This was it, the very thing that Twilight had been waiting to do for a long time; getting her friends back. That wasn't to say she wasn't also incredibly worried, and even feeling a little sick with it, but this was it, it was finally happening. About damned time.

Twilight stopped as her cutie marks tickled. That wasn't a thing they were particularly prone to doing, so it was incredibly noticeable. Judging by the look on Rainbow's face, she wasn't the only one that felt it. The feeling passed just as suddenly as it had arrived, but left behind the feeling that something had changed. She didn't feel any different so she had no idea what, but something was different.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Discord," Twilight said to herself as that was the only thing she could think of that could possibly be behind this.

"Talking to yourself is definitely a good sign," Trixie said from beside Twilight. "Everybody chill, Twilight's communing with the spirits, and she totally has this."

"Trixie!" Twilight hissed, embarrassed even though no one else there had really been listening. "Could you not? Please?"

"Relax, Twilight! It's a party! And all your friends are invited. I think we can forgive a little paranoid muttering in this case, just once."

"So gracious." Twilight breathed in a deep breath and sighed it out. Trixie was right in a way, not with what she actually said, but more in her implied message that it was okay to be worked up. In fact it was understandable. At least Twilight hoped that's what Trixie implied, otherwise it was actually just blatant teasing.

There were better things to think about. Much better. Ponyville was close now, and the time was rapidly approaching. The griffons were tightening up their formations, the airships were slowing their speed to not overshoot the town, and Trixie was humming a tune as she put her armour on. They were ready.

"Alright, helmsgriff, try to keep the airship near the town, and have someone signal the others to do the same. Commander Lurin, have your soldiers clear around the town perimeter, but make sure they don't fly into the town itself because of the magic cage. I can't even begin to guess if the Kuua would save them from that."

"And if they hold the prisoners hostage?" Lurin asked back.

"Then I'll save the important ones, but we'll probably have to wait until the cage is down so your soldiers can get in and clear up." Twilight didn't bother saying that she had no idea how to do that. Some things didn't need to be said.
Both griffons gave her a salute, leaving her alone with Trixie, Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor."

"I can't believe this is really happening!" Rainbow said ecstatically. She was almost vibrating with excitement, and had been since they set off that morning. "We're finally getting our friends back! And the other Wonderbolts! And loads of others!"

"I'm aware, Rainbow," Twilight said sarcastically, but with a smile. "Don't get too carried away though, because we need this to go perfectly."

"Don't you worry about us. You should be worried about taking care of that Starlight Glimmer, and getting all the cutie marks back."

"I know," Twilight said, although there was no way she could possibly forget. Besides being a major part of the mission here, there was also the fact that Twilight had been anticipating her confrontation with Starlight Glimmer for some time. Mostly because she honestly had no idea how it was going to go. Would they fight? Or would Starlight be reasonable? Only time would tell, and there wasn't much of that to go around.

"Yoo-hoo, Equestria to Twilight!" Trixie waved a hoof in front of Twilight's eyes as the alicorn fazed out, imagining how things would go. "And we've lost her." Trixie shrugged and turned to the three Wonderbolts, "So what was it you three were doing again?"

"Prepping the pegasi to fly," Lightning said with a shrug. She pulled several pairs of scissors out of a pocket with her wing tips, "Never thought I'd fly into battle with one of these."

"What the heck are those for?"

"These are if we need to trim some feathers back into shape. Not as good as a proper preening, but we don't exactly have time for fancy work."

"Hmm, fair enough. I still think their wings are going to be too atrophied to fly, but who cares what the unicorn thinks? I mean, what could I possibly know about wings?"

"We're aware," Lightning told her, "but there's not really much we can do when the airships are already full of non-fliers, as well as a bunch of carts and whatever the griffons could scrape together."

"Besides," Rainbow said, flicking her tail irritably, "you have nothing to complain about when your job's so easy. I can't believe you're going to be the one finding mine and Twilight's friends and getting them out of here."

Trixie scoffed in mock offense, "Easy? I have to find like... thirty ponies out of a few thousand! How is that easy? Especially since I don't know who most of them are."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Find Pinkie and stand in the entrance. She'll do pretty much all the work for you."

Trixie held the tip of a hoof right up under Rainbow's nose, "Don't undermine how hard my job is."

"Uh-huh."

"One minute 'til go time people!"

The shout from Commander Lurin brought Twilight out of her speculations, which was branching into some very unlikely directions by then. A battle spanning through backwards through time seemed unlikely. Twilight wasn't even sure why she thought of it.

"Oh good, you're back," Trixie said as Twilight blinked a few times. "Enjoy your holiday?"

"I could've done with another week." Twilight blinked a few more times and shook her head free of her distracting thoughts. "Anyway, let's get going. Good luck you three," she said to Rainbow and the others, "I'll see you on the ground once we're done freaking out a lot of ponies with a griffon invasion."

"Sure!" Rainbow gave Twilight a quick and messy salute, "Kick that cutie mark stealing cunt once for me, 'kay?"

"Sure," Twilight said noncommittally as the three Wonderbolts flew off. There was no point saying that she might not have to kick Starlight's ass at all. "Come on, Trixie." Twilight took flight and grabbed Trixie around the chest, "Let's go and do something good."

"Yep. I can't wait to see the look on Octavia's face when she sees me rescuing her."

"I'm sure she'll be more than happy to see you."

"I know." Trixie went quiet for a moment as they flew out over the edge of the airship, "That's what I'm hoping for, to the point that I'm going to do my best to avoid dark magic today. She won't be rolling her eyes at me today."

Twilight smiled because that was kind of cute in a way. It was nice that Trixie wanted to improve her friends' opinion of her, even if it was a poor time, and not even necessary really. They all knew Trixie's heart was more or less in the right place. Probably.

"Go-go-go!"

Twilight dived as Commander Lurin signalled the attack, using a voice far better suited to shouting than hers. She felt Trixie tense as they rapidly descended, and her ears lay flat against her head. Clearly she still wasn't entirely on board with flying yet.

