It was a couple of hours before dawn when Twilight was gently woken by a hoof kicking her on the ribs. Granted it wasn't too hard, but to go from sleeping peacefully to getting kicked in the ribs was always going to hurt for shock value alone.

"Wakey wakey sleepyhead," Trixie said with an aggravating amount of good cheer. "Today's the day, so there's no time for laying around."

Today might've indeed been 'the day,' but that was no excuse for doling out such unkind methods of rousing ponies. Twilight tried to convey that through a glare, but she might as well have been trying to shatter a rock with rude words for all the difference it made to Trixie.

"I'm trying to sleep."

"Pfft, no time for that."

"I've just spent the last three days flying over half a continent and back! I'm tired!"

"Sleep when you're dead."

Twilight's expression went flat. "That was definitely below the belt."

Trixie at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. "My bad. Obviously. Look, you need to get up because Luna will yell at me if you don't. Is that a good enough reason for you?"

"Quite the opposite, actually." Twilight curled back up in her blanket, "I look forward to hearing it from all the way over here."

"Alright, fine, make me use extreme measures if you must." Trixie leaned in close to whisper right into Twilight's ear, "If you don't get up, I'm going to teleport you. Fuck knows where you'll end up."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh heck yeah I would."

"You're mean."

"Yes I am. Now get up, come on, we have stuff to do."

Silently, and with considerable regret for having to leave the warmth and safety of her bed, Twilight got up and followed after Trixie to the observation area. The smell of pancakes hit her nose first, which made finding the massive breakfast spread less surprising, but no less pleasant.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked, "What's this for?"

Applejack gave Twilight a smile, "Pinkie and me figured that since you're all going to be putting yourselves in danger today, the least we could do was give y'all a good breakfast. Again." Applejack's smile slipped, "Seems to be about all we can do around here."

"Hey, no need for that, you've done plenty."

"That's mighty nice of ya t' say, but we all know the true heroes is all you. All we did was put up with being prisoners for a while, which, while not great, didn't require a huge amount of effort either."

Twilight could see Applejack was going to argue this no matter what she said, so decided that dropping the subject would be a lot faster. "Well, whatever you want to say about it, anypony that can fill me with pancakes is a hero too."

"That ain't no problem. C'mon, dig in. I don't think you'll have much time before Luna has you traipsing off to get your armour."

"Armour?" Twilight has been so caught up with things that she'd almost forgotten about their armour. Good job she'd been given a reminder. "Right, yes, I will definitely need that."

Apparently Twilight was the last to arrive, as the others were already chewing their sizable breakfasts. When did they even get this many plates? Weird.

As Twilight started eating, Luna cleared her throat, her expression sombre. "Sorry to disrupt this occasion with mention of what we're doing, but I just wanted to check we were all up to speed on the plan. As you know, Chrysalis and Commander Lurin will be leading the changelings and Griffons against the Mareitanians, and Lightning Dust will be leading the Wonderbolts and a couple thousand griffons against the forces stationed in Canterlot."

While we're all storming storming the castle and finding Faust?" Trixie asked.

"She has to be aware that something is up by now," said Fleur, "even if she isn't sure what it might be. I doubt she expects thirty thousand griffons and changelings to launch a surprise attack."

"Quite," Luna agreed, "but we still can't be sure of what she'll do. We need to make sure she knows we're coming, because if she joins the battle a lot of griffons and changelings will die, and we won't get the same opportunity to defeat her. We need to storm the castle as soon as the attack begins, if not before."

"And what if Celestia is there?" Cadence asked. "What if she tries to stop us?"

"Then we'll stop her back," Nightmare said back with a shrug. "We don't have the luxury of time to deal with her all nicely nicely. I really doubt she'll be in an position to stop us though, or do anything really. I doubt Faust has finished 'fixing' her yet."

Luna nodded at Nightmare, "I agree. On the off chance that Celestia is there and does oppose us, we shall simply have to put her down hard and fast so we can deal with Faust. Then hope she forgives us for that."

Twilight chewed rapidly and swallowed before the melancholy atmosphere could drag the topic too far off course. "Alright, but what about the actual attack? Obviously we're fighting Faust, but what about the rest?"

"The way I've thought of it, we go in first, and clear the way to Faust, then engage her. The rest follow us in and set up the oubliette, hopefully without getting the attention of Faust. If that does happen, Shining will have to do what he can to protect them."

"I could set up an invisibility field," Starlight offered quickly. "That should help us go unnoticed."

If Luna was surprised by such a helpful offer from Starlight Glimmer, she didn't show it. "Very well, if you think you can, then do so by all means. Anyway, we need to keep Faust distracted for the duration it takes the oubliette to do what it needs to, and Lightning Dust, you need to keep the soldiers outside distracted."

"Or make them dead," said Trixie. "That works too."

Twilight cringed and tried to surreptitiously look around at her friends. None of them seemed particularly comfortable with that being said, and Fluttershy looked like she wanted to leave while Rarity appeared to be on the verge of saying such things weren't suitable for the breakfast table. They kept it to themselves, thankfully, but they obviously couldn't hide it either. A shared glance with Rainbow confirmed she wasn't the only one seeing it.

"While I shan't openly condone their deaths," Luna said, perhaps picking up on things as well, "you know as well as any here that you must do what you have to, Lightning Dust."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning responded quietly.

"So why isn't Spitfire leading the assault on Canterlot?" Fleur asked, her own curiosity allowing her to change the subject at a convenient time. "She is still your captain, isn't she?"

"She asked us to lead it," Rainbow answered for Lightning. "Something about us having a better handle on things since we haven't spent months in trapped in Ponyville. Of course she only said they'd take part if we raided the Wonderbolts HQ for gear, then decided to make Lightning Dust be the lead anyway. Don't know what the fuck Spitfire was thinking at the time. Maybe she realised that they were a bit rusty after being in prison so long."

"That was not a vote of confidence," Lightning grumbled.

"Hey, I'm not saying you can't do it, but leading a couple of thousand griffons into battle isn't something I'd want to do either," Rainbow insisted. Lightning just sighed back.

"If you feel you can't do it," Luna said after a few seconds, "don't force yourself to. That would be worse than the alternative of saying you can't."

"No!" Lightning blurted quickly. "I can do it! It's just... a lot more responsibility than I'm used to. It's a bit unnerving."

"Don't worry," said Ember, giving Lightning a confident smile that was more predatory than friendly, "I'll be there with you. You'll be surprised at the difference a dragon can make."

"That... might help," Lightning said slowly.

"Then I shall leave it to you to decide if you can or can't do it. Although I suggest you decide quickly." Luna crammed the last of her breakfast into her mouth, and finished her coffee, "It is time we were on our way."

It was still dark in Starlight's village, which Starlight hated it being called, although that was the plan since it being dark meant that they weren't late for the attack. There could be no greater display of ineptitude than being late for the one thing they put so much effort into.

Frankly, Twilight wished it could stay dark. Not because she wanted to put off the coming battle. Far from it. She was looking forward to this all being over, one way or another. No, she wanted it to stay dark because that meant not looking at the armour she was going to have to wear. The same armour that had Trixie rolling on the floor in laughter.

"It's so fucking pink and sparkly!" Trixie choked between guffaws. "You are going to look absolutely fabulous when you're fighting Faust."

Twilight made a face and avoided the bemused smirks of all the others there that didn't have to wear the armour, because it was exactly as Trixie described it; pink and sparkly. A five year old filly with a poor grasp of style and a bucketful of pink glitter couldn't have done much worse.

"Fuck it, I'd rather let Faust kill me than have to wear that," Nightmare said coldly. "I would, in actual fact, prefer to be seen dead, that's how bad this is."

"It's not that bad," said Cadence. "At least it's a pale pink, and not hot pink. It might look better in the daylight as well."

"Like I'm going to take you saying that with any degree of seriousness." Nightmare poked her set of armour, "Why? Just... why?"

"Because the crystals were pink," Stout Heart, the crystal pony armourer that had made these suits explained. "There was literally no other colour they could possibly be."

"They weren't pink when we collected them!" Twilight shouted. She quickly hung her head. When had she become so uppity about armour colour? It's not like she disliked the colour. "Sorry."

"They might not have appeared pink in a cave underground, but I can assure you, these crystals were pink." Stout gave them an apologetic smile, "If it helps, it felt bad making something like this in such a colour. This isn't something you go to war in."

"Glad you agree," Nightmare growled. "Aren't you saying anything, Miss fashionista?"

Rarity blinked at Nightmare, "What could I possibly have to say? It's been impossible to keep up with the latest trends trapped in Ponyville. This could be the height of fashion for all I know right now."

Nightmare's expression went flat, "I assure you, it's not. Oh come on," she added quickly as Luna started to put her armour on, "please don't make me wear this."

"We don't have the time to argue, so start putting it on. You too, Twilight, Cadence."

Wordlessly they all put their armour on, although Trixie made sure to make up for how quiet they were by sniggering the entire time. She wasn't exactly alone either.

As for the armour itself, it was actually quite light and comfortable, although it did give the impression of not being very durable. It felt like a solid blow would shatter it, even with assurances from Stout Heart that it was a bit tougher than that.
Lifting her helmet in her hooves, Twilight placed it on her head, lining her ears up with the holes. Apart from her wings, horn, ears, tail, eyes, and nose, she was covered by the armour. Unlike rune warded armour it felt natural to wear, and didn't interfere with her magic at all, and the light weight meant flying should be simple enough. The colour still sucked though.

"Hey Twilight! Think fast!"

Twilight barely had a chance to register the words before a barrage of magic from Trixie struck her. She yelped in surprise, but certainly not in pain as the armour scattered the attack as soon as it made contact. "Damn it, Trixie! You scared the crap out of me!"

"But it was worth it! Your stupid looking armour actually works!"

"Of course it works! Otherwise I could pick it up with my magic!"

"Oh... right. My bad."

"You don't even care, do you?"

Trixie shook her head with a smile, "Not in the slightest. Buuutttt... your armour works, so now we know you probably won't be vaporised seconds into the fight. Isn't that great?"

Twilight closed her eyes, waiting a beat before continuing anywhere. "Yes, thank you."

"Still not worth it," Nightmare said with a grimace. "I feel ridiculous. Probably as ridiculous as I look."

"I don't know," the filly quipped, "that's a pretty high bar to get over."

"Nevermind how we all look," Luna snapped. "The point is that we are ready to go. Moondancer, is the oubliette secure?"

Moondancer patted her hoof on the crate beside that was holding the oubliette, "It's ready."

"Excellent. Then it is high time we were away."

"She's right," said Twilight, turning to her friends. "Hopefully when you next see us, Equestria will be free again."

Pinkie bounced over to give Twilight, then Rainbow a hug. "You two be super careful! Well, all of you need to be super careful. Even you, Starlight. All of you need to stay alive for the 'we saved the world' party." Pinkie twisted her hooves together anxiously, "It wouldn't be right if anypony was missing."

Twilight looked away. She wasn't about to make promises she couldn't keep, even if she had a better chance of keeping them than others. "We'll try."

"Please do," said Rarity, giving Twilight a hug before the others all did the same, ending with Mayfly who buzzed mournfully, if that was possible. Suddenly having so many of her friends here seemed like a bad idea, because it made it so much harder to leave. She had to though, so all she could was hope that as she swept Trixie and Starlight up into the sky was that they really would make it all back.

They intercepted the griffons and changelings just to the west of Baltimare, and Twilight had to say that it was an impressive sight. The six airships seemed to be dwarfed in comparison to the mass of beings flying around them, and they weren't exactly small to begin with.

They flew for the lead airship, the Emperor's flagship that was leading the way. The deck was mostly empty, save for those griffons flying the machine, so they had plenty of room to land. They were only empty now though. Soon these decks would likely be filled with the injured, leaving no room for anything else.

Twilight tore herself away from the images her imagination was supplying to address the two other people that were on the airship; Commander Lurin, and Queen Chrysalis, who rolled her eyes from her position on the bow while Lurin greeted them.

"Glad you could all make it. I was seriously debating what I was going to do if you hadn't."

"It would be rather foolish of us to fail to turn up at this time," said Luna. "At any rate, we are here and everything seems to be going to plan so far, although if it were to go wrong before we even got to Canterlot, well... shame on us, frankly."

"Right." Lurin gestured at the crate that had been brought with the ponies, "So is that the secret to our victory in there?"

"It's hardly a secret," Trixie deadpanned. "I'm pretty sure we've told you all about it."

"Well, yes, but it's existence still isn't well known. We certainly have to hope that Faust knows nothing of it."

"We're heading into a trap if she does," said Twilight. "In which case we've probably already lost, and we just don't know it."

All of them nodded sullenly, easily imagining such an outcome, but still hopeful that it wouldn't come to pass. They had been working as secretly as they could, and while they took a risk with the Saddle Arabians, the lack of past attempts to stop them suggested that Faust knew nothing of their plans.

"You look ridiculous," Chrysalis commented on their armour as she sauntered up to them. "At least it should be easy enough for Faust to find you."

