Washing all the blood off of Applejack took an hour and a half due to the amount dried in her mane and tail, but by the time Fluttershy and Alice were done they were both sweating, with Applejack having fallen asleep awhile into it. Then Fluttershy quickly bandaged Applejack's left back leg and pulled Alice out of the room.
"Alice, can I talk to you about something?" Fluttershy asked her.
"Sure, what's on your mind?" Alice asked her.
"I like Big Mac but I don't want to ruin the friendship I have with him if he doesn't like me." Fluttershy replied.
Alice barely held back a chuckle as Fluttershy told her this.
"Have you made this apparent?" Alice asked her.
"A couple of times." Fluttershy replied.
"Then, my dear Fluttershy you two are completely oblivious to each other feelings for each other." Alice replied. "Just tell him."
With that Alice reentered Applejack's room leaving Fluttershy to wonder what to do.
Applejack shot up in her bed and looked over the side to find Alice curled up at the side of her bed. She also noticed that her left back was bandaged up and finally noticed a bell by her bed. Applejack touched it to where it barely rang and Alice shot to her feet.
"You're awake." Alice responded, a look of relief passing over her face.
"Yeah, how long was I asleep?" Applejack asked her.
"About three months." Alice replied.
"I smell like Wionna after she ran through the mud a couple of time." Applejack replied as she smelled herself. "What's up with my leg?"
"After the swelling had gone down enough to where Fluttershy could tell that it's shattered." Alice replied.
"How am I going to get clean?" Applejack asked her.
"I'm leaving that to Shy; I have to go scouting around with the group to find anymore encampments." Alice replied as she pulled on a cloak.
That was when Applejack noticed the a bunch of scars on Alice's left side.
"What happened when I was out?" Applejack replied.
"Again, I'm going to have to leave that to Shy." Alice replied before she left.
When Fluttershy entered the room with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge Applejack instantly started questioning her.
"What's up with Alice?"
Soon Alice was soaring through the sky on wings of pure light with Rainbow Dash and Derpy, she was carrying Vinyl Scratch and Derpy was carrying Dr. Whooves.
"Whooves, do you have an enemy count and main concentration?" Alice asked him.
"The big building off to the left seems to be a shanty form of their town hall." Dr. Whooves replied while pointing to the building.
"Ready Dash, Vinyl?" Alice asked them.
They both nodded as before Vinyl tossed Rainbow Dash two live bass grenades which she shot down and dropped them down the chimney of the large building. She was well out of range when they went off blasting three large holes each in the building as the group landed.
"Where is the injection located?" Vinyl asked Alice.
"Shack 45 paces away and 13 to the right." Alice replied. "Hand me the PBC."
Vinyl sadly handed her the PBC, or Portable Bass Cannon, and quickly set up her turn tables.
"Everypony ready for the attack?" Alice asked them as the PBC sound cord connected to her back and upper right arm.
They all nodded in unison and Alice glanced at the robotic cord on Derpy's neck. It calmed her down and focused her but never had they put it under this sort of pressure, but Dr. Whooves reassured her that it wouldn't short circuit. Alice gritted her teeth as the PBC started to power up from the noise from Vinyl's turn table and she slipped on the sunglasses that Vinyl had provided her. She took a deep breath as the Bass Cannon reached full power and the Hetrarian Squads started their attack.
"See you later." Alice replied.
She let out her breath and fired the Bass Cannon into the shack and smiled as it exploded in a blue mushroom cloud. The Bass Cannon shrunk into a smaller version of itself which Alice tossed to Vinyl who instantly started to fire it going back to back with Rainbow Dash and joined in on the string of insults that Dash was dishing out. So far all of their missions had been a success, five in total, but they were all feeling the effect of stress and the injection that rained down on them at every mission.
"Everyone get ready." Alice yelled.
Rainbow Dash grabbed Vinyl Scratch and Derpy grabbed Dr. Whooves and they both launched up to where every enemy was focused on Alice who was still running on the ground at her fastest, clearing 3 yards per second. She shot upwards and everyone in the air saw what they were all trying to hide, an outline formed around Alice; a humanistic one, before she shot to the ground. When Alice hit the ground the enemies were either pummeled to death by debris or baked alive by the sudden heat wave. She was back in the air leading the group back to Ponyville towards the library to report their progress to Celestia and Luna.
"You're getting better at it." Rarity replied.
"I'm getting better at what?" Alice asked her.
"Other than leading the current group and unconsciously recruiting more ponies to the cause." Rarity replied. "I'm talking about hiding your stress and pain from me."
"I just can't come here every time and just spill on you what I had to deal with for the past three months." Alice replied.
Rarity finished stitching up the second gun shot wound Alice sustained from the fight as a courier came into the tent with an olive branch.
