Councillor Fumbo had shot down the idea immediately, as had most of the others. Kifuniko merely looked thoughtful, while Mareed was actually being helpful by saying that it hardly mattered at this point, and that they should accept that the princesses had no interest in their agency as the leaders of their country at that point.

Of course this was all a moot point when a couple hundred griffons were already flying over the city, doing their best to extinguish the fires, and another three thousand were reinforcing the zebras keeping the surviving Mareitanians in the east of the city, where a nervous peace had somehow happened. Neither side had started another attack yet, but at the same time, neither side seemed willing to talk either. It was awkward as hell, but it was an awkward that everyone was living through, so therefore acceptable.

There might've been an unexpected casualty though, and that was Twilight's ears as the Elders' displeasure was poured into them at volumes normally reserved for large explosions and sonic rainbooms. It was unfair that Twilight had to be the one dealing with this now, just because Luna and Cadence were only inches above taking a dirt nap.

"What did you honestly expect me to do?" Twilight asked once the voices subsided, along with some of the ringing in her ears. "The Mareitanians still outnumber your warriors and hold almost a third of the city. Without reinforcements to hold them back they could still win this. What they plan to do afterwards with General Snowbright dead and Celestia gone is anyone's guess, but the important part is that they would hold the city, even if only just."

"But why griffons?" Fumbo whined breathlessly.

Twilight glanced over at Commander Lurin out of the corner of her eye, pleased at the level of grace he was displaying. "There was no one else to ask, and even if there was, they wouldn't be able to get here anywhere near as fast. Not without the portal we could use in the Eyrie. Zanzebra could've both burnt down and been conquered by the time anyone else got here."

"And how long before the griffons are taking the flesh and blood of our people as payment for their protection?" Mareed growled.

"Even if that were to be a thing, the streets are literally littered with corpses," Twilight said tiredly, not even meaning it the slightest, but feeling too petty to stop herself, even if she was insulting the griffons by saying it. It'd been a long day. "Still reasonably fresh too."

"We've brought our own rations," Commander Lurin said, giving Twilight a pointed look. "There is nothing you need to offer us, aside from the promise that these Mareitanians and yaks will not be returning to Equestria to reinforce it against our own incursion, whenever that happens. It is only the Emperor's interest in winning the greater war against Faust that made him agree to this at all. We will happily leave again once your city is secure."

"If Zebrica lives another day, I am happy to have things this way," Kifuniko said, in what Twilight reasonably hoped to be support of having the griffons here. "If the griffons help to keep us free, perhaps future peace between us could be?"

"...Perhaps," Fumbo conceded after a few seconds. "You have our blessing to end this how you wish, Princess Twilight."

Twilight bowed to the Elders, grateful for their permission since it meant she wouldn't have to explain why she carried on doing what she wanted to anyway. That done she turned and began limping her way through the evacuated zebras occupying the dockside warehouse, many of which were watching Lurin as he followed after her.

"We would not eat the bodies of the fallen," he said coldly as they emerged into the late afternoon sun.

"Sorry, that supposed to be a- Sorry. I've had a heck of a day."

"Which I can appreciate, but please try not to say things like that. They really don't help, especially since there has been a shameful grain of truth to them, in the past."

"Oh?"

"Rations haven't always lasted a battle during the winter months," Lurin offered as explanation. "Anyway, let us return to more important things. For starters, you still need to tell me why you didn't ask for our aid before the attack?"

"Because the zebras wouldn't have accepted it. I'm not sure they really want to now, but with the casualties they took, they don't have much choice."

"That was a poor tactical choice."

"It was the only option we had, and I couldn't make the choice for them. I think fighting an enemy like they have now has opened their eyes a bit, and made them realise just how behind they are in terms of military strength compared to Mareitania, or even yourselves. They might not be so shy about asking for help in the future."

"Any thoughts on them joining the Union?"

Twilight shook her head, "You'll have to ask Cadence about that, once she's able to speak. On which note, I'm going to go see if her and Luna are alright. As for you, Mistress Mjuzi is in charge, and is working on keeping the Mareitanians contained. You'll find her in the bazaar. If they do attack, let me know."

"Of course, Princess."

Lurin bowed deeply, then leapt into the sky, leaving Twilight to close her eyes and sigh deeply for several seconds.

"Fuck my life. Just... fuck it. Rest when you're dead they say. Well joke's on me, assholes."

Twilight continued her journey, slowly making her way to another large warehouse that was being used as an impromptu hospital. Wounded spilled out of its doors, some of which weren't even warriors but civilians that had been caught up in the fires. There were also Mareitanians here, disarmed and restrained, but being treated nonetheless. That at least brought a smile to Twilight.

She made her way through the masses of wounded to the rear of the building, where Cadence and Luna were being kept in a small office, separate to the rest, simply because seeing them so wounded might be demoralising for the zebras, while making the Mareitanians insufferably smug, even though they'd technically lost at this point, and the princesses would recover in time.