Twilight flared her wings as the ground came closer, pulling up less than a dozen meters above the hard and terminally-fatal-at-speed earth. She followed her forwards momentum towards the large gate that demarked the only entrance into the Ponyville prison, her horn glowing with a prepared attack as they came up to the few hundred guards waiting there, hoping to repel the invaders after having ample time to prepare. Unfortunately that meant most were inside the gates under the protection of the magical cage.

Twilight was about to question why there were any outside the cage at all when a glint of sun on steel caught her eye, and she quickly dodged as the first volley of chained nets flew towards her and the griffons. There were more than a few squawks of pain and surprise from behind her, but they pressed on as she put up a shield to block as many shots as she could.

Within seconds after that they were on the enemy, and both Twilight and Trixie fired spell after spell at them as the griffons swept in to attack. Their net launchers no longer being useful, the defenders swapped to crossbows and what spells they had, but it was clear they knew it was a losing battle as they retreated back through the gate to safety.

Twilight slowed and dropped Trixie to the ground so they could both clear out as many as they could. A strong shield over the gate stopped them from retreating, and Twilight kept on attacking them from the air while Trixie ran in, spell after spell leaping off her horn as she thinned their numbers.

Griffon calls filled the air as they recovered from the initial attack, and they flew in to attack. Some fell to arrows fired in short time they gave the defenders, but in the blink of an eye they were in mêlée range, fighting sword to sword and claw to hoof.

Twilight dropped to the ground, her horn staying busy as she made sure that the griffons had the least amount of casualties possible. Some of the ponies there tried to attack her, but before they could get close, or she could summon Swordy, a quartet of pink magic bolts cut them down.

"You could've dropped me a little closer," Trixie complained as she ran up to Twilight, covering her so she could maintain the shield over the gate easier. "I wasn't told I'd be sprinting today. Or sweating."

"So sorry," Twilight chuckled, "I didn't realise you'd forgotten what this sort of thing involved."

"I'm just saying, I'm here to fight, not run."

"Yeah, yeah."

Standing together, Twilight and Trixie kept shooting their magic, but within seconds there were too many griffons to get a clear shot. Not long after that the fight was over, and Twilight had to wonder if that had something to do with the Mareitanians having never fought highly trained Griffonian soldiers. They'd taken some losses, yes, but the griffons hadn't wavered, and had taken the outside of the gate with swift and brutal force, even as many of them spread out to check there weren't any more soldiers around the outside of Ponyville.

"Okay, Trixie, we have to knock the cage out."

"And how are we doing that?"

This was where Twilight wished she'd spent more time observing how it worked the last time she was here. Sure she'd had a quick demonstration of what it did, but she hadn't put any thought into it past that. That said, there were poles set up around the outside of Ponyville, making up part of the fence. On top of these poles sat a hefty purple gem that crackled with energy. If they weren't part of the cage, well, just what the hell were they for? At any rate, they appeared to be designed to prevent tampering from inside the prison, but not so much outside.

"Try pulling one of those crystals off its pole," Twilight suggested to Trixie, pointing at the pole just to the left of the entrance.

"What? Why me? Why don't you do it, little miss immortal?"

"I'm pretty sure it won't kill you."

"Pretty sure is not totally sure, so you do it."

"Okay, fine, don't do the fun experimental things." Twilight walked up to the pole and grabbed the crystal in her magic, which it did not seem to like as it started to violently crackle. That only got worse as Twilight tried to remove it.

"Put your horn into it, Twilight."

"You just make sure those guards inside don't shoot you," Twilight said back. She raised the crystal out of its cradle, fighting against a resistance that wanted to keep it in its place. She pulled away, pulling with her hooves as much as with her horn. The tortured scream of a spell literally being torn apart filled the air, and the cage itself lit up, showing itself as Twilight finally pulled the crystal free.

"Easy as pie," Twilight said, her hair all standing on end as the crystal tried to find something to connect with. Even free of the cage Twilight could feel it pulling, and decided that the best way to deal with it was to destroy it. Finding the nearest rock, she slammed the crystal down as hard as she could, destroying it with a violent burst of flames and lightning.

"Oh yeah, that definitely looked safe. Problem is-" Trixie gestured with her head towards the sky over Ponyville, and the angry, writhing mass of purple lightning over it, "-I think you made it worse."

"It's trying to make up what it's lost, but I don't think it was designed for that. If we keep removing crystals it'll get too weak to maintain itself. I'll keep going this way, while you go right. Commander Lurin, as soon as this cage is down I want your griffons in there and taking care of the soldiers."

Twilight waited until she got a salute from Lurin, and a weary nod from Trixie, and moved on to the next pole. It was the same process again, with her having to pull the crystal free of the cage with considerable force, but each subsequent one got easier to do. By the time the griffons were circling around overhead she was pulling them free with relative ease.
Several poles later, the cage was going critical. Sections of it were collapsing and reforming, and the air sang with the volatile crackle of energy. Pulling one more free, the cage suddenly retracted, tearing and sinking to the ground in a way that reminded Twilight quite a bit of molten cheese for some reason. An apt analogy since she hated this prison almost as much as she did cheese.

The shield pulled back, skittering over the ground in a fairly harmless way until it finally snapped back to the last remaining poles, covering only a slice of the prison opposite the gate. That would have to do, and the griffons certainly seemed to think so as they roared their battle cries and dove into the confines of Ponyville, quickly taking out what soldiers were stupid enough to be out in the open.

Now that the way into Ponyville was open, the griffons would soon take care of the soldiers and start rounding up the prisoners for evacuation. That meant it had come to the time for Twilight to carry out her one specific task. Confronting Starlight Glimmer.

"Here goes."

The dark, grey stone tower of Ponyville's warden was fairly imposing, and lay in complete contrast to the rest of Ponyville, if you ignored the fence and other less cheerful things. It had none of the charm required of any building in Equestria really, and seemed more like the place you'd find some dark magic user living in fortified solitude. The kind of place where if ponies went missing, this would be the first place you think of, and yet the last place you'd look through reputation alone.

