can't, and won't promise anything. Hopefully I'll see you soon."

"Hopefully." Daybreak watched as Twilight headed out into the rain with the others, and made some distance between them and the keep to escape the field around it that prevented teleportation. A minute later there was a flash, and they were gone, leaving him to sigh at their absence.

"Who was the scary black pony?" Opal asked from behind him.

"I honestly have no idea, but Twilight seems to know her." Daybreak turned around to see both Tracker and Opal looking up at him, "Say guys, how do you fancy getting out of here and going on an adventure?"

Twilight face planted onto the ground as they came out of the teleport, her entire being having been focused around a horn that felt like exploding to the point that standing, or even having legs, was a tertiary consideration.

It still hurt to fall over like that though.

"Ungh..." Twilight cracked her eyes open, and was rather concerned to find that she was smoking. "Oh Luna damn it."

"I find that offensive," Nightmare mumbled. "As do I find your choice of location to bring us offensive." She turned her head to look up and down the length of the throne room in the Castle of the Two Sisters. "This was pretty high on my list of places I never wanted to see again."

"Excuse me for not expecting to find you anywhere to bring here."

"Shush!"

Twilight furrowed her brows at Trixie, "Did you just tell me to shush?"

"Yes! So do it!" Trixie held her hoof up as they all went quiet, "Don't you hear that?"

"All I can hear is a ringing in my ears, Trixie," said Twilight. "What can you hear?"

"Voices."

Twilight went quiet again, and really tried to listen as the others did the same. Trixie was right, there was voices nearby, and Twilight couldn't recognise them. "Shit, we need to get to the mirror right now, before they find us, or it."

"Who are you even talking about?" Nightmare enquired politely, not hearing much herself.

"They're soldiers, searching for the portal."

"And how would they know what they're looking for?" asked Trixie.

"Because Celestia told them is my guess."

Trixie blinked at Twilight a few times, then jumped to her hooves. "Oh shit Twilight! We need to get to the portal now!"

Twilight mimed strangling Trixie, "Sometimes Trixie, just sometimes..." Twilight struggled to her hooves as the voices started to come closer to their location. Clearly their arrival hadn't gone totally unnoticed. "We should split up. Bon Bon, can you and your team distract some of them away from us?"

"Sure."

"Good. Do that, then head to Manehattan. I'll tell Fleur to keep an eye out for you." Bon Bon saluted, then ran with her team, leaving Twilight with Trixie and Nightmare. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what to do if we're found, Trixie."

"Yeah, but that's not a good idea if we want to continue not being found."

"I know, I know." Twilight helped Nightmare to her hooves, then stopped as Nightmare's horn lit up and wrapped them in darkness. "Huh, okay."

"I very much doubt I can keep this up for long, so we should get moving."

Twilight just nodded as a trio of soldiers entered the throne room, looking about as they searched for whatever had made the noise they'd heard. They completely missed the trio of cloaked ponies as they walked by, then ran off at the sound of a commotion further away.

"Let's go," Twilight whispered, letting Nightmare lead the way since she seemed determined to. Thankfully there wasn't many other soldiers in the castle, so it didn't take long to reach the portal and pass through it, and it took less time to deactivate it behind her. Then she shouted Luna's name until the blue alicorn came running in.

"What's the matter Twilight? Are you-" Luna froze and stared at Nightmare, her darkened copy giving her a nervous, if toothy grin in return. "Bluh?"

"We have a problem," Twilight said as Luna continued her staring match with Nightmare. "Soldiers are searching the castle for the portal!"

"Huh?" Luna forced herself to give her attention to Twilight, "How? The only ones that know it exists are the ponies here."

"And Celestia."

"And Celestia." Luna nodded to herself, "Shit."

"My sentiments exactly."

"I hate to imagine what this means for us if Celestia has told Faust where we are, or what it means for Celestia. Faust would surely know of this place, and where it is. Also, where is Rainbow Dash and the rest of them? Where are your friends?"

"Rainbow and the others are flying back because we had some unexpected ponies joining us in Bon Bon and her team. Although I do now realise that I would've had the same issue with my friends..." Twilight shrugged the thought away, "As for my friends, they weren't in High Rock. Daybreak said they'd been taken to Equestria somewhere."