"Any change?" Twilight asked Trixie, who had been given the dubious honour of guarding the two princesses. An honour she'd spent relaxing with her hooves kicked up on a desk while eating grapes.

"Nothing yet. How's your leg?"

Twilight glanced down at her leg, and the nasty looking bite mark on it. It wasn't bleeding any more, and didn't feel quite so bad as when she'd been given it, but really was an ugly wound.

"It's fine," Twilight lied. "But what about yourself?"

"Me? What about me? I'm not injured."

"I'm talking about that," Twilight said, pointing to the tip of Trixie's horn, where a hint of discolouration had set in. "Don't tell me you hadn't noticed?"

"Not really. I mean, it's just the tip, right? Just the tip isn't too bad."

"Phrasing," Cadence mumbled.

"Did you even use your shields once in the battle?"

"Umm..."

Twilight rolled her eyes and sat. She wasn't going to lecture Trixie, or even mention it any further, but Luna damn it the mare could be dense at times, and Twilight wanted to make sure Trixie knew that much through her expression alone.

"What? It's just... how I fight, okay? We don't all get the benefits of surviving things like you can, so we do what we have to, to make sure we both win and survive."

"Not saying a word."

"You hardly need to. I can feel the disapproval radiating off you. Just don't make the mistake of thinking I'm happy about it either. It still feels like I'm being watched when I use dark magic, and I'm still scared of what might happen, but I... can't stop. Not when I'm having to fight like this at least."

"I know, Trixie, I know." Twilight ran a hoof through her mane, finding it to be matted with blood, sweat, and ash. She absently wiped her hoof on her chest afterwards, but that was hardly better. "Have you seen Ember? I never thanked her after she saved us from Celestia."

"She's flying around, doing dragon-y things. I think she's waiting for the Mareitanians to do something, just so this can really be over. If this takes too long, Faust can send reinforcements, or even come herself. Then we'd really be fucked."

"I know, but armies aren't what's going to stop her."

"Nope. What's going to stop her is something that might not even work, and hasn't even been made yet because we're dicking around here instead. Not that you're rushing back to the retreat either. Not with Moondancer there."

Twilight winced at the mention of Moondancer, "Can you blame me?"

"Not really, but you can't avoid her forever."

"Shouldn't be a problem after Faust is defeated, because I very much doubt she'd want to see me ever again. It'd probably be for the best if she didn't."

Trixie half grinned at Twilight, "And what happened to friendship being magic?"

"Simple. We aren't friends. Far from it, for her part. There's probably nothing I could do to convince her to not hate me, let alone be friends."

"Oh come on, you're the Princess of Friendship! I'm sure you can think of something to bring her around."

"Not every friendship can be saved, Trixie. Some problems really can't be reconciled. Any chance I had of becoming friends with Moondancer again died with... died." Twilight stroked her mane again, regretting it just as much as the first time, but it served as a decent distraction from having to say Sunset and died in the same sentence.

"So you're admitting defeat?"

"I'm facing facts."

"Alright," Trixie shrugged, "far be it from me to argue. More than I already have at least. So what now? Are we really just going to wait around for something to happen? Or are you doing something to convince the Mareitanians to surrender?"

"The Mareitanians might, but I don't think the yaks would, and while the yaks won't, the Mareitanians won't. Otherwise this'd be a lot easier."

"I'm guessing there's considerably more honour fighting and dying for Faust than there is in surrender?"

"Something like that," Twilight sighed. "Unfortunately that attitude is going to get all the ponies with them killed."

"So long as you remember it's their fault, and not yours."

"Actually, I was hoping for Luna's input, but I don't think I'm getting it." Twilight scanned over the mass of cuts, burns, bruises, and broken bones that was Luna. It might've been a mercy if she had died this time. Cadence wasn't much better, except the bruising was much more visible under her pink coat. "I'd like to think she'd advocate getting them out of the city before they become too entrenched. They have to know we have griffons with us as well now, so they must know they can't win. I suppose it depends who the line of command has fallen to. If it's Prince Rutherford in charge, I think it says a lot for him that they haven't attacked yet."

"Does that mean negotiating isn't going to be happening?"

"If it is, it's probably going to be him asking us to surrender," Twilight said, getting a laugh out of Trixie. "I would say something about blind devotion being bad, but having three princesses in one room probably sucks the fun out of it."

"I like to think we inspire loyalty, not blind devotion," Cadence croaked.

"Cadence! You're awake!"

"I spoke earlier, if you'd been listening."

"Oh." Twilight blushed a little with embarrassment, "Sorry. So I'm guessing you heard all of that?"

"I did." Cadence tried to move her head to look at them, but soon gave up on that idea. "All I can really say is that I agree with your assessment if Prince Rutherford is in charge. He doesn't seem like the type that could live with the shame of surrendering, so he won't. I guess only the word of Faust herself could stop him. Of course this all depends on if he's in charge or not."

