Twilight hummed to pass the time as she healed Trixie using one of her devices. Those things that felt like the only actual, definite positive to have come out of her life over the last few years. It was funny how life worked sometimes. Sure there were other positives too, like new friendships with those she worked with, Trixie being a prime example, but otherwise the healing devices seemed to be about it. Any positives gained in her victory in Mareitania had in the long run been cancelled out, and turned around completely by them losing Equestria, and more besides. Too much more.

"You have that look like you're thinking too hard," Trixie murmured, too tired to put more effort into her words.

"There's a look?"

"Sure is. You get this glazed over, distant look in your eyes, like a starving mare that's just seen a hayburger stand, but has no bits, so just stands there staring and drooling in despair. I mean, I honestly can't tell if you're pondering the mysteries of the universe, or debating what flavour the sky is, but there's definitely some serious thought going on there. Thinking about Sunset?"

"No, actually. I'm thinking about the net positives I've achieved over the last three years, and concluded that these poorly named healing dohickeys are the only ones that haven't come back to bite me on the flank."

"Yet."

Twilight sighed, "Yeah, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised when they do. Anyway, how are you feeling?"

"Better. Weak as fuck, but better. I'm guessing that's the blood loss?"

"I tried to keep as much of it in your body as I could, but there was just so very much of it coming out."

"Cute." Trixie nodded her head towards the hut's other occupant, who was deeply asleep, "How's Luna?"

"Opting to sleep through it." Twilight made a face at the mass of bloodied bandages covering Luna's flank where Nightmare had carved a chunk out of Luna. "If that's the kind of thing Solaris can do, I think we need to find a way to destroy that weapon. Especially with Celestia so on the edge."

Trixie waited a beat for Twilight to say more, but there was nothing coming. "On the edge of what?" she asked.

"Madness, by the looks of it. Her new personality is not coping well with what's going on. Then there's the thing where her mane caught fire, and one of her eyes went slitted like Nightmare's... she's having some serious issues. Unfortunately that probably makes her more dangerous for us than not."

"Oh good, I'm glad we have something more to worry about. For a moment there this seemed too easy."

"You can remember what easy is? I thought easy was little more than legend at this point, on account of how nothing ever is."

"Meh," Trixie said dismissively. "So... how's things going with the invasion? Actually, where are we for that matter?"

"We're in Marebasa. It's a village built where the long route and short route to Zanzebra reconvene. Basically this place is right on the Mareitanians path to Zanzebra. Nightmare's doing what she can to slow them down and whittle away their numbers."

"And once they reach this place?"

"We fall back to Zanzebra, and attempt to stop them there."

"Oh." Trixie stared straight ahead for a moment, then shrugged, "Nothing too major then. Are the Mareitanians really attempting this without more reinforcements?"

"They still outnumber us, and still have their usual advantages, so yeah. If we were leading their attack, would we be doing any different?"

"Sure we would. We'd conquer the rest of Zebrica first, then lay siege to Zanzebra, forcing the zebras to either surrender or fight us on our terms. Going for a quick victory by taking Zanzebra and the Council is risky as fuck. We also wouldn't have waited for the zebras to gather their strength."

"That last point cancels out the one before it. Without the zebras putting up some kind of resistance, Zanzebra would be an easy target. Then the zebras would either have to attack their own capital, and likely lose, or give in. Taking Zanzebra quickly was the right decision. Waiting for Celestia to turn up first was not."

"So you're saying that they pretty much fucked themselves."

"In a word, yes. Unfortunately they still have a decent chance at winning, even after waiting, and having a decent chunk of their forces killed or run away."

"We just had to go and make the best army ever, didn't we?" Trixie grumbled. Trixie stopped and swivelled her ears as she heard hoofsteps, "There's somepony outside. Or somezebra, or whatever. Something with hooves is outside the door."

Twilight snorted a laugh as the door to the hut was opened to allow a male zebra in. He was wearing the uniform of the Rangi, and looked as if he had run the entire way there.

"Something to report?" Twilight asked.

"Uh, yes, Princess. I was one of those that was to sabotage the Mareitanians encampment after they left it."

"Okay, good. I'm assuming it went well?"

"Uh, no, it did not. Once the Mareitanians departed the kirin returned to the camp. They reclaimed their weapons and armour, and currently occupy the camp. They appear to be disagreeing over what they should do."

"Riiight." Twilight scratched her chin, at a loss for what that meant. Rearming themselves was bad, but the fact that they had waited for the Mareitanians to leave, and weren't chasing after them, was promising.

"Twilight, get Autumn and go talk to them," said Trixie. "They probably won't attack if it's just the two of you, and maybe you could convince them to just go home."