That was one of two thoughts occupying Twilight's head as she stood at the base of it, weighing up whether it was worth the effort of going in when she could probably knock the tower down without too much effort. The other thought was wondering why Starlight Glimmer hadn't shown herself yet? Was she waiting for Twilight to walk into a trap, or was she in fact not there at all? Unfortunately there was only one way to find out.

The door into the top heavy tower wasn't very big all things considered, being roughly the same size as the stable door into the Golden Oaks library before Tirek reduced it to a smouldering wreck. It wasn't quite so cute a door as that though, with its dark oak and iron studs. It was also unlocked, which couldn't possibly mean anything good.

Inside led to a short hall that was lit by a single lamp, and on to a spiral staircase that Twilight could only see a short part of. The stairs wasn't the interesting part though. It was the shelves that lined the stone parallel to the stairs that interested her, filled as they were with glass jars containing the cutie marks of ponies. More than she could easily count.

Twilight had to stare at that for a while. How could she not? It was too bizarre to ignore, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of cutie marks floating inside little glass prisons. The very talents and being of what made ponies themselves, kept isolated here after being taken by force.

Twilight felt herself getting riled up. It was easy to blame Starlight Glimmer for this travesty, but she wasn't the one holding the reins in this situation. Sure she'd gone along with it all, probably out of justifiable fear, but that shouldn't be an excuse to do nothing.

"Fucking hell, how far do these stairs go?" Twilight asked after a while. It felt like she'd been climbing stairs for ages. "It's like Sombra's trap all over again." An exaggeration, but it felt true enough.

Eventually, through perseverance, she made it to the top of the stairs to another door. Like the last one it was unlocked, and like the last Twilight walked through with little hesitation. She found herself in what seemed to be a house crossed with a mad scientist's laboratory, made stranger for the number of kites hanging from the rafters.

Twilight spared all that only a cursory glance, because what she was really waiting for was sat in the middle of the floor, looking directly at Twilight with an expression that ranged from somewhere between foolish bravery and bladder emptying fear.

"I knew you'd come."

"No kidding?" Twilight said lightly, sounding a lot more playful than she felt. "Was the first clue the two thousand griffons flying around outside? Or was it the fact that you've held my friends prisoner here for months that tipped you off?"

"That's not my fault!" Starlight protested, jumping to her hooves. "If Fleur de Lis and Shining Armour had taken me with them like I'd asked, none of this would've happened!"

"After what you did? I'm surprised they didn't kick you on the way out!"

"They might as well have! I regret what I did, okay? I'm sorry! I've had plenty of time to think about how wrong I was, and I admit that I did get it wrong. But this?" Starlight gestured around the inside of her tower, "This was as far from what I wanted back then as you could get! I wanted ponies to be equal, but this is forcing ponies to be unequal." Starlight slumped, her ears looking off to the side as her ears went flat. "I hate this."

"Then release all the cutie marks you took, and I'll consider that you're maybe being honest with me."

"Alright, fine, take them. I don't want them, and I never did. Faust forced me to do this. If I could ask you to wait a bit though, so you can hear me out on something, I'd-"

"Wait? Are fucking kidding me?" Twilight summoned Swordy as she stamped towards Starlight, the unicorn's eyes going wide with fear as she scrabbled backwards until she hit a table. She squeezed her eyes shut with fear as the blade was brought up under her neck and held there.

"Please, I'm sorry!" Starlight whimpered, using her magic to try and force the blade down, but finding that it was like trying to grab an eel covered in soap.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the downward pressure being exerted on Swordy. Since she should technically be the only one able to control him, either Starlight had a magical signature similar to her own, or Starlight was in fact no pushover when it came to magic.

"If you keep trying to push that down I'm going to have to start pushing up, and I guarantee you won't enjoy that."

"I only wanted to tell you my idea! I don't know why you're trying to kill me!" Starlight tried to teleport, but couldn't as her horn tingled. Clearly Twilight was suppressing that too, which only made Starlight feel more helpless. She started to cry, but stayed still before she accidentally cut her own throat. She'd heard enough about the blade under her neck to know it could bisect her without slowing down, so her squishy throat stood no chance.

"I have been waiting to save my friends for over a year now! I am sick of waiting! Here I am on the very cusp of getting them back, and you want me to wait more!"

"I only wanted to tell you my idea! I wasn't trying to stop you getting your friends back, I promise! Please..."

Twilight took a deep breath and lowered Swordy a little. She knew she'd overreacted, not that she cared overmuch that she had, but Starlight was shaking and in tears, and it was mildly impressive that she hadn't soiled herself. It was at least obvious that she wasn't hindering Twilight out of some malicious intent.

"Okay, fine, what idea?"

Starlight sniffed hard and wiped her eyes with the back of a shaking hoof. "My idea to stop Faust, to stop all of this from ever happening."

Twilight raised Swordy a little as Starlight lit her horn, but lowered it again as she grabbed a scroll off the table and unrolled it in front of Twilight. Twilight squinted at it, then stepped back as she recognised it as Starswirl's time spell. She'd had a run in with that before, even if this one seemed to have been heavily modified.

"What are you doing with that?"

"It's a time travelling spell. It allows-"

"I know what it is. I want to know what you're planning to do with it."

"Right, well, the original version of this spell only sent you back a week, and only for a minute, but I discovered that with some modifications you can go back as far as you want, and for as long as you need. There's a problem though. To do it you need an anchor point that exists in all times, such as the Tree of Harmony, or the table in your castle connected to it."

"Is that why you were trying to get into my castle?"

Starlight nodded, "Mmhmm. If I could get to that table I could go back in time and stop all of this before it even happened! You could even come with me! We could stop you going to Mareitania, we could stop Faust from being freed, and we could stop all those ponies that got killed from ever dying!"

Twilight had to admit that it sounded like an attractive idea. A potentially paradoxical one since if she'd never gone to Mareitania they wouldn't be in this mess, so she wouldn't know to go back and stop herself. Even so, saving Equestria from its current fate, as well as the thousands of lives lost... it sounded great. Too bad there was one big problem with this, and that was it could never be that simple. Yes it was hard to imagine what they could possibly do to create a timeline worse than the current one, but it was possible. As attractive as it sounded, the risk was too great.