Twilight leaned forwards to bury her face in her hooves and groan, "Can't this be over now? I really, really need this to be over now."

"It's not over until the fattest yak sings," Trixie said, popping another grape into her mouth. "Even then you might have an issue."

"Won't I just. Guess I better get on with it then." Twilight stood and gave Cadence a quick nuzzle, "Get well soon, okay?"

"I'll try."

Giving Trixie a nod, Twilight walked back out of the office into the mass of injured zebras and those few ponies that had been brought in. Twilight walked slowly, not that she had much choice, taking her time to study each of the ponies. After a minute or two she found what she was looking for, the one that had given her pause earlier for looking like Sunset. Strangely, the resemblance was less without her armour, with her coat lighter than Sunset's, contrasting more with her darker, streak free mane. The Sunflower cutie mark was appropriate though.

Twilight knew she'd stared too long when the mare caught her and met her gaze. She still seemed wary of Twilight, but not to the point of fear like she was before. Giving her a smile, Twilight broke the staring match and walked away, feeling strangely thankful that the mare had survived.

"Don't tell me you hate griffons as well," Twilight said as soon as she noticed the way Seeker was staring at her.

"No, but you must realise that there was going to be a problem when you asked them to help?"

"There's only a problem if one gets made. The griffons will stay in line and do their job, so if the zebras do as well, everything will be absolutely fine."

Seeker gestured over her back to where the daggers Mistress Mjuzi was staring at Lurin were being met with cool indifference. "Does that look fine? It doesn't to me. She was in charge of the Night Maidens when the incident happened."

"I take it by incident you mean-"

"When one of my fellow zebras was taken by a griffon hunting party and devoured, yes! Starting a war between Zebrica and Griffonia that was triggered without the permission, or even knowledge of the Council, and could've spelled destruction for Zebrica had the Emperor not found the whole thing funny!"

"...Right, so there might be some small issues, but I don't think it quite necessitates every single zebra hating griffons."

"If that was the only instance of griffons wronging us, then I'd agree, but the wrongs levied against us go back for centuries!"

"And now they're helping you protect your country from another invader!" Twilight shouted, losing her patience. "The griffons spent centuries trying to force ponies out of Equestria, and have hated ponies quite a lot ever since! But here we are doing our best to get along against a common enemy. Perhaps zebras could manage to do the same until at least the end of the week? Please?"

Seeker didn't answer, instead turning to Mistress Mjuzi for her opinion. An opinion that seemed to involve a lot of sighing and groaning, but ultimately ended in a nod for Twilight, and the offer of a hoof to shake for Lurin.

"If the choice is between working together and dying, then I choose to work together."

"A fine choice," Lurin agreed. "Perhaps now we can get down to business, and you tell me what the Mareitanians are up to?"

"I wish I knew." Mistress Mjuzi waved for them to join her next to a map of the city, and circled a hoof around the north eastern section of it. "We estimate there to be around five thousand Mareitanians and yaks left alive and free in the city. Other than that though, we have no idea if they plan to attack, surrender, or hold what they have until help arrives, if it does."

"I'm afraid that help would have to come in the form of Faust," Twilight told them. "If she'll bring more soldiers with her, attempt to fight us us with whatever soldiers she has left here, or evacuate the survivors, I couldn't say, but two of those options means the end of a free Zanzebra."

"Is she truly so fearsome?" the Mistress asked, the hint of a tremor in her words.

"She is. We're seeking every advantage against her we can, but after fighting Celestia and almost losing, fighting Faust seems considerably more daunting. If she attacks here today, we'll have no choice but to escape so that we can fight her another day."

"The same goes for us griffons," Lurin added. "There's no point in weakening ourselves before the invasion of Equestria for nothing, so-

"I prefer to call it the liberation of Equestria," Twilight muttered.

"-You would be best off surrendering to minimise your casualties," Lurin finished.

The Mistress nodded in agreement, "And which option do you think Faust would take?"

"I'm afraid our logic and her logic probably don't match up," said Twilight. "If I were to make the choice, and had the power she does to back it up, I'd bring in more soldiers from Equestria to finish this battle in my favour." Twilight stopped as she thought a little more about it," But at the same time, I now know my enemies aren't as weak as I thought, so maybe I would evacuate the soldiers to reinforce my defences back at home, rather than take Zebrica and weaken those defences conducting an occupation. Zebrica isn't going anywhere after all, and you wouldn't resist a second, more devastating invasion, and wouldn't be backed up by alicorns and a dragon."

"I concur," Lurin said. "Which is why we should attack, and eliminate those soldiers from being even worth the effort of saving."

Twilight didn't like what this meant, as they were siding with eliminating a large number of people. Admittedly those people had attacked them, and hadn't surrendered as yet, but it was still a poor decision to have to make. Thankfully the decision wasn't hers to make. "The choice is yours, Mistress Mjuzi."

