Mount Pleasant Island:

Nimbus, as he clambered up a cliffside pass under cover of night, End of the Line in his hooves locked and loaded ready for battle, thought back to a few hours ago…

“Yes, but it’s not over yet,” Nimbus growled. “Stormy’s on this island, and I intend to finish the fight, and then find my brother. Henri, you take that Dust Devil and get Starglow and everyone else off this island. Me and Twilight, we’re going after the Enclave and killing every last. single. member on this island, even if we die in the process ourself.”

“This… This is nuts, you know that right?” Target asked, still wary of what Iro-No, Nimbus had just proposed out of the blue. This was one of those plans crazy enough to make some of the Lightbringer or Security’s plans look completely tame. “You’re walking into a suicide mission, even with Twilight by your side. Full-blown Alicorn or not, hell… Full blown Princess or not, this is completely and utterly batshit off the flying fuck walls insane! The Enclave… There’s a reason Princess Twilight fucking Sparkle is scared to death of them, (She sent mental apologies to the Princess) what with their Star Blasters, and Novasurge Rifles! And even if you do make it past all of that, how are you going to blow that giant cannon of theirs to Kingdom Come?” she bellowed out.

She ignored the slap to the back of her head from Henri and a zap from Starglow, both to chide her for her choice of language.

“Please… Please don’t call me that,” Twilight muttered, looking away from the group when Target mentioned her former title. “I’m… I’m, well… Honestly, I’m not worthy of the Princess of Friendship title, not anymore. I didn’t just fail Equestria, I failed Friendship itself when I let this war happen…”

“Wasn’t your fault alone, we all know that now,” Henri reassured kindly. “It’s was everyone’s faults. Celestia, yours, the rest of the Ministries, the Zebras… I could go on. We all brought this hell down on ourselves.”

Twilight whirled on her, and Henri flinched at the stone-cold glare tossed her way.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Twilight asked mournfully. “I failed friendship, what part of that do you not understand? If… If I tried a little harder, maybe none of this would have happened. You know Pinkie’s last words to me right? I still repeat them to myself every night since Littlepip brought me that message. Every DAMN night!”

With that, Twilight actually repeated the last message to her chronicled in the Book of Littlepip.

“Hi, Twilight. It’s me… I’ve tried sending messages to you at both your Canterlot office and the one here. Everypony says that you are in Splendid Valley again, so now I’m trying you there too. I really hope you’re not just avoiding me. I… I wouldn’t blame you if you were. I went to the get-together at Spike’s place and brought It just like you asked. All of my friends were there but you… Spike said it was because you couldn’t get away from your work, but…

“Was it because I was gonna be there? Twilight, I’m so sorry. You were right. Totally right. I’ve known it for a long time. I just… I can’t. I mean, I couldn’t. But I will. I’ve made an appointment at the Helpinghoof Clinic. For tomorrow. They’re supposed to have stuff there… medicine that can help make… addictions… go away. Do you think they might be able to bake the medicine into a cake? Or maybe a pie? I like pie! Oooh, those Four Stars ponies are some bad ponies! They need to be banished. Then locked up in the place they were banished to. But first we need to get their secrets from their bad, bad pony heads to make sure there aren’t any more of them. So tell my ponies that we want them alive... You… wouldn’t believe what’s been going on. But don’t worry. If we get through today, everything will be okay.

“After today, I can do what you wanted me to do. I can try to be your Pinkie Pie again. I’m sorry I haven’t before… but I just couldn’t. I know you won’t believe me but… try to remember the parasprites. I’ve done bad things, Twilight. Awful things. And I’ve let the ponies in my Ministry do even worse things. And I’m really, really sorry. I don’t know if I can be your Pinkie Pie again. But I’ll try. That’s a Pinkie Pie Promise!

