Twilight let out a long, exhausted sigh when she finally set herself down in front of the resistance commanders. They were still in the Castle of the Two Sisters, sitting in one of the few towers that had not been torn apart in the battle. A window to her left allowed her to stare out down below to see the remainder of the resistance going about attempting to heal the wounded and regather their supplies.

The battle with the Leviathan had unfortunately derailed any hope of an organized movement away from the castle for the time being, so they would need to spend some time to gather everyone up again. Casualties were high, almost a tenth of the resistance had been on the upper levels when the Dragon destroyed it. She was thankful that at the very least it was no one she knew.

Blueblood was sitting across from her, eyes closed and hands clasped in front of his face. He was visibly shaking. Sitting to his left and right were Spitfire and Zecora respectively. They looked positively frazzled, Spitfire more so, as being knocked out of the air at supersonic speeds tended to do that to you.

Starlight Glimmer sat next to Twilight, her lips sealed and her eyes locked on the map spread out in front of them.

"So Twilight," Zecora said with a somewhat lighter tone then she was expecting. "How ever did you manage to ally with that Ursa Major. I had heard that those things are quite unruly and dangerous?"

Twilight eyed her with confusion. She definitely was not suspecting that question in particular. She was actually expecting someone to start yelling.

"Oh..." She started in a rather perplexed tone before clearing her throat. "Well, before me and Starlight accidently ended up here, I was working on a spell to allow me to properly speak to animals so I could help Fluttershy at her cottage. I never actually managed get very far with it though, it only allowed me to get across very simple phrases. Thankfully, the Ursa Major understood me when I said; 'Help, fire lizard burn forest.'"

Zecora smiled and nodded her head in response. "We are extremely thankful for your smart thinking. I don't think we would have been able to take that thing down on our-" She started but she was silenced by Spitfire slamming her fists on the table and standing up.

"That thing wouldn't have attacked us in the first place if it weren't for that traitor Pharynx." She hissed. Zecora did nothing but furrow her brows in response.

Twilight was taken aback, she stood up herself. "We don't know that it was Pharynx who revealed our location. Maybe Spike has some kind of spell that let's him-" Spitfire silenced her with another slam of her fist.

"Shut your mouth, right now! That naivety is what got Equestria into this situation in the first place. Open your eyes, who else could have told him exactly where we were?" Spitfire roared staring down with all the rage of a rabid dog. "And he never would have betrayed us if it weren't for you!"

Spitfire turned her rage on Starlight Glimmer, who's shoulders only sagged farther she didn't dare deny it. Twilight felt anger rapidly burn up in her chest as she opened her mouth to shout at the pegasus who dare talk like that to her student. Instead Blueblood stood up.

"Silence, all of you." He demanded in a deep voice, which was tinged with a... dark tone. All eyes around the table turned to him, a flash of neon green and red filling his eyes before he sighed and sat down.

"Now is not the time for blame and discourse. Now is the time for action." He explained as he sat down again. "Right now, our current location is beyond compromised and we have no fallback points or bases to make our own. We are, unfortunately, without many options. We need a plan, and fast."

All eyes turned back to the map as Spitfire grumbled and sat back down.

"Hmph, perhaps we could flee to Zebrica?" Spitfire asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and snarled slightly.

"Zebrica is much to far away, and with the Changeling hive nearing conquest, Zebrica will likely be the empire's next target." Zecora said, a flash of discomfort and sadness coming to her face.

"Maybe we could push for Gryphonstone? If we liberated the city we could probably use it as a springboard for more rebellions?" Twilight asked, as her eyes locked on the formerly grand gryphon city. She had always wanted to see it, even if Rainbow Dash had told her it had been reduced to ruins since the loss of the Idol of Boreas.

"We don't have the resources for such an endeavor, and without a proper dedicated Head Quarters I doubt we could organize a guerilla operation of any kind. And due to us being on the run, a stationary HQ would be disastrous, as the Leviathan proved." Blueblood said, his brow furrowing and a discomforted sneer coming to his face.

"If only there was a way to have a mobile HQ..." Starlight said as she looked up at the map, the first words she had said during the meeting.

Blueblood's head quickly snapped to her before his eyes widened.

"Say... that idea isn't half bad..." He said, scratching his chin with a hand.

Chrysalis and Sombra stood together overlooking a map of the Changeling Empire. Small colored squares placed around a large green circle represented the locations of draconic empire battalions and forces. The number of soldiers had almost tripled since they had stolen Thorax away from the Emperor. To anyone else it looked like a hopeless situation, but they had a way.

"So.... what are you going to do with your son?" Sombra asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked up from the map at the queen.

"Hmmm... You know... I didn't think this far ahead to be honest," Chrysalis said bringing a hand to her chin. "Perhaps we can ransom him back to the Emperor in exchange for his armies pulling back?"

"That is... unlikely to work to say the least. I doubt he would stay true to his word and will order the armies back into place the second we handed him over." Sombra said with a sneer. "Granted, we probably wouldn't stay true to our words either but... ehhh?"

"Well, do you have any ideas then?" Chrysalis asked with a angry pout.

"As a matter of fact I do." Sombra replied, a dark smile replacing his sneer. "However, it's a surprise."

"A surprise you can't even share with your co-ruler?" Chrysalis hissed. Sombra shook his head in disagreement.

"Well then, I suppose it had better be goo-" Chrysalis started but she was interrupted by a changeling rushing into the room.

"My queen!" The soldier cried, "The shield, it's been breached!"

"What?!?" Chrysalis and Sombra cried out in unison. They quickly rushed after the changeling as it lead them to the supposed place of the breach.

The three arrived at a small balcony build into the side of the hive, which was swarming with dozens of changeling all eyes turned towards the ground.

Chrysalis pushed her way through the crowd angrily before arriving at the edge of the balcony, slamming her hooves down on the stoney, hole filled railing.

Standing directly outside of a hole inside of the shielding, staring directly up at her, was the Emperor in his black armor, his green and red eyes sending a chill down her 'spine'. In his claw he clenched the Scepter of Domination, a snarl on his face.

To his right was the dragoness Ember. She wore a suit of golden armor, her claws rapidly balling into fists then unballing, smoke and cinders slowly escaping her maw, her teeth barred in anger. To his left however, was a sight that made her blood truly boil. Pharynx stood in purple armor, one of his hands clasped around the hilt of a sword which still sat in it's scabbard. Chrysalis locked eyes with her eldest son, and let out an inhuman snarl.

"Soldiers! Prepare to move in and swarm them. They made the mistake of coming alone! Capture them! Kill the-" She roared, but an even louder roar cut her off. Cracks appeared in the ground around the hole behind the Emperor and his companions.

With an ear shattering roar, the ground exploded outwards as a dragon leviathan threw it's head back into the air, spewing fire towards the sky, which struck the top of the shield and curved around it. A massive claw ripped out of the ground flinging boulders into the air, before slamming to the ground near the Emperor, a smirk coming to his face.

The dragon slowly started to rise out of the hole, widening it as, suddenly, a legion of dragon soldiers rushed outside weapons in hand. Spike smirked and stepped forwards aiming the Scepter of Domination at the top of the inside of the shield.

A rainbow of magic, the scepter fired, a beam flying forwards before striking the very vertex of the shield. Cracks quickly formed, snaking to every inch of the shield until, with a boom, it shattered.

Sheesh, I really need to work on getting this chapters out at a better pace.

Also I need an editor XD

Anyone up for it? PM me if so!