Mistress Mjuzi laughed bitterly, aiming it at herself. "And to think I fought for the chance to lead this. What a fool. I've been presented with three scenarios, two of which could mean our end, while the third means using the last of our strength to end this occupation, only to have nothing to resist the next with if it comes. It saddens me that destroying ourselves to defeat them might be the best option we have. Tell me, Commander, how do your soldiers feel about fighting indoors?"

"They would do their duty, although I do fully understand that making ourselves so visible was a mistake. If we still had the element of surprise, the battle would go much smoother."

"You could share the Kuua with them," Twilight suggested, "since they'll be using it anyway in the future."

"That would be best," Mjuzi agreed. "Very well, prepare your griffons, Commander, and we shall see if we can't make these invaders regret trying to keep what isn't theirs."

Twilight tested her leg. The injury on it had only been sustained a few hours ago, and while the pain had subsided it still felt like it wasn't going to heal. There was no proof that it wasn't healing, and Twilight knew the reasons for thinking so lay entirely in her head, but the simple fact of the matter was that she had things to do, and the injury was in her way.

"Legs and wings," Twilight said to herself. "Why is it always the legs and wings?"

"Because you're fifty percent legs and wings?" Nightmare said back. "The fact is that leg and wing injuries tend to be more noticeable because they ruin your mobility."

"I've had three legs before now, so I can handle it."

"Doesn't mean it isn't annoying."

Twilight didn't argue with that, because it was undeniably true. Instead she adjusted the binding she'd wrapped around it to stop it looking like she'd been ravaged by a bear, and sat back to watch as the griffons flew in a few dozen at a time to apply the Kuua to themselves. Apart from that, the bazaar seemed quiet.

"Maybe you should fight from the air if it's that much of a problem."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the suggestion, "You know as well as I do that this battle is going to take us indoors. I've already subtly kept Rainbow and the others from it, so I can hardly exempt myself as well."

"Moonbutt and Lovebutt are getting a free pass after fighting Celestia, so why aren't you?"

Twilight laughed through her nose at the nicknames, but also at the idea of not fighting. She wasn't sure she could actually sit back and not fight. The idea felt like too foreign a concept to even begin getting her head around.

"You know I can't do that."

"I know you won't do that, which isn't the same thing."

Twilight turned slightly to face the grey unicorn that was Nightmare, sat leaning against a wall with her axe leaning next to her. "There's nothing making you fight, and I refuse to believe you're doing it purely to fight yaks. Really not sure why you're so into that anyway."

"Fighting and dominating things larger than myself? Call it a complex if you want. As for why I'm fighting at all, you know I have a vested interest in seeing Faust defeated. She made me, so I have plenty of reason to suspect that she can maybe unmake me. That, and you just kind of assumed my help."

"Actually I'm pretty sure you offered it."

"Really? That doesn't sound like me."

Twilight rolled her eyes again, a playful smile creeping over her face. Bizarre as it felt to say, she was feeling strangely relaxed here, even though she was injured, and preparing for another attack.

She was about to comment on it when Commander Lurin starting hollering orders to his griffons. That had to mean that the griffons were all daubed with Kuua, and that also meant it was time to get things started. Several griffons were taking off with the vats of Kuua, transporting them to Griffonia the old fashioned way since it couldn't be teleported.

Twilight wandered over to Commander Lurin and Mistress Mjuzi, "Is it time?"

"Almost," the Mistress replied. "I've taken the liberty of setting up some contingency plans in the event that Faust should arrive with another army. Mistress Tazama would take the Council somewhere hidden outside of the city, along with the rest of the Night Maidens, and there are evacuation plans for civilians, should we need it."

"I've also given my griffons orders to retreat back to Griffonia should any of that come to pass," Lurin added quickly, before Twilight could say anything. "I will not see their lives wasted fighting something they cannot beat."

"Oh no, I agree. I'm starting to think I should've spent this time getting Luna and Cadence to safety. Uh..." Twilight stopped and looked blankly, suddenly extremely aware that she had no idea what alias Nightmare was going as. Rather than look like a twit by asking, Twilight barrelled on and hoped no one noticed, and that Nightmare didn't call her on it. "If things don't go as we hope, can you get to Luna and Cadence and get them through the portal?"

Nightmare shrugged, "Sure, but we have a small problem with you and Trixie since you can't go through the portal wearing the Kuua. You might want to wash that stuff off."

Twilight looked down at herself and groaned. She was starting to wish she'd never put this bloody stuff on. Can't teleport, can't go through portals... the irritations never seemed to end.

"Good call." Twilight shouted an instruction at Trixie to wash the Kuua off, growing insistent as Trixie stared at her like she'd grown an extra horn. Trixie eventually complied, seeming no less confused, while Twilight started to wash the Kuua off herself.

"Will you be joining us on the front?" Lurin asked once Twilight was done.

"That's the plan. I'd be happier if Luna was here as well, but between Trixie, myself, and-" Twilight cursed herself as she still didn't know Nightmare's nom de guerre. "-the grey one," she said lamely, "we should be just fine."

