>You remove your shirt and bundle Jasper up in it, kissing her forehead as your sobbing gradually subsides. You gently pass her over to Shining, and demand that he drop the forcefield once again.
 
"Let me out of here, Shining..."
 
>"Not a chance in Tartarus, Anon. Not in your condition."
 
"I said let me out..."
 
>"No."
 
>You inhale angrily through gritted teeth as you ball up your fist, stopping yourself from hurling it in Shining Armor's direction at the last second. He doesn't so much as even flinch. You give a defeated sigh as he eventually coaxes you back to the triage area to allow the doctors to treat your fresh injuries.
 
"I can wait," you say as one of the doctors helps you to a cot, "treat the other ponies first,"
 
>"Everypony else's condition is stable for now, Mr. Anonymous, you're next. I know it's probably pointless to suggest it, but try to calm down before you exacerbate your injuries," the doctor commands.
 
>You stare blankly at the cave ceiling as you lie on the cot and the doctors and nurses start to tend to you. When Shining Armor finally finds Jasper's parents and turns her over to them you hear wails of utter despair echoing throughout the caves. Your brow furrows and lip quivers momentarily in anger and sorrow. You can't even begin to imagine the pain they must be feeling. You do your best to block it out, but it only grows in intensity, you can't remember ever before hearing such suffering in another being's voice in your life.
 
>The sounds of a brief scuffle bounce off the cave's walls as Jasper's father lashes out in a blind rage at Shining Armor.
 
>"You were supposed to protect us! You were supposed to keep us all safe, but look at what you've done, you led us right into a trap, you did this, YOU killed my precious filly, YOU MURDERER!"
 
>It takes three other guards in addition to Shining to eventually subdue him, which only makes his wife even more hysterical. They're completely inconsolable, both eventually having to be sedated by the doctors. Shining makes his way over to you, nursing a bloody nose and busted lip as he asks the doctor how you're doing.
 
>"He broke some ribs and sustained a couple serious lacerations, but we were able to heal most of it. He's going to be in pain for a while though, nothing we can do about that."
 
>"Has he calmed down enough to speak with me?"
 
>"I believe so."
 
>"Give us a minute?"
 
>"Of course, Your Highness," the doctor says with a respectful bow before leaving you and Shining alone.
 
>Shining sits on his haunches next to your cot, a stoic look on his face as he stares into your eyes in silence. The shaking of the walls and sound of weapons fire seems to have finally subsided, at least for now.
 
"Who did this?" you ask him as calmly as you can. "What exactly has happened here?"
 
>"It's an invasion, Anon. We don't know who started it, but from what my scouts have gathered both Confederate and True Way forces are engaged in widespread fighting throughout Equestria. None of us knows anything beyond that, we were unable to contact any of your people directly. I haven't been able to organize any kind of significant military response because we don't even know who we're supposed to be fighting, and most of our troops are engaged in civilian escort or search and rescue missions anyway."
 
"Where are we at right now?"
 
>"Deep within the Canterlot mountainside. You gave us enough warning to get most of the civilians to safety in time before things got bad out there. If it weren't for you..."
 
>You shake your head
 
"It wasn't enough..."
 
>Shining shoves a hoof in your mouth
 
>"Canterlot is burning, Anon. Believe me, I'm heartbroken over Jasper too, but if you hadn't warned Princess Luna when you did, she wouldn't have been the only innocent little filly we lost here today. Everypony here owes you their lives..."
 
>Shining looks at the ground hesitantly before continuing.
 
>"There will be plenty of time to grieve later. Right now we have to do something, Anon."
 
"What did you have in mind?"
 
>Shining rubs the back of his neck and looks at you expectantly.
 
>"Actually I was hoping you had a plan... I'm at a loss..."
 
"First things first; we need to figure out what we're up against - who our friends and enemies are in all of this."
 
>"...what if they're all our enemies, Anon? Luna and Twily said you saw evidence that cast serious doubt on the Confederacy's motives and you weren't sure who could be trusted anymore."
 
"True," you say as you sit up, "if we find out they're both up to no good here then we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's just hope for now that we have allies out there and that they have the upper hand."
 
>You wince as you try to stand up and begin to fall, a sharp pain in your chest nearly knocking you off your feet. Shining is quickly at your side to support you and you catch yourself, placing a hand on his back as you steady yourself.
 
"Can you get me back to the pilot module of the ship? If I can hookup with the main hull and get into space it'll give us a clearer picture of the situation."
 
>"I'm coming, too."
 
>You and Shining Armor both turn your heads to look at Twilight.
 
>"You're safer here, Twily, you--"
 
>"Save it, I'm not going to cower in a hole while you two run off and play hero. Besides, I thought the three of us were a team? You'd both be lost without me and you know it."
 
"No argument here," you reply hesitantly, though you know trying to change her mind would be futile.
 
>"Fine," Shining huffs, rolling his eyes. "Anon, where did you leave the ship?"
 
"The pilot module is just a block or so away from your parents' house, the main hull is back in Ponyville."
 
