“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” -George S. Patton

Inside the Dust Devil, all was silent. It was almost like the whirring of the turbines that powered the VTOL gunship (Or dropship, depending on how it was made) didn’t exist, drowned out by the silence inside the vehicle that enveloped it. Target, who’d been given back End of the Line, couldn’t be bothered to inspect it, as everyone knew what had just happened. When asked where Midnight was, Riptalon had only hung his head giving everyone their answer.

Speaking of the griffon, currently, he sat in thought, thinking back to the very last words he’d ever heard his new, but rather short-lived ally ever said.

“You go on ahead, I’ll give you the best covering fire I can. Blow this place sky-high!” Midnight stated sternly.

“But… But they’ll kill you! You can’t possibly hold them all off!” Riptalon snapped back.

“I know that, but I’ll buy you time. And hey, you wanted to fight alongside me one day, didn’t you? Just be proud that the day you did, you saw me at my best.”

“Yeah… that I did…” Riptalon muttered, and without thinking, lunged forwards and kissed Midnight passionately. The younger pony moaned as he let his tongue slip into Riptalon’s mouth briefly wrapping his forelegs around him, before pulling away.

“What… what’d you do that for?” Midnight asked in surprise.

“Please, young buck like you? Always worrying about killing me, and the war? Bet you never had time to consider dating. Making it up to you, just a little,” Riptalon smiled sadly. “Now go get ‘em. Shinu mae no meiyo, right? Honor before death?”

Midnight nodded, and pulled out his rifle and let the shots fly even as Riptalon ran for the power core, the griffon never looking back not wanting to see what happened next. He shut his eyes tightly, fighting back tears as he heard the scream.

His claws clenched tightly as he thought to himself: “Goddamnit… They always have to die so young… It’s true, the Wastes, they take you in, and spit you out… War is Hell huh? No, War is not hell. War is filled with innocents, Hell isn't.”

That last phrase would be something Riptalon, amongst others, would find themselves repeating in the many months to come.

Finally, the silence was broken, by Nimbus of all ponies

“Henri, why’d you come back for us? ...Why, just why?” He asked. He hadn’t forgotten what Henri had said to both him and Twilight. Well, it was said to Twilight, but it was very obviously directed at him as well. He just knew it.

“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. But Henri wasn’t so keen on this idea of his, and she voiced it quite audibly.

“Hey, I'm the only gal in the room who doesn't have super magical powers or some sort of ace ability, and let me tell you: you guys scare me. What if you do decide to go and face off against the Enclave, taking care of whoever you think is guilty? Stormy’s charismatic, we know that much, but he’s also completely insane. How do we know some of the ponies working for him aren’t working for him out of sheer fear?” she asked. “Who could stop you if you did decide to go rogue? Me? Look, I'm an old lefty. The government must do for the ponies what ponies can't do for themselves. The NCR sure can't protect themselves from the likes of you guys. Trouble is, eye for an eye, everyone always ends up blind I find…”

“You’re scared of us,” Twilight replied. “That’s good of you. Who’s to say we wouldn’t go rogue, and just tear everything down, and build it from the ground up? I know, with my powers, I could be a god. A tyrant even. So go on, leave us to die, as we probably will be doing that within the next few hours. I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest.”

“Twilight’s right, we could probably take on the whole of Stormy Skies’ Enclave, provided we get no unexpected surprises, and Winter Breeze’s as well, if we were so inclined. If we survive this, we could build up an army, and gather up enough of a force to take down both Enclaves, and the NCR and make this Wasteland ours,” Nimbus put in, and for the first time, everyone began to see just why Stormy picked him as one of his right-hand ponies for his conquest of Coltlumbia. He never backed down from a challenge, and was willing to die for his cause. “You’d have every reason to be scared of us. I’ve heard the old tales, about when Tempest Shadow and the Storm King invaded Canterlot, and took it down in one clean stroke, and if not for the intervention of one Ditzy Doo, would have had all the Princesses and their power. Bam, he could have taken Canterlot and the rest of Equestria in one swift stroke had that one little mare not jumped in front of Twilight here. If we had that sort of power, and I gather there’s still some of the Storm King’s technology around, we could very well do the same to the rest of the Alicorns, and deal with both Winter and Stormy. So if I was you, I’d run, hard and fast and hope we don’t get any ideas about finding you.”

Nervously nodding, Henri and company started off towards the landing pad a few miles away.

“Now…” Nimbus said to his group, those who were willing to follow him into the jaws of Hell. “The Light is Green! Weapons-Free zone everyone!”