"But I was supposed to be joining Nightmare to help slow the Mareitanians down."

"Which is more important here? You killing a few soldiers, or you preventing a couple of thousand kirin from joining them?"

"When you put it like that..."

"Off you go then." Trixie shooed Twilight away with her hooves, "I'll be fine until you get back." Trixie tried to push herself up, but quickly changed her mind as something in her abdomen twinged. "Agh, make that I'll probably be fine."

"Alright, but when Luna wakes up, tell her what's going on, and to finish healing you."

"Will do, boss lady. You go have fun."

Twilight had found Autumn sitting by a fire, staring intently into the flames. What she'd hoped to see in them was anyone's guess, but they probably weren't providing her with any answers to her questions, such as 'what the hell am I supposed to do now?' The answer to that came from Twilight, and Autumn wasn't particularly keen on what she'd heard.

"I'm going to say that at this point, me dead is high on their list of priorities, even if they have other things to worry about more."

Twilight settled in next to Autumn, "Or they're looking for answers to the same question you are."

"And I suppose the answer to that is to join you?"

Twilight chuckled sheepishly, "In an ideal world, perhaps, but I'll settle for all the kirin going home and staying out of this war."

"That'd be nice," Autumn said laconically. "Maybe they might listen to you if you ask nice enough, but me?" Autumn shook her head slowly, "They don't even want to look at me."

"So you won't help me?" Twilight sighed as Autumn shook her head again, "I see. That's unfortunate. That means I have to kidnap you now."

"Excuse m-" Autumn tried to ask, but the question was turned into a scream as Twilight flew sharply upwards into the night sky, dragging Autumn in her wake. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Enlisting your help."

"That suggests this being voluntary! Which it is not!"

"Alright, I'm conscripting your help, if that's what you prefer." Twilight grinned back at Autumn, "Whatever it is you call it, you're helping me."

"This is highly unethical!"

"I know, right? It really is."

The distance to the Mareitanians' old camp was covered quickly enough, and the dark made it easier to spot the few camp fires the kirin had lit. Compared to the numbers that had been there previously, the kirin seemed to be swamped by the half destroyed camp, occupying only a small portion of it.

It was that portion that Twilight avoided for the time being, until she at least knew what to expect, other than a rain of arrows and a heavily armed welcoming party. Of course that assumed the kirin were hostile towards her, which seemed likely, but maybe they were a touch more ambivalent than they were before.

"That can't be good."

"What can't?" Twilight asked back to Autumn's words.

"Not all of those campfires are actually campfires. I suppose at the very least they're sat still instead of fighting each other and destroying every thing."

Twilight had no idea what Autumn was talking about, but could only assume it had something to do with the kirin and what they turned into. Some of the fires did have an unusual colour to them now she was looking.

"You better keep me safe," Autumn added a moment later.

"I will." Twilight flew down to land just outside the light provided by the fires and niriks. She tried to make her presence as obvious as possible, but the kirin seemed to be curiously uninterested, even when she started to walk amongst them. They seemed more interested in Autumn, but not by much.

"That's Rain Shine," Autumn whispered into Twilight's ear, pointing to a large kirin sat by a fire. "She's the leader of my village. You might want to talk to her."

"Or we could talk to you, Autumn."

Both Twilight and Autumn turned to face the speaker, and although the face of the kirin meant nothing to Twilight, Autumn sighed with relief.

"Fern Flare, you scared us."

"What are you doing here, Autumn? I told you to stay away from us for a good long while."

"And that's exactly what I was trying to do, but the princess here had other ideas."

"Princess?" Fern Flare studied Twilight closely for several seconds, and cocked her head slightly. "Why are you here?"

"I'm hoping to find out what the kirins' intentions are. Are you going to carry on fighting for Faust? Or are you going to go home?"

Fern Flare snorted with mirth, "Good question, because we honestly don't know. Some want to carry on fighting, some want to go home, and a few even want revenge on the Mareitanians for various reasons." Fern gestured towards a nirik, "As you can see, more than a few tempers have been strained by this."

"What do you want, Ferny?" Autumn asked.

"Me?" Fern shrugged, "I'm fine with any option that doesn't result in us fighting for Faust. Come on, I'll take you to Rain Shine so you can convince her to decide on something."

Twilight followed after Fern Flare towards Rain Shine, who didn't make any sign of acknowledgment towards any of them. She looked absolutely miserable, which was an emotion shared by a great many other kirin if Twilight were any judge. What had happened here was causing a greater effect than Twilight thought it could have.

"Rain Shine?"

The large grey kirin looked up from her introspection as Fern Flare said her name, then started as she saw Twilight. Then she saw who was behind Twilight, and narrowed her eyes a little.

"This is Princess... uh..."

"Twilight," Twilight finished for Fern Flare. "I am Princess Twilight."

"You're sided with the other princesses against Faust," Rain Shine said, making it clear it was a statement and not a question.

"That's right."

"And you, Autumn Blaze, have some nerve to come back here. Do you not realise what you've done?"

"I wanted you to go home," Autumn squeaked in a mouse's voice. "I wanted things to go back to the way they were before we went into the stream of silence. I wanted us to laugh and cry, and be... normal again."

Rain Shine's expression softened as Autumn ducked her head, letting a tear run down her muzzle and drop to the ground. "I'm sorry Autumn, but without the cure, I don't think things can ever go back to normal. We have no choice but to go back through the stream."

"Why though? Are you all so afraid of becoming niriks? There are niriks over there right now, and they aren't hurting anything! They're controlling it! Why can't we all do that? I will even show you how if you want?"

"Could you guarantee that we would never become niriks again?"

"No, because that's not what I'm trying to do! We can't not be niriks, but what we can do is control what the nirik does. Just because we turn black, grow fangs, and catch fire doesn't mean we aren't ourselves."

"I suppose," Rain Shine admitted, not sounding very convinced, "but that doesn't change our situation now. We're trapped in Zebrica with nowhere to go, and none of us can agree on a course of action. Some of the villages have already left to try and get back home, while others want to approach the Mareitanians for another chance." Rain Shine shook her head, "There's no unity between us any more."

"We can probably find you a way back to Equestria," Twilight said, putting herself back into the conversation. "We have no desire to fight the kirin, and really don't expect you to change sides, but if you want to go home, I'm sure us princesses and the Zebrican Council of Elders could find you a way home. You could technically walk it, so long as you don't mind walking for a thousand miles through Griffonia."

"I suppose we could. It'd probably be for the best if we did go home since we're not exactly welcome here any longer. Perhaps the journey would do us good."

"So... you're going to walk it?"

"Since you say we can, yes," Rain Shine confirmed.

"Oh, well, okay." Not the response Twilight had expected, but it was one she was more than happy with. "Will you try to convince the others to go with you?"

"As many as I can, yes."

"Thank you," Twilight said, dropping into a small bow. "I'll inform the Griffon Emperor that you shall be travelling through his lands. I expect that he'll leave you alone if you leave his griffons alone."

Rain Shine returned the bow, "That would be acceptable, thank you."

"Then I shall get that arranged as soon as I can. Safe journey." Twilight started to leave, and was about to spread her wings when Rain Shine told her to stop. That's what she initially thought at least.

"Are you not coming with us, Autumn?"

"You want me to come with you?"

"But of course." Rain Shine smiled, "We're all going home. Including you, if you want?"

"Yes! I mean yes! That was the exact same thing!" Autumn bounced on the spot in overwhelming excitement, "Aaah! Yes!"

Twilight smiled at the kirin, pleased that she was having her wish answered. "I guess this is it then, you're going home with your people."

"I am!" Autumn grabbed Twilight in a too tight hug around her neck, "I'm going home! We're going home! Eeeee!!"

"I'm happy for you," Twilight rasped, "really. Thanks for getting us to this point."

"Eee-ee-ee-hee-hee!" Autumn squealed happily.

Twilight patted Autumn's leg until the kirin let go, then said a last farewell, without bothering to mention that Autumn had left her belongings in Marebasa, because she didn't want the extra work of transporting it. She had enough to do just flying to where Nightmare and the Wonderbolts were without adding a trip for some luggage.

Still though, Autumn had gotten a mostly happy ending, and had done what was asked of her, which was as much as could be hoped for really. The most important part was that the kirin, or majority thereof, weren't fighting for Faust, and as far as Twilight was concerned, that at least deserved a hoof pump in celebration.

"Trap six failed," Lightning reported, trying to keep her voice even, when really she wanted to sigh her heart out and swear a whole bunch. "I hate to say it, but they're pretty much anticipating everything now."

Nightmare, still disguised as Cadence, nodded listlessly. "Are we at least thinning their numbers down a little?"

"They might've lost a couple hundred to injuries, but that's it. Nothing short of a direct attack is going to really slow them down."

"What about Ember?"

"Won't get close now, not after Celestia went after her. I hate to say it, but we really need Luna and Twilight back in the picture to make a difference now."

