That afternoon, Discord arrived at the Midnight's Rising's base, immediately disguising himself as Dusky and infiltrating the base successfully. Specter took the real Dusky away, making sure that nobody else saw him as he did so.
Walking around the base, Discord could see the amount of distrust there was already with Lunar abandoning his position. A few soldiers saluted him in his disguised form as he moved about the camp freely. When he came across the tent that sheltered Luna, Discord could hear her planning something and moved inside, saluting the princess as Dusky would have. Luna noticed the disguised Lord of Chaos and invited him inside.
"Tell us what you think of this plan, Dusky," Luna stated, moving to the side so that Discord could see her plans.
Discord eyed the papers with interest, smirking to himself as he learned many confidential items from them. He looked over the plan thoroughly, then nodded.
"They're all great plans, Your Highness," Discord oozed, voice being projected similar to Dusky's, but not completely.
"Assist us, please, in our plan to eliminate Lunar," Luna declared.
"Eliminate, you say?" Discord smirked.
Luna nodded, "Yes. We know where he went, but now we need to go after him."
"Yes," agreed Discord, "and I feel that we should start with only a couple of us. If a lot go, then we risk losing the element of surprise."
"Smart thinking, Dusky," Luna commended, "We know that you'll make a fine leader of this army."
"Beg pardon?"
"We are promoting you to Commander, Dusky Stone," Luna stated. "We know that you won't fail us like Lunar had."
Discord cackled to himself, "I sure won't, Princess."
Continuing their discussion, Discord learned of further plans following Lunar's capture and punishment for his voluntary abandonment. He spent the remainder of the day with Luna before sneaking out and sharing what he learned with Specter.
That evening, following Discord's meeting with Specter, Specter suggested that he travel to the United Heliacal's base to perform some undercover work there. Discord scratched his chin lightly, then obliged, believing that a second-in-command would prove to be useful in this situation.
With Luna believing that Discord was indeed Dusky, an absence from him would prove to be detrimental to what he was planning on doing. Telling Specter what to say, Discord dismissed him at once and disguised himself once more and returned to his position.
Specter, meanwhile, used his changeling magic to transform his body into the captain of the United Heliacal army, Shining Armor. Making his way towards the base, Specter thought over what Discord told him.
When you get there, you take down the captain and hide him away, just like you did with Dusky, Discord's words rang inside Specter's head, then you will search for Celestia and learn what you can from her.
"Easier said than done sometimes," Specter admitted when he was by himself, flying towards the base. "Still, better to take them down and work on a plan to overthrow Discord than to work with either of them. That war is nothing but a nuisance when all is said and done."
Specter continued his pursuit towards the United Heliacal base, flying into the moonlight for quite some time.
Upon arriving at the United Heliacal base, SPecter immediately scoped out the perimeter first before doing anything brash. Using the light - or rather, the lack thereof - to his advantage, Specter spotted one potential weakness in the patrol unit and used it to his advantage, flying into the base just as soon as the unit passed by him.
Sneaking around the base for a while, Specter did his best to blend in to his surroundings and not be spotted easily. He wasn't aware of any curfews the base may have had, so he thought it were best to stick to the shadows for the time being since the dark night could hide his blackened body easily.
Moving around cautiously, Specter tried finding the captain so that he could remove him and take his place. Eventually, he found himself near the middle of the base and could overhear a few voices. Perching his ears up, Specter listened closely and tried to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"...it'll be her last mistake."
That sounds like Celestia, thought Specter, trying to listen in more closely.
"Do you honestly believe that they would have Twily, Princess? I mean, it's not like their forces are the best at what they do."
"No," admitted Celestia, "but they do have that alicorn of theirs working for her and leading their forces, even if my sister tried convincing me otherwise."
"That alicorn has been a pain in the ass lately," the second voice sighed. Their voice sounded much deeper than Celestia's. "Captain Thunder said that the alicorn convinced Twilight to open the cell and that's when he ambushed her. Perhaps that was also when he freed the other prisoners and used them to capture her. Though that would require overpowering her and that's nearly an impossible task; you and I both know she's a tough pony with her magical abilities, possibly the toughest around."
"Right," agreed Celestia, "but we have to assume the worst. We have to assume that my sister is lying to us and actually does have Twilight in captivity."