“Celestia and Luna above, I was so fucking arrogant for thinking I could take on Stormy, much less two Enclaves and the NCR, when you had to come and save all of our hides and reduce those soldiers to mincemeat...” Nimbus muttered in self-disgust, putting his face into his hooves. “So… why? Why did you come back?”

Henri took a long sigh, before she answered, the words taking even longer to come out of her beak.

“In all honesty? I’m really not sure myself…” Henri commented, as she flew the Dust Devil beyond the boundaries of Mount Pleasant Island, mist on all sides of the cockpit window. “Perhaps… Perhaps Blackjack, believe it or not, had something to do with it…”

Riptalon adjusted himself in his seat, as he and Nimbus turned to stare at her.

“Blackjack?” Riptalon asked. “Blackjack? What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

Henri sighed again, before flashing back.

It was just after the Dust Devil had lifted off for the first time, after Henri and company had cleared the landing pad of all hostiles, and piled into the gunship’s seats before the rear door closed behind them.

Slowly, but surely, it began to lift off, and in a few short moments, was over the coastlines of the Island, and beginning to leave it far behind.

“So, just like that, we’re leaving them?” Target asked. “Just like that, leaving them to die via the hooves of a madman, and his soldiers outfitted with some of the most dangerous weapons one could get their hooves on?”

“Yes, yes we are.” Henri stated definitively in a tone that left no room for argument. “We’ve got a job to do, get Starglow out of here, and get her to safety. Then, we come back for whoever’s left.”

“Bull.” Target snarled, as she rose from her seat. “I don’t know why the Element of Magic picked you, but you share none of Twilight’s qualities.”

“Well, maybe that’s a good thing!” Henri shouted at her, her anger and frustration finally boiling over. “Because I don’t know if I’ve been slipped some Psycho or something, but she’s one of the many reasons we’re in this damn predicament in the first place! Now, I don’t blame her for destroying the old world and turning it into this hellhole, not completely as there’s plenty of blame to go around for that, but I blame her for getting us involved in this foolhardy mission to save Pupp-Starglow, and destroy the Enclave on this island!”

Target had caught Henri’s brief slip-up, right before she said Starglow she’d briefly started to say Puppysmiles.

“You don’t think I’ve heard the stories about the Ghost of the Long 52, and the rumors of your involvement in them? Henri, you need to mare up, and quit blaming yourself! Her death was not your fault, it was that damn nightmare being inside her! Nobody else’s! So stop living in the damn past, and start thinking about the bloody present! Or maybe you’re not the big sister you like to think yourself as, as I sure as HELL wouldn’t want you to be my big sister if I was in Puppy’s place!” Target shouted at her. “Because here you are, leaving Nimbus and company to die, just like you did Puppysmiles! Only this time, you’re not going to see them pass on, as you’re abandoning them to the hooves of the Enclave!”

She knew her words were harsh, and somewhat untrue, but Target also knew Henri needed a firm slap to the face as it were, and it seemed to have worked, as Henri looked as if she’d been physically struck. She flashed back to what happened after her little one-night stand with Blackjack.

“You did what you had to... Henri. I heard the story of Puppysmiles from Watcher. The innocence she carried, and the fact a filly could live that long. Well, maybe not live but you know what I mean. Just to search for her mother. You did the right thing. You listen to me, don’t you ever fail like me. Don’t keep falling into this hole I’m making for myself. Someday soon, I will be asked to answer for my crimes. You can escape...“ Henri whispered repeating Blackjack word for word, before she let out a little snarl and whispered, too softly for anyone to hear: “Winter, Blackjack… as much as it pains me to admit it, you’re right. Been carrying this weight around for far too long, and now I’ve just got to look towards the future…”

She turned, and looked at Starglow who’d been watching and listening to this entire exchange. Henri let out a small sniffle and whispered: “Puppy, forgive me for being such a shitty sister and not honoring your memory the way I should have…” before her claws went for the controls, face tightening as she did so and she turned the entire ship around, back towards Mount Pleasant Island, back towards Nimbus. “Ante up.” Henri whispered.

“That’s why… All because of Blackjack, and our resident sniper here…” Henri replied. “Knocked some sense into me that I desperately needed…” she muttered, more than a tinge of shame in her tone.

“There’s… There’s something I think we need to all consider. The Enclave, they knew we were coming.” Nimbus stated.

“Of course they knew we were coming, didn’t you hear Stormy’s transmission from that hijacked Sprite-Bot?” Henri asked. “He knew we were coming, and prepared for us every step of the way...:”

“Yes, but someone had to give him this information. Sure, us shooting up his soldiers and causing him trouble letting him know someone was on his island, and same with the Dust Devils that greeted us, they were just defending their territory,” NImbus said. “But it’s the battle at the cannon where everything falls apart. How’d they know Twilight would be coming? How they’d know we’d be using Stealthbucks? How’d they know I’d be sniping everyone from under cover of darkness?”

