Lurker four-one rushed through the trees, the soldier was panting heavily when the military camp came into view, the soldier streached and took a few deep breaths before sneaking inside.

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Renko was sitting at a conference table that had been set up in the largest tent of the camp, he sat across from Celestia and he was growing increasingly nervous, the Princess had not said a single word since he had entered as well as kept the best poker face that Renko had ever seen. The princess had a look on her face that seemed to just radiate her dissapointment, Renko had to use all of his willpower to not flinch at the look. He had certainly encountered horrible visages of monsters that would haunt him for the rest of his life, but somehow, this one look made his mind cringe in fear more than any monster that was trying to kill him could. Several long minutes passed by before Celestia finally spoke.

"Did anypony see the attack?" Her voice had the same undertone that her gaze did as she spoke. When everypony shook their head she sighed.

"So nopony has any sort of lead as to where my sister may be... And we are sitting here without anypony trying to come up with an idea of where to search." Her question that she had been saying had actually sounded more like an edged statement that most of the guards in attenance had recoiled from, Renko could only sit and wait to be lectured on his failures the way his old drill sergeants would do whenever he was too exhausted to do push-up number two-hundred.

"I want you all to find whatever leads you can in order to track down my sister, that is all... Dismissed" Renko quickly got up and left the tent, he didn't want to stay in there any longer than he had to. There was something about losing Luna that really hit him harder than anything else that had happened to him so far.

"Even with the corpses of the guards... the revert attack had to have been a decoy... None of the guards were brutally killed, they had all been shot-" Renko's thoughts were caught when Twilight trotted up to him, she had an incredibly serious look on her face and REnko had an idea as to what she would say... But he decided to humor her and let her ask anyway.

"Renko... I have a feeling that those monsters came from the everfree."

"Why do you think that?" Renko asked with mild interest, she hadn't actually asked what he thought she would.

"They started their attack closer toward the edge of town that was bordering the Everfree, if what you said about those creatures is true, they wouldn't wait to cross town in hiding to get to anypony that they... they could..." Renko made a small sigh as he listened to the mare choke on the last word of the sentence, he could understand that she didn't want to admit to herself how viscious those monsters could be. Everypony in the immediate area got into a wary defense stance when a mechanized voice rang through the area, every soldier was looking in every direction in order to find the source of the voice, a movement in the corner of Renko's eye caught his attention and he brought his gaze to a human-figure stepping out from behind one of the tents. Immediately any and all weapons were pointed at the intruder, it didn't help comfort anypony that this intruder had a rifle that was similar to Renko's, several tense moments passed before the intruder dropped the gun to the ground and addressed Renko.

"I am Lurker Four-One and I know the location of the equine that you are looking for." The guards that had lowered their sights a fraction of a centimeter had them trained on the kill-spots that they believed this creature had, Renko had a curious... yet cautious... look as he responded to this human.

"What should make me believe that you are not trying to lead me into a trap and leave this town defenseless?" The soldier contemplated whether to tell them the truth or lie.

"Well... If I lie, that pony's gonna either point me out as part of the squad that killed her soldiers or the one that struck her... If I tell the truth... I'm as good as being a prisoner, either way I'm probably going to die... Why not, What else do I have to lose...?"

"I now where she is... Because it was my squad that took her." as the guards all moved in around the soldier, they were all surprised at how quickly Renko moved to the other human, Ranko already had his left hand around the soldier's throat and his centurion pointed at the soldier's forehead. He spoke his next words in a low, angry growl.

"What is going to stop me from splattering your brain all over the ground after you tell me? Give me one good reason why I should let you live." The soldier had made no flinch or recoil to indicate that his threat had any effect.

"Because the man who sent me expects me to die anyway, if I return... he will kill me, if I don't return... He'll believe that you killed me. If I'm alive, I can get you to his HQ and you can save that blue pony."

Twilight finally had built up the nerve to speak now that she had heard plenty of this new human's babble about the princess, she let out a growl as she stomped closer.

"You do not get to speak about the Princess like that! You are a horrid monster, the only thing that separates you from the ones that Renko already killed is the ability to speak!" Tears were edging the mare's eyes as she felt an immense wave of anger wash over her, she now understood why Renko was so willing to kill the reverts... the only thing that she wanted to see happen to this human was the worst punishment possible.

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Celestia snapped to attention as she felt waves of anger flow through the camp, the first source she recognized was Renko, then several of her guards... but then one that she had felt so few times that she had almost forgotten who it was. Twilight's anger pained her the most because she knew that Twilight had enough power to kill if given the chance and the knowledge. With newfound resolve Celestia quickly made her way over to the gathering of her soldiers and tried to figure out the commotion.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the human that Renko had his gun drawn against, the possibility of more than one human in her world was staggering, for so long humans were believed to no longer exist, now there were more that just seemed to be popping into existence. She shook herself to get her composure and pointedly made her way to the front of the group, even though her soldiers moved out of her way, they never took their sights off of the second human.

"Renko, what is going on here?" she asked with her well-known calm tone, it only took him a fraction of a second to respond.

"This soldier is the leader of the squad that ponynapped Luna." He replied through gritted teeth. Renko was taken by surprise as the soldier he had by the throat was enveloped in a golden aura and taken from his grasp, he watched silently as the soldier was levitated over to Celestia, all of the soldiers visibly relaxed as they saw Celestia hold the prisoner as if the soldier was frozen in stone. Celestia had a furious look in her eye as she brought the soldier to eye level with her, she removed the human's mask and was slightly surprised when she looked at the scarred face. The soldier had rounded, feminine facial features. She had a look of hopelessness as Celestia stared her down, the tension in the air was so thick that one of the guards thought that he would choke on it.

"Why... Did... You... Take... Luna...?" each word was laced with anger as she spoke, even the prisoner blinked since she couldn't recoil in fear.

"I did it, because I was ordered to... I know exactly where she was, and I was sent on a suicide mission to tell you where she is just so you can try to stop the Emperor..." None of the bodies in attendance could possibly believe that getting the information was that easy, but surely enough... after locking their new prisoner up in a special tent surrounded by guards and a barrier spell, Renko managed to convince Celestia to let him take his squad to the location that the woman had told them about, Twilight urged Celestia to let her and the other elements accompany him to the ruins of the royal castle because they already knew how to get there. The only pony who was against going into the forest was Fluttershy... for obvious reasons.