“I…Party-Time Mint-als are bad. They mess ponies up. I know I’m messed up. More than ever. But I’ve needed them. Normal old Pinkie Pie is smart and she can sense when things are coming. But Party-Time Mint-als make me… more. Not better. I know that now. But… more. And we need more. Equestria needs more. On Party-Time Mint-als, my Pinkie Sense is way, way more Sense-y. And it’s the only thing keeping us a hoof ahead of really, really bad things. My nose has been burning all day. It’s like an itchy nose only way, way worse. There are bad ponies, Twilight, and they mean to hurt us. To hurt all of Equestria. And just normal Pinkie Pie can’t stop them… But after today, it’ll all be okay again. I just know it. Just have to get through today… …And tomorrow, I’ve got that appointment. And… and… And Twilight? Do you think… maybe… you could go with me? I’m… kinda scared. And it isn’t the sort of scared that goes away with giggling. I mean, I have you with me now, so you’ll kinda be with me anyway. But it’s not the same. I want the real Twilight Sparkle. I… I want my friend back. Please? I’ll do anything…” Twilight whispered, word for word, but the words were hollow, a far cry from Twilight’s normal realm of speech patterns. They just sounded… wrong coming from her mouth. She sounded heartbroken, and not just the type of heartbreak when you lost a friend, but the kind when you lost a… (Henri swallowed here in stark realization) lover.

“I intend to make up for my mistakes. I failed her. I failed Pinkie, and I don’t intend to fail her again. I’m going to make ponies smile one last time, and if it’s by taking out a section of the Enclave and dying in the process… well, so be it.” Twilight said, in a tone that left almost no room for argument. Almost.

“Hell. No!” Henri snarled out, and actually for the second time that day, punched Twilight across the face. “You think Pinkie, the one you knew and loved -Yes, I picked up on that- would want you throwing your life away like this? Not if what I’ve heard about her is true. No, she’d want you to live. Besides, Starglow needs you. She just got her auntie back, you think she’d want to lose her again?”

Twilight looked at Starglow’s tear-filled eyes, begging and pleading for her to not throw her life away like that, and her resolve reaffirmed itself. “No… No,” Twilight whispered. “You’re right.”

“And you’ve still got friends you haven’t failed. Fluttershy, she’s alive and quite well,” Target added. “Sure, turned into a weeping willow for 200 odd years by Killing Joke, but still alive and well. Think on that…” the sniper put in.

“Fl-Fluttershy? S-She’s still alive?” Twilight asked, scarcely able to believe it.

“And still inspiring ponies to be kind. Just ask Velvet Remedy sometime, eh?” Target asked. Twilight nodded, and performed a small spell on Riptalon’s ripped apart and bloody claw.

“Small healing spell, best I can do in the time allowed, but you need to get yourself to see a real doctor, one who actually knows healing magic… I’d like to think I rarely make mistakes, but when I do, I correct them. This is me correcting yet another mistake, not being there for you all when I should have…” Twilight trailed off.

“I’ll be fine for the time being. I’ve worked alone for a few years now and survived on my own as well. Going to take more than a knife through my own talon to bring me down. Hurts like a female dog (He carefully chose his words, wary of a zap from Starglow) but I’ll be fine and dandy. Just give me someone to shoot. Preferably Enclave.”

“No, this is my mission alone.” Nimbus snarled, but Riptalon was having none of that.

“Hell no,” Riptalon said as Midnight joined him by Nimbus’s side. “You’re not going on that mission alone. This isn’t just your fight. We came to this island to take out the Enclave, and we’re going to finish that mission. You don’t have to fight this war by yourself.”

“He’s right,” Target said, tossing Nimbus End of the Line. “Take this, you’re going to need it. ...Just come back safe, okay?”

Nimbus only replied with a simple nod, and a reload of the sniper rifle. Well, not entirely. “Ponies… They talk. I’ve heard about one in particular. Goes by the name of Blackjack, or Queen Whiskey. Well, got one thing to say to the Enclave and to you lot. They say Blackjack swears she's not an executioner... Unluckily for you lot, I'm not her. As for that damned cannon and blowing it up, I’ll work something out along the way, about the way half of my plans went back in Coltumbia, just doing something crazy and hoping and praying it’d work. Now… Ante up!” he barked, as a jagged flash of lightning lit up the sky illuminating his form and thunder cracked.

Riptalon and Midnight shared a smirk, and grabbed their weapons as Twilight charged up her horn. It was time to go to war, and everyone knew it. The calm before the storm was over, and now the clouds had broken wide open.

Now:

As Nimbus led the way, eye peered out along the ridges for any snipers and ears trained for the sounds of movement, Midnight let out a long sigh, and turned to Riptalon behind him. Twilight Sparkle was close behind them, horn ready to fire off any number of combative spells.