Twilight sighed, hating what she was about to do, but it was necessary. That spell was too dangerous to be allowed to continue existing. With a flick of her magic she swung Swordy up, the blade cutting cleanly through the paper, destroying the power it held for good.

"No!" Starlight screamed as the two powerless pieces of paper fluttered to the ground. "Wh-why would you do that? Why would you do that!?"

Twilight shielded herself as Starlight attacked, using a powerful beam of magic that blew the side of the tower out. Once the glare from the magic had faded she sprang forward, bowling Starlight over. The unicorn grunted with pain, and while her mouth was open Twilight brought Swordy down between her teeth, holding him just above where he would start cutting into her cheeks.

"I really hope I have your full attention now," Twilight said slowly as Starlight tried to scream without cutting her tongue off. "I know you think going back in time and stopping this would help, but I hate to tell you that you could end up creating a situation just as bad, if not worse. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't see the appeal in the idea, because I did, but it's too dangerous. You don't. Fuck. With. Time." Twilight emphasised each word with the stamp of a hoof.

Twilight removed Swordy from Starlight's mouth, allowing the mare to speak. She didn't, instead she wept silently, leaving Twilight to think that she might have just broken the lilac unicorn. The puddle on the floor certainly attested to that. She waited a few seconds, then shook her head and turned to leave.

"We could've fixed everything. We could've stopped all of this before it even began. I was only trying to help!"

Twilight stopped and sighed, searching for the biggest bone she had to throw to Starlight.

"I know you were, but there are some things that shouldn't be done, and messing with time is one of them. Look, we have a plan to stop Faust, and we will, then this can all be over. No, it won't bring back all the ponies we lost, but your idea mightn't either. And then, even if we do succeed at your idea, there's nothing stopping Faust from getting free one day anyway. A hundred years, a thousand, or ten thousand, it doesn't matter to an immortal like her. She would have to be dealt with at some point, and it might as well be now, rather than make it a problem for the future."

Starlight looked down, thinking it over. She could see the sense in that, even if it hurt to give up on her idea. Faust wouldn't go away for good, and Faust would eventually get free, meaning all her efforts would've been for nothing. Perhaps it was better this way.

"Wait," Starlight said as Twilight started to leave again, "what can I do to help?"

Twilight almost said 'nothing,' but it would be a petty lie on her part. Starlight was a powerful unicorn, and had the potential to be a great one if she stopped being so fucking dense, and that made her useful, especially after losing Sunset. Starlight could never replace Sunset, but she could be a decent alternative. Twilight whispered an apology to her fallen friend.

"I suppose we could use another skilled unicorn, but only if you're really up for it. I'm not going to bring you along if you won't listen to what I say, or do what I ask, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now how do I free the cutie marks?"

"Just smash the jars and they'll return on their own."

"Alright." Twilight went back to Starlight and offered her a hoof to pull her up with. Starlight took it reluctantly, but offered Twilight a tiny smile in return. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. You go down first."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

"Not as yet, but my point is that there's going to be a lot of broken glass on the stairs so you're probably really going to want to go first."

"Oh, right."

Starlight hurried past Twilight and down the stairs, letting the alicorn come down at her own pace. Using her magic, Twilight knocked every single jar off the shelves, letting them smash under the power of gravity on the stone stairs, releasing their captive marks. The dark stairway filled with a dancing array of colours as those cutie marks flew for the exit as fast as they could to get back to their owners. Twilight had to admit it was actually rather beautiful, if a little messed up.

A quick shield blocked the arrow flying for her head, and a retaliatory blast of magic sent the soldier flying into the wall, and to the grave. Trixie blew out of the corner of her mouth, annoyed as she'd been doing that for a while now, but ignored it as she turned to the other ponies huddled in the room.

"Are you in here, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yep!" A pink hoof waved above the head of the other ponies. "Hiya, Trixie!"

"About time. Do you know how many houses I've searched to find you?"

"Uh... is it three?"

"...Lucky guess. Anyway, get your ass over here, I need your help."

"But there's only ponies in here."

Trixie closed her eyes, her patience frayed by that terrible joke. "I'm going to count to three, Pinkie, and when I open them again I want to see you standing right in front of me."

"Ooh, I think she means business."

"One."

"Wish me luck, Azure, I may be gone some time."

"Two."

"Here I come!"

"Three."

Trixie opened her eyes, and as she did she found Pinkie standing right in front of her, smiling politely and staring with expectation.

"Stop that."

"Stop what, Trixie? I'm only doing what you asked."

"Sure you are." Trixie pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her armour and gave it to Pinkie, "Do you know all the ponies on this list?"

"I don't know, maybe? I could probably tell easier if I read it, huh?" Pinkie unfolded the list, leaving Trixie to grimace and regret this choice. "Applejack, Fluttershy, Rar- Oh hey, that's me!"

"Well observed."

"Okay, Spike, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Granny Smith, Big Mac, my sisters, Rarity's parents, Lyra Heartstrings, and any significant others that they want to bring. Significant others?" Pinkie asked. "You mean like coltfriends, marefriends, and anypony else important?"

"I guess so?"

"So Azure can come?"

"Who?"

"My marefriend!"

"Oh, that." Trixie shrugged, "I guess so? Honestly I have no idea who's allowed to come, but priority goes to you and the other Bearers, as well as your families."

"Priority for what?"

"Evacuation, Pinkie!" Trixie growled and ran a hoof down her face, "Do you not know what's going on here? Can you not tell this is a rescue?"

"Last we checked griffons weren't our friends," a gruff yet feminine voice said from the huddle of ponies.

"That was so last year. It is now the current year, mother-fuckers, and griffons are our friends now, so deal with it. Who are you anyway?"

The pony pushed her way to where Pinkie was standing, revealing herself to be a grey earth pony with a rather straight cut, light grey mane and tail. "I'm Limestone, Pinkie's eldest sister."

"You are? Great! Are your other sisters here?"

"Yeah, and Lyra, and Azure, and a few others. Why?"