"Are you really going to follow through with your agreement to search Discord's little section of Equestria?"
"No," solemnly answered Celestia, "because that's probably what Luna wants me to do, leaving a big part of our area open for attack. If she were telling the truth, then she would look for that alicorn herself."
"You do have a point there," the second voice acknowledged. "That minute detail is a big plot hole in her story."
"She may be smart," Celestia said, "but if she's trying to outsmart me, then I'm afraid she's playing with fire and out of her own league."
"Well said, Princess."
"Now," continued Celestia, "while I gather some of the others, you come up with a strategy on how to ambush, attack, and reclaim what is rightfully ours. Admittedly, you're better at doing that than I am."
"Yes, ma'am, and thank you."
"No problem, Shining Armor," Celestia replied, leaving the tent at once and walking past Specter, not noticing him at all.
Specter smirked and walked inside the tent, preparing himself to overpower, remove, and replace Shining Armor.
When the group finally arrived to see Rainbow Dash stuck, Lunar, Noct, Applejack, and Star all helped in various ways to free the cerise colored Pegasus. Lunar and Star combined their magic to help Noct lift the boulder up off of the ground, while Applejack helped pull Rainbow Dash away. When she was a good distance away, Noct, Star, and Lunar lowered the boulder back down and looked to the hurt Pegasus. Her back right hoof was extended outward and her two front hooves both massaged the wing that was clipped as a result of the accident.
Twilight approached Rainbow Dash and looked at her extended hoof mostly. Star came closer, as did Noct, and they crouched down, trying to help Rainbow Dash as much as they could with the supplies that they had at their disposal.
"Can you feel it at all?" Noct asked, looking at Rainbow Dash briefly.
"Ugh," Dash grunted, "No, I can't."
Star applied some pressure on the leg, "How about now?"
Dash shook her head.
Noct looked towards Star and motioned upward with his eyes, giving Star a hint to use some of her magic to assist. Star heeded the subtle movement and hint and began to cast a healing spell that she knew on Rainbow Dash, hoping that her magic was strong enough to help her.
"She'll be alright," Applejack wondered, "right?"
"Hopefully," Star admitted, looking back to Rainbow Dash. "Can you move it at all?"
Dash grunted and forced her body to move the leg. She tried her hardest, managing to move it only slightly. Star and Noct saw this and nodded.
"She'll be fine," Noct declared, "but I think the leg might be broken for now."
"Then why can't she feel it?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"Most likely from the pain," Star suggested, "it could be that the pain is overwhelming her senses and her abilities to feel her leg, but moving it proves that she isn't paralyzed."
"Pain oftentimes clouds the commands our brains send out to our nerves," Noct explained, "which would mostly explain why she's struggling to move it right now."
"Our best bet would be to keep you off of the leg," added Star, "and have you in a cast for the time being."
"She shouldn't walk then," Twilight thought, "is that what you're both saying?"
"Not until we work on it further and understand a bit more," Noct answered.
Lunar and Twilight looked at each other. They nodded confidently and, combining their magic efforts, managed to create a small wagon that could pull Rainbow Dash along for the time being.
"I'll pull you first," Lunar offered, "then we can figure things out from there."
"If you say so," Rainbow Dash replied, "thanks."
"Think nothing of it," Lunar said, carefully moving Rainbow Dash into the cart and attaching it to himself.
Looking ahead, Twilight and Lustrous planned out a new path they could potentially travel down. Lustrous noticed that the area ahead was beginning to look familiar from an old job and smiled, telling Twilight that she was stationed here for an undercover job long ago when she was a much younger pony.
"Do you remember the area then?" Twilight asked hopefully.
"If things haven't changed that much," replied Lustrous, "then yes." She pointed further into the chasm, "There should be a split pathway up ahead that offers three choices and if we stick to the left-most path, then the formations should drop us off in an area that's completely surrounded. We can choose to stay put there and regroup ourselves if needed, or if we choose the right-most path, we can keep fleeing from the two factions as that cuts through the formation completely. It's your choice, Twilight. You and Lunar are the ones leading us, after all."
Twilight thought for a moment, looking back towards the others. She stopped her sights on Lunar and Rainbow Dash, focusing more on Rainbow Dash's current predicament more than anything. She nodded to herself and made her decision, leading the group now with Lustrous by her side.