>A look of panic flashes over your face for a brief moment
 
"Your parents..."
 
>"They're safe, Anon. Mom's pretty shaken up, but they're both safe," Shining reassures you, eliciting a quick sigh of relief in response.
 
"Good."
 
>You pause momentarily, shooting a quick glance at the ceiling
 
"Alright, if we're going to do this we should take advantage of this lull in activity. Any objection to moving out right now?"
 
>Shining turns his side to you and looks over his shoulder in response, Twilight is already heading for the cave entrance before the last words even leave your lips. You shoot them both a quick smile before carefully sliding a leg over Shining's back, grimacing in pain momentarily as Shining picks up a trot to catch up to his sister, walking alongside her as he carries you to the mouth of the cave. His horn glows and the magical barrier in front of you drops.
 
>"Where are you three going?"
 
>When Shining turns around you see Princess Celestia approaching you with a troubled look on her face.
 
"We're going to my ship," you reply. "We'll need it to mount any sort of counteroffensive or take any other action, or at the very least figure out just what the hell is going on out there."
 
>Celestia's ears perk up.
 
>"Is there anything I can do?"
 
>You shake your head quickly.
 
"Not on our side of things. The best thing you can do is stay here and keep your subjects calm, Princess, they need you and Luna right now."
 
>She sighs with disappointment.
 
>"I'm not fond of the idea of continuing to hide away like this instead of confronting this threat, but I suppose you're right..."
 
"There's one thing you can do for me..." you hesitate. "There's a couple in there that just lost their little filly. Her name was Jasper Jewel, Twilight and I met her on the train. She helped us out of a sort of sticky situation and she was special to both of us. Could you... find them, and do what you can to console them? If you ask the doctors they should be able to point them out to you, they were so upset they had to be sedated," you say as tears threaten to form in your eyes again.
 
>Celestia winces momentarily before nodding solemnly and turning away from you.
 
>"Of course, Anon..."
 
>She looks back over her shoulder one last time before walking away.
 
>"Please, all of you... be careful out there."
 
>The three of you simply give her a nod before she departs.
 
>As Shining and Twilight take their first steps outside, Shining casts a protective shield around the three of you and Twilight does the same with her invisibility spell. The trip back to the ship is a cakewalk, the fighting seems to have moved away from Canterlot, though the city itself took a pretty nasty beating. You close your eyes and silently shake your head as you behold the ruin and smolering rubble around you.
 
>Another stroke of luck as the ship  seems to have escaped the brunt of the assault undamaged, though it's buried under a significant amount of debris which takes Twilight and Shining some time to clear before you can board it. The trip back to Ponyville feels like it takes an eternity as the three of you sit painfully silent, your attention focused on the helm, trying to keep the devastation you've witnessed out of your mind.
 
>When you arrive and link up with the ship's main hull, you're surprised to find Ponyville completely untouched, though the town is abandoned and an eerie sense of foreboding hangs over it. You link up to the neural interface, more at home than ever, the ship almost feeling more like "you" than your own body. You make a quick pass over Ponyville and scan for lifesigns, any stragglers that might have been left behind in the evacuation, only departing the surface when you're satsfied the town is indeed empty.
 
>Neither of the ponies settled comfortably in their seats within you have spoken a single word since you left Canterlot, though you can sense their elevated heart rates and an increase in their circulating adrenaline, their fight-or-flight instinct hitting both of them with full force though they don't let it show.
 
"Twilight... Dash, AJ and the others, they..."
 
>"They would have most likely been doing what they could to help with the evacuation, Anon. I'm sure they're fine..." Twilight insists, sounding less than confident in that assertion.
 
>You decide the first stop should be the Confederate staging area, quickly making the short jump to the nearby starbase.
 
>Twilight and Shining gasp loudly when you arrive. The fleet has taken heavy losses, the Admiral's flagship listing out of control, careening toward the station, a collision imminent. Your communications array is overloaded with distress calls, debris and escape pods are strewn about in all directions within your sensor range, it's readily apparent that a major skirmish took place here.
 
>Twilight leaps from her seat when she notices the imminent collision.
 
>"Anon! Do something!!!"
 
>You're quick to maneuver through the debris field, taking up a position between the ship and the station and firing your repulsor beam. It doesn't carry enough force to stop the ship completely, but it's enough to deflect its course and slow it some. Your first instinct is to board the Admiral's ship and look for your friend, but you detect no lifesigns aboard, and there are more pressing matters to attend to.
 
>A quick scan reveals there is life on the station, but your'e unable to make contact with anyone. You have to settle for establishing a data link with the station's central computer and downloading logs to try to piece together what's happening. Strangely a lot of the data is heavily encrypted using an algorithm that's unfamiliar to you, and which your ship has no information on either.
 
>It's more than a little peculiar that even at your clearance level you have no knowledge of how to break the encryption. You make a copy of the encrypted data for later before turning your attention to the unprotected data in the system. The station's sensor records show a rebel fleet emerging from QT jump and a vicious battle taking place. The True Way were clearly the aggressors here, but something still doesn't feel right about this to you.