Nightmare didn't say anything to that, and not because she automatically wanted to say she didn't need their help. That kind of thinking had no right to interfere at a time when they needed all the help they could get. At this rate, the Mareitanians would be no more than a day behind schedule if they couldn't be slowed more.

Pitfalls, booby-traps, ambushes... all of their efforts had amounted to very little as the Mareitanians pressed ever further towards Zanzebra. They were getting closer to needing a miracle, but none of the local deities seemed to be in a sharing mood.

"What I wouldn't give for some explosives," Nightmare muttered. "Are Rainbow and Vapor ready at trap seven?"

"It won't work."

"What do you mean?"

"Because it won't! Their Adepts are on constant alert now. As soon as Rainbow and Vapor are spotted, the shield will go up, and the trap will be defunct."

"Have them try anyway!"

Lightning stopped short of shouting Nightmare's name out loud, but she was still annoyed. "This isn't working. You know it isn't working! We need to come up with a new plan!"

Nightmare bit her tongue, and her lip, and pondered for a second how ponies ate anything of substance with the dull, flat teeth most of them seemed to have. Sure her usual teeth were designed for a more carnivorous creature, but it felt like something so innocuous as a sandwich might prove a challenge without some proper teeth to tear into it with.

"What would you propose?" she asked. "Giving up entirely?"

"Of course not, but at this rate we could lose more zebras than the Mareitanians could lose soldiers, which isn't how you win a war. We need to fall back to Marebasa and regroup, and if necessary fall back to Zanzebra to formulate a proper defence."

"And give Celestia a clear run to Zanzebra? That won't do."

Lightning looked up at the cloudless sky and sighed. It was too hot even without her flight suit, and she had no desire to argue, but why Nightmare was so insistent on pushing this plan was... insane.

"The final trap will slow them down if nothing else will."

That much Lightning had to admit was true, but only because an actual battle, rather than just an ambush, would do that. There was one major problem with it though, and that was the fact that the Mareitanians outnumbered them almost two to one.

"You're going to get all those zebras killed if you go ahead with that. The Mareitanians can't be stopped like this!"

"And how do you know that?"

"Because while you were in Mareitania, I was participating in the war to protect Equestria. I fought the Mareitanians! I know what they can do! We tried traps, and ambushes, and everything! And nothing stopped them for long! Nothing!"

Nightmare stared coolly at Lightning for a moment, then shook her head as she looked down at her map, barely visible in the dawn light. "Go tell Rainbow and Vapor to prepare. If they should fail, prepare trap eight."

"You're just throwing lives away."

"If eight should fail, prepare trap nine."

"You're impossible."

"Now, Lightning Dust," Nightmare said without looking up.

With a growl of frustration, Lightning flew off, leaving Nightmare to calmly study her map in peace for a moment, then fold it up. Lightning was entirely right of course, but the problem was that there wasn't much else in the way of options to try instead. Yes the Mareitanians outnumbered them here, but the chances were that they would outnumber the zebras in other places as well, so what did it matter if they fought here or in Zanzebra? Maybe buying the time here would make the greater difference in the long run? It was impossible to tell.

Nightmare angled an ear as the rumble of thunder crashed from a clear sky. The three Wonderbolts had hopefully triggered trap seven, consisting of three rows of jars containing oil buried underground, with a collection of metal rods to conduct the lightning and ignite the oil. In theory at least. Nightmare had been unsure of that one herself. Hopefully it had worked.

"Oh look, shields. What a massive surprise," Lightning said sarcastically as their combined lightning strikes flickered over the magical protection, then died out. "I don't know about you guys, but I think Nightmare is out of her mind if she thinks doing what we're doing will work."

"She's just trying to buy time, like we all are," Rainbow said back to Lightning as they quickly flew away from the Mareitanians. "That's kinda why we're here."

Lightning rolled her eyes as the Mareitanians continued their march below them, totally unfazed by the lightning strikes, or their intent. "And it's working so well. So well, the Mareitanians don't realise how dead they are right now, that's how well it's working."

"Alright, you don't have to be am ass about it."

"No, I really feel like I do at this point. The Mareitanians are going to push us to the last trap, and those zebras are going to be slaughtered. I know it, you know it, the Mareitanians know it, and I'm pretty sure the zebras know it as well."

"Lightning's right," Vapor agreed. "Getting all these zebras killed here won't make a massive difference, but fighting at Zanzebra with more zebras, and the princesses, that could stop the Mareitanians. At the moment we have a bunch of zebras outnumbered two to one, an alicorn that won't fight Celestia, no protection against their magic, and a dragon that's noping every suggestion to get close enough to use her fire. This is pointless."