"Because this makes my job so much easier. Okay, so everyone on that list that's in here, come with me. Everypony else," Trixie said to the large number of other ponies in the room, "make your way to the exit and wait for the griffons to evacuate you. Thank you, and please have a pleasant rescue."

Trixie left the house and waited while they sorted themselves out. She passed the time by watching the griffons work, dragging the Mareitanians out of houses, dead or alive. Even though they'd tried to use the prisoners as hostages, it really wasn't working for them. They kill a prisoner, they die, they fight back, they die. The two thousand griffons swarming over the town weren't displaying a massive amount of patience, and while there might be a few deaths amongst the prisoners, wasting time by negotiating wasn't an option. They either surrendered, or they died.

Trixie stepped to the side as the ponies she wanted left the building behind her, and they stepped aside to let the rest run for the exit. It seems that her little speech was enough to convince them the griffons were here to help. There was a sentence that probably hadn't been said much up until now.

"So where are we going?" Pinkie asked, a small spring in her step as they started walking towards the exit.

"We're all going to stand around by the exit, and-"

A loud explosion cut Trixie off as a large portion of the wardens tower was blown off from the inside. All of them stood still, waiting to see what happened next, but nothing did.

"Fucking hell, Twilight, what are you doing in there?"

"Twilight's in there?" Pinkie gasped. "We should go help her!"

"No you don't," Trixie said, grabbing Pinkie with magic before she could go too far. "You're going to the gate to find those on the list before the griffons take them."

"Take them where?"

"Pinkie, I will fucking hurt you in a minute."

"Just try it," Limestone growled.

Trixie ignored her, and had a good excuse to as Pinkie started bouncing up and down while shouting. "Applejack! Hey Applejack!"

"And that's two of the Bearers," Trixie said with a shrug as the orange and blonde earth pony Applejack walked over to them, her gait seeming to suggest she was uncertain about things. There was two fillies following her, a yellow earth pony with a red mane and tail, and a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane and tail.

"I'm mighty glad to see ya, Pinkie," Applejack said with relief. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Yeah! Twilight's here with a whole heap of griffons to rescue everypony in Ponyville!"

"Really? How can you be sure?"

"Because Trixie told me so."

"Trixie?" Applejack finally gave her attention to Trixie, and spent a long moment looking over her armour. "Are you supposed to be some kind of soldier, Trixie?"

Something went pop in Trixie's brain, or at least felt like it did. She pressed a hoof to her nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "I'm sure inbreeding can do terrible things to a pony's memories, so I'm going to remind you now that I fought with Twilight in Mareitania, remember? Yes I'm a soldier. Of sorts. Probably more like a mercenary I suppose. Whatever."

"For your sake I'm gonna ignore that inbreeding comment."

"If you want."

"Where's Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Sugar Belle, Applejack?" Pinkie asked in a not so subtle attempt to change the subject.

"I don't know, we got separated when the guards rushed us inta the houses. We lost Rarity too. Heck knows where Fluttershy and Spike are."

"Okay, well we'll find them when they go through the exit." Pinkie turned and saluted sharply at Trixie. "I'll take it from here, your soldieriness. Can you go help Twilight now? Please?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, although I'm willing to bet she's fine." Trixie started running anyway, mostly to cover the distance rather than out of worry. The warden's tower had been built in direct opposition to Twilight's castle, outside the fence, and to the right of the gate that faced south. It was super annoying unless you could fly, and took far too long to get to.

What made it take even longer to get to was what, or rather who Trixie saw that made her skid to a halt and backpedal a few steps. "Octavia! Summer!"

"Trixie?" Octavia said, pulling herself away from a group of ponies, along with Summer and another navy coloured pegasus that Trixie assumed was Summer's marefriend. "Are you here with these griffons?"

"Actually it's more like these griffons are here with us. It's a long story. Anyway, you two, or three I suppose, are on a VIP list of ponies to be rescued, so I suggest you do that."

"Alright..." Octavia said slowly, "but I'm not going anywhere without Vinyl."

"Do you know where she is?"

"No, I lost her when..." Octavia trailed off as trails of colourful lights started racing through the sky, all of them coming from the tower. They all twirled and twisted around each other in a display of prismatic brilliance, before separating to smack back onto the flanks of ponies, giving them their cutie marks.

Ecstatic crying and cheering could be heard from everypony as their talents and sense of purpose was returned to them, along with a vibrancy that had been lost to them in both colour and attitude. Octavia gasped as her talent returned to her, followed shortly by the two pegasi.

"Goodness," Octavia gasped. "I'd almost forgotten what it's like to have a cutie mark. Although I certainly hadn't missed the talent separation anxiety. Does anypony have a cello?"

"Fuckin' a! Wubs are awesome again!"

"And I've found Vinyl," Octavia added. She waved until she caught her friend's attention, and regretted it a little as the white unicorn tackled her in a hug.

"Tavi! I can make wubs again! Isn't that awesome?"

"Yes, Vinyl, that's most excellent. Now please get off me." Octavia dusted herself off as Vinyl started bobbing her head to a tune only she could hear. "As I was going to ask, where are we to go, Trixie?"

"Just find Pinkie and the other Bearers and stick with them. I'm going to go check on Twilight." Trixie started to run, then trotted backwards again. "Also, hi Summer, thanks for not saying a word to me."

"Sorry. Hi Trixie."

"Hi." Shaking her head Trixie resumed running for the tower, but slowed as she saw Twilight come out through the door in the company of another unicorn that lowered her gaze as soon as Trixie got close enough. "You alright, Twilight?"

"I'm fine, Trixie, thank you."

"Oh good." Trixie nodded her head towards the unicorn, "So who's this?"

"This is Starlight Glimmer. Trixie, meet Starlight. Starlight, meet Trixie."

"This is the cutie mark stealing dictator that Faust uses to control her prisoners?" Trixie cocked her head to the side, "I was expecting someone a little more threatening."

"Really?" Starlight blurted. "The Mareitanians talk about you the same way we talk about Tirek, or Nightmare Moon! I was expecting something a lot scarier than a unicorn with a smaller than average horn."