“Suppose I owe you an apology, huh? Guess we all do…” he muttered.

“To be perfectly fair, and this goes out to you too Nimbus or Iron as I don’t really care what you call yourself now, and because I know you’re listening to both of us chatter on,” Riptalon replied. “I really didn’t make it easy for myself on the trustworthiness front. Had to sell the illusion as best as I could, and I guess, some parts of me became the mask a little. Riptalon, serial killer and backstabber extraordinaire. No one to boss me about, just complete and utter freedom to do as I pleased…”

“Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t,” Midnight replied in return. “After all, you had plenty of chances to kill us as soon as you met up with us, and yet you took none of them.”

“Had a gun trained on me at all times, so how could I?”

“...Like that’s ever stopped you before.” Midnight pointed out, and Riptalon shrugged in agreement.

“Got me there…”

“Plus,” Midnight added. “You, although the packages were always anonymous, sent plenty of caps to the NCR’s home base back in Junction Town, so you were still loyal to them in some form right?”

“You know,” Nimbus answered back. “For all the jokes and cracks Henri made about me and you getting together Riptalon, I think you and Midnight might make a damn good couple if I do say so myself…” he commented, no sense of snark or tease in his tone, and Midnight and Riptalon stared at him in shock before gagging.

“Me kiss him?” The two asked in unison as they looked at each other and then back at Nimbus. “Not a chance in Hell!”

“Suit yourself…” Nimbus singsonged. “Shame though, those bets of Henri’s on me and you Rip, they’ll really go to waste…”

“Henri’s really been betting on you and Riptalon getting together?” Twilight leaned over to whisper to him, and Nimbus nodded.

“Yeah, been doing that and making cracks about me and Riptalon ever since she first met us. To be fair, we did do an extended wilderness survival trip of sorts and fought back to back against wolves soon after we met up with each other, so…” Nimbus trailed off.

“Not to mention you snuggling me like a big fluffy feathery pillow, you asshole…” Riptalon muttered quietly in distaste, and Twilight bit back a snigger. She had to struggle from breaking into full-blown laughter when the griffon muttered: “Trying very hard to wash those memories from my brain…”

“Annnnyyyways,” Midnight muttered, trying to veer off the subject. “You know there’s been a battle cry, or hymn against the Enclave developed lately? I can sing it if you want.”

“And give our position away?” Twilight asked. “I hardly think this is the time for a-”

“Breakin' our backs
On breakin' down stones
Raisin' up buildings
Breakin' down bones…” Midnight began to sing softly and Twilight sighed to herself and facehoofed, getting a sense of eerie deju vu.

“...Song.” she finished.

“Work all the night
And we work all the day
Don't get a choice man
Don't get a say

“Well there's a stormcloud stirrin' now
Revolt!
There's a stormcloud stirrin' now
Revolt!

“The filthy streets and the calloused hooves
And bloodshot Marish eyes
A floating haven for the craven
Nestled in the skies

Well up and out and away with ya
There's a fight outside your doors
The shining pride of Equestria
Is a nation up for war!” He finished.

“...You know, I’m genuinely shocked we haven’t been shot full of holes with that voice of yours,” Nimbus deadpanned. “Not because it’s loud or good or anything… No, it’s just that terrible.”

“...You know, I remember why I hate you now,” Riptalon muttered. “You really have no brain to mouth filter...”

“So, what’s your point? Blackjack, who I still regard as the punchline to a bad joke as no pony just drinks, has sex, and shoots up everything like a bloody madmare, has no brain to mouth filter from what I’ve heard out of you chatterboxes.”

Riptalon muttered something rude under his breath, and once again thought about getting flash cards for Nimbus. Gawd knew he needed them for social niceties.

“Something’s bothering you, isn’t it?” Twilight asked. “Now, I’m not exactly the best at social cues, never have been, but it’s like something’s nagging away at you as you seem to be making suicidal risks. Taking on the Alpha Skullcrawler alone with just Riptalon by your side, and now this.”