"Curses. Although, does that mean Daybreak is on our side?"

"More or less."

"Then the spell to free him still holds. At least we have some good news."

"Fleur's also broke out of Canterlot with the filly, my brother, and my parents, and have made their way to Manehattan."

Luna considered that for a moment, "Seems you have come with entirely mixed blessings." She offered Nightmare a hoof, the other alicorn taking it hesitantly to let Luna pull her to her hooves. "We also have news from during your absence, and possibly a plan, although your input is very much required. A bath for Nightmare as well perhaps," she added with a sniff.

"If you'd been where I have, you'd need one too."

"Okay," Twilight said as the two bigger alicorns resumed their staring match. "Let me talk to Fleur, and I'll be right with you."

Luna led Nightmare away, not speaking to her, but also not really seeming to take great issue with her being there either, even though she had to have been dying to ask what was going on. The few screams and shouts a moment later suggested that Cadence, Flurry, Sunset, Moondancer, and Daring had their own concerns about it too.

"Today had been fucking weird," Trixie said after a while, as Twilight waited for a reply from Fleur on the speaker stone. "I mean, I know we didn't get your friends, but we somehow ended up with another alicorn that somehow happens to be Nightmare Moon, and Luna, yet neither of them."

Twilight laughed quietly, "Funny thing is, that's not even our biggest concern. If Faust knows where we are, should we be expecting her to come busting in here at any moment?"

"Ugh, don't even say that." Trixie sat and shuddered, "I used to feel safe in this place until about ten minutes ago."

"We'll have to ask Starsy about it when we can. Hopefully the only way in here is through the portals."

There was a crackle from the stone, and both of them tensed as nothing was said for several seconds. Then Fleur finally spoke, letting them both relax. "Hello? Twilight?"

"I'm here. Trixie is too."

"Oh thank goodness. I was beginning to get worried. I take it Bon Bon filled you in on the basics of what happened?"

"She did, although she didn't tell us what you were up to in Manehattan."

"Taking shelter for now. We have Honeydew and Thorax with us, and managed to steal the Crystal Heart, so our biggest priority is keeping them safe for the time being. Past that though, I'm hoping to stir up some civil unrest, and basically do what I can to keep Faust focussed on events in Equestria."

"Right, well I would tell you to not do that and stay safe instead, but I imagine I'd be wasting my breath."

"You got that right," the filly muttered, earning herself a shushing from Fleur.

"Hello to you too filly."

"Hey Twilight. Since you're here, I feel it best I tell you that you know we're right. Keeping Faust distracted here keeps her distracted away from you."

"Er... yeah." Twilight suddenly felt it best to not mention that their location might be compromised already. "By the way, you should expect Bon Bon and her team to come looking for you soon. If you're so determined to cause trouble, I imagine they might be useful."

"Probabl-"

"Now Fleur, tell me why you got my parents involved."

"Hey, blame your brother for that, not me. Besides, he only went to them to ask about a way out of Canterlot. He wasn't expecting them to come with us."

"I'm guessing my mum suggested barrels over the falls."

"How could you tell?"

"She is my mother, Fleur, I do know her."

"And I'm starting to understand where you and Shining get your reckless streak from."

"I'm pretty sure that's not inheritable," Twilight replied with a smile. "Anyway, as much as I want to catch up with all of you, we have a lot going on here at the moment. Give them my love, and tell them I'll be in touch soon."

"You got it."

"Take care Fleur, I mean it."

"Hey, we've got the easy job."

"Fleur..."

"Alright, I promise. Bye."

"Bye." Twilight ended the spell and flopped onto her back. "Weren't you going to say anything to them?" she asked Trixie.

"What is there to say? We all know what we're doing is crazy."

"That's not what I meant. I mean you've been kind of quiet all day."

"I think we can call it High Rock syndrome. That place does unpleasant things to me. Don't you worry about me though, Twilight, I'm fine. Now how about we go hear what this wonderful plan is?"

Author's Notes:

Alright, time for another sequel!