"It's not small! And at least I don't smell of piss! I- Wait..." Trixie grinned at Twilight, "just how hard did you threaten her exactly?"

"Enough," Twilight replied shortly.

"Enough? You put your sword in my mouth!"

"Really?" Trixie chortled, getting a huff of indignation from Starlight. "That sounded like fun. So, yeah, anyway, are we killing her?"

"Nope," Twilight said as Starlight's eyes bulged at Trixie. "Starlight here is going to be helping us, isn't that right?"

"R-right."

"See? She won't be a problem. I suppose I should ask you how the evacuation's going?"

"It's fine. I've got Pinkie rounding up everypony on the list, so that shouldn't be a problem. All we have to do then is get everypony else loaded up, and we're good to go. And wait for Fleur."

"No problem then."

"Don't say that."

"Nope. Nope. Nope," Rainbow repeated as she zipped over town from group to group of ponies, searching for the few she recognised. Lightning and Vapor had been left by the exit to help those pegasi that needed it get ready for the long flight, meaning that Rainbow had the fun job of finding the other Wonderbolts.

"Woah!" Rainbow flapped to a stop as she spotted an orange blob huddled in the shade of Sugar Cube Corner. An orange blob topped with purple. That could only be one pony Rainbow knew.

Rainbow landed hard in front of Scootaloo, too excited to land nicely. "Hey Scoots!"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"What?"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"Why are you screaming?"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"Oh, right, the helmet." Rainbow pulled her helmet off and set it on the ground, which was thankfully enough to stop Scootaloo from screaming. "Hey, it's me, it's Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo said uncertainly, her panic changing from fear of Rainbow to fear of something else. "You have to hide!"

"What? Why?"

"Before the griffons find you!"

"Ooohhhh," Rainbow said as understanding reached her. "Nah, you got it all wrong, kid. The griffons are with us. We're here to rescue you."

"Rescue us? From what?"

"From Ponyville. Y'know, the big prison its been turned into? Do you seriously not know what's going on with you being stuck in here?"

"Of course I do! I just think its safer in here than out there!"

Rainbow had to think about that for a moment, and had to admit it did make a certain amount of sense. The prisoners were fairly isolated from a lot of bad things in here. Not any more though, which Rainbow said.

"All the other prisoners are going, so you are as well. You really don't want to be the only pony left in here. Come on, you stick with me and I'll take care of you."

"Okay... but I have one question. What happened to your face?"

Rainbow raised a hoof to the scar over her right eye, and flicked her ruined ear. "Griffon got me in... Fillydelphia? I don't even remember any more, it feels that long ago. But yeah, they messed my face up, and my ear. I know it's not exactly pretty, but-"

"Are you kidding? It looks so cool! I wish I had a badflank scar like that!"

"You say that now." Rainbow replaced her helmet and scooped Scootaloo up onto her back. "I thought scars were cool once as well. Turns out all they really are is a reminder of how close you came to dying."

"Rainbow?"

Rainbow cursed herself, remembering her audience. "Ignore me. Uh, hey, have you seen Captain Spitfire around here? Or any of the other Wonderbolts?"

"Do you mean like today? Or..?"

"Yes today."

"Then no, I haven't, sorry."

"No worries. Hold on!" Rainbow took off to resume her search, flying around in a pattern-less search that eventually proved effective when she spotted a firey looking mane amongst a group of other ponies. In a flash she was flying for them, Scootaloo holding on for dear life as she landed in front of her and saluted.

"Captain Spitfire!"

"Rainbow Dash? Holy shit, you're still alive. Hey guys, check it out, Dash survived after all."

Now she was paying attention, Rainbow saw that it was the other surviving Wonderbolts that were standing around Spitfire. Soarin, Fleetfoot, Lightning Streak, Surprise, High Rise, Pizzelle, and-

"You!" Rainbow stamped her hoof as she laid her eyes on Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser, who had once been part of her squadron before they ran away. "You abandoned us!"

"We had to," said Thunderlane. "We'd probably be dead if we hadn't."

"We are sorry," Cloud Chaser added. "We would've told you to come with us, but we knew you wouldn't."

"Too right I wouldn't! I'm not a coward! And I didn't die either! Lightning and Vapor are here too, which only proves how wrong you were!"

"Not really," said Thunderlane. "Out of five squadrons, we're all that's left. We just got lucky."

"You weren't lucky, you ran away!"

"Leave it, Dash," Spitfire interrupted. "There's nothing you can say that we haven't already said. How about you tell us what you're doing here with all these griffons?"

"That's... kind of a long story." Rainbow leaned her head to the side as she saw that all the Wonderbolts, loyal and cowardly alike, were wearing wingbinders. "What's up with those? None of the other pegasi are wearing those."

"We were considered dangerous enough to warrant it," Soarin said proudly. "It's nice to have a reputation, even if it does mean wearing this horribly itchy fucking thing."

"Our wings are probably a mess," Fleetfoot added.

"We actually came prepared for that," Rainbow told them. "We have limited room for transporting ponies, so most of the pegasi are going to have to fly to Trottingham, while we all go on to Griffonstone."

"Griffonstone?" Spitfire questioned. "Seriously, what the fuck have we missed?"

"As I said, it's a long story." Rainbow drew a blade and started cutting off the wingbinders. "Ergh, you weren't kidding," she said of the messy and overgrown wings they all had. "Start doing some stretches, and I'll explain as much as I can on the way out."

Twilight had left Trixie to get the ponies they needed together. Loading ponies on to the airships was taking too long, so she'd started to help with that, the ability to carry a dozen ponies at once proving useful.

Two full airships had departed so far, with three more to fill, not including the one that would take the Bearers and their friends and family to Griffonstone. Even then there still wasn't room for everypony, so the pegasi would have to fly, and the griffons would have to fly some in carts, or even on their backs. It was a logistical nightmare, but one that would've been a lot worse without these airships.

"Twilight!"

Twilight stopped on her journey back to the ground as Cadence shouted her name. "Cadence! You're back! How did it go?"