“...Okay, yeah I admit I’m guilty of more than a few things. Like being partial to letting Starglow out from that heaven of hers, and exposing her to… this,” Nimbus admitted. “I push aside feelings over half the time, don’t give a damn about caring and leave that luxury up to others so I can figure out a plan to get everyone out alive, left over from my time as an Enclave commander under Stormy Skies I guess…”

“So, you can make up for this…” Twilight said kindly. “I mean, you can train Starglow to defe-”

Nimbus whirled around to face her, with a frosty glare in his eyes.

“Put that suggestion back in your mouth Twilight, before I’m tempted to shoot you. I am not training Starglow to fight, provided I get out of this. No way in Hell. A child doesn’t belong in war, not in my books!” he hissed out.

“So, she doesn’t have to fight on the front lines, she can just be trained to defend herself from basic dangers like Radroaches and the like…” Twilight replied.

“Basic dangers? Pretty sure that counts as Enclave soldiers nowadays…” Nimbus snarled softly before his tone lightened. “I know you’re trying to help Twilight, but as I said before, a child doesn’t belong in war.”

“Yeah, but what if that war comes straight to your doorstep?”

Nimbus didn’t say anything for a while after that.

Eventually, the small group reached a small communication station manned by Enclave scouts, constructed out of a small dwelling.

“Now, quick and quiet, let’s take them out,” Nimbus directed. “Take this comms station out, and they won’t be able to radio for reinforcements anytime soon.”

Riptalon nodded, before he and Nimbus rushed the two guards manning the outpost. Riptalon sliced one across the throat while Nimbus snapped the other’s neck with a sickening crack.

Riptalon then pulled out Lawgiver and fired it into the comms panel, blasting it to the point of near-ruin.

“...Won’t be fixing that anytime soon, I’ll wager…” Riptalon muttered as he gazed out the window to the towering cannon in the distance.

“How the hell did they build such a thing anyways?” Midnight wondered aloud, and suddenly Riptalon remembered something back in Old Appleloosa.

“Huh, look at this…” Iron muttered as he stumbled upon, quite literally in fact, on another Audio Log. With a shrug of what could only be approximated of “Oh, what the Hell?” he set the needle to the vinyl record and let it play.

“Braeburn’s Log: Day… Oh, Ah don’t know when. Lost track a long time ago. Celestia and Luna above… Shipping coal out to fuel the war effort for the ironclad trains that house the big guns. It’s an important job, Ah know, but ya sometimes wonder if something remotely interestin’ would happen round these parts,” a male voice with a southern accent pondered. “It’s flat-out dull, simple as that. Nothing for company right now ‘cept the rats, and they’re not much of a talkin’ type. Honestly, at this point, Ah don’t know which way the war’s gonna go with each side gettin’ bigger and better weapons ever since the massacre at Littlehorn, and if Ah live long enough to find out… Ah’m not sure Ah want ta see the results…”

With that, the log ended.

“Those trains…” Riptalon muttered to himself, and Midnight gave him a confused look. Twilight meanwhile, had guessed what he was thinking off.

“Those old war trains, packed with anti-air artillery. The Enclave… They must have used some of that metal to build that thing, with their ships ferrying in the raw materials wherever they were found!” Twilight realized in horror. “They finish this cannon, they control the skies for miles. We’ve got to bring that thing down now!”

Nimbus nodded, before he sighed.

“Given that we've nearly died Celestia knows how many times in the past few hours, and are probably going to die quite soon, I offer up the only appropriate form of minor comfort before we all die terrible deaths at the hooves of the Enclave. Whiskey!” Nimbus said in mock-cheer, before pulling flasks of whiskey from his saddlebags, and popping them open. “So, who wants first drinks?” he asked. Riptalon sighed and took a flask.

He then downed it, after saying in the tone of someone who knew he was probably on death row: “Oh what the Hell, not like I’ve got that long of a lifespan left anyways…”

Author's Notes:

Okay, so we're on the second to last chapter of this arc, and saddle up as things are about to get very crazy. Firstly though, credit to KKat for Pinkie's Last Message that Twilight repeats here. And yes, Twilight in this canon was Pinkie's lover. Another change I made to this universe, along with a few others you'll see coming down the line. Some by me, some by RuinQueen herself.

Next time: They Call Me Devil, And You Should Be Afraid...

Bonus: Art by KrazyEzzy of Riptalon: