Falx glared at the steel door, looking past the machine-like superheavy trooper in front of him.

“The locking mechanism is extremely complex, and the magic protecting it doubly so,” said the unicorn, her voice metallic and muffled through the full-cover helmet she wore. “The mages say it will take them at least an hour to open it, sir.”

Falx’s ear twitched as he heard muted yelling from beyond the lab entrance. “That’s not good enough... Move aside and hold with the rest of the entry team.” Grumbling obscenities under his breath, the general turned away from the soldier’s dark, lifeless eyeslit directed at him. “Bring the engineers to the the front!” he bellowed down the corridor past the soldiers lining both sides.

Seconds later, two unarmored earth ponies and a unicorn lumbered to the front of the formation, each carrying large saddlebags of equipment. “Sir!” the leader of the group shouted, throwing a quick salute as they came to a stop before Falx.

“Open it,” Falx demanded, nodding to the foreboding, steel door.

“With pleasure, sir,” the lead engineer replied with a smile. He walked towards the door, closely inspecting the hinges and latch handle as he dropped his bags to the floor. Without diverting his attention from the door, he reached into one of the bags and pulled out a small device with several buttons and a bundle of wires.

The engineer glanced over his shoulder to his cohorts. “Give me three, four-by-seven shapes, a... uhm...” He reached a hoof up the door handle, judging the size. “A ten-by-ten cutter, and four dets, zero delay.”

Just as the other two engineers began dropping the requested supplies for their superior, the noise of multiple magical discharges and more yelling sounded from the other side of the door.

“Hurry it up, Sergeant,” Falx stated calmly, shifting uncomfortably where he stood.

The stallion picked up the first small box in his hoof and placed it carefully over a hinge. “Going as fast as I can, sir,” he responded as he delicately pushed a small metallic tube with two wires into a hole in the side of the steel box he had just placed over the door’s latching mechanism.

Deciding that pressing the stallion to rush the sensitive operation would be more detrimental than helpful, Falx turned and walked to the six-pony entry team waiting nearby. “Is your team ready, Corporal?” he asked the heavily armored mare, looking to the dark slit in her helmet where her eyes would be.

The corporal fidgeted a bit, the hundreds of pounds of imbued armor groaning as it moved with her. “Ready as we’ll ever be, Sir... This is our first live-fire mission, so everyone’s a little on edge.”

The old stallion nodded. “That’s understandable. Just remember your training and stay aware of your surrou—”

A roaring howl echoed through the corridor from the nearby room, startling Falx. “Sergeant! Are you almost ready?” he yelled as he turned around to the engineer.

“Wiring in the detonators now, sir! Just one more minute!” the earth pony shouted back, as his hooves moved in a flurry, twisting together a multitude of colored wires.

Several seconds later, another wailing blast assaulted Falx’s eardrums.

Falx scowled, looking over the pony’s shoulder. “I don’t think we have a minu—”

“Done!” The engineer quickly grabbed the small control box, and moved a short distance down the hallway trailing a pair of wires as Falx followed. He looked up the hall. “Entry team ready!?”

The corporal nodded in the affirmative, anxiously biting her lip beneath her helmet.

The stallion looked over his shoulder to his subordinate. “Quick Fix, give me a barrier,” he ordered, pressing the first button on his small controller, powering up the unit.

Nodding, the unicorn’s horn glowed purple as a translucent, glimmering wall appeared in front of the door.

With a small smile, the sergeant pressed the safety release button, holding it down. He made one more quick glance up and down the corridor, making sure everyone was clear as he flipped up the cover over the last button on the machine. “Fire in the hole!” he yelled, slamming his hoof down on the button.

A muffled explosion resounded through the dungeon, the floor vibrating as the door lit up in a shower of sparks. Quick Fix dropped his barrier as the heavily armored, six-pony team ran through the smoke to the doorway.

The lead soldier slammed her shoulder into the steel door without slowing down, creating a sharp, echoing clang throughout the corridor. She stopped momentarily as the door slowly tipped into the laboratory beyond. The slab of metal hit the floor with a dull thud, throwing dust into the air as the corporal’s team cautiously entered the room.

Falx didn’t notice that he was holding his breath as he waited. He listened closely, but only heard the sound of the heavy-troopers moving through the room. They got away, he thought to himself.

“All clear!” a metallic voice shouted from the room.

Falx quickly trotted to the door. “Hold,” he ordered a group of three battle mages as he passed by them.

As he crossed the threshold, he was greeted by the site of the six armored ponies milling about in the middle of the room. Looking to his left, Celestia sat, turned away from him, and cast upon the floor beyond, lie Luna.

Falx’s heart sank; he suddenly felt the final remnants of hope for a satisfactory conclusion drain away, leaving a sickening hole in his gut. However, regardless of the grim scene, he still had a job to do.

Moving to the group of soldiers, he addressed their leader. “Corporal, I know it was touched on in the briefing, but I must reemphasize this: everything that has happened here is classified top secret. No pony is to be given any information about what has happened here or what you and your team has seen here...” Falx looked back towards Celestia before continuing. “Pass on the order to the remainder of the squad commanders that their teams are dismissed. Your team, however, is to leave this room and guard the door; no pony is allowed entry at this time without my express order.”

The armored pony saluted. “Yes, sir!” She put her hoof back down, but didn’t move.

Falx eyed her. “Is there something else?”

“There’s another survivor in the second cell, sir,” she said. “He appears to be unconscious... Shall we open the door?”

“No. I’ll take care of it,” Falx grumbled. “Send a runner to retrieve the princess’ personal doctor.”

“Yes, Sir.” Without another word, the six heavily armored ponies left the room, taking up a station just outside the doorway.

Falx immediately went to Celestia’s side, trying to avoid looking at what remained of Luna’s lifeless body or the generous pool of blood surrounding it. He reached out to his princess, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Princess...” he said quietly.

Celestia moved her head to look at the stallion standing beside her through blurred, teary eyes.

The general was slightly taken aback. In all of his years of service to Equestria, he had never seen the princess cry for any reason. “Princess, are you injured? If you are able, we should try to get you away from here. I have summoned your personal physician and cordoned this facility,” Falx rambled.

Celestia continued to stare through him as though he were not there.

“Please, Princess, speak to me. I need to know if —” He suddenly stopped speaking when Celestia sighed, moving her gaze back to Luna.

With a deep sigh and a slight shake of the head, he reached up, placing a hoof on either side of her head, and forced her to look directly at him.

“Princess... Are. You. Injured?” he asked, speaking slowly and as clearly as he could. “I am duty-bound to know if you have been harmed, and to react accordingly.”

Celestia’s eyes wandered, trying to avoid the worried gaze of the stallion, before settling on looking towards the ground. “N-no... My injury is inconsequential. I’ll be fine,” she answered meekly.

He dropped his hooves back to the floor, glancing to the obvious scrape in the side of Celestia’s armor, highlighted by quickly drying blood. Falx paused briefly before nodding. “I see.” Turning his attention to the room itself, he surveyed the extent of the damage to the interior before resting his gaze on the remains of the other princess once again. “Seeing the results of the... the events that unfolded here, I’m to take it that the Grand Magus and Fireshade have escaped?”

Celestia hesitantly nodded. “Y-yes. My sister and I... we...”

Lifting a hoof, Falx shook his head. “That’s enough, Your Highness. I’ll get the full report on the matter another time.” Continuing his examination of the battlefield, he made his way to the cells across the room. “In the meantime, what would you have me do?”

For a moment, the princess quietly contemplated what Twilight’s next move would be. Slowly getting up from the cold stone floor, she voiced her orders while continuing to glare at the horrific scene. “Close all border crossings and prepare the armies for battle-readiness. We will meet with your army commanders and the 38th scout regiment commander in two hours...” She paused, choking down the lump in her throat. “And gather a team to find the rest of my sister. Take her remains to the Section 5 quarantine lab... Quietly.”

Glancing in the closest cell, Falx nodded in response before continuing to the next. “Of course. I’ll make arrangements right aw—” Craning his neck back, the stallion abruptly cut himself off, a faint grin crept up his muzzle. “Well I’ll be damned... Arcana!” Falx pounded a hoof on the cell door loudly. “Get up you old bat! I see you breathing in there!”

Celestia’s ears perked up at Falx calling out the other stallion’s name. “...Arcana? He’s alive?”

“For the most part... I think he’s coming to,” he declared before pounding the cell door again. “Get your lazy flank up this instant.”

A series of coughs followed by a groan escaped the imprisoned stallion. “Would you stop with the infernal banging?” He moaned, slowly picking himself up off the floor before rubbing his temple gingerly. “My head is killing me, for a number of reasons.”

Narrowing his eyes, Falx leaned closer to the cell window upon seeing the head mage's face. “Good goddess, Arcana. What in the hell happened to you? And where’s your damn horn?”

Turning away briefly, Arcana reached down, retrieving the object in question from the floor and holding it out toward the other stallion. “My former apprentice was so kind to leave it here for me as a souvenir...” he replied, his tone dripping with condescension as he glanced to the lock. “Would you kindly remove me from this damnable cage? I have much to report on the doing of our former Grand Magus and her accomplice.”

Falx nodded, taking a step back. “You may want to step aside.”

Wasting no time, Arcana took to a cell wall as Falx spun and reared forward, delivering a thunderous buck to the cell door. The metal bent and audibly groaned under the power of the trained stallion’s blow, before falling off its hinges and into the cell’s back wall from a second assault.

Arcana smirked. “You’re losing your edge, General. 20 years ago that door wouldn’t have withstood a single buck.”

Moving to exit the cell, Arcana stopped in place as Falx held up a hoof, shaking his head. The head mage raised an eyebrow before Falx leaned in close, whispering in his ear. “What you are about to witness will no doubt be shocking, so I’ll deliver it to you straight first.” Falx began before glancing back to the room behind him briefly. “It would appear Princess Luna has fallen in battle during the confrontation with Twilight Sparkle.”

Arcana craned his neck back, eyes wide in absolute shock. "How is that even possible!? The—"

Arcana was cut off by a sharp elbow from Falx, followed by the general raising his hoof to his mouth. "Quieter, you old bat."

Taking a step back, the head mage leaned in close to whisper back. “How did it happen? How could the princess be defeated!?”

Falx shrugged. “I’ve yet to receive a full report, but going off of what little I have learned from Princess Luna and my previous experience with sigil magic, I do believe she was severed in half from what I am to guess is a teleportation array in the next room. The precision of the clean-cut wound on Luna’s remains resemble that of my severed blade from earlier today.”

Without any response, Arcana steeled himself for the scene he was about to witness. Stepping through the doorway of the cell, he rounded the corner to the main room of the impromptu lab and stopped cold. Celestia turned her head to him with a sorrowful smile, relieved that he was still alive and relatively uninjured.

She raised from where she had been seated on the cold, stone floor and took several steps towards the pair of ponies. “Arcana, I am... relieved that you are still with us,” she stated cooly. “I was afraid you had succumbed to Twilight Sparkle.”

A ghost of a smile crossed the unicorn’s lips. “Not for a lack of effort on the magus’s part, Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

Celestia’s eyes narrowed angrily as she spoke sharply. “She is not the magus, and she shall not be addressed in such a manner. Twilight Sparkle is an enemy of Equestria, and she will be treated as such.”

“As you wish, my princess,” Arcana stated, bowing low.

A cough sounded from behind Arcana. He turned to see Falx, serious as ever. “As much as I would like to stand around a chat about things, there is much to be done.” Falx shifted uncomfortably, looking to the princess. “With your blessing, of course, milady.”

Celestia slightly nodded her head to him. “Of course.”

“Very good.” Falx paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “Princess, your doctor is on the way here as we speak. It would be prudent for you to make your way to the dungeon exit and meet with him there. I will send a patrol with you.”

“That won’t be necessary, General. I know my way”

Falx took a tentative step towards Celestia and firmly spoke. “I insist, Princess. You will be escorted, and I will not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

She huffed, nostrils flaring slightly. “Very well, I shall accept your escort,” she said as she turned and made her way to the door.

“Good.” He turned to the unicorn next to him. “Arcana, you’re with me. There is much to be done in a very short time... The least of which is getting you to the infirmary to be patched up.”