"Very well. We shall attack at your signal."

Twilight nodded and waited for Lurin to depart, then waited more as Trixie finished replacing her armour after washing the Kuua off. "Time to go," she said to both Trixie and Nightmare. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get on to making the oubliette and ending this war."

"Was that optimism?" Trixie asked teasingly. "That sounded like optimism."

"Sounded more like practicality to me," said Nightmare.

The Mareitanians had done their best to barricade the various routes into the part of the city they held, hoping to cover what their shields could not. Piled up bits of wood and carts and whatever else they could find wasn't that much of a deterrent though, not if you could fly, or had magic.

Twilight spent a moment planning her attack. There were two overturned carts blocking the street, piled up with whatever those behind it could find. It wouldn't take a particularly complex amount of spell work to reduce it to splinters, but the Mareitanians had to have planned for that, wherever she decided to breach their defences.

Twilight decided to just go with it. If she got the spell to destroy the barricade ready, told Trixie to signal the attack, then got Nightmare to shield them from the initial counterattack from the Mareitanians, they should be just fine.

"Alright," she said, forming the equivalent of a battering ram on her horn. "Trixie, on my mark, launch a flare. Nightmare, once the barricade is down, shield us from their first volley. Okay?" Twilight waited until she had at least a nod from both of them. "Right... go!"

Twilight released the spell on her horn as Trixie fired a flare into the sky. The calls of griffons could be heard briefly before the roiling mass of telekinetic energy slammed into the barricade, smashing it apart. A shield from Nightmare sprung up as the Mareitanians returned fire, protecting them from the first rain of arrows. The magic coming from the Adepts would be continuous though, so there was nothing for it but to run in.

Twilight went first, a shield protecting her as she sprinted for the line of Mareitanians. She didn't stop as she reached them, instead using the shield to barge into their midst, and expanding it in a burst of energy that sent the ponies nearest to her tumbling away.

The rest of them had run up in that time, and bursts of magic from Trixie and Nightmare cut even deeper into the gap Twilight had forced. Things got even better when the griffons arrived. They swooped down, either firing the crossbows held in their claws, or directly tackling ponies, knocking them down and finishing them off with spears and swords. A group of griffons swarmed a yak, stabbing it repeatedly until it was brought down, unable to do much about its winged attackers.

Just that initial attack had the Mareitanians reeling. They tried to hold, trying to keep to the open so that their Adepts were more effective, but as the zebras started running into close range to join the attack, and with all but Twilight, Trixie, and Nightmare covered in Kuua, their advantage was quickly rendered null. Drawing swords, they started to pull back while the rest tried to hold, supported mostly by the yaks, who couldn't cope with being attacked from above.

Twilight darted forward, slamming Swordy hilt deep into the side of a yak as he bore down on a cluster of zebra. He didn't go down immediately, but as a griffon slammed into his side, opposite to the one Twilight was on, he fell, right over onto where Twilight was.

Twilight held the body in her magic, pulling Swordy free and walking away while directing a glare at the griffon, before letting the yak fall completely. She supposed she should expect things like that. The griffons weren't used to fighting alongside ground bound allies, so probably hadn't thought about how to fight without endangering them as well. She figured she ought to be thankful that the ones they were fighting were so distinctive from the zebras, as it would significantly lessen the chance of accidents.

Twilight twitched an ear as shouts to fall back started to come from the Mareitanian side of the battle. This was only one part of the fight, but hopefully the order to fall back also counted for the rest of the city, where Ember was leading an attack to the north, while the southern assault was having to make do being covered from above by Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts. The occasional roar of thunder gave Twilight hope that it was working for now.

The square emptied of enemy soldiers as they pulled back into the streets and buildings where the zebras would have a much harder time rooting them out. There was no missing the irony of the Mareitanians using the zebras own tactics against from, but given their predilection for shields, it would be so much harder to fight them.

"Nightmare, head south to reinforce their assault, because I don't want the Wonderbolts fighting indoors."

Nightmare nodded and ran off, leaving Twilight with a short moment of relative quiet before the second stage of their assault started. A second stage that promised to last a lot longer, and be a lot more painful, than the first.

"Standing in the open while distracting herself with thinking," Trixie sang. "Classic Twilight."

"There's not a whole lot to think about here."

"Exactly, so less thinking, more doing."

Twilight ignored Trixie and waited. Their attack had faltered, understandably so, because no one wanted to be the first to run into the narrow streets beyond the square, or into a building. It would be suicide. Unfortunately this kind of assault always had an undertone of suicide to it, so that was hardly avoidable. The least she could do was make herself the main target.

"Alright, Trixie, with me." Twilight made her way to the rear side of the square where the Mareitanians had retreated to, and swore she could feel at least a dozen crossbows and horns pointed at her out of various windows. She could actually see at least three.

Twilight ground a hoof, her leg aching like crazy now that she had the time to register the sensation. Running anywhere seemed like a bad idea with the injury slowing her down, so a slightly more cautious approach was needed. An approach that Trixie held no concern for as she smashed her way through a wall.