"Alright, you're right," Rainbow said, finally seeing their point. "How do we convince Nightmare we're right?"

"We shouldn't need to," Lightning growled. "She should be able to see this isn't working. She-"

"Knows perfectly well."

"Twilight!" Rainbow cheered as her friend flew up to them. "Wait, how did you know what we were talking about?"

"I just talked with Nightmare, and she told me Lightning had doubts."

Rainbow drew in a sharp breath, then it stuck as doubts of her own crept in. Doubts about who it was that was actually in front of them. "Nice try, Nightmare, but you aren't fooling us."

"Aren't I? Excellent! Good to know I'm not working with idiots."

Rainbow cringed at the voice that came from behind her, and she turned to find that Nightmare, still disguised as Cadence, was right behind them. "Ah."

"Of course I'm a little disgusted that you think I'd try to deceive you all like that. Do you really think so little of me?"

Rainbow slowly turned back to Twilight and poked her with a hoof. She seemed real enough, as did Nightmare when she did the same thing. "I'm not apologising."

"I wasn't asking you to," Twilight said flatly.

"I was going to," Nightmare said quickly, "but I get the feeling Twilight's going to give me 'the look' if I do."

"Yes I am. Anyway, what I was going to say was that we can't afford to lose so many zebras here, so we're going to fall back to Marebasa for now while we come up with a better plan. Ten thousand zebras will be a lot more effective than two lots of five, so chances are we might end up falling back to Zanzebra to-"

"Put up a better fight," Lightning said with relief. "Thank you!"

"There's also the small problem that we've lost track of Celestia," Twilight added. "I scouted around the Mareitanians twice, but couldn't see her anywhere. She could be trying to find out what we're up to, so we should change our plans to stay ahead of her. I've already told Ember to start moving the zebras to Marebasa, so she should be wondering what we're up to for a while."

"Sounds good," Rainbow said while Nightmare sighed.

"I can't help but feel that Celestia's up to more than just spying on us," she said. "Especially when we left Marebasa relatively undefended, with a wounded Luna and Trixie as easy targets."

Twilight's eyes went wide, and without saying a word she turned for Marebasa and flew as fast as she could, the others chasing after her.

It was harder to see in the daylight, but even from a distance they could see the thin trails of smoke rising from the village of Marebasa, indicating that the village was at least partially aflame. No big surprise where Celestia and her weapon was concerned.

Twilight could feel herself quivering with both fear and anticipation as they flew ever closer. Luna would survive a confrontation with Celestia, one way or another, but if anything had happened to Trixie, Twilight didn't know what she'd do. Hopefully she had nothing to worry about, and the flashes of magic coming from the village gave her a bit of hope.

Celestia was fighting Luna in the village centre. It was a rather one sided battle, but Luna was at least holding Celestia at bay for now, relying on her shields to save her since her mobility on the ground was limited thanks to her leg. Trixie was nowhere to be seen.

"Celestia!" Twilight shouted, catching the attention of the white alicorn before she could further attack the battered and beleaguered Luna. All of them scattered as a powerful blast of magic roared through the air towards them, meaning that Celestia still wasn't in a talking mood. A mood that soured only further when Luna capitalised on Celestia's distraction to attack, sending her sister flying.

"You three go find Trixie while we take care of Celestia," Twilight said to the three Wonderbolts while Celestia was indisposed. "If she's hurt, do what you can until we can take care of her, and any other injured you find."

"Got it!" Rainbow said quickly, racing off with the others in tow to start searching.

"I am most pleased to see you," Luna said with palpable relief as Twilight and Nightmare landed between her and Celestia. "Much longer and I was going to have to consider negotiations," she joked.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," Celestia spat as she extricated herself from the remains of the hut Luna had sent her flying into.

"You're the one attacking a small, peaceful village of zebras, and I'm the terrorist?" Luna asked in disbelief. "Really?"

"These zebras forfeited their innocence the moment they gave you shelter." Celestia pulled Solaris from the rubble and pointing him at Luna, "However, if you all were to surrender, I might forgive them."

"Forget that," said Nightmare, "I- Hold on." Nightmare picked up a length of twine she'd spotted on the floor nearby, and cut a piece off, using it to tie back her long and currently pink, purple, and yellow mane into a ponytail. "Finally, I can see properly. Anyway-" Nightmare fired a spell at Celestia, which she barely dodged, "-what were we talking about?"

Celestia retaliated quickly, firing a beam of magic at Nightmare using Solaris, while her horn did the same towards Twilight. They split up, taking to the air to stop Celestia from being able to watch both of them. One would attack from one side, while the other kept Celestia distracted. Not that it made a lot of difference as Celestia managed to intercept all their attacks, even if she was starting to unravel again. One of her eyes was squeezed shut, and traces of flame were sneaking into her mane and magic. She seemed determined to not give up though.