"An offering of peace?" Alice asked the courier as she shrugged her cloak on.
"Temporary, winter is coming up and our leaders suspect you don't want to fight during this time." The courier replied.
"Why would we trust you?" Alice asked him.
"So far you are the ones with the upper hand, having decimated our forces so far with only a single hundred lost on your side." The courier replied. "You have nothing to fear from us."
"It would be good, to have a break from all the war for awhile." Rarity replied.
Alice sighed as she got to two feet and lead the courier to the library where the other five of the assault group were already waiting.
"How?" The courier asked her.
"We knew you were coming." Alice replied as she shoved him into the center of the library. "Do you see those coffins right in front of you?"
The courier couldn't help but notice them as they were the focus of the whole place. The center tables were set around them and there were several books floating around them, flipping to random pages. Suddenly the library doors opened and Applejack slammed into Alice.
"How could you let them get killed?!" Applejack yelled as Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch pulled her off of Alice.
"Who are they?" The courier asked them.
Alice who had been running a hoof through her mane suddenly stopped and the courier felt himself become weightless.
"You don't know who they are?" Alice asked him, her voice emotionless.
This by itself made everyone even Applejack back up as Alice floated upwards.
"Are you seriously this stupid?" Alice asked him. "They are the reason we fight, they were the casualties that started this war in the first place."
The courier gulped as Alice's voice started to seem to get more and more hollow with each word.
"Tell your leaders they can have their temporary treaty, but when this starts back up they will be destroyed." Alice told him as the library doors flew open. "I will storm your pitiful capital and destroy it making sure that there is nothing left."
With that Alice dropped the courier to the ground and they galloped out of the library as Alice dropped to the ground in front of the coffins trying to choke back the same tears she felt every time she had when was near the coffins that held the bodies of Spike and Twilight Sparkle. This was the first time she let the tears come in front of her group; if she cried here with someone it was usually Rarity or Applebloom. Alice looked behind her to find that everyone was crying and she pulled Rarity close. Rarity had given up sewing beautiful dresses and fashion to stitching up wounds and repairing defensive clothing. Alice had come to know how Big Mac and Fluttershy felt as she wanted to tell Rarity how she felt about her and how she admired her strength and ability to keep working under what seemed to be the worst of circumstances; but she also didn't want to make her day to day any life harder then it already was, not only that she also didn't how Rarity felt able her. She didn't want Rarity to have to worry about whether she'd ever come back from one of the missions alive or in need to be put in a coffin.
"I don't want to have to see any more dead bodies." Rarity told her.
"We'll have a temporary shortage of the for awhile." Alice replied.
"For how long; a couple of weeks?" Rarity asked her. "This first week we'll all be mourning and burying the loved ones we lost, and then the second week won't be any better."
Rarity stopped as she noticed everyone staring at her everyone either sympathetic or empathetic but before she could run out of the library Alice pulled her close again. This time Rarity completely broke down and began to sob like a filly into Alice's chest who started to walk her out of the library, but Rarity stopped her before they left.
"Dash, t-tell me, w-when you are g-going to b-bury my s-sister." Rarity told her.
Rainbow Dash hugged her and Alice tightly before they left to Rarity's tent again.
When they got there Rarity and Alice collapsed on a pile of throw pillows that served as a temporary bed for them since they had to keep each other warm due to the dropping temperatures. Alice could still feel Rarity crying against her unscarred side and she draped a foreleg over her shoulders. She held her like that until her sobs turned into quiet sleeping whimpers. Alice laid her head next to Rarity's and somehow found nightmarish slumber. She woke up with a start as Rarity shook her.
"You were screaming again." Rarity replied sadly.
"I'm sorry that I woke you." Alice replied. "What does this make the count up to; 72 nights of nightmares?"
"I was already awake, when you started to scream I tried to comfort you, but you're a lot better at it." Rarity replied.
"Is it time?" Alice asked her.
All Rarity could was nod because she knew that if she spoke now that she cry herself out before the funeral even began. Alice hugged her tightly before they walked towards the center of town that had been turned into a cemetery. When Rarity saw the line of coffin and spotted the one with the initials S.B. she could barely hold back the tears. She saw Vinyl Scratch crying over a box with an O scratched into the side as Rainbow Dash rubbed her back and everything about the funeral procession blurred for her as she started to cry into Alice's shoulder. Alice knew she should say something, anything, but she couldn't leave Rarity at the moment and Rainbow Dash was preoccupied with Vinyl Scratch who was still holding tightly onto Octavia's coffin. Dr. Whooves stepped up but Alice was too focused on Rarity to notice what he was saying and when it was over she released a star for each coffin in the center. After all of this was over Rarity ended up crying on Sweetie Belle's coffin.