"What?" she asked when she saw the way Twilight was looking at her. "If you don't want to go up the main path, make a new one."

For the shortest moment, Twilight almost told Trixie to not be so daft. Almost. "Alright, if I draw their fire up the street, can you catch them by surprise by doing what you're doing?"

"That's the plan."

Twilight started creeping up the street, keeping a shield up as she went. Arrows pinged off the bubble, while the occasional bolt of magic made a far greater impact. She returned fire at those she could see attacking her, but there was nothing much really happening. Not until a yak smashed its way out through a door, tearing the frame off with its horns as it went straight for Twilight.

Twilight teleported to the side as the yak ran straight into the building opposite. A powerful beam of magic knocked it off its hooves, sending it flying up the street to crash through the wall of another building. Twilight could see the shocked expression of the ponies sheltering within.

For some reason that got the Mareitanians to act, and instead of holding off potshots, Twilight found herself at the center of a barrage of arrows and magic. A crunch from the building next door ended some of it as Trixie put an end to those ponies within, but it was hardly enough.

Twilight teleported her way into one of the buildings next to her, also filled with Mareitanians who seemed confused about where their target had gone to. It took them far too long to realise it was behind them, and when Twilight killed one with Swordy, the rest made a quick decision to exit into the street, choosing to try their odds with the griffons rather than keep fighting.

Twilight froze, the hairs on the back of her neck rising up as she felt something. She had no idea what it was, or where it was coming from, but she could feel it, like a change in the very texture of the air.

Twilight tried to shake the feeling off, but it persisted in taunting her even as she poked her head out of the door of the building. A half dozen ponies were laying dead in the street, along with a griffon, who had overplayed her claw in attacking them. Trixie was waving at her from the building opposite, which Twilight was about to return when a horn sounded from deep within the Mareitanians territory.

"They can't be falling back already, can they?" Twilight asked out loud as Trixie hopped out of her cover to fire her magic after the Mareitanians now in full retreat. Above them the griffons started to give chase, swooping down into the narrow streets to attack whatever they could get.

"I don't think so," said Trixie. "Not unless Ember or Nightmare did something really good."

"Maybe. Get to Mistress Mjuzi and tell her to hold her zebras back while I go to investigate."

Twilight took wing, quickly rising up above the city. Rainbow and her friends were also up there, having decided to find out themselves what was going on. Twilight was quickly spotted, and within a couple of seconds Rainbow was in her face, shouting.

"Faust's here!"

"Shit," Twilight said quietly as that thing they hoped wouldn't happen, happened. "Where is she?"

"She's over there," Rainbow pointed towards a cluster of houses around a small courtyard, which would be difficult to attack from the air. "I think she's making some kind of portal."

"What makes you think that?"

Rainbow flailed her hooves for a second, "It's a big swirly magic thing! What am I supposed to think it was? A giant laundry spell?"

"Okay, I'm sorry, just take me to it."

Twilight followed after Rainbow to where Lightning and Vapor were circling. They weren't directly above where Faust was, which was a sensible idea in Twilight's opinion, but they were at a point that gave them the best possible angle to see between the houses.

As Rainbow had said, there was a big swirly magic thing that did at least put Twilight in mind of a portal, except this one was slightly asymmetrical, and gave off wisps of magic that ran up the sides of the surrounding buildings. They weren't doing any damage, but they concerned Twilight all the same. That portal seemed to be far from stable, and the power coming off it suggested that it had enough power to reach the moon and back. Far more than it needed to reach Equestria.

As they watched, Faust stepped into view. Her horn glowed brightly, and the portal changed, growing more stable as ponies started running into it. Why had Faust needed to stabilise it to work? None of this was adding up, and the feeling Twilight had about it only got worse the longer she watched.

"Did you see her performing any kind of containment for that portal?" Twilight asked, an idea coming to her that filled her with dread.

"Not that we know what that would look like," Lightning said slowly, "but she had that thing going already by the time we got here. It was kind of smaller then though."

"So you didn't see her make any preparations?"

Lightning shook her head, "No, none."

"Get to Mistress Mjuzi and tell her to start evacuating the city, then tell the Commander to get his griffons to help, and then get out of here."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it! Rainbow, you get to Nightmare and tell her to take Luna and Cadence back to the Retreat. Vapor, find Trixie and tell her to get to the Retreat as well, then tell Ember to do the same. I'm-"

"Twilight!" Rainbow shouted, stopping Twilight dead in her tracks. "What is happening?"

Twilight thrust a hoof towards the portal, "That is an overpowered, unstable, portal with zero containment to control it. While Faust is holding it it's fine, but once she stops, and if she doesn't close it, it will draw in every bit of magic around, growing in power until it collapses. When it does it'll expel every bit of power it has in a wave of destruction that could, and probably will, wipe Zanzebra off the face of the world!"