"Actually we found a couple of ponies in the castle that needed rescuing. I've brought them back while Luna and the others confronted Celestia. I hope they're okay."

"Me too. What else did you find?"

"Nothing good. It's... hard to explain, but we found how Faust plans to enact her plan, and it wasn't very nice." Cadence shook her head like she hated the images stuck in it. "Luna and I can explain it to you when we have more time. How's it going here?"

"Slowly. If you could help transport ponies up to the airships, that'd be great."

"Of course!"

"Thanks. I need to go check on how Trixie's doing with tracking the ponies on the list down."

Both of them flew back down, with Twilight taking a slightly different path towards the tower where Trixie had been gathering the VIP's. She slowed as she saw them, then let out a happy sob as she dived for them, landing in a tackle with Spike as her target.

"Yaaah! Help! I'm under attack!"

"Shush, Spike, it's me."

"Twilight?" Spike looked up into the eyes of his attacker, and grabbed her in a tight hug, "Twilight! It's you! It's really you!"

"It is me! And you're you!" Twilight nuzzled the top of his head, "I'm so happy to see you. All of you," she said as the others gathered around. "I've missed you all so, so much."

Without so much as a word said between them, they all piled on, laughing and crying as they jumped into the massive group hug. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, all of them relieved to be back together, and free.

"It truly is marvellous to see you, darling," Rarity said from the top of the pile where she'd made sure to end up to avoid being crushed. "We've all missed you so. Rainbow Dash too, wherever she is."

"It's been just horrible," Fluttershy whispered. "First being trapped in High Rock, then here, not really knowing if you were okay."

"And now we're all back together again!" Pinkie cheered. "Hooray!"

Twilight nodded, but it was tinged with sadness. "I wish I could tell you this was it though, that it was all over, but it isn't. Faust is still out there, and we still have to stop her."

"We know," said Applejack. "Trixie's been catching us up. Sounds like you've had quite the adventure."

"And she told you everything?" Twilight asked nervously. The last time her friends had been told everything, they hadn't exactly taken to it.

"Everything," Applejack confirmed. "I dare say you've done a lot of good in your attempts to pull everything together for this."

"Applejack, really," Rarity tutted. "You know that's not what she meant." Rarity smiled and took Twilight's hoof in her own. "We know you've had to do a lot of things to achieve all you have. Some of it less savoury than others. I promise you though, it won't be like it was after you came back from Mareitania. We've all learnt a lot since then, and we won't make those same mistakes twice."

"We're here for you, Twilight," Fluttershy agreed, "Like you always try to be for us."

Twilight choked on a sob, ignoring the very subtle jab in Fluttershy's words since she probably didn't mean it like she said it. "Thank you, really. I-"

"Incoming!" Rainbow shouted, crashing into Applejack and laughing merrily as they rolled over and over. "Hey guys!"

"Land-sakes, Rainbow! Ya coulda just said hello without tryin' ta kill me!"

"But where's the fun in that?" Rainbow released Applejack and pounced on Fluttershy, squeezing a happy little squeak out of the yellow pegasus. "I've missed you all so much! Come 'ere, Pinkie, you're next!"

"Okey dokey! Wheeee!"

Twilight laughed as Pinkie and Rainbow collided mid-air, still laughing as they hugged and massaged their chins. Then came Rarity's turn, and even as she tutted about getting dirty for no reason, she was still laughing and smiling.

"You too, Spike," Rainbow laughed, jumping on the little dragon as he backed away.

"You seem pleased," Trixie commented as she watched the group all reunite. She was surprised when Twilight hugged her as well, and almost teleported away out of shock.

"How couldn't I be? I've finally got them back after waiting so long."

"I know, but maybe you should share your hugs out a little further." Trixie waved at Octavia and Summer as they stood nearby. "I'm sure they'd like one too."

"Guys!" Twilight shouted excitedly, letting go of Trixie to grab the earth pony and pegasus. "I'm so glad you're okay. It feels like ages since I saw you in Fillydelphia."

"That's because it has been," Octavia joked. "I see you've been busy to pull all this off."

"You have no idea. It was all worth it though."

"No argument here, although I do have a question. Why is Starlight Glimmer hiding behind the tower looking all ashamed."

"Ah, yes. Starlight, could you come out here, please?"

It took several seconds, but Starlight eventually edged out from behind the tower, her eyes fixed to the floor, her ears plastered to her head, and her tail between her legs.

"And what is she doing here?" Rainbow asked, one hoof back ready to draw a weapon as she faced Starlight. She was surprised when Rarity pushed her hoof to the ground.

"No need for that, Rainbow, darling. Starlight's not a threat."

"How can you say that? She works for Faust! She stole all your cutie marks!"

"I know, but do you want to know what she said before she did?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Go on then, tell me."

"She said sorry." Rarity smiled at Starlight as Rainbow huffed, "It's nice to see you again, Starlight. Hopefully we can finally get to know you under better circumstances."

Starlight raised her head and gave Rarity a shaky smile, and let it grow as Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack returned it. Rainbow merely rolled her eyes again and said nothing until a shadow fell over them, letting them know that Luna, Nightmare, and Ember had returned.

"Oh hey, that's Nightmare," said Applejack. "You really did get her then."

"Yeah, we did. Okay, I need to go talk to Luna for a minute. You all wait here."

Twilight ran over to Luna, eager for news of Celestia. She slowed as she saw the look on Luna's face, and knew it couldn't be good.

"I'm not sure," Luna replied when Twilight asked what had happened. "I think we restored her old memories, but her new ones are still there too. At this point she isn't sure which are real."

"She also went full crazy pyromaniac," Nightmare added. "Like whoosh! Flames everywhere, including on her. She currently thinks that the best way to fix things is to get rid of us and Faust, then rule Equestria alone again. We then proceeded to kick her ass, which was nice, then she ran away, so we have no idea what she's going to do. At the very least she's no longer with Faust."

Twilight sighed, disappointed by the news. "I suppose that's something. All we can do is hope she comes around then."

"Indeed," said Luna, equally disappointed. "So barring that, today seems to have been a success. Are we ready to depart?"