"And good morning to you too, Your Majesty," Luna said evenly, having expected comments like these from Chrysalis. "I trust you and your changelings are prepared for the coming battle?"

"We are, although fighting to save this country still leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Chrysalis extended her neck until her and Luna were almost nose to nose. "You seriously better keep your word after all this."

"Of course we will. All of us enjoy not having to sleep with one eye open."

Chrysalis pulled her head back with a smirk, "Good, otherwise I was going to have to expend a significant amount of energy working out how to unravel your Pact, then figure out a strategy for effectively invading Equestria, and then, well, work out how to contain you lot as well as Celestia. Keeping your word would be much easier for all parties involved."

"Lovely as always to be working with you," Luna said dryly. "Commander Lurin, how long do you think until we are in Canterlot?"

"Depending on the winds, a couple of hours, so if you have anything you need to do before the attack, I suggest you do it now."

"No, I think we're ready, but you might want to start rotating groups to land on the airships for a break before the attack begins."

"I've already begun, but thank you for the suggestion." Lurin bowed to the princesses, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have plenty to be doing."

"Don't we all."

"So you and Lightning really became the Emperor's bodyguards for a while? Really?" Spitfire gave Rainbow an incredulous look, "I find that hard to believe."

"Hey, the Emperor's pretty chill once we broke him out of his bubble. None of this would be happening if it wasn't for him."

"I'd like to point out that I saved the Emperor by not talking," Vapor said sullenly.

"We know," said Soarin, "and you must be hard as nails to go through what you did without cracking. Full respect to you, Vapes."

Rainbow grinned at Vapor as the pale pegasus melted a little under the compliment. "Yeah, we've been up to all kinds of crazy stuff over the last few months. I mean, if you think getting the griffons on our side was nuts, I don't know what you're thinking about the changelings."

"That the princesses have brought a time bomb into Equestria," Fleetfoot said back. "How can any of you trust her?"

"That's just it, we don't, but we kind of have a plan that will hopefully kind of force her to either comply, or leave. It's a bit of a long winded explanation, but basically there's a thing going on that involves Thorax that we hope will convince the changelings to all become nice."

"That was incredibly ambiguous," said Spitfire. Rainbow merely shrugged.

"As I said, it's a bit of a long winded thing to try and explain, but you'll understand once you realise that Thorax is who we hope will end up in charge of the changelings. If we can make them all like him, then Chrysalis is pretty much queen of nothing, so she either has to go along with it to remain queen, or she leaves."

Spitfire made a face, "Sounds like you're playing with fire to me."

"Nope. She agreed to this alliance, and even came to us to make it, so if she doesn't like it that's her problem. We'll keep our end of the agreement." Rainbow sighed and grinned, she couldn't deny that she liked the plan herself. It felt good to deceive the deceiver.

It had been great catching up with the Wonderbolts. There was so much they'd missed while in prison, and having to tell them about all the wacky, and less wacky adventures they'd had with Twilight and the princesses had been a great way to pass the time. That time was quickly passing though. Canterlot was clearly visible in the distance now, and the Mareitanians had to have spotted them coming.

"I guess it's showtime then," Rainbow said with a sigh. "Lightning Dust? You ready?"

Lightning stopped her pacing, which she been keeping up for a while, to give Rainbow a semi confident smile. "As ready as I'm gonna be. If you have any pointers you want to give me though, Captain, I'm all ears."

Spitfire thought about that carefully for a moment. Her initial reaction had been to make a joke, but there was no benefit in doing that as it certainly wouldn't help Lightning. Instead she tried the honest route.

"Just keep your head and you'll be fine, and try to remember that no matter how hard you try, you can't always bring everyone back with you. It's a harsh truth, but there's no avoiding it."

"Right." Lightning's stance sagged. She'd been running through her head every possible scenario she could come up with in an attempt to plan around them and spare all the lives she could, on her side at least. Spitfire's words cut through the middle of all that.

Thankfully Twilight arrived to give her a distraction, even if that distraction was to tell them to get ready. "We're up guys. We're splitting off early to attack from Canterlot's blind side, and you're all coming with us. Get ready, because we're in the air in two minutes."

"You heard her," Spitfire said. "I want to see-"

"Uh, Cap?" Soarin interrupted. "You're not in charge, remember?"

"Right! I was just testing." Spitfire cleared her throat awkwardly, "Lightning, if you would?"

Lightning took a deep breath and nodded once to herself. "Alright Wonderbolts, I want to see you strapped up and ready to go in less than a minute. Our job is to support the princesses while they take down Faust, and they will not be failing because we couldn't do something as simple as distract some ponies. Altius volantis, Wonderbolts!"

"I'm going to assume them shouting their cute little motto means they're ready?" Chrysalis asked Luna as they stood together with Lurin, Cadence, and Nightmare on the bow of the airship.

"It does. That also means that it's time for us to go, so this is all up to you two now." Luna saluted Lurin and bowed a little to Chrysalis, "Good luck to both of you."

"And to you," Lurin returned, while Chrysalis showed her fangs in a grin. "Hopefully, by the time you're done, the Mareitanians will have been defeated, and the yaks too I suppose."

"That doesn't mean you have to wipe them out wholesale," Cadence said quickly. "If they surrender, you must accept it."

"Unconditionally," Chrysalis purred. "If they surrender, and we are to accept it, it's because it's unconditional."

Cadence hesitated, giving Luna a chance to speak over her. "Agreed. They are in no position to request conditions, and we are in no position to grant them. The most we can promise is fair and reasonable treatment. Now come along Cadence, it is high time we were going."

Both Chrysalis and Lurin watched as the princesses left with their charges, leaving them alone for the time being. Nothing was said for a while until Chrysalis snorted and turned to the griffon. "I sincerely hope you plan to keep your griffons out of me and my children's way?"

"My forces shall do what they must, Queen Chrysalis," Lurin replied coldly. "Their job is to eliminate the Mareitanians as a problem, as it is yours as well. Follow the plan and there will be no issues."

Chrysalis chuckled happily, "So you aren't easily cowed. Good. That resolve will come in useful. Lead your forces well, Commander, because I'll be counting on your support from the air."

"Oh, so now you do want my help?"

"Of course! I'd rather see dead griffons than dead changelings any day."

Chrysalis didn't wait to hear what Lurin had to say to that, and took off to join her changelings at the fore of the formation. The airships were slowing down to maintain a safe distance from the Mareitanian army below. The army that was barely in a state of readiness as they hurried into formation, not that formations really meant all that much when being attacked from above.

Unfortunately certain aspects of their foes were at least prepared enough to raise a shield over the army, although stretching it as far as they were left Chrysalis questioning just strong it was. That weakness could be something she could capitalise on.

They were almost above the shield now, with one side still considerably more prepared than the other. Clearly the Mareitanians hadn't expected a large scale assault of this degree ever, let alone right now. It was going to be easy pickings, and as Chrysalis ordered her children to ready themselves, she knew she'd be picking the most.

"Attack!" Chrysalis roared. "Rain hell upon them!"

The front most changelings dived for the shield, their inherent magic turning them into streaks as they dove and slammed into the shield in a move that stood a reasonable chance of killing them if they messed it up. The shield quivered and shook under the impacts, but held, which Chrysalis hadn't expected, but was more than prepared for.

While her children continued to batter at the shield, Chrysalis led a number of changelings down to the ground at the edge of the shield. If they couldn't go through the shield, they'd go under it, which was an option they had as shape shifters. The world flashed green as Chrysalis transformed herself into a badger while her changelings transformed into an array of different creatures.

As one they started to burrow under the shield, mostly unnoticed by the Mareitanians who were too preoccupied with the attack from above to worry about anything else. They regretted that quickly once they found that the changelings were inside the shield with them.

Chrysalis transformed back into her usual form before she was even fully out of the ground, while around her, her changelings transformed into a terrifying collection of huge and dangerous beasts, ranging from huge armoured insects, to deadly manticores. They charged the Mareitanians, slicing through and trampling them with wild abandon.

Chrysalis kept back, choosing instead to use her magic to blast the enemy soldiers, sending their broken bodies flying with bursts of pure force, hoping the airborne cadavers would disrupt those maintaining the shield. It was also really funny to watch. It's not like she felt the need to conserve energy either, as with the amount that she'd been feeding off Cadence recently, she had magic to spare.

The wave of changelings rumbled forwards, meeting no initial resistance from the Mareitanians who hadn't been prepared for fighting the kind of thing that has jaws bigger than your head. As they fell back the Adepts maintaining the shield had to as well, and with their departure the shield grew weak. It was only a matter of seconds after that point that the shield collapsed, and the rest of the changelings joined the fight.

The changelings surged forwards with the extra support, driving a wedge into the Mareitanians. Chrysalis kept back from the front, maintaining her use of magic to fight. This also allowed her to keep a better eye on things, such as when a group of ponies managed to get their spears under one of her changelings transformed into a giant scarab, using its own weight to force the spears into it. Elsewhere a manticore was charged by a couple of yaks, breaking its neck and killing it.

"Damn it," Chrysalis hissed. Their charge was beginning to falter, and if the Mareitanians could hold them here, the changelings would be whittled down piecemeal. At least that's what Chrysalis thought, until the roar of thousands of griffons reminded her that they weren't alone in this fight.

Colourful blasts of magic and arrows shot into the sky as the griffons swept in, although the arrows did the most damage by far. The Kuua did its job in protecting the griffons from the magic being used against them, with only a few falling to overwhelming concentrations of it. Even so, it did rain griffons, as a couple hundred of them fell to that opening barrage.
That was quickly turned around as the griffons made contact. Being able to get through that initial barrage of magic made all the difference as they cut a swath of destruction into the pony soldiers. Even as Chrysalis watched an opening was made that allowed her to push even further on.

"Push on, my children!" Chrysalis shouted, urging her changelings to take advantage of the gap before it closed. She needn't have worried as the griffons came back around for another pass. This time they joined the fray, fighting weapon to weapon, and claw to hoof against the ponies. It seemed a costly way to fight, but as Chrysalis craned her neck to see what was going on, she realised that she was only witnessing a small portion of the fighting.

The grounds all around the base of the Canterhorn were consumed by the fighting. Chrysalis had allowed herself to only focus on one part of it, failing to even see half of the true scope of things. That could've been a costly mistake if the griffons hadn't been there. She couldn't allow herself such foolishness. Taking back to the air she decided to rain fire on her foes rather than scuffle with them in the dirt.

Taking in the sight before her, Chrysalis chuckled to herself. The initial attack, as well the broad strikes from the griffons had scattered the Mareitanians. Unless they were to regroup now they'd be picked apart piece by piece until there was nothing left. Chrysalis smiled as her horn glowed with destructive energy. No way in hell was she going to let that happen, not when there were still so very many Mareitanians left.

"Take your time, princesses; the day is far too young to finish this too quickly."

The flight over the Canterhorn wasn't easy with the wind blowing as hard as it was. It left Twilight wondering why the city didn't feel it to anywhere near the same degree. Perhaps the altitude really did make that much difference. At any rate, the wind was slowing them down enough that she was worried that the attack on the Mareitanian army would start before they were ready to launch their own strike.

"Almost there," Rainbow said, although it was a debate over who she was saying it to. If Rainbow was finding it difficult, then perhaps it was actually difficult, which made Twilight feel a little better about it. That said, Luna was powering through it with a dignity that Twilight couldn't hope to match, alicorn or not.

They did eventually reach the top though, just as the changelings and griffons reached their own targets and began their attack. Even from this altitude it was easy to see the stir this was creating in the city, even at this sleepy hour. They wouldn't have much time before Faust made herself involved, so they needed to make their presence known now.

"Once we've cleared around the castle, follow us in," Luna instructed Cadence as she passed Moondancer and the crate containing the oubliette over. Twilight did the same with Starlight a second later, but kept hold of Trixie. "We can't risk these ponies, or the oubliette, so be careful."

"Nice to see I'm excluded from being kept safe," Trixie commented. "I'm important too!"

"Yes, but you can handle a fight," Luna said back. "Now did I make myself clear, Cadence?"

Cadence spent a moment juggling Moondancer, the crate, Starlight, and Shining Armour around in her magic before answering. "Yes Luna, I can manage that just fine without the need for coddling."

"Very good. Lightning Dust, you may begin your attack whenever you're ready. I suggest you be ready now though."

"Yes Princess." Lighting looked to Rainbow and Vapor, getting a confident grin and a nod back. The other Wonderbolts seemed ready to go as well, as did the griffons. It really was now or never.

"Alright, we strike on my mark. Watch your wings in those tight spaces, and be sure to check your targets. We do not want civilian casualties, so be careful. Now on three! One! Two! Three! Attack!"

All of them dove on Lightning's order, the princesses, Nightmare, Ember, and the Wonderbolts heading for the castle, while the griffons spread out to cover the city. For once they flew in silence, keeping their customary battle shouts silent so as to not alert the city defenders. Only when they were barely a hundred meters above the city did they finally call out in a deafening cacophony that surprisingly distracted the defenders more than the attack below did. The griffons carved into the defenders with no resistance at all.