Rainbow's jaw hung open, but she quickly pulled it shut with a click. "Right, so we should probably go tell them to start evacuating the city."

"Yes! Thank you!"

Twilight growled as the three pegasi flew off, then went back to observing the portal. Ponies and yaks were still passing through it, and Twilight almost regretted giving the order to hang back. There were far larger priorities though, and she supposed that giving a quick explanation to the Wonderbolts would at least stop everyone standing around asking why they're evacuating.

Lightning stood, watching the blank faces of all those that knew about as much about magic as she did. It was nice of Twilight to take the ten necessary seconds needed to explain that much, but it was the kind of explanation that needed a background in magic to really understand the implications of. Lightning had simplified it for herself to the point that there was a bad portal that was going to go boom and take the city with it.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Evacuate the city!"

"Is there time?" Mistress Mjuzi asked. "How long will we have before the port collapses after Faust stops holding it? Hours? Minutes? Seconds?"

"I don't know, but the fact that Twilight said to evacuate rather than run for our lives makes me think we have a bit of time. Time that you're wasting!"

"Right, of course. Mtafuta! Mlinzi! Get to the Council and get them out of here! Pascha, get to the triage and tell them to start moving those they can. Leave those that can't move for the griffons to transport. With your permission of course, Commander Lurin."

"I'll take care of all the wounded if you concentrate on getting the civilians out," Lurin offered, getting a sharp nod from Mjuzi. He quickly took off, quickly delivering orders to his soldiers via screeches and roars. The sound sent chills down Lightning's back.

"Go with him. Make sure your princesses get out safely."

It took Lightning a moment to realise that those words had been directed at her, and she gave the Mistress a salute as Trixie ran past, following Twilight's order for her to the letter. Maybe even screaming a little as she did. Vapor arrived seconds later, and Lightning grabbed her, dragging her along towards where the princesses were.

"Why would Faust do this?" Vapor asked. "This is insane even for her! Is this because of what happened to Celestia?"

"Think about it, Vapor, all the princesses are here, as well as the rest of us. We beat Celestia, just, and near defeated her army. If she could take all of us out in one go, do you think she'd hesitate long to do it? She might hate herself for it, but she'd probably guarantee her victory by doing so."

"That's- That's- I don't even have words for that!"

"I know, now go find Ember and tell her to go get out of here!"

Lightning watched for less than a second as Vapor sped off, then flew for the hospital as fast as she could. Everything was in a mess of barely organised chaos when she got there, and even though the griffons were there to help it wasn't hard to see the fear they instilled in a lot of the zebras as they grabbed stretchers to carry the most injured to safety.

Lightning weaved through them as quickly as she could to reach the back room where Luna and Cadence were. A grey unicorn was there already, and Lightning almost attacked until she remembered it was Nightmare, and not a Mareitanian.

"You!" Nightmare said, choosing to ignore that Lightning had started going for her blades. "Help support Cadence while I carry Luna. She can walk with help."

"There's no chance we can walk out there," Lightning said quickly. "There's barely room to stand. Why didn't you just bring the mirror here?"

Nightmare went quiet for a moment. "I'd be less insulted if you were a unicorn telling me that, rather than a pegasus."

"Nightmare!"

Nightmare pointed her horn at the wall and blew a sizable hole in it, then heaved Luna off her bed and onto her back, stopping with a growl as Luna's legs dragged on the ground. "Fuck it," she said, returning to her usual form and the height it gave her. "Come on."

"Should you really be seen like that?" Cadence asked.

"Does it really matter right now? Zanzebra is about to explode, and I don't want to be in it when that happens! I doubt you do either." Nightmare stepped out through the hole, manoeuvring carefully to not catch Luna on the edge, then stopped as a large number of zebras stared at her. "What?" she asked. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

Zebras started screaming and running, which was totally fine since that's what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. They also gave her a wide berth, which was useful as they made their way to the warehouse the Council had been in, as that's where the portal to the Retreat had been put.

"Need a claw?"

All of them, except the still unconscious Luna, looked up to see Ember above them, flying in the company of Rainbow and Vapor. She landed next to Cadence and took over from Lightning, who had been struggling against the larger mare.

"Not tempted to go tackle Faust?" Nightmare asked with a grin.

"After what I did to her daughter? Heck no. I'm fine with getting out of here."

With the extra escort of a dragon, they made quick time to the portal, quickly passing through to the relative safety it offered. Luna was quickly dragged through to the observation area and dumped, much to the surprise of Moondancer, Mayfly, and Daring. Flurry just burbled happily because her mother was back.

Daring was the first to recover, "What the hell happened?"

"Bad things, and good things," Nightmare said back, turning Luna onto her side and arranging her into something that looked reasonably comfortable. "Currently Zanzebra is set to explode, so we decided it'd be safer here."

"What is that supposed to mean? Where's Twilight? And Trixie, for that matter."

"And what about the portal?" Starsy enquired. "I hope you didn't leave it somewhere it could be destroyed."