Henri and Target shared a look, eyes widening as they slowly realized what Nimbus was getting at…

“When an enemy knows too much…” Target trailed off.

“Yeah, chances are we have a rat,” Nimbus stated. “Now, you could argue I alerted them to everything, as these are all battle tactics I’d use when storming the castle as it were, and I’m former Enclave, but that’s where your argument would fall apart. Former, emphasis on that. It’s fairly obvious by this point that I hate Stormy Skies far too much to sell you all out to him. I want him dead, and I’m willing to take whoever I can get to kill him, and find my brother. So, the mind begins to wonder… Who?”

His gaze, along with everyone else turned to Riptalon. “No, it’s not you. You were willing to give up everything you ever knew for your government, similar to me, to protect what you cared for. In your case, the peace and tranquility of the Wasteland, and in mine, my brother.” Nimbus said, before he continued. “So, I’m willing to guess that Mid-”

“Shut up,” Riptalon snarled, his claws clenching. “Just shut up, you hear me? He’s no member of the Enclave. He’s an Earth Pony, they’d never even let him join, they’d just shoot him on the spot!”

“And yet we know very little about him… Seriously, nopony in the NCR knows very much about the stallion,” Target added. “Plus, Stormy was able to convince some of the native pegasi of the island to join him in his cause, was he not?”

“And then there’s another thing,” Nimbus put in, ignoring the look on Riptalon’s face that said he wanted to rip Nimbus to shreds right about now. It was only Twilight’s magic that held him back from doing so. Whispering an apology to Henri, he continued. “Stormy, he’s allied himself with the Nightmare Cult.”

“WHHHHHAT!?!” Henri roared, the Dust Devil jerking in mid-air slightly as she momentarily let go of the controls.

“Yes, even went as far to get ahold of some IMP, and made himself an Alicorn,” Nimbus continued, ignoring the outburst. “Now, of course, he’s going to backstab them in the end, we all know he will, but this opens up the possibilities Stormy’s very willing to ally himself with anyone, as long as it furthers his cause. So as much as I hate to admit it, Midnight’s a very good candidate for ratting us out.”

Riptalon let out a little snarl. “So why aren’t you blaming Twilight for all of this as well? She could have easily let Stormy know what we were doing!”

“If you were less furious, you’d be thinking rationally. Twilight was never with us for all the time, so she didn’t know everything we were doing right up till we got in contact with her, she didn’t know we were coming to the island, and besides, given how much she hates the Enclave, and their ideals, and believes she failed Equestria and it’s populace, do you really think she’d ally herself with someone who would destroy everything the nation was once founded upon? A madman who takes Celestia’s beliefs of forgiveness and such, and twists them in such a way to suit his own madness and delusions?” Nimbus stated, his voice coming across cold and uncaring, but logical.

“He’s… He’s right. I’d never let myself or my teacher’s ideals be twisted in such a way. I’d be going back on everything I stood for, everything those I loved, and who loved me in return stood for…” Twilight whispered, thinking back.

It was back around the time when we had first started working on the Stable 13 project. We had just finished getting the last of the equipment finalized for the project so I was getting ready to head home after a day’s work.

“Alright, send the proposals to Apple Bloom over at Stable-Tec,” I said with a sigh as I passed the files over to my assistant.

“Yes ma’am,” she said and headed out while I leaned back in my chair.

Stable 13 was a special project that I had worked out with Stable-Tec. Not that it was an easy task, but they had agreed to give us the Stable in return for some funding and equipment. It was more a precaution than anything else, we just had to make sure that everything was in place.

Of course it wasn’t just the Stable, but that’s another story. Sorry, I’m getting off subject again, you’re not here to hear about what happened to Stable 13.

I was about to head out of the office when there was a knock on the door. I blinked when I opened it to see Pinkie Pie standing out there with her mane looking deflated, that was never a good sign.

“Pinkie, what’s wrong?”

“Have you been listening to the radio?” She asked and I shook my head.

“No, I’ve been too busy working on this project,” I answered, though something about this worried me all of a sudden. “What happened?”

“The Zebras, they tried to assassinate Queen Novo!” Pinkie said and my eyes went wide at that.

“Why? Is she okay?”

“I don’t know, I think they were trying to get the Hippogriffs to change sides or something…” Pinkie said with a shake of her head. “They didn’t get Novo though they got…”

She just broke down crying at that and I hugged her. She didn’t have to say it, I already had an idea of who she meant based on what she had said, and my heart broke at the very idea.