Those around the castle were a different story though, and with good reason since their job required them to be ready. Even so, they were far from expecting a trio of alicorns to drop in with an angry unicorn, a dozen armed pegasi, and a dragon for company, let alone all the griffons.

Twilight dropped Trixie into a running landing towards the castle door, letting Trixie take care of the four guards there while she pulled off to join the attack on the soldiers in the courtyard. It wasn't an easy attack to join though as griffons swooped from all directions. More than once she had to hold back a spell to avoid hitting friendly targets.

A wall of flame leapt around the south of the courtyard as Ember blocked off the singular ramp up to the castle. There were other, less obvious ways up that the soldiers would no doubt resort to, but with the main way cut off they couldn't hope to get the numbers needed up to the courtyard fast enough to present a serious problem.

Twilight gave up trying to fight around the griffons, instead choosing to drop to the ground. All that showed her when she did was that the fight out here was pretty much already over. Shields and magic were simply no competition for what the soldiers were up against in this situation.

"The way in is clear," Trixie reported as Twilight made her way over to the castle entrance. "I haven't actually opened the doors yet though. I thought I'd let the big, strong, immortal alicorns do that."

"Right, of course." Twilight pointed her horn upwards and launched a flare, signalling for Cadence to join them. While she waited for the pink alicorn and her passengers to arrive she looked around. Luna and Ember were mopping up some stragglers, Nightmare was taunting a duo of holdouts hiding under a shield, and the Wonderbolts were circling above.

"Lightning, Rainbow, down here please!" Twilight shouted, drawing on the two pegasi, as well as Vapor, down to her. "You know to keep this place clear once we go in. We can't be attacked from behind when we're trying to stop Faust."

"Yeah, we know, Twilight," Rainbow scoffed. "Do you seriously think we'd let any of these bastards get to you?"

"It's not a matter of what you think, but what you have to do. Keep Ember up here guarding the entrance. She can fill it with fire as a last resort if it comes to it."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning said quickly before Rainbow could roll her eyes again.

"You don't need to call her ma'am," Rainbow said quietly.

"We'll take care of everything out here."

"Good, thank you." Giving them a nod, Twilight trotted over to the other princesses, leaving the three Wonderbolts to get on with other things.

"And here I was hoping that Ember would be sticking with us," Lightning muttered. "I guess it doesn't matter, not when we need to get back into the fight before those griffons start making a mess."

"Isn't it kind of specist to say that?" asked Vapor.

"Isn't it kind of redundant to say that since battles aren't what you would call clean," Rainbow said as well.

"Both of those things are true, now shut up, and let's get moving."

The battle for Canterlot had quickly turned into a stalemate, or that's what it seemed like at least. You could suppose that there is only so many ways you can react to a massive influx of armed griffons, and the Mareitanians had opted to go to ground, which was easy for them really, and make it difficult for the griffons to get them.

In any other situation that might've been fine, except that it endangered civilians, and if they all caught wind of what was happening in the palace and decided to rally, the griffons would be very hard pressed to stop them. That meant that they had to be taken care of, which was a messy proposition, but one that would have to happen anyway since they planned on permanently taking the city back.

"Damn, Chrysalis does not mess about," Rainbow commented on the battle below on the plains around Canterlot. "Changelings are pretty intense when they aren't holding back."

"Keep your eyes on what's happening here," Lightning scolded. "The last thing you need to be is distracted."

"Sorry, but it's that or look at Ponyville." Rainbow waved at the ruins of Ponyville in the distance, still smouldering after the fight that happened there between Faust and Celestia. The only part that seemed untouched was Twilight's castle thanks to the protections the Tree of Harmony granted it. "I mean, seriously, they even took out my cloud house. Or it drifted away ages ago. Whichever."

"Or you could pay attention to what's happening here. Just a suggestion."

"Yeesh, yes moooom."

"That's better, young lady." Lightning scanned the city below here, trying to figure out a way forwards, finding it in a fairly straightforward place. At the end of a street, trapped in a dead end were a number of ponies huddled under a shield with some griffons watching them from the rooftops. They must've been trying to find shelter, but ending up cornering themselves in their haste. Now they were stuck, trapped until the unicorns gave out and dropped their shield, giving the griffons their chance to finish them off.

That was a strangely unimportant part of things though. Trapped with the Mareitanians were some Saddle Arabians, who were supposedly on the side of the Pact. It appeared as though they'd been assigned to guard Canterlot, or some were at least. This gave the attackers an opportunity, but it would cost the Saddle Arabians if they weren't careful.

The three Wonderbolts joined the griffons on the rooftops, putting a stop to the taunts the griffons were shouting at the trapped ponies. She did consider asking them to surrender, but there was a small problem with having nowhere to keep prisoners. That was a problem. A solvable problem, but still a problem.

"Lower your shield and drop your weapons," Lightning said loudly to the ponies below. "Do that and you shall be unharmed. You can't hold that shield up forever."

"They aren't going to surrender," Rainbow scoffed as the trapped ponies quickly discussed their options. A discussion that the Saddle Arabians were strangely excluded from. "I'm not sure the Mareitanians even know what that word means."

"Give them a moment at least," Lightning said back.

"I could give them two, but it won't matter."

Rainbow was right, and they all knew it. If they kept pushing the Mareitanians would probably attack, giving the griffons the opening they needed to take care of them, but that meant more dead griffons. The other option meant dead Saddle Arabians. Both options meant dead Mareitanians.

"Damn it." Lightning waved the nearest griffon over to her. "Can you tell the others in a language that the Mareitanians can't understand to get ready to attack, and also to not touch the Saddle Arabians?"

The griffon gave her a stiff nod and started passing her order around in their native tongue. Or that's what she hoped was happening. She had no way of telling. The griffons started to get ready though, so she assumed that they got the message. All they had to do was remind the Saddle Arabians of their allegiance, and this was sorted. If only Lightning had better memorised how to do that...

"Ki... kid... kidma something? Shit."

"Best choice of leader here," Rainbow teased. "Can't even remember a two word sentence."

"And I suppose you remember it just fine, do you?"

"Of course not, but it wasn't my job to remember it."

"Oh, sure, sure, only I have to remember everything, lead the attack, and make sure some unicorn doesn't blow your head off while you're daydreaming. Seriously, Rainbow, just-"

"Khidmat Sultanik," Vapor interrupted, an edge to her words showing that she was getting annoyed at the two of them. "That's it. Khidmat Sultanik."

"See? Vapor's useful," Lightning said primly. She cleared her throat as Rainbow and the griffons gave her a look, then looked down at the ponies below, or more specifically at the Saddle Arabians with them.

"Khidmat Sultanik! Khidmat Sultanik!"

All of them waited as the Saddle Arabians shared a few nervous glances, then with a nod drew their swords and swiftly beheaded the unicorns maintaining the shield, catching the Mareitanians completely off-guard. They weren't given a lot of time to think about it as the griffons were upon them a few seconds later.

Lightning led her wing in, side swiping a unicorn before taking out a Mareitanian that had turned on the Saddle Arabians in the hopes of getting a little revenge. She needn't have worried though as the Saddle Arabians seemed to have little problem taking care of themselves at close range. Several dead bodies lay at their hooves, blood pouring from the substantial wounds their swords left behind.

Together they quickly finished off the rest of the Mareitanians, who had been less than prepared for an attack from behind as well. There had only been twenty to begin with, and there were none left now. With the threat taken care of, Lightning stood before the Saddle Arabians, who offered her a bow.

"Are you all okay?"

"H-yes, th-hank you," one of them said in a way that made Lightning's ears twitch. He spat on one of the corpses on the ground, "It is a rhelief to not be serving these traitorous dogs any fhurther."

"That can't be a real accent, can it?" Rainbow asked in a whisper. "It's way too..." Rainbow waved a hoof, "theatrical."

"Shh." Lightning smiled at the six Saddle Arabians, "Thanks for getting us through the shield. It'd been a lot harder without you. Uh, how many more Saddle Arabians are there in the city?"

"A few hundred of us. The rest reside on the plains behlow."

"And can you convince those in the city to start fighting back? If you're all mixed in with the defenders, that can give us an opening to start taking care of things if they did."

"Of course! That is our purpose here, is it not?"

Lightning grinned, relieved at having been given such a huge break. If she could get Rainbow and Vapor around to the other Wonderbolts and tell them about the Saddle Arabians and what the plan is, then remind them of the phrase to get them on their side, things could get easier. Or they could create a new plan...

"You've been here for a while now, I guess," Lightning said to the apparent leader of the Saddle Arabians. She was going to make him the leader if he wasn't. "Is there somewhere in the city the Mareitanians would fall back to in a situation like this? Besides the castle that is."

"Hmm..." The Saddle Arabian scratched his chin, "without the castle it is difficult to say. Somewhere large in a central location with a roof to protect them from the griffons. Somewhere they could hide until help arrives."

"The opera house on the central layer would be my guess," said one of the other Saddle Arabians, whose gentle expression conflicted with the blood splatters her white coat had.

"Hmm, h-yes," the stallion agreed, "that would be a good place. If h-you want to stop the Saddle Arabians from gathering their strength, you should stop them gathering there."

"Actually, I have a better, or possibly worse idea."

"This is a terrible idea," Spitfire said once she'd learned the plan from Lightning herself, "but not totally without merit. I just hope that it goes the way you hope it will."

"Feathers crossed, yeah." Lightning looked up as more griffons raced across the sky, giving a halfhearted impression of chasing ponies down. That's all they were meant to do though, for now. The Mareitanians needed to believe that the griffons were still after them, which they technically were, and that the Saddle Arabians were guiding them to safety. It was a carefully concocted lie, but it had a grain of truth in it since some of the Mareitanians had gathered in the opera house anyway. It just wasn't going to end how they wanted.

"If this fails, you're going to be getting a lot of people killed on both sides."

"I know!" Lightning snapped back. "That was probably going to happen anyway! If you want to take charge, Captain, be my guest!"

Spitfire shook her head, "It doesn't matter who's in charge now, there's no changing this plan. As I said, I just hope it goes the way we want."

Lightning bit her tongue, knowing that blowing up at Spitfire right now wouldn't help no matter how understandable the others might find it. Instead she put her mind to the real problem.

The opera house was a large building with a small open space around it, because Canterlot rarely allowed for big open spaces. At the very least it had several carriage lengths of space between it and the neighbouring buildings. That space was rapidly filling up with Mareitanians who were determined to hold that point. The trick here was to force them into the opera house itself, and there was only one way to do that.

"Are there many more Mareitanians out in the city?" Lightning asked Rainbow, who had been put in charge of keeping an eye on that situation.

"Not many. The griffons are scouring the city, and the Saddle Arabians are doing their job pretty damn sweetly. The Mareitanians have no idea that they're on our side."

"Good, because that is very important to the plan." Lightning watched the opera house as more ponies ran in to the vicinity, the griffons peeling off before the large number of ponies there could take them down. "I think we're almost ready. Everyone head out and start rounding the griffons up so we can start pushing the Mareitanians into the opera house."

"On it!" Rainbow replied, with the other Wonderbolts giving similar replies. They rushed off to do as they were asked, leaving Lightning to think about things. Or in other words, mire herself in doubt.

"I should never have been put in charge of this," she grumbled to herself. The potential loss of life she was about to incur weighed heavy on her mind. How did the princesses live with this burden all the time? It was baffling. It was even more baffling to think that they wanted to, like they enjoyed this sort of thing.

Lightning knew they didn't really, but the argument in her head didn't allow for that kind of rationale.

"Five minutes and we'll be ready to push," Fleetfoot reported, the first of the Wonderbolts to return. "Are you really sure about this, Lightning? The Mareitanians have to know we'll attack them here."

"Yes, but that's what we want. We have to assume that they'll fall back inside the opera house for safety. Hopefully some confusing shouts from the Saddle Arabians will help them do that."

"Yeah, but then what? We keep them there until Faust is beaten? That doesn't mean they'll give up. If anything it could make them fight harder."

"I guess Spitfire didn't tell you the rest of the plan?" Lightning made a face as Fleetfoot shook her head, "Figures. The plan after that is that we have a fire breathing dragon."

"You're going to burn the opera house with them inside it? Really?"

"No, not quite," Lightning said sheepishly. "We're going to encourage them to leave it again, in a disorganised hurry, right into our trap."

"That's-" Fleetfoot stopped herself and shrugged, "I was going to say that's horrible, but I don't think I have anything to back it up with. It's going to be a slaughter, plain and simple."

Lightning nodded once, "It could be. Hopefully they'll realise it's futile to fight and give up."

"Yeah, maybe." Fleetfoot swung a hoof aimlessly, wishing she had something to kick. "How the hell did things get so fucked up that the only way we have to stop the Mareitanians is to kill them all? Did we forget to tell them that surrendering is an acceptable tactic?"

"Along with reminding them that turning on their allies and conquering them is not okay."

Fleetfoot winced at the very unsubtle meaning of Lightning's words. "Yeah, I get it; we made one of the finest militaries in the world, then got to watch as they turned on us. I hardly need you to remind me."