"Ah," Nightmare said. "Uh, Rainbow, could you-"

"On it!"

Rainbow raced back out through the portal, and grabbed it in her legs to carry. She made for the exit, but stopped as she heard her name being shouted.

"Don't take the fucking portal away!"

Rainbow looped and flew back towards Trixie, lowering the portal in her hooves so its bottom was nearly touching the ground. "Jump!"

"What?"

"Jump!"

With a cry Trixie jumped in through the portal, and Rainbow lifted it back up close to her and made for the sky, heading in the direction the evacuees were fleeing. There was still too many in the city, and Rainbow hoped they had the time to escape. The glow in the distance suggested otherwise.

Twilight had been able to do little more than watch while Faust was there. The soldiers were still running out of the surrounding city, but what had once been a flow was now little more than a trickle. The time was coming that Faust would leave, triggering the collapse of the portal, if that was her plan.

Twilight could tell the evacuation was in progress, and Faust had to know it too. This was a city with tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of zebras living in it. They simply couldn't all get out that fast. Twilight couldn't for the life of her figure out how Faust could bring herself to do this. Was an attempt to kill Luna, Cadence, and herself worth it in Faust's mind? Or was this an unwanted byproduct of a hastily slapped together portal made to save her soldiers?

Twilight kept watching as the last of the soldiers fled through the portal, but where there might have been elation at them being gone, Twilight only felt sick. Faust would leave now, and without her to hold the portal it would start to decay.
Twilight froze like a deer in lamplight as Faust looked straight at her with an expression that lay somewhere between sorrow and determination. She held it for a couple of seconds, then walked through the portal. As soon as she was gone the portal started to distort.

Twilight appeared in front of the portal with a flash, her magic quickly probing it to see how it worked, and how she could fix it. If she could fix it that was. The power it exuded was beyond what Twilight could hope to control, and was yet another example of Faust's outdated methods, using raw power to compensate for a lack of finesse.

Twilight backed up a step as a bolt of pure energy struck a wall, making the part it hit vanish. Or so Twilight thought, but she quickly changed her mind as a chunk of half molten masonry tumbled out of the portal's mouth. From that Twilight could only conclude that the connection to the portal at the other end had been severed, leaving the portal here trying to connect with something else.

Twilight put aside her fear and continued probing the portal, barely even shrieking as it spat out half the remains of a well cooked pony at her. To be honest she wasn't really learning anything. She barely even recognised the magic it was comprised of, let alone found any answers. It was too powerful for her to control, too unrecognisable for her to figure out how to close, and too unstable to stop drawing in magic. There might be something she could do though. If she could bleed the power off it faster than it was drawing it in, she could shrink the portal, slow its degradation, and lessen the damage when it collapsed.

Twilight swallowed and delved her magic into the swirling mass of near pure energy before her, hoping to peel energy off it like it were wood on a lathe. A fountain of energy fountained off its edge, drifting gently into the air with an almost ephemeral quality that was beautiful up until you saw whatever it touched get turned to molten slag.

Twilight tried again, trying to direct the energy upwards, but it seemed determined to ground itself on something, and was probably less harmful doing so. That meant little to Twilight though, who felt like little more than a gnat in front of a blowtorch as the portal energy burned through masonry like it was tissue paper. If she got this wrong, there wouldn't be enough of her left to fill a matchbox.

Time seemed to lose meaning as Twilight kept working at it, but she was aware enough to know that time had to be running out. The portal was little more than a lopsided tear now, smaller than when it started, but still sucking in power faster as it neared collapse faster than Twilight could leech it off. All she could do now was hope that she'd done enough for the zebras, the griffons, and her friends to get away.

She held it a bit longer anyway, even as the portal started spitting out more detritus at her, still trying to form a connection with something as it died, gurgling like the plughole of gods. It was definitely time to go though, before Twilight ran out of even the few seconds she needed to fly away.

Twilight teleported up, and spent only a second or two observing the portal as it began the final stages of its collapse into a single point of energy that would then explode into something powerful enough to level a mountain if put inside one. And Faust used it to teleport soldiers. It'd be funny if it weren't so terrifying.

Twilight flew as fast as she could, knowing that she should've left sooner. The portal was drawing power rapidly now, as well as everything else it could, right up until Twilight felt herself go motionless, her flight negated by the draw of the portal. It only lasted a second, then a burst of energy flung her through the air, away from the rising bubble of destruction as the magic of the portal was released in one.

Twilight screamed as she lost a battle with gravity, and as she shielded herself to crash through the side of a building. Struggling to remain conscious after the impact, she could only hope that she'd been thrown far enough away to avoid destruction. As agony burned away her consciousness and her vision blacked out, she had the unsettling feeling she really wasn't.

Author's Notes:

And how do we start the new year? With spells of mass destruction. How else? Hopefully we should be back to uninterrupted updates now, so keep watching this space.

Totally failed to think of a chapter name this time.