"Almost. We have to finish loading, then there's a few more ponies we need to wait for."

Twilight waited down by the river's edge in the company of Trixie, Octavia, and Summer as they waited for the last evacuees to arrive by rubber dinghy. The airships were being loaded up behind them, with some screaming involved as Nightmare's existence was revealed, but that stopped after some stern words from Luna. Cadence had also been swamped by the remnants of the Crystal Legion that had wound up being held in Ponyville with the rest of the prisoners of war. They all seemed happy about it.

"Hey! There they are!"

Twilight stood at the shout from Shadow, and waved at the thestral as the rubber dinghy came into view, and trotted down to the edge of the water to guide it in. She couldn't miss the sombre feel about things though, and she knew why as there were two ponies missing, and another in severe grief.

"What's the situation here?" Shining asked as he jumped out of the dinghy to help pull it up.

"It's fine," Twilight told him. "You can relax, you've done your part. Good work, by the way, although I'm sorry for your losses. Come on," Twilight said to Fleur, helping her out and pulling her into a hug.

"So this little gang's back together, huh?" the filly said as she joined in. "Hey Trixie, Octavia, Summer. How long has it been since we were last together?"

"Since before Twilight and Trixie left to go find Starswirl's secret retreat," said Fleur. "Over a year ago."

"Seems a lot longer," Twilight said with a weak laugh as she helped her mother and father out of the dinghy, then pulled them into a hug with Shining. "I'm so glad you're all alright."

"And we're glad you're okay too," said her father, Nightlight.

Twilight let them go and offered a hoof to Honeydew as Thorax buzzed his wings to fly out of the dinghy. "It's nice to see you two again," she said, getting only a smile from the pair. "Hello again, Flicker."

Flicker nodded at her, but ignored the offer of help to jump out of the dinghy. That left only Bon Bon sat in the rear, her head down and eyes puffy from crying. Twilight's heart ached for her. Losing two of your closest friends at once had to be hard. Was hard, even.

"I'm sorry about your friends, Bon Bon."

"They did their job," Bon Bon said back, her voice breaking. She sounded far from like she meant it.

"They did, and you should be proud of them."

"I am."

Twilight sighed as Bon Bon made no effort to get out of the dinghy. She knew what rock bottom looked like, and currently Bon Bon was hitting it hard. She'd lost her entire team, which after long enough feels like family. Being the only one to survive that wasn't easy, and as an expert on survivor's guilt, Twilight knew there was little you could do to get over it other than pushing onwards.

Twilight stepped into the dinghy and laid a hoof on Bon Bon's back. "I know it won't make up for what you've lost today, but I have a pony waiting not far away that would very much like to see you. Come on."

Bon Bon reluctantly stood and let Twilight guide her out of the boat and towards where the ponies from Ponyville were congregating as they waited to be evacuated, although there wasn't many left. Among those that were left was the mint green blur that slammed into Bon Bon as soon as she set eyes on her.

"Bon Bon! You're okay! I missed you so much!"

"Lyra," Bon Bon said breathlessly, grabbing onto the unicorn and finally letting her emotions go as she bawled her eyes out.

"Bon Bon? What are you doing? What's wrong? I though you'd be happy to see me?"

"I am," Bon Bon whimpered. "I really am."

"Then why are you crying?"

"Because I lost them!" Bon Bon cried. "I lost them, Lyra! I lost my family!"

Lyra nodded and held Bon Bon, not really knowing what she meant, but more than happy to comfort her best friend as she cried her heart out. "Don't worry, Bon Bon, I'm here," she said, gently rocking her friend, "I'm here."

Twilight left them to it, a little saddened that Lyra's reunion had to be tainted like this, but there was little chance of all of them getting out of today unscathed. Some reunions would be bittersweet, while others like Cadence's and Shining's would be happier. Her own had been almost all she'd hoped for, but she couldn't celebrate that while others mourned their losses.

"I think it's time we went," Luna said. "You're all that's left."

Twilight looked around at the collection of ponies around her, seeing friends, family, lovers, and some mere acquaintances. All those worth fighting for. And they had fought for them, but they still had fighting left to do.

"Alright, come on everyone."

Between the four alicorns it was short work to transport remaining ponies to the last waiting airship. As soon as they were onboard the engines started to rumble and spin the propellers, moving the airship away from Ponyville. There was a pop behind her, and she turned to find Discord sprawled on the deck, gently smoking.

"I'm telling you now, she was not pleased to see me."

"Discord!"

Discord rolled over and caught Fluttershy in his arms, holding her closely. "Worth it though."

Twilight nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly before turning back to look at Ponyville. Celestia was stood on the roof of the town hall, her fiery mane dancing in the wind. Then there was a flash as another alicorn teleported over the town. Twilight tensed as a ball of light formed on Faust's horn, then gasped with relief as Celestia attacked Faust, either on her own agenda, or to buy them time. Either way, Twilight was thankful.

She noticed Luna standing beside her, smiling sadly as the two brawling alicorns razed parts of Ponyville. "I knew she couldn't be that far gone."

"Do you think she can come back?"

"She can." Luna breathed a deep sigh, casting her eyes down to try and hide her sadness. "She has to."

Author's Notes:

Okay, so, here is the thing. I have pretty much lost all interest in pony. Literally overnight, along with a load of other stuff I enjoyed. No idea why, but the arrival of new priorities in my life might have something to do with it, and certainly nothing to do with my new interest in binge watching anime.

However, this is book is so close to the end, and I'm probably on the last few chapters for writing purposes, and I'm not really willing to stop right before the end, so here is the plan. I am going to keep writing, even if it's only a few hundred words a day. To counteract the slower writing I will be posting slower so there isn't a massive gap between the last few chapters. Expect a chapter every 2 to 3 weeks. Maybe.

After that, since I had planned 5 books, I will be releasing a couple blog posts detailing the plot of the last couple of books, so you at least have some idea of what I was planning to do. Hardly ideal, but I think this is better than me ghosting on you right before the end. I always said I wouldn't do that, and I'm not.