Lightning sighed, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"There's no point denying it either." Fleetfoot looked up and smiled as the other Wonderbolts started to return, "I guess now isn't the time to be thinking about it. I think we're ready to go, Captain Dust."

"There's a name I didn't think I'd never want. Ugh, whatever." Lightning shook her head and looked around as the griffons lined up ready to attack. Many of them were starting to look weary, which was enough to indicate that this had gone on long enough. One more serious push, and they could end the fight to take Canterlot.

Lightning waited as the final round of orders were passed around the griffons. Everything was set, so there was no putting it off any longer. With a silent signal given my a wave of her hoof, the attack was started.

A ring of griffons constricted around the opera house, eerily silent until they were close enough to make their silence unnecessary. Once again their customary battle shouts filled the skies as they swooped in to the open space around the opera house, dodging and weaving though the arrows and magic as they dove.

Lighting and the Wonderbolts hung back from the opening attack, unfairly letting the far more numerous griffons take the hits. There wasn't that much difference in it though as they were soon upon the enemy. In a flash they were weaving through the Mareitanians, and seconds later they were pulling back up. Lightning hadn't hit anything, but the blood on one of Rainbow's blades suggested that she had. Hopefully it hadn't been a griffon, but it was rather hard to tell in a fast and confusing melee like that.

Within seconds of their attack the shields started to go up, unfortunately trapping a few griffons under them that were swiftly taken down once they lost the freedom of movement. It would only provide a temporary relief for the Mareitanians at best as the griffons started hammering at the shields with their Kuua coated weapons. The Wonderbolts took a different route, launching bolts of lighting in rapid succession to obliterate the few shields that weren't obscured by griffons.

Lightning's ears twitched as she heard shouts to fall back into the opera house, and she shared a grin with her wing mates as their plan fell into place. Watching from above, she could see groups of Saddle Arabians directing ponies in to the opera house, subtly making sure that they were the last to get to the large glass doors that fronted the building. When the last of the Mareitanians were in they turned and ran back, joining a ring of griffons that was forming firing lines around the entrance.

Everyone held their breath to see if the Mareitanians would come back out, either thinking that the Saddle Arabians were counter attacking, or even to get revenge on them for seemingly switching sides, but they stayed put. For now at least. It would only be a matter of time before they tried something. Lightning, and everyone there knew they would have to act first.

"Guess they know that the Saddle Arabians have betrayed them now," Rainbow said conversationally. "They have to know they're fucked. There can't even be that many of them left, can there?"

"There's enough," Lightning said back. She was going to say more, but she stopped as Ember flew in on lazy wing beats, one of her claws occupied by a large emerald that she was biting chunks out of like it wasn't made of an unfeasibly hard material. "Where did you get that?"

"Some stressed out pony threw it at me from a castle window. I mean, it was kind of a dick thing to do, but hey, free food, y'know?"

Lightning blinked as Ember finished the emerald off. That emerald from the castle that probably held significant historical value, if not actual value, and was getting eaten by Ember like some common piece of fruit. It almost hurt to watch.

"So what's going on here?" Ember asked. "I was told you needed me?"

"Uh, yes," Lightning said as she realised that the piece of cultural and historical vandalism she was about to perpetrate far outweighed some emerald getting eaten by a dragon. "I need you to set fire... to the opera house."

"Opera comes in houses? I thought you ponies could literally sing anywhere you wanted at the drop of a hat."

"Please don't fuck with me, Ember. Can you do it or not?"

"Can I set fire to things? Why yes, yes I can. You could almost call it a specialty of mine."

Lightning rolled her eyes, "Can you just do it? Please?"

"Alright, but, and I can't believe I'm being the voice of reason here, but those ponies in there have to know they're screwed. Why aren't you giving them a chance to give up?"

"Do you think they would?" Vapor asked.

"Heck if I know," Ember replied with a shrug. "I'm just wondering why you aren't even giving them the option. You have to have at least one griffon for every one of them, so how much trouble can they be?"

Lightning looked at the opera house, thinking of the ponies within. Did they really think they had a chance? Were they willing to die fighting a battle for Faust that they couldn't win? She supposed it didn't matter now that the matter of surrendering had been brought up. They would have to ask.

"They're trying to break out through the rear entrance!"

Lightning jolted at the shout, having not been expecting it. "Can you hold it?" she shouted back at the griffon who reported it.

"Not for long. If you're going to do this thing, you need to do it now!"

"Damn it!" Lightning cursed, feeling the chance to request a surrender slipping through her hooves. Hesitating now could ruin the entire plan and send them straight back to square one. "Ember! Get that place alight now!"

"Alright then," Ember shrugged. She flew down towards the roof of the opera house, breathing a wave of flame over it, repeating the action several times until the entire roof was engulfed in her purple flame, at least until the timbers caught, slowly shifting the colour to a more normal orange.

Lightning felt nothing but regret as the building burned. This was so far beyond what the plan should've been, whatever it had been in the first place. Now they'd trapped the Mareitanians here between a rock and a hard place, and what? They thought this was going to end well?

"Get ready!" Spitfire shouted past Lightning, having clearly given up on expecting her to lead effectively. "As soon as it's clear they intend to attack, you open fire, and you do not stop until they do!"

There was an almighty crack as the burning roof sagged. The Mareitanians had to be running out of time, and it wasn't as if they didn't have the strength to break out of the place since it was entirely unlocked. Much longer and the smoke and fire would take care of a lot of them.

As soon as Lightning thought that the doors burst open, but rather than surge out to attack, the Mareitanians staggered out, coughing and gasping for air as smoke billowed out through the now open doors, which also introduced a rush of oxygen into the building, feeding the fires.

"Come on," Lightning whispered, wishing for the Mareitanians to hurry up and get out of there. Much longer and the roof would collapse. The griffons seemed indifferent to the idea, but the Wonderbolts weren't. Especially not Lightning, who was having to hold herself back from having to help. She couldn't for long.

"Come on! We have to help them!" Lightning yelled, her voice strained with guilt. She rushed forwards, planning to help drag the survivors to safety for there was a clear path for more to escape the inferno. Instead, what she got was an arrow in the chest from a terrified, soot stained, and wild eyed mare. It hardly seemed fair really.

"Nooo!" Rainbow screamed as she saw Lightning get hit. She had barely moved an inch since Lightning had rushed in like an idiot, and now she wasn't anywhere near enough to help her friend as she crashed to the ground, unmoving. Without thinking Rainbow flew in to grab Lightning and get her out of there, and she wasn't alone in that, but all the Mareitanians saw was more enemies attacking them. The conclusion felt very foregone from that point.

Rainbow dodged a poorly aimed bolt of magic, drawing her blades without thinking, and half a second later had the blood of the unicorn upon them. Immediately after that the griffons joined her in the attack, falling upon the already struggling Mareitanians like a swarm of flies.

Rainbow blanked it out, her only thought being to find Lightning while there was a chance she might have survived the arrow and the landing. She darted through the fight, dodging some of the attacks that came her way, sometimes retaliating with deadly effect. All the time she was searching, but it was pointless trying to find one downed pony in the fray.

Seconds passed like minutes as the fight continued, and Rainbow found herself getting sucked further into the fight as more Mareitanians rushed out of the burning building. That only ceased when the roof finally collapsed, although the flow of Mareitanians was slowing before that, so the majority of them had to have made it out, only to die to the attacking griffons instead.

Slowly the fight came to a standstill, with pockets of Mareitanians surrounded by griffons. It was clear that they'd given up the fight, and didn't argue as they were asked to drop their weapons. There was barely a couple hundred of them left at this point, and were in no condition to fight anyway. Even they could see there was no surviving this if they carried on fighting.

Normally Rainbow would be relieved, but at this point she couldn't care less. As soon as she thought it was reasonably safe to do so she resumed searching for Lightning, although she now felt pretty numb while doing so. She wasn't alone in her search either as all the other Wonderbolts, save Spitfire who was busy taking command, searched with her, picking through the bodies until they found the one they were looking for.

It wasn't long before one of them found her. Rainbow rushed over as soon as she heard the shout from High Rise, but slowed to a stop as she saw him uncovering her body and pulling her from amongst the others. The arrow was still protruding from her chest, hitting her just above where her armour covered.

Rainbow sat hard, her mind a cold hard blank. She tried to remove her helmet, her hooves fumbling with the clasps until she finally undid it, allowing her to finally tear her helmet off and throw it aside, letting her tears fall.

"Rainbow..." Vapor croaked from beside her. Rainbow turned to look at the pale pegasus, finding her expression as torn with grief as her own. She tried to find her voice to say something, anything back, but it was gone. What was there to say anyway? Vapor had lost Sky Stinger and Lightning now. What right did she have to tell Vapor it would be okay? Or some other meaningless platitude?

Rainbow flinched as she felt legs take hold of her, and choked when she realised it was Vapor leaning against her. She knew what it meant though, that after everything it was just the two of them that made it through. Lightning had come so close to the finish line, and ended up losing a battle with her conscience instead. That honestly didn't make it hurt any less. If anything, it made it hurt a whole lot more.

Standing before the sealed doors of Canterlot castle, Twilight had to admit there was certain feeling to the situation, an anticipation that she couldn’t quite put a hoof on for a few seconds until the realisation hit her at once. She was excited to be invading the castle. Not because it meant stopping Faust and ending this farce, but because invading Canterlot castle wasn’t exactly something you got to do every day, or ever really. It was patently absurd, but that’s what made it interesting.

“You’re smiling weirdly and I don’t like it,” Trixie commented as a grin crept across Twilight's face. What she said only seemed to make it bigger.

“We’re invading Canterlot castle. How many times in a lifetime do you think you get to do that?”

“In your supposed lifetime? This is probably only the first time for you. I wonder what the second will involve?”

Twilight held back a shudder, “I hate to even imagine the sort of scenario that would require us to do all this again.”

“But what if you’re invading it because you’re the bad guy?”

“Gee, Trixie, that was such a fantastic vote of confidence in me. I feel much better now, thank you.”

Trixie ducked her head, “Sorry. It sounded a lot better in my head. A lot of the things I do are like that, to be honest. Anyway, when are we heading in? I’m asking because standing here doing nothing feels pretty pointless.”

Twilight looked back to where Luna was delivering some orders to the griffons that would be following them in to secure the castle once they’d done the hard work of taking it. They’d also be escorting Shining, Moondancer, and Starlight in, although that seemed unnecessary.

“I hope the girls are managing fine with Flurry Heart,” Cadence said with a wan smile as Twilight's gaze drifted over her. “Probably not the most pertinent worry I could have, but there you go.”

Twilight gave her a smile back, keeping to herself her agreement on how pertinent that worry really was. The fact was though that if Cadence had time to worry about Flurry, then they really ought to be getting along with things.

“Luna,” Twilight said loudly, her patience finally giving out, “don’t you think it’s time we were getting on with this? They’re only going to get more prepared in there, not less.”

“I am very aware of that, Twilight, but I have very specific orders to give concerning the wellbeing of the staff here. Anyway, I do believe we are ready to go, so if you’ll prepare yourselves we can begin our attack.

Twilight nodded and lined up to the right of Luna, while Cadence went to the left with Trixie staying just behind. Together they built their magic up to unleash against the great doors, hoping to batter them open in one swift move using a magical battering ram. The air hummed with the build-up of potent energy as a roiling orb of magic formed. A few seconds after that they released it, obliterating half the door, and destroying every bar and lock holding them so that the remains swung open to crash against the walls.

All of them switched to shields as the soldiers holding the entrance fired back, although the amount of fire was far less than the number of soldiers suggested there should be. Many of them were trying to recover from the spray of burning splinters the carnage of the door had sent their way. They weren’t given the time they needed though as Trixie fired her own magic indiscriminately into the mass of soldiers, along with Shining and Starlight, although the latter was considerably more reluctant in using her magic on already wounded soldiers. Trixie more than made up for that.

“Move in!” Luna commanded, dropping her shield and summoning her glaives to charge in amongst the soldiers. Twilight and Trixie followed suit, with Swordy coming into play. Cadence hung back. There was no point in expecting her to join in for this part of the fight. Instead she maintained her shield as Shining and Starlight continued to take pot shots.

There was barely fifty soldiers here, defending the main entrance to the castle, and a third of them were pretty much out of the fight just through the doors being blown open. Another third fell to the combined fire of two alicorns and three unicorns, while the remainder stood no real chance after that. Without shields they were susceptible to the long range attacks, and once Luna and Twilight closed to melee the fight was pretty much over. Less than a dozen remained to throw their weapons down once the alicorns had bloodied theirs.

“This cannot possibly be all they have defending this place,” Luna said as the griffons moved in to secure the prisoners and clear the dead. “Would they be so foolish as to leave their Queen without protection?”

“Not that she needs it,” Trixie said quickly. “Or that they could stop us with more soldiers. Be a bit of a waste really, throwing their lives at us like that.”

Luna deflated a little, “Those are both valid points. My concern is that Faust isn’t being defended because she isn’t here to be defended.”

“Only one way to find out,” Twilight said back. “Let’s head to the throne room and see if Faust is there. Shining, follow us in with Starlight and Moondancer, but keep back until we’ve engaged with Faust.”

“Shouldn’t Trixie stay with us as well?” Shining asked slowly, frowning as Trixie barked a laugh. The frown grew as it because apparent that was all the reply he was getting.

The castle on the way to the throne room was relatively clear, save for the occasional member of the castle staff caught out in the open. All of them relaxed as they discovered who was entering the castle and happily obeyed when they were directed towards the outside where the griffons would keep them safe.

Nearer the throne room was a different story though. Soldiers wearing a shinier, more elite looking armour were guarding the doors, and seemed ready for a fight. An even mix of unicorns and earth ponies, a dozen of each, waited for the princesses.

“Ohh, so very intimidating,” Trixie said dryly, rolling her eyes. “I think they think that the fancy armour makes them better fighters or something. I look forward to informing them that they’re mistaken.”

“Said Trixie in her fancy armour to the three alicorns in similarly fancy armour,” Twilight said back in a equally dry tone. She sighed as they eyed the guards, who were equally content to wait for the alicorns to throw themselves on their defences. “I don’t suppose anyone has a plan?”

“Only if you count that as a plan?” Trixie said, pointing a hoof to the side of where the soldiers were located.

“I don’t see anything,” Luna said back after a few seconds.

“You will, assuming she doesn’t wuss out.”

All of them kept waiting a watching after Trixie's cryptic comment, and it took about thirty seconds to find out what it was she was alluding to. A wisp of midnight blue smoke was creeping around the corner behind the guards, subtly coiling through their legs until it bellowed up with enough force to send most of the guards flying. A peel of malicious laughed echoed through the stone hall for a few seconds before its originator seemed to remember herself enough to put more effort into attacking instead.

Twilight, Luna, and Trixie galloped forwards to assist Nightmare, cutting down many of the guards before they could recover enough to put up a fight. Twilight tried her best to go for nonlethal methods of dealing with them, seeing as how their freedom from Faust was hopefully nigh, but Nightmare was swinging her axe with such wild abandon that half of them were killed before Twilight could finish subduing them.

“I was wondering where you had gotten to,” Luna said to her doppelganger as the darker alicorn wiped the blood off her weapon.

“I was scouting the castle since it seemed like it might be a useful thing to do.”

“Was displacing your armour also useful?”

“It’s around the corner,” Nightmare grumbled bashfully. “It fell off me when I turned into a cloud. That’s not important though. Faust is here, and she’s waiting for you- well, us, in the ballroom. That ponce Blueblood is in the throne room. Celestia's here as well, although she’s not in a very good condition right now. We should probably help her before dealing with Faust, and you know I mean it if I’m saying it.”

“Yes, yes, you hate my sister, we know.”

Nightmare’s eyes tightened. “I hope you’re as offended as I am right now when your issues are dismissed so flippantly!”

“Dear Nightmare, what do you think created you in the first place? Now then, since dying might only improve Celestia's day, we will deal with Blueblood while you replace your armour.” Luna paused with her magic holding the door, “Although a dead Celestia would be no use at all. Is she-"

“Going to die imminently?” Nightmare shook her head, “No, although whatever is going on with her does look like it hurts.”

“Then let us deal with this fool quickly.”

With as much dramatic flair as she could be bothered to muster, Luna threw open the large doors to the throne room, and walked through them with a confident strut towards the throne at the far end where Blueblood was secretly hoping the four guards there with him would prove more effective than the two dozen he posted outside. As their semi-lifeless forms were thrown to the sides of the room like sacks of straw, he suspected they would not.

“You won’t win,” he said after a few seconds of watching his aunt, Cadence, and some other unimportant ponies get closer to him. “Faust can’t be stopped by the likes of you.”

“Perhaps,” Luna said back evenly, “but I’ll still have the satisfaction of knowing you won’t be around to see her victory.”

“You can’t do that!” Blueblood argued, mirroring the shocked and pleading words of Cadence since even he could quickly work out what she was alluding to.

“Why ever not? Twilight, what is the accepted punishment for treason?”

Twilight gave Blueblood a pleasant smile, seeing where this was going. “I do believe that under Equestrian law the punishment for treason is life imprisonment, with an eye to rehabilitation if possible.”

“There!” Blueblood yelled triumphantly. “You can’t kill me for anything!”

“However,” Twilight continued, “under the wartime act, during wartime such laws may be suspended for the security of the nation, especially for an individual already guilty of a previous charge of treason.” Twilight let that sink in for a moment, “Of course that’s rather irrelevant to the situation since Equestrian law doesn’t really exist after its replacement with Mareitanian law, where the punishment for treason, and a great many other things, is death.”

“Beautifully concise as always, Twilight,” Luna said back with a bow of her head. “The fact of the matter is, dear nephew, you have no means with which to plead your innocence, and zero chance of us listening anyway.”

“I am an unarmed non combatant-"

“Who just had nearly thirty soldiers try to kill us. Even more amusingly was that you thought it would work. Yet another reason why you’re such a disappointment.” Luna shook her head sadly, “I’m afraid you’ve left me no choice, nephew. If it helps, I regret the grief this is going to cause Celestia to give me.”

Luna swung her glaives up then down, bringing them down on the back of Blueblood's neck. Cadence near screamed in shock, but even she held it back when Blueblood’s head failed to roll free of his neck. Instead he slumped forwards to the ground, sliding to the bottom of the dais steps in a pile, still whole, and still breathing if very much not conscious.

“Well he definitely thought that was real,” Trixie said with a laugh as she saw the trickle of urine that Blueblood left behind him on his journey to the floor. “Wait, why wasn’t it real?”

“Quite,” Cadence agreed with a uncharacteristic growl. “I’m not sure what I would’ve done if you had.”

“Oh relax,” Luna chuckled. “I only wanted him to think it was real. Dying would’ve been a mercy compared to what’s going on in his head right now.”

“And that’s it?” Trixie asked incredulously. “That’s his punishment? A trick and a scary dream?”

“Good heavens no, that’s just the beginning. As the one to have suffered the most from his betrayal, Celestia shall be the one to decide his fate, once he’s been put on trial of course.”

“Trial?” Trixie pouted at Luna, “Seriously?”

“Without Faust, someone has to have the hoof of blame pointed at them,” Twilight explained. “Celestia doesn’t really qualify, although there will have to be some kind of justice for what she did in Zebrica, and for her attack on the thestrals at Nostralis. Anyway, Blueblood is currently the best pony to put on trial for this since unlike all the others, he went along with this willingly.”

“And you’re sure about that?” Cadence asked.

Twilight rolled Blueblood onto his back, exposing the small scar he had on the inside of his front left leg, left behind by the crystal implant he had to prevent Faust's mind control magic from working. “I’m absolutely positive. On the other hoof though, I have no idea why he never told Faust about the implants everypony had.”

Luna dismissed it with a wave of her hoof, “A mystery for another time. Now we should go and find my sister, and hopefully put an end to her suffering.” Luna grabbed Blueblood and hefted him into the air, only to dump him back on the ground thirty seconds later outside the throne room where some griffons were securing those soldiers that hadn’t been killed.

“This is a priority prisoner,” she said to them. “Please ensure no harm comes to him.”

The two griffons looked at each other. “When you say that, do you mean that no harm should come to him,” the female of the pair started to ask, “or that no harm should come to him?”

“I mean it literally,” Luna iterated. “He will remain unconscious for some time anyway, so trying to hurt him would be totally wasted effort.” She leaned a little closer, “That doesn’t mean you should try, just so you are aware.”

The hen gulped, “Yes Princess Luna. We’ll-uh... take care of him right away.”

Luna watched as the two griffons dragged Blueblood away between them. “I wonder if I would have been better off saying nothing at all. No matter.” Luna shook her head and turned to face Nightmare, who had managed to replace her armour, which must’ve been quite the feat without having help to do so. “Perhaps you had best lead us to Celestia now.”

“Certainly. Let me just take a moment to contain my joy.”

“Now, please.”

“That’s fine, it’ll only take me a few milliseconds anyway. And... there we go. Follow me.”

The rest of the castle was relatively untouched, which was disconcerting in a way, like it had been completely separate from all that had happened. The halls were swept, the plants watered, and the ornaments meticulously dusted. Apart from the removal of any iconography relating to the night sky, it was like they had never left. This also led to the question of how Nightmare knew where she was going.

“Stop acting like I didn’t spend all of five minutes checking this place out,” Nightmare said in a semi playful tone as she led the way. “Celestia is just up ahead, and then you’ll maybe give me a little more trust over simple things like this, yes?”

“Then maybe we can go find Faust before she gets bored and decimates our army?” Trixie asked. She raised an eyebrow at the looks she got in return. “You know I’m right. It’s more or less convenience that she’s waiting for us.”

“Trixie does raise a point,” Luna agreed begrudgingly. “Nightmare?”

“Literally three doors away.” Nightmare trotted forward to the door she indicated. “Riiiight in here. Prepare yourself though, it’s a little weird.”

Luna grimaced at the smile Nightmare gave her, and pushed the door open fully expecting to find a perfectly normal room. In fact, it should’ve been the reading room that lay between hers and Celestia’s chambers, if her memory served her right. It did, but she couldn’t have told you that at the time.

The reading room was gone. Totally gutted and emptied out of everything, including windows. All that was left was a perfectly empty room that had no sources of light other than from what was at its middle, which also cast the walls into shadow, making it hard to tell how large the room really was. That was an unimportant detail though, since the source of light was Celestia, strapped to a bench. Around her swirled a ever shifting collection of fragmented images, all projected from the device clamped on her horn.

“Are those memories?” Cadence asked as she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the rapidly shifting pictures.

“Indeed, it would seem so,” Luna replied darkly “The question is if they are hers, or ones Faust wants her to have.”

“Or both,” Twilight added. “I’m pretty sure I just saw two versions of the same memory, so to speak. You know what I mean. I have no idea what any of this is though. Is Faust editing her memories again, or is she stripping them away to make Celestia more of a blank slate?”

“I’m guessing it’s not a pleasant process judging by the look on Celestia's face,” Trixie commented, having taken the time to actually pay attention to the individual these memories belonged to. Celestia’s eyes were wide, yet her pupils shrunken as her eyes rolled back in her head. She was groaning around the rubber bit in her mouth that her teeth were clamped down on. “You might want to fix this.”

“Oh Celestia,” Luna sighed. She went to remove the device on Celestia’s horn, but kept faltering as she found that she didn’t know how to get it off, and couldn’t see any discernible method of doing so. She suspected that it was made so that only Faust could use it so as to prevent any tampering from those that had reason to do so. Even then, the possibility of making things worse by removing it incorrectly was a concern that needed addressing. “Twilight? Any thoughts?”

“Me? What the heck do you think I know about this? This isn’t anything I’ve ever seen before. All I would suggest is that you be careful taking it off in case it does something permanent to Celestia’s mind.”

“Yes, thank you for that insight,” Luna said flatly. Luna stared hard at the device, sure that Faust had given it some lengthy and complicated name that she couldn’t even begin to guess at. She was quickly coming to the conclusion that without knowing more, there was only one practical solution to this problem; Celestia would have to lose her horn.

“Apologies for this, sister.” In one quick movement Luna summoned one of her glaives and swept it down over Celestia’s head before anypony else could even think to stop, or at least question her.

Celestia screamed into the bit in her mouth before her horn had hit the floor, and convulsed violently in her bonds as blood spurted from the stump of her horn. Luna tried to hold it in using her magic, but Celestia was thrashing hard enough that bits kept slipping through, hitting the other occupants of the room.

“Ugh, that almost went in my mouth,” Nightmare tutted as she took a step back. She then saw the way Cadence turned to glare at her. “What?”

“How can say that like this is nothing!? Luna just cut her horn off!”

“Yeah? And? What are you yelling at me for? I didn’t do it, even if it was exactly the same thing I would’ve done, except with, y’know, a massive grin on my face along with a sprinkling of gleeful laughter.”

Cadence failed to think of anything past that, so instead shifted her ire onto Luna. “What were you thinking?”

“That I didn’t know how to get that thing off, that I couldn’t leave it on there, and that this method was hopefully the best solution short of asking Faust nicely to take it off.”

“It also stops Celestia being a danger to us,” Trixie said with a thoughtful nod.

“There is some merit to what she did,” Twilight agreed. She blanched at the sharp glare Cadence shot at her. “I’m not saying that I would’ve started with that, but given the lack of further information to help remove that thing, this is probably what I would’ve done in the end as well.”

Cadence blinked and took a step back. “Well this is new. Apparently by remaining the only reasonably sane pony here, I’ve become the anomaly. Who could’ve seen that coming?”

Trixie shrugged at her, “Hang around with enough crazy ponies and you’re bound to lose a few of your marbles eventually.”

“I’m-" Cadence groaned loudly, “I don’t even know what to make of any of this any more.”

“Then make nothing of it and wait quietly,” Luna said back, paying no attention to the look Cadence gave her in return. “Celestia? Can you hear me, sister?”

“Mu cath mah fathing morn off!”

“I don’t think we need to remove her gag to work that out, do we?” Trixie said, only just managing to keep the snigger out of her voice. “I’m surprised she’s lucid enough to even say that much though.”

All of them backed away as a sudden surge of flame erupted from Celestia’s mane and tail before they settled back into her usual trio of colours. They waited, hoping that they weren’t about to see a resurgence of the fiery being they faced in Zanzebra. Cautiously optimistic about the continued lack of flame, and encouraged by a rather pointed look from the mare in question, Luna removed the gag.

“I would be most grateful if you could bring me a glass of water, and if possible something for the headache I had from before you cut off my horn.”

“Sister?”

“Yes it’s me you... urrgh...” Celestia squeezed her eyes shut and laid her head back with a grimace. A second later she slammed her head back on the table, again and again until Luna forced her to stop.

“Sist-"

“Don’t... call me that,” Celestia growled. She groaned again, her eyes going softer. “I’m sorry, Luna, I- Something’s wrong. They’re all still in here, and I don’t know which are real.”

“Your memories?” Luna asked, getting a weak nod in return.

“Generally speaking, the ones making us out to be the bad guys,” Trixie said lightly. “You should probably ignore those.”

“And any memory you have of Faust from before two years ago,” Luna added. “You never actually met her before that.”

“It’s not that simple.” Celestia turned her head and cracked one eye open to squint at Nightmare. “That is also going to require some explaining.”

“That is a she,” Nightmare said haughtily, “and she does not need to be explained to likes of you, Celestia.” Nightmare stood resolutely still as Celestia’s mane flared again as she struggled against her bonds. “That said, I have no desire to be your enemy even if I would be first in line to give you an ass kicking, should you require one. Besides, the reason you hate me is an actual, solid reason. Perhaps you should hold on to that, because I happened, whereas Luna’s little rebellion against you and Faust didn’t.”

“Both of them sound ridiculous when you say them like that,” said Twilight.

“I heard myself. Whatever. When you’re done coddling Celestia I’ll be over here with Cadence, waiting to go fight Faust.” Nightmare paused at how stupid that sentence alone sounded, but decided to leave it be with a shake of her head.

“So you really do have a plan to stop her?”

“We do.” Luna released her hold on Celestia’s head, pleased that the bleeding seemed to have stopped. “How do you feel about that?”

“Honestly? Nothing but relieved. I’d rather have no mother again, much more than one that treats me like this. I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me the plan? Does it have something to do with that wonderfully pink armour you’re wearing?”

“It might,” Luna said cautiously. While Celestia wasn’t being hostile, her attitude still seemed like it was a long way from what it used to be. Her horn had been removed, and she was shrugging it off like it was nothing, and hadn’t even happened. “Excuse me if I don’t give you all the details at this point considering all that has happened.”

“A reasonable concern, Luna, but far be it from me to even want to stop you at this point, let alone actually try. Frankly, I hope you make her suffer.”

“Okay, that is definitely not Celestia,” said Trixie.

“But it’s one we could get used to!” Nightmare chortled. “She has sass. I like sass.”

Celestia winced as the rest of them shared a look, “Apologies, I... I don’t know why I said that. I wouldn’t normally. Or at least I don’t think I would. It’s hard to tell any more. Perhaps it’s best if you just left me while you carry out your plan.”

“Are you going to be okay here, on your own?” Cadence asked, her concern for Celestia bringing her back into the conversation.

“I’ll be fine, thank you Cadence.” Celestia smiled, although it was a little shaky at the corners. “You all have your job to do, and I have mine, even if it is to stay out of the way.”

“That’s a relief since we had no intention of freeing you until we know what the full score is,” Nightmare said, smiling as the others all cringed awkwardly.

“Oh, well, far be it from me to argue then. I could use the time to think a bit anyway.”

Luna gave Celestia a warm if slightly uneasy smile, “We’ll be back as soon as we are able, sister. If we do not, you know why.”

“Then wouldn’t the smart thing to do be untying her so she can escape from Faust if we fail?” Trixie asked Luna.

“Until we know what is going on in Celestia’s head, no offense-"

“None taken.”

“-It would be wise to use caution.”

“Besides,” Celestia said, giving her own answer, “Faust would only hunt me down again, and possibly do something worse than she already has. At least now I could feign compliance and maybe earn myself a reprieve. No offense. I don’t wish to doubt you, but this is Faust we are talking about. Your victory is hardly assured.”

“Exactly,” Luna agreed, “although I do feel as though our chances are better than that. Anyway, we should be going now. Faust won’t wait forever. See you soon, sister.”

“See you soon... Luna,” Celestia returned, clearly still unwilling to confirm Luna as being her sister by more than genetics. If that affected Luna, she didn’t let it show.

Nightmare led the way out, her head held high as the others shuffled uncertainly towards the exit. Luna came last, lingering as she kept glancing back at her sister. Even out of the room she held back, giving Twilight a chance to question her.

“Diagnosis?”

“Diagnosis, Twilight? What is this, a hospital? There is no diagnosis for that, Twilight, beyond saying that her personality may or may not have been fractured by all that has been done to her.”

“I’m impressed she could be that lucid after having her horn cut off,” Trixie interjected. “Her tolerance to pain must be through the roof!”

“Perhaps,” Luna murmured, not entirely sure that Celestia hadn’t forgotten she even had a horn through all that. “Time will tell where Celestia is concerned, but for now we have wasted far too much of that. Let us be away to the ballroom to finish this.”

They found the others lurking near the entrance to the ballroom, the oubliette held in Moondancer’s magic. They couldn’t be described as being raring to go, not all of them at least, but there was obvious relief that the party of alicorns had finally turned up.

“Where have you been?” Shining whispered as loudly as he dared. “Any longer and I was going to start thinking that we’d have to do this without you!”

“We had things to do,” Luna replied curtly. “All that matters is that we’re here now. Have you seen or heard anything from Faust?”

Shining shook his head, holding back a sigh born of impatience at the princesses being gone so long. “Not a thing. I couldn’t even tell you that she’s actually in there. The only thing suggesting that she is in there is that she doesn’t seem to be anywhere else.”

“Then that will have to do.” Luna stared hard the large double doors to the ballroom, as though she wanted to blast them open through the weight of her gaze. “Wait here for us to engage her, then enter under Starlight's cloaking spell and pick somewhere subtle to begin your task. If she does spot you, then it is up to you, Shining, to protect Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight where we cannot.”

“Understood.”

“Good luck to all of us,” Trixie said quietly. She gave Twilight a smile, “Try not to get killed.”

“What? Just me? I’m flattered.” Twilight gave Trixie a hug, made awkward by the armour they were both wearing. “We’re all counting on each other here, so it’s probably best that none of us die.”

“Probably, but, y'know, if you alicorns want to take the deaths for the team, that’s fine by us mere mortals.”

“Your warmth is an inspiration to us all. Besides, we probably have a bit of time to play with since Faust is bound to monologue for a couple of minutes, so try to enjoy that time as much as possible.”

“Less talk, more go!” Nightmare groaned as Twilight and Trixie talked, although they was hardly the only ones she was directing it at. “Seriously, can we stop putting this off now?”

“Indeed,” Luna agreed. She walked up to the doors and gestured for Twilight and Cadence to join her since Nightmare was there before she had to be told. “For Equestria,” she said, pushing the doors open into the ballroom and entering.

The ballroom was bare, save for a chaise lounge at the far side of the room that was holding the reclining form of Faust. There were no guards, although it had been observed that Faust had no need of them, but it really did mean that Blueblood had taken all of the guards for himself. Possibly on Faust's orders since they’d actually agreed to protect him over their Queen.

Faust stood, flipping a book shut as she did and placing it down on her seat. “It’s lucky for you that I’m well versed in patience, otherwise today would’ve gone very differently. In the beginning at least. I’m expecting the outcome to remain much the same.”

“Us dead and you victorious?” Nightmare asked, earning herself an unamused glare from Faust. “What? Didn’t expect to see me again after sealing me up in a dungeon?”

“You were a mistake, nothing more, and one I should’ve taken greater steps to eliminate.”

“And yet only one of many you’ve made,” Luna said before Nightmare could make her comeback.

To their surprise, Faust nodded in agreement. “I’ve underestimated you, I admit. Time and time again you have all managed to put yourselves in exactly the right place at the right time to thwart my plans. You even managed to break Celestia and turn her against me, which did come as a surprise. One which you will be paying for.”

“You broke her in the first place!” Cadence shouted, her voice cracking. “So much death and suffering, and for what?”

“Thanks to you, almost nothing,” Faust growled. “That’s why I’m going without a plan now. You are what’s standing between me and my goals, so if I’m to succeed, you must go. My army can be rebuilt, my lands retaken, but so long as you’re around I will never be allowed to reach my goals in peace, therefore my only logical course is to destroy you.”

They scattered into the air as Faust attacked, firing a beam of magic that seared the marble floor in its passage, leaving behind a mess of molten rock. Clearly none of them were so keen as to test out their armour so early into the fight. Especially if it didn’t work quite as well as advertised. They split up, spreading about the room in constant motion so that Faust could only ever really see one of them at a time, switching and changing who attacked and when, not that they planned any particular method in doing so.

Twilight held back a little, doing her best to examine how Faust both attacked and defended herself. She hadn’t even moved yet, instead relying on shields to protect her as Luna and Nightmare threw spell after spell at her. They might as well have been throwing water balloons at her for all the difference it made.

“Attack together!” Luna chastised, encouraging to use their magic in unison. They did so, simultaneously firing beams of magic at the shield protecting Faust, who raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as her defences started to splinter. Then in a flash she was gone, and they cut gouges into the floor with their magic before they could stop themselves.

“Where did she go?” Cadence asked, quickly getting her answer as a blast of baby blue magic struck her from behind. She screamed, mostly out of habit as the most that happened was that she was sent tumbling through the air for a few meters before being able to right herself.

“Found her,” Nightmare said with a chuckle, quickly turning to attack again as Cadence patted herself in a quick search for injuries. She found none, so while the armour had been unable to negate all of the spells force, it have certainly rendered it mostly harmless, which was as much as they needed really.

“So that’s how it is,” Faust muttered as she deflected Nightmare's magic. “You’re going to make me work for it. Tell me, how effective do you think that armour is against physical attacks?” As to prove her point, Faust teleported again, this time to behind Luna who quickly dodged away as Faust bucked. Rather than keep running, Luna spun, summoning her glaives and crossing them in front of her to catch the next blow.

“I dare you to try shatter these,” she growled.

“So Celestia wasn’t lying,” Faust said with amusement, flinging a quick spell at Twilight who was hoping in vain to catch Faust off guard. “You do have new weapons.” She raised an eyebrow as she scanned the magic within the two glaives, “They barely seem stable though. Who made these?”

“All of us, together.”

Faust snorted a laughed, “How touching. No wonder they’re a mess. Still,” Faust lit her horn, summoning a broadsword that glowed with a soft inner light that shimmered with every movement. “This is Viribus, a blade forged when I was still young. He’s never taken a life in all his millennia, but I think we’re willing to make an exception for you.”

“So dramatic,” Nightmare snickered. “Luna, just... please, kill her already.”

Luna nodded, setting her stance. This wasn’t exactly going as she had expected it to, but if Faust wanted to play games, that only aided towards their actual goal. Flourishing her glaives, she lowered herself into a fighting stance and readied herself. She only just managed to catch Viribus with a glaive as Faust swung the sword with a speed that defied its size, but that sort of thing happened when magic was involved. At the very least her own weapons hadn’t shattered from the force, even if she felt her horn twinge from the impact.

Twilight watched on as the two alicorns fought, barely keeping up with the elaborate dance of blades. The spell the fight seemed to have on her would’ve remained unbroken too if it weren’t for the twitch of her ears as a new and subtle tone reached them. Casting her sight around she finally spotted Trixie and the others in the corner of the room nearest the entrance. They had already set the oubliette up and were concentrating on activating it. The only one not actively doing anything was Shining, but the stiff nod he gave before the cloaking spell went up told Twilight that he was ready to do his duty. All they had to do was theirs.

A sharp clash of metal on metal brought Twilight back to the fight going on between Luna and Faust. They had crossed their weapons with Faust forcing Luna's downward with little apparent effort. Luna snarled and pulled away, letting Viribus fall to a stop barely a centimeter from the ground, and readied herself for a new attack when Faust froze, her ears twitching as she noticed the tone.

“What is that? I know that sound...”

Twilight’s blood went cold. If Faust could sense the oubliette, and more importantly, what it was, then there was every chance that she could find where it was, or even run from it if she wanted. Naturally that would be a disaster, so they would have to do everything to keep her mind occupied. Twilight snapped off a quick yet strong blast of magic that Faust blocked with ease. At any rate it seemed to break the spell the fight seemed to have over the rest of them, and they all joined back into the fight.

Luna swung low, dodging beneath Viribus to strike at Faust’s legs, only just nicking her front left one as she jumped away, no longer allowing herself to be so distracted. They poured all the magic they could into their attacks as Faust faltered, trying to stay on her hooves as she kept a shield up.

“Keep going!” Luna shouted, encouraging them to keep Faust pinned as she tried to crack the shield with her glaives. She had almost succeeded in creating the tiniest crack when the shield pulsed, knocking them all back far enough for Faust to rally. She swung Viribus at Luna, knocking one of her two glaives away and reversing the direction to strike at Luna's head. She missed, and only just pulled back in time to avoid Luna re-summoning her glaive and planting it in Faust’s neck as her other glaive warded Viribus off.

“And why are you getting all the fun, huh?” Nightmare asked, pulling her battle axe from the ether and swinging wildly.

“Wait!” Twilight shouted after Nightmare, but there was no reaching her over the sudden burst of maniacal laughter that slipped out of her mouth as she raced for Faust. To her credit, small and insignificant as it might have been, her attack did put Faust off balance, allowing Twilight to get a spell off that seared across Faust's back, leaving a patch of burnt hair. It wasn’t really much to show for their efforts, but it was a start.

A throaty growl erupted from Faust as she batted Nightmare’ axe away to direct a stream of magic at Twilight, who drove behind a pillar to escape it. She winced as she felt the pillar disintegrate under Faust’s power, and was thankful when her attention was drawn elsewhere. Unfortunately that elsewhere was the ripple of a shield that had apparently been conjured from nothing to ward off the effects of Faust’s spell.

Twilight yelped as she realised her mistake, and forced herself to run back out to attack Faust in the hope that she’d immediately forget what she’d just seen. She shielded herself and charged the larger alicorn, screaming as she ran, partly from determination, but mostly from the abject terror she felt doing it. Nopony should ever wonder what it feels like to have their body turned to ashes in a split second and scattered to the wind. Thankfully that last part was slightly irrelevant after the first, but right then it seemed a significant concern.

Thankfully Twilight’s sudden attack pulled Faust’s attention away from the mystery shield, and also held it long enough for Luna and Nightmare to attack as well, scoring some solid hits on Faust with their magic, which was probably less effective than their weapons would’ve been, but it was something.

“Don’t stop!” Luna both begged and commanded as she continued to pour her magic into her attack, trying her best to keep Faust off balance. If they actually succeeded in beating her here, getting her into the oubliette would be relatively easy. It wasn’t to be though as Faust forced herself to shrug off the magic that was searing her flesh.

“Insects!” she growled as she finally established a shield. “You. Are. NOTHING!”

“Cadence!” Twilight yelled at the pink alicorn fluttering anxiously nearby, unsure of what she was supposed to do. “Help us!”

Cadence nodded quickly, charging her horn to strike at Faust’s shield, only to hit nothing as Faust vanished in the blink of a eye. Luna and Twilight only just avoided hitting each other as their magic lost their target, and Twilight had barely just recovered when Faust reappeared in the air next to Cadence, her rear facing the pink alicorn.

Time seemed to go slow as Faust unleashed the strength held in her legs, bucking Cadence with the sound of a high speed train impacting a wall made of crystal. Cadence's armour shattered around the impact, along with bones beneath as the kick sent her flying away. She crashed into one of the marble columns around the room, smashing through it before smacking into the floor and sliding to a stop, unmoving and surrounded by chunks of marble and razor sharp shards of crystal.

“Cadence!” Twilight shouted, although her voice was hardly the loudest as Shining bellowed his wife’s name. Faust’s head immediately whipped around to the source of the shout, a triumphant grin on her face.

“I knew it! I knew there had to be more to this ill conceived attack of yours!”

Twilight, Luna, and Nightmare did their best to stop Faust, but now she was sure something was amiss there was no distraction they could make that would pull her away from that shout. Shields, spells, weapons... even placing themselves between Faust and her target wouldn’t stop her. All they could do was fight and watch in horror as Faust fired a beam of magic that tore through Shining's shield like it was wet tissue paper, revealing what was happening within.

“Are you using Starswirl's own magic to try and stop me?” Faust asked incredulously as Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight swallowed their fear and kept casting. “Did you really think that would work? Did you really think that Starswirl would’ve created a spell that could harm me?”

By Twilight’s estimate the oubliette was close to finishing. They were so close! Another minute, maybe two, and Faust would’ve been stopped, but now the all powerful alicorn knew that they were only trying to distract her from the true threat, even if she was unknowing of what that threat really was.

Luna and Nightmare threw themselves at Faust, all pretence at even trying to win gone as they tried to stop her from disrupting the oubliette. Viribus blocked Nightmare’s battleaxe as Luna tried her best to remove Faust’s front legs, but it was pointless as Faust vanished from between them, leaving them to narrowly avoid hacking each other apart.

“Do something, Twilight!” Trixie pleaded as she watched the now farcical fight from the corner of her eye. Twilight nodded, determined to do anything and everything. Shining was down for the count, the shock at having his shield torn through with such ease knocking him unconscious, so she really was the last line of defence. Unfortunately her own shields weren’t strong enough on her own to hold against Faust either, so as Faust reappeared, a spell ready on her horn, there was only one thing to do; throw herself into the path of the spell and hope her armour did its job.

Twilight grunted as Faust’s magic clashed against her armour covering her with a feeling not unlike pins and needles. Faust didn’t even try to move, or use a different spell, or anything. She just kept blasting away with her magic until she either succeeded, or Twilight's armour failed. With a similar lack of alternative action, Twilight took it all, gritting her teeth against the growing sensation of static that seemed to move to all parts of her body, including inside it. Her only relief came when Luna and Nightmare recovered enough to attempt another attack.

Twilight gasped as she was released from the flood of magic, although she could barely tell through sight as her vision swam with bright and colourful blobs. About the only pertinent thing she could tell was that her armour was no longer pink, instead being as white as snow, and just as fragile seeing as how pieces of it cracked off from her movements alone. No way was she going to be able to do that again.

“Stop her teleporting!”

Twilight nodded vaguely at the suggestion, her senses unable to discern who had given it at that very moment. Thankfully doing such a thing wasn’t beyond her since her magic was still working, so she cast and maintained the spell as she waited for her senses to catch up.

When her sight did return after what must’ve been only seconds, but felt much longer, she saw Luna and Nightmare grappling with Faust, doing everything they could to keep her sword at bay, and her horn pointed away from themselves, Twilight, and the oubliette. They may as well have been battling a full grown dragon for all the success they were enjoying.
Spurts of magic erupted from Faust’s horn as she tried to disrupt the three unicorns casting around the oubliette, but Luna and Nightmare did at least manage to keep her horn pointing away so that the most Faust could do was carve gouges into the floor, walls, and ceiling of the ballroom. All Twilight could do was watch with a rapidly growing sense of horror.

“How much longer, Moondancer?!” Twilight shouted back at the unicorn, making her flinch, which wasn’t hard considering how utterly terrified she appeared to be. Starlight wasn’t far behind. If Twilight were to guess, Trixie was actually doing most of the work.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! We can’t force it to go any faster!”

“Fine! But are we talking like a minute here? More? Less?!”

“I said I don’t know!”

Twilight grit her teeth and abandoned her questioning since it wasn’t helping. If it wasn’t even close to finishing, then they might as well give up now and flee while they still could. Hopefully it wasn’t that bad. Maybe they wouldn’t get a chance to find out either way as Twilight was too occupied with preventing Faust from teleporting to even consider helping Luna and Nightmare keep Faust pinned. A fight which they were rapidly losing.

Faust had decided to ignore her wounds in favour of stopping the three unicorns, and was doing her best to shrug off the two alicorns holding her, even if it mean slowly impaling her shoulder on one of Luna’s glaives. She might not know what the oubliette was, but since it was here she knew enough to think it could potentially be a threat to her.

Viciously throwing her head back in a way that had to have hurt to do, Faust smashed the back of her head into Nightmare’s face and lit her horn with a blinding flash, dazing the dark alicorn for the two seconds she needed to kick Nightmare off. As soon as she did she ducked her head, narrowly avoiding Luna’s other glaive as Luna took the only desperate option left to her; remove Faust’s horn, head, or both. A gambit that never had a chance as Faust had to have been expecting it through the entire fight. Dodging the strike, Faust swept her hooves under Luna, lifting her up then slamming her down on the ground hard enough to crack Luna’s crystalline armour.

Spitting blood, Faust pulled the glaive from the flesh of her shoulder and tossed it away as she stalked towards Twilight and the others, a slightly manic look in her eye. Twilight swallowed and looked desperately to Luna and Nightmare to do something, but Luna was struggling to even breathe, while Nightmare was blinking the stars out of her eyes, still blinded by the light from Faust’s horn. No help was coming from them.

“It seems you’re out of options,” Faust commented, noting Twilight's building panic. “Not that there was likely to be any other outcome from this.”

Twilight blinked stupidly, a little bit dumbfounded that Faust was choosing to talk now of all times, but she never had the chance to decide what to say back as Faust started to form a spell that would probably turn Twilight into a smudge on the floor, as well as the three unicorns behind her. Dropping her spell to stop Faust teleporting, Twilight raised a shield, doubtful that it would make much difference, but hopeful that it could buy the others an extra few seconds to either activate the oubliette, or at the very least give Luna and Nightmare time to recover. Closing her eyes, Twilight let fate decide the outcome.

Much to her surprise, neither happened as her shield held, albeit not without help. Cracking her eyes open, Twilight found that Cadence had come around enough to reinforce her shield, even though she barely had the strength to raise her head. Shining was also with her, having regained consciousness long enough to crawl over to his wife and lend her what support he could. Feeling her hope recover, Twilight looked back to Faust, only to lose it again as she saw the way Faust was staring at her with disdain, right before she doubled the power of her spell.

A brief crackle was all the warning they had as the shield splintered, then exploded with enough force to send Twilight flying into Trixie, as well as send Moondancer tumbling away. The only one that kept her footing was Starlight, but as she nervously watched Faust walk towards her she decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and that living was better than either, and teleported away while babbling apologies.

“No!” Twilight cried as she felt the magic of the oubliette destabilize. She leapt to her hooves and teleported to the oubliette, desperately grasping at the wildly flailing threads of magic that spun out from the oubliette, trying everything she could think of to keep it from failing completely. Her horn ached as she worked, already worn out by her exertions, but the alternative was too terrible to continence.

“Twilight!”

Twilight glanced up at the shouted warning from Trixie, remembering that there was still something in the room that she maybe had forgotten about for a split second. Faust was still stood where she’d been previously, a sceptical look in her eye at Twilight’s actions as she slowly formed another spell to finally end Twilight, who knew she had no means of escaping. Not knowing what else to do, Twilight closed her eyes and hoped that the oubliette felt like activating in the next few seconds.

An overwhelming sense of power bloomed within the ballroom, but without even opening her eyes Twilight knew it wasn’t the oubliette, or Faust. It was something else entirely, and it seemed to be rapidly approaching from her left, from where Trixie had been. She snapped her eyes open in time to catch Trixie skidding into position in front of her, a writhing, swirling cacophony of conflicting magics around her horn forming a shield just as Faust unleashed the spell meant to end Twilight.

Twilight screamed as the spell obscured Trixie from her sight, not even caring about words as she thought she saw Trixie get obliterated. But the glare subsided and Trixie came back into sight, fully intact, and her shield turning Faust’s magic aside. Twilight was speechless. Not only had Trixie brute forced light, dark, and unicorn magic into working together, but was doing it in such a way that it could hold back the magic of Faust. For now at least. It was clearly taking its toll as Trixie sank onto her knees under the onslaught.

“Hold on!” Twilight yelled, putting everything she had into the oubliette to try and expedite whatever it was doing at this point. To her right she felt more than saw Moondancer re-joining her, and after what only had to be seconds the oubliette started to slow as a bright light glowed from within it.

Twilight’s legs almost buckled with relief, but that feeling quickly died as she looked back at Trixie, who was barely managing to keep upright. Twilight screamed Trixie's name, who looked back at Twilight and smiled just as the oubliette pulsed with power, and Faust unleashed her rage once again. Twilight closed her eyes against the light as it threatened to blind her, but it quickly subsided. All was quiet as she dared to open them again, scared of what she would see.

The most noticeable thing was that Faust was gone, presumably now sealed within the oubliette. Trixie was also gone. Twilight felt her heart try and force its way out through her throat, but forced it back down. Crawling forward on legs that barely felt capable of moving, Twilight made it to the spot Trixie had been standing, finding nothing of the blue unicorn save the scorched and twisted remains of her armour.

“Trixie?” Twilight asked weakly, hoping beyond hope that this was some incredibly unfunny prank, as much as she also knew it couldn’t be. These twisted scraps of metal, sat in the confines of a burn mark seared into the marble floor, was all that remained of Trixie Lulamoon.

Twilight choked as a flood of grief consumed her, but it was so overwhelming to the point she could barely express it at all. Her throat closed up, her heart thumped within her chest, and all she could do was stare at the broken armour, all other thoughts lost to her. She'd lost Trixie, and right now nothing else mattered.

"Trixie!"

Luna sighed, closing her eyes to concentrate on breathing, even using magic to encourage the air into her lungs. Even indisposed as she was she had been able to see what had happened as they teetered on the brink of failure, then snatched victory back at a cost. A cost worth paying perhaps for the defeat of Faust, but not one any of them really wanted to pay. The four alicorns were the ones that were supposed to take the hits, yet in the end it was Trixie who lost her life, valiantly sacrificing it for victory, even if she were only thinking of Twilight at the time.

“Fuck,” was all she could think to actually say.

“I think that sums it up,” Nightmare muttered, still covering her eyes with a hoof. “Of all the underhoofed things to do, blinding me is what she went with? Does that bitch have any idea how sensitive my eyes are to bright lights?”

“You do realise that Trixie is dead, don’t you?”

“What part of me being blind don’t you get?” Nightmare replied snippily, only to stop as what Luna said sank in. “Oh... Shit.”

“Quite.” Luna bit back on anything else she had to say, knowing full well that it would likely devolve into a string of expletives that would do little to help the situation save make her feel a little better. She may not have been as close to Trixie as Twilight was, but she was still fond of the mare. Losing her hurt, to say the least.

“I’m guessing that since we’re not under attack, Faust is gone?”

“She is.”

“Oh good. Hooray victory.”

“Excuse me if I don’t celebrate right at this very moment,” Luna remarked as she watched Shining pull Cadence her hooves, the mare wheezing and cringing in pain as he did. Even so, both of them were keeping an eye on Twilight. None of them were close to being able to comfort her though, not yet.

“Shining,” Luna cloaked, suddenly aware of how dry her throat was, “could you head outside and find someone that knows what’s going on, please?”

“But-"

“It’s fine, Shining,” Cadence said with a brave if shaky smile that faded quicker than it arrived. “Go on.”

Grunting irritably, Shining galloped away, leaving the departing echo of his hooves as the only sound as Twilight had gone quiet as she stared at Trixie’s empty armour. After a few moments Moondancer started to check over the oubliette, although what she was hoping to find was anyponies guess. At least she had the tact to stay quiet about Trixie, even if she did give Twilight an occasional glance.

Things continued like this for a few minutes until Shining returned, a griffon hen in tow who struggled to decide between bowing or saluting the princesses, and settled on a mix of both until Luna waved at her in the hopes that she’d stop.

“What’s the situation outside?”

“Canterlot has been secured, although parts of it are kind of a little bit on fire, but we’re taking care of that now.”

“And the battle below?”

“Still continuing Your Highness. We have the upper hand, but the Mareitanians aren’t giving up.”

“Probably waiting for Faust to come and swing things back in their favour,” Luna said evenly, both unsurprised and disappointed. “Clearly we shall have to go and convince them to give up. Nightmare?”

“Don’t ask me,” Nightmare whined. “All I can see is a big amorphous blob of colours.”

Luna cursed under her breath as that meant asking Twilight, which was not something she wanted to do in the slightest. Walking steadily over to the prone mare, Luna stopped by her, wishing she had Celestia’s gift for words as right now she had none to give in comfort.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked up at Luna, her eyes red, puffy, and horribly desperate, like she needed Luna to tell her right then that it was worth it. That stopping Faust was worth losing Trixie. Luna knew she could say as much, and that she wouldn’t be entirely wrong to do so, but wasn’t so dense as to not realise that would be completely the wrong thing to say, now and ever.

“I'm sorry Twilight, truly, but this isn’t over yet. The battle still rages below, so our duty isn’t complete yet, not while our allies still fight.”

A dozen choice phrases along the lines of ‘fuck off' jumped to the front of Twilight’s mind, along with the knowledge that Luna was right, but she was tired. So very tired, of all of it. She almost wanted to attack Luna just so she wouldn’t have to go and fight elsewhere.

“I know,” she said instead. What she wanted mattered little in the end she supposed, and what she wanted was to have Trixie back, even if that weren’t possible. At the very least she wanted to be left alone with her grief. “Let’s get this over with.”

Dragging a body that felt heavier than lead off the floor, Twilight gave one last lingering look at Trixie’s remains, what there was of them, and reluctantly followed after Luna, keeping her eyes on the floor the entire way, not interested in what was happening around her when there were others that could deal with it. It wasn’t until they were out of the castle that she decided to pay attention to the hundreds of griffons holding hundreds of ponies prisoner with the aid of the Saddle Arabians.

Even over the noise of the prisoners and their guards the distant roar of the battle below could still be heard, if only faintly. That would have been her only concern if she hadn’t heard the sobbing of a pony that sounded like they were trying to not cry. A pony she knew all too well. The Wonderbolts were nearby, surrounding the pony that was crying. Luna just gave a quick, if sympathetic glance, then carried on.

Twilight pushed her way into the circle of pegasi, finding Rainbow in the middle, with Vapor to her side as she clutched on to the body of Lightning. Twilight’s heart sank even further. Her own pain was one thing, but seeing her friends enduring that same anguish triggered an unexpected anger in her. Pushing that aside for now, Twilight went to press a hoof to Rainbow's shoulder in comfort, but barely got halfway before the weight of her own grief dragged it back to the floor.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked shakily as she tried to unsuccessfully rub her eyes free of tears. “Is it- Is it over?”

“Faust is gone,” Twilight replied, omitting the fact that the battle wasn’t over yet. “W-w-we lost T-Trixie.” Twilight swallowed hard, trying to stop herself from breaking down. “She- She gave her life saving- saving me.” Saving an immortal, Twilight thought bitterly. If that wasn’t a waste of Trixie’s life, she had no idea what was.

Twilight sighed as Rainbow stammered out her sympathies, but found herself looking at Vapor instead as the mare stared at nothing, unshed tears lining her eyes. How much pain and loss had they had to endure to see the defeat of Faust? Even outside of the ponies Twilight knew personally that had died, she was aware of plenty more, and knew that the losses Equestria had endured in the war were significant. All because of one fucking pony. One fucking pony that still had others fighting and killing in her name even after she had been defeated.

“I need to go,” Twilight announced suddenly. “There's still one thing left to do.”

Twilight ignored Rainbow's shouts as she turned and trotted determinedly away from the group, her speed increasing alongside her anger until she was galloping past Luna and out into the skies above the battle. A sea of black, brown, and grey had surrounded the colourful mass of Mareitanians on three sides, and was pushing to surround them ever further. Even so, the Mareitanians, along with whatever yaks were left kept fighting. Why wouldn’t they stop? Why were they so determined to destroy everything in the name of an insane mass murderer like Faust? How did any of this benefit them?

It didn’t matter. All of this started with the Mareitanians, and now it was going to end with them. They brought this upon the world by unleashing Faust, and they were going to pay for it, for every life lost, for every home burnt, for every minute of every hour that they made others suffer, and for every scrap of pain that Twilight had been inflicted with over the last two years.

Twilight was barely even aware of the tears in her eyes, or the dark magic crackling on her horn as she dove for the Mareitanian lines, paying no attention to the shouts of Luna behind her. She pulled up at the last second, her horn blazing with power as she released a wave of black lightning that reduced a dozen ponies to ash. She circled around and did it again, and again, and again, whittling away their numbers until they either gave up, or ran out of soldiers.

She wheeled around again, her breath coming in short, sharp grunts as she lined up for her fifth run, so focused on destroying her enemy that she never saw Luna coming at her, tackling her right out of the air. They both slammed into the ground, rolling over and over through the mud and the dead until they slid to a stop with Luna standing over her, her eyes sorrowful yet determined. That was enough to stop Twilight for a moment, which was all Luna needed to summon a flash of silver and hold a blade to Twilight’s horn.

“Please don’t make me do this,” Luna begged. “We have endured enough sorrow today without adding more. Please, Twilight, stop this.”

“Stop what?” Twilight asked, tearfully yet angrily. “Stop fighting the enemy? After all they’ve done?” she asked, her voice cracking. “If they won’t give up, then all they can do is die!”

“True, but have you actually given them a chance to surrender? Or do they not deserve one? Are they no longer also victims of Faust’s machination to you?”

Twilight fought for the right thing to say, to convince Luna to keep fighting, but Luna's words kept working their way into her thoughts. She wanted the Mareitanians to give up, but at what point was she giving them the chance? She really only lying to herself, because what she wanted them to do was die.

“I- I-"

“I know, Twilight, I know.” Luna pulled back her blade, allowing Twilight to pull herself up. “To inflict pain onto those that hurt you, it’s only natural to want that, to make them pay. But that is not how we move forward. To end this completely, we must end it properly. Or at least try to.”

“But... they killed Trixie,” Twilight said back weakly, her protest sounding pathetic even to her.

“Faust killed Trixie, not the Mareitanians.”

“But they’re the ones that released her!”

“I know, but our own poor decision making, and Celestia’s, led to that. If we had told them about Faust, about how dangerous she was, perhaps this could’ve been avoided. The Mareitanians were doomed to this outcome as soon as they opened her cell door. We cannot fully blame them for this, which is why we need to end this the right way. If they choose to keep fighting, that is their error, and not ours.”

Twilight took the hoof Luna offered and stood to shake the mud off her wings as her legs trembled with exhaustion. Guilt settled in her gut with the realisation of what she had almost done- had been doing, if Luna hadn’t stopped her. As she slowly returned to her senses she saw that the fighting had paused, with the griffons and changelings pulling back as the Mareitanians huddled under the flimsy shield they had put together.

Luna stepped out into the gap between the two armies, her head held high to hide how weary and hurt she was. Twilight stayed back, watching carefully as Chrysalis smirked at her.

“I must say that was quite the display.”

“Shut up.”

“Oh come now, there’s no need for that-"

“Chrysalis, you just saw what I can do. Don’t push me.”

“Yes, yes, poor you, etcetera... etcetera. Never mind me who just lost many hundreds of her children fighting for Equestria of all places. Oh no, your feelings must definitely come first.”

Twilight grit her teeth and ground her hooves into the mud, angry at how right Chrysalis was. She’d be damned if she’d say that though. Thankfully she was given a distraction by Luna as she raised her voice to be easily heard over everything else.

“Ponies of Mareitania, and associated allies, Faust has been defeated. Without her you have no reason to keep fighting. Surrender now so that we might end this senseless loss of lives. You know what will happen if you do not. Lower your weapons and lower your shield, I beg of you.”

“We will never surrender!” came the bellowed reply of what was distinctively a yak. “For the glory of Nirmat-ack!”

Luna raised an eyebrow at the sight of a couple of ponies silencing the yak by kicking him in the ribs. All through the mass of Faust’s remaining forces, short lived scuffles broke out as the yaks were all silenced through the medium of violent beatings. Through it all one pony pushed until he was at the front, his eyes meeting Luna’s with a thoughtful frown.

“General Wick,” Luna said in greeting. “From your treatment of the yaks I rather suspect you had anticipated this.”

“Perhaps. Is Faust truly defeated?”

“She is. Twilight and myself wouldn’t be standing here if she weren’t.”

Wick nodded thoughtfully, apparently not even bothering to waste time debating whether Luna was lying or not. He already knew they were losing, and even if Faust was undefeated, she wasn’t here trying to save them. He wasn’t really sure what she’d done for them to be honest. His doubts had been multiplying rapidly since Zebrica, and weren’t going away any time soon. At the very least he had no desire to die here for nothing, which was why he had quietly spread the word that if Faust lost they should surrender, forcing the yaks to comply if necessary.

“Lower the shield and put down your weapons,” he said in what he hoped was his last order. “It’s over. We lost.”

More fights broke out amongst the Mareitanian forces as the yaks protested against his command, but at this point the yaks were so few in number that they couldn’t put up any real resistance. For the most part ponies threw down their weapons, many of them seeming quite relieved with the outcome.

“Good choice,” Luna sighed, her own relief being quite obvious. She stepped aside and sat beside Twilight, letting her wounds and fatigue show as the griffons moved to secure the Mareitanians and yaks. “Very good choice.”

“Is it really over?”

Luna looked at Twilight with surprise as the smaller mare asked her question. Then she pondered the answer, as she knew well enough that while the war was over, with a victorious outcome, there was still much to do.

“This part, certainly,” she replied after a few seconds, taking hold of Twilight in a gentle hug. “Now we can rest and rebuild.”

“And mourn.”

“That too.” Luna pulled Twilight into a hug as the smaller mare started to cry brokenly, looking so much like a lost and scared child. All the while all she could think of was how none of it really ended. Equestria, and all of the nations involved would bear the scars of this for many years to come. The most they could hope for is that they at least be peaceful years.

Author's Notes:

So, here we are, at the end of things, almost. Can't believe it took me so long to do this, but it took be a month alone to write the fight with faust, which was literally one of the hardest things to do here, and really sapped my already dwindling motivation. Probably why it ended a bit abruptly, and why I could've done better in a lot of other areas too, but it is what it is. At least I can say I did it.

From here there should be one more chapter and the epilogue, which will come when they're ready (not even started yet lol), so watch this space.

Never forget.