"Trixie! Trixie!" Rainbow flitted from building to building, shouting Trixie's name in the hopes that she might get a shout back from the unicorn. The village wasn't even that big, but between the three Wonderbolts searching, Trixie still hadn't been found. "Trixie!"

Rainbow stopped as the overpressure from a powerful spell could be felt even in the air, and it rattled the entire village, demolishing parts of it even further. That's when it occurred to her that Trixie was just as likely to be buried under some rubble as she was to be somewhere else.

"Urgh, this is so messed up! I miss the old Celestia."

"I don't know, the old one seemed kind of whiney."

Rainbow turned around rapidly, then looked down to see a unicorn pointing a crossbow at her. He didn't seem particularly worried as he stood there, chewing on the end of a thick cigar, blowing the occasional smoke ring.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Rainbow enquired.

"Me? I'm the tooth fairy. Couldn't you tell?"

"So you're a Shade then?" She could only assume so from his nonstandard armour.

"Special tactics branch actually."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, having not heard of that, but she could only assume that he was a branch of the military much like the Wonderbolts and Hard Corps had been. "And you haven't killed me because..?

"Because I'm a sporting fellow, and I thought I'd give you a chance. I also don't have orders to kill you, even if you are one of the Element bearers."

"This seems like a terrible idea. I can already tell from you using a crossbow that you're not Adept material, so I think I can probably take you."

"Before I finish squeezing this trigger?"

Rainbow grinned at the stallion, "Probably not, but you'd be hitting air."

"How about a little wager then?"

"Winner walks away with their life?"

The stallion grinned back at Rainbow, "I see you've played this before."

"Yeah, for like the last year or so, and it sort of implies there are some kind of rules to this, when really there isn't." Almost as if to emphasise her point, Rainbow reversed the direction her wings her flapping, quickly forcing herself to the ground to land in a crouch while she drew her right blade. From the crouch she sprang towards the Shade, slicing her blade across his neck in a move that nearly decapitated him. That all happened in the space of a second, during which the Shade had barely reacted before it was over.

"That, and I always win," she muttered as his body crumpled to the ground. He was just one Shade though, and she doubted he came alone, meaning that the others had probably encountered more of the Shades, and that she should probably go and help.

It was a good idea that she did as she found Vapor hiding behind a wall from two mares, a unicorn and an earth pony, both armed with crossbows. Both of them were waiting for Vapor to show herself, and neither of them were in a rush to flush her out. That would prove to be a mistake as Rainbow rushed for them, impaling the unicorn on her blades and using the body as a shield against the earth pony's crossbow, before tossing the body at her to knock her over. Before she could get back up, Rainbow landed on her, stabbing downwards.

"Are you okay?" Rainbow called out to Vapor.

"Yeah, I'm okay," her friend replied, popping her head up over the wall. "I think they wanted to capture me."

"Huh, mine didn't. Have you seen any more of them?"

"Yeah, there was a few more with a prisoner. I think they had Trixie. I don't know if there are any going after Lightning though."

Almost as if to answer her question, a peal of thunder boomed around the village that could only have been Lightning. Both of them hurried towards the source of the sound, and found Lighting circling high above three soldiers, one of which was very much deceased.

"There are three more taking Trixie that way," Lightning said, pointing northwest, the direction that the Mareitanian army was coming from. "I'll take care of these two while you go get her back."

"On it," Rainbow said, flying in the direction Lightning was pointing. As she had said, there were three more soldiers running in that direction, the largest of which was carrying a bound and unconscious Trixie. The earth pony was flanked by the two others.

"They're running right towards Ember and the Zebras," Vapor said suspiciously. "I'm not sure how far they expect to get doing that."

"Celestia was probably supposed to pick them up once she was done subduing Luna. Obviously that wasn't as easy as she hoped it would be." Rainbow pointed at the unicorn on the right of the stallion carrying Trixie, "You take her, I'll take the other. Quietly. If we can take them down, and the big guy before they work out we're here, this should be easy."

"Okay."

Both of them tucked their wings to dive down, and held their blades back to stop them whistling and alerting the soldiers. It worked, and the soldiers were totally unaware they were under attack until the two pegasi were on them.

Rainbow sliced down, her enchanted blades making much easier work of their armour than Vapor's could. She severed her target's spine with a single blow in front of her shoulder blades, then looped around in front of the stallion carrying Trixie and planted her hooves on the ground as she skidded to a stop. He tried to stop himself as she held a blade out in front of him, but failed and ran onto it, his eyes bulging with shock before he crumpled to the ground.

"I guess they weren't expecting any pegasi today," Rainbow commented as she sliced through the ropes binding Trixie to the stallion, freeing her hooves, then pulling the sack off her head. Blood was oozing from a cut above Trixie's left eye, and she seemed a bit battered and dusty, but was otherwise okay even if she was still out cold. The bigger problem was the inhibitor on her horn, but that was quickly rectified when Rainbow found the tool to remove it.

"It's time to wake up, Trixie," Rainbow said, tapping Trixie's cheeks. "I really recommend doing so since Celestia is attacking Twilight, Luna, and Nightmare right now. Trixie?"

Trixie's eyes flickered, and she groaned. "I had the best part of a building dropped on me when I was already hurt. I think I'm allowed a little rest."

"Rest when you're dead."

"Gladly." Trixie opened her eyes and squinted against the glare of the sun, then pulled Rainbow's wing out to give her some shade, much to Rainbow's annoyance. "Do I need to guess how well things are going if you're here rescuing me?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"Just pain. Copious amounts of pain. Then a bright light, followed by a little more pain, which led to me being here getting rescued."

"Celestia's here, attacking Luna."

"That seems unfortunate. I'm guessing she's had some help by now if you're here?"

"Do you even care?" Vapor asked.

Trixie shrugged at Vapor "I have one rule in life. Never get between two or more alicorns having a fight."

"That's an oddly specific rule."

"You'll be surprised by how much use it gets these days."

Luna was the weak link in the fight. As soon as they tried to make a definitive attack on Celestia, Celestia would attack Luna, and she was too weak now to defend herself well enough. Twilight was wondering why Celestia was so determined to kill Luna, but all she could do was fight and react.

Celestia wasn't holding up well either though. Her frustration at not being able to get anywhere was causing more cracks to appear in her visage now, and she was openly crying as she fought, although it was hard to tell if she even knew she was doing it, or why.

Twilight grit her teeth as Celestia's magic bored into the shield she had over herself and a prone Luna. The dark blue alicorn looked sorrowfully at Twilight, apologetic at not being able to help, and guilty that she wasn't able to fight her own battles.

"Have you thought of any way to destroy Solaris?" Twilight hissed through her teeth at Luna.

"No, I haven't. It took Faust to destroy my weapons, and I suspect it would take Faust to destroy hers."

"So we got nothing then."

Luna went quiet for a moment as an attack off Nightmare distracted Celestia. "I didn't say that. Perhaps we do, if we turn its own strength against it." Luna scratched an enchanting circle into the dirt in front of her, "Separate Celestia from her weapon, and we shall do what we can."

"How do we separate it from her?"

"That requires you to render her either dead, or unconscious. Either would do. Any other ideas would be yours to come up with."

"Great..." Twilight held her breath, then released it sharply. "Okay, we'll get it done."

Twilight dropped her shield to attack Celestia, her spell bouncing off a quickly conjured shield as Solaris traced after Nightmare, who quickly evaded every attack made against her. Twilight knew that trying to fight Celestia into submission was a serious case of long odds, as she only seemed to be growing in power. That was likely an illusion created through Celestia becoming only more reckless, but it was an illusion that worked. Perhaps they needed a different tact. One that played to the strengths of at least two of them there.

Twilight channelled all the magic she could into Celestia's shield, daring her to either break her stance and finally move, or lose the shield and become vulnerable. Celestia stood her ground, fighting Twilight while Solaris fell idle. Nightmare took the opportunity to attack as well, forcing Celestia to split her attention back to Solaris to attack her as well.

It was a mystery as to why Celestia hadn't fled as yet, but Twilight wasn't going to waste the opportunity if she didn't have to. With a final push she broke Celestia's shield, then teleported to attack Celestia from behind as she tried to recover.

Celestia stumbled from the attack, finally breaking her stance as Twilight knocked her down onto one knee. Again Twilight didn't waste the chance as Nightmare pushed her own attack, and grabbing the largest block of masonry she could find, she slammed it down on the back of Celestia's head. The fact that plan had worked only demonstrated how close to exhaustion Celestia had to be.

Solaris tumbled to the ground, suddenly cool without Celestia to feed her emotions through it, and Twilight snatched it up in her mouth to drop in front of Luna, who quickly set to work carving a rune into the spear's shaft, but not without considerable difficulty as the other runes fought to keep the weapon pristine. She was barely a quarter of the way into carving it when Celestia started to stir.

"Nightmare! Do whatever you have to to keep her from waking up!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know! Use dream magic, or something!"

Nightmare looked pissed for a moment, then nodded stiffly as a trail of magic linked her mind to Celestia's. Instantly her expression turned pained, but it seemed to be working, whatever it was she was doing. All that left was what Luna was doing as she struggled to carve the rune onto Solaris, leaving Twilight with nothing but to fret and feel useless until Luna was done.

"Almost got it," Luna growled, her jaw clenched as her magic cut into Solaris. Twilight would've liked to have seen what Luna was carving into the spear, but she was watching Celestia as she fought against whatever it was Nightmare was doing.

"There!" Luna exclaimed triumphantly. "All we need now is to get Celestia's magic into the enchanting circle."

"How the hell do you expect to do that?"

Luna stood and placed a shield over Solaris and the enchanting circle, leaving the outer edge of the circle exposed. "Protect me, and I'll take care of it. Nightmare, release her!"

Nightmare did so, and Celestia roared back into the fight with a burst of flaming magic that sent Nightmare flying before she was able to do anything. She was slammed into the side of a building, breaking the wall down over her, which was just as well as her disguise slipped off as she passed out.

"You'll pay for that!" Celestia shouted. Puzzlement passed over her face as she tried and failed to pull Solaris back to her, then snarled as Luna grinned at her. "Give him back!"

"You want him, you fight for him."

Celestia attacked Luna using an overwhelming burst of magic. Twilight shielded both herself and Luna from the sustained attack, and held it as long as she could, only trying harder as she saw the run-off from Celestia's magic light up the enchanting circle. With a pulse of power, the rune came to life.

"All yours!" Luna laughed, releasing Solaris. Celestia quickly brought him to her side, then gasped as the weapon trembled. Patches of cold fought with the searing heat of the other enchantments the weapon had, and the more power she forced into it, the worse it became.

"What. Did. You. Do!?" Celestia raged, only feeding yet more power into Solaris, even if unintentionally.

"Can't you tell? Don't you recognise the runes I forged my own weapons with?"

Celestia snarled at Luna, but was cut off by a scream of tortured metal. Solaris wasn't made to work the way it was being forced to now, and the conflicting magic within it, as well as the hot and cold, was tearing the weapon apart. "No! No-no-no! Stop!"

Solaris exploded with that final outburst from Celestia, peppering the area with shards of metal. Twilight shielded herself and Luna again, while Nightmare seemed safe enough under her wall. Celestia wasn't so well protected though, and it was only her armour that saved her from the worst of it. Blood streamed from a dozen deep gashes on her head and neck, and it was only a small miracle for her that it wasn't worse.

Twilight didn't give her a chance to recover, and blasted Celestia, knocking her away into the side of a building. Before she could press the attack, Celestia vanished, teleporting herself away to safety.

"Quite the victory," Luna laughed before collapsing to the ground. "With Solaris gone, Celestia should be much easier to handle."

"Can't she forge a new weapon?"

"Perhaps, but I suspect she won't. She remembers the burden that weapon was at times, so I doubt she would create one with anywhere near the potency Solaris possessed."

Twilight nodded vaguely as she started to excavate Nightmare. The black alicorn was still very much alive, but the blow to her head was keeping her quiet for now. Twilight was sure she'd be loving the drubbing they just gave Celestia otherwise.

She looked over as Trixie, Rainbow, and the other Wonderbolts ran into the square, and was incredibly relieved that they were all okay, even if Trixie appeared a little worse for wear. It was then she saw the head of Solaris buried in the wall nearby, and pulled it free. A large crack marred the facsimile of Celestia's cutie mark, and she couldn't help but find that appropriate considering what was happening to the alicorn it belonged to.

"Oh no, you beat her before we could do anything to help..." Trixie said with a quiet sarcasm. "What a pity."

"Somepony had to." Twilight placed the head of Solaris down, and finished digging Nightmare out. A single eye squinted at her, meaning that Nightmare would probably be back to her old self in no time.

"Don't look into Celestia's head," she grumbled. "Really, really do not. That was an experience I could happily spend the rest of my existence not repeating."

"I know this might not seem like the biggest problem we have right now, but where are all the zebras that live here?" Rainbow asked as Twilight patted Nightmare on the back and took a moment to look back at the spearhead.

"They have fled to Zanzebra, as I instructed them to," Luna answered for Twilight. "We would be wise to do the same. If we truly wish to stop the Mareitanians, Zanzebra is the only place we can do it now, with the full might of ourselves and the zebras against theirs. I pray it shall be enough."

Author's Notes:

Autumn gets her happy-ish ending. Someone had to.