Princess Skystar had been killed by the attack.

“Pinkie… I’m sorry…” I said softly as I hugged her tight. “I know you loved her very much. If you ever need somepony to help, just let me know.”

Pinkie sniffed a little as she hugged me tightly and cried into my withers. I patted her on the back gently and held her close for the longest moment. I just wished that I could help her somehow, I just wasn’t sure how.

“Why did she have to die…” Pinkie said through her sobs. “Why did the Zebras have to kill her?”

“I wish I could tell you Pinkie,” I said with a sigh as I shook my head. “War is senseless, and with everything that’s going on… I really wish that there was more I could say.”

We held that for a long moment as we hugged more. I looked up at the clock for a moment and sighed a little. “Pinkie, you’re going to be okay.”

“You really think so?”

“I hope so, yeah,” I said and lifted her chin up. “And I promise that I’m going to be here to help you as much as I can. Sky Star wouldn’t want you to suffer because of her death, you should live on and make sure that you have a good life.”

Pinkie nodded a little and smiled gently. “I’d like to think so. Hopefully, everything will be okay after all…”

“Well, how about this, I’ll take you back home with me, I need to get back for dinner with Eclipse anyway,” I suggested with a smile. “I’m sure she’d love to see you again, what do you say?”

“I’d, like that,” Pinkie said with a smile.

“Alright, come on, let's go,” I said and released the hug as we headed out of the office together.

Pinkie was a good pony, but the death of Princess Skystar was something that had lead to everything that had happened to her. She was never the same after that day, and no matter how hard we tried, we never could get her to truly recover. Even after me and Fizzlepop broke up, (Her citing how we were too different, though I deeply suspected she wanted to push me towards Pinkie to try and help her) things never really were the same.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe there was a chance she could’ve recovered after the war if it hadn’t gone so badly.

I guess we’ll never know.

“Oh, Twilight…” Target whispering, bringing the much larger pony in for a hug. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry won’t bring them back, I’ve long accepted that,” Twilight said. “I’ve cried enough tears, and shut myself away for far too long trying to figure myself out. Lacunae, that Alicorn friend of Blackjack’s, she may have freed me from the Goddess… No, Trixie’s control, but…”

“We understand.” Target said. Then, Twilight turned to Starglow.

“As soon as we find safety, or a semblance of that, I’ll explain everything that I know, what’s happened over the years.”

“Are you sure that’s… wise?” Target questioned.

“She needs to know,” Nimbus said in one of his tones that left no room for argument on the subject. “For better, or for worse.”

Soon, as they entered free air-space, the Pipbuck radio crackled to life.

“Hello Wastelanders, greetings everypony out there in Pony Post-Post-Apocalyptia, this is your favorite DJ coming at you loud and proud!” Xiraia’s voice came in over the radio. During the few times he’d heard it over Homage’s voice, he’d picked up somehow that there was something off about her voice. He couldn’t quite put his hoof on it, but it was almost like it wasn’t her real voice, he just couldn’t figure out why he thought that, or prove it. “Now, I’ve been getting some real juicy news as of late? Remember that group I told you who went off to Mount Unpleasant Island a while back, and haven’t been heard from since? Just heard from a little birdie that something on the island went sky-high, boom! Whatever happened out there, I’m willing to bet you my Cutie Mark that they were involved. And if they just served the Enclave their asses on a silver platter, well, I just want to say this. Damn fucking good job! There’s a quote that I think fits here. It goes: “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.” And now, some music just for them, a song of victory, a song of peace that I hope is soon to come…”

“Some hope for the future
Some wait for the call

To say that the days ahead

Will be the best of all

“We will build bridges

Up to the sky

Heavenly lights surrounding

You and I

“From out of the darkness

Our future will come

If we leave the past behind

We'll fly beyond the sun

“We'll be together

Sharing the load

Watching in wonder as our lives unfold…”

So, if it was a song of victory and peace, why did this battle feel like it ended in a defeat, Nimbus and everyone else had to ask themselves.

Author's Notes:

Okay, first off, really want to thank Ruinqueen for taking the time out of her schedule to write Twilight's flashback. Can never thank her enough for her contributions.

Now, not much really to say on this chapter, except the fact, the obvious fact was the curb-stomp battle that was the destruction of the anti-air cannon was to not only complete Midnight's character arc, but to open up new questions, and to knock Nimbus's ego down a few pegs.

Now, we don't really enter another story arc for a while, as the next few chapters are moments of brief relaxation before this story catches up to Survivor's Guilt and the First (Second?) Battle of Manehatten where if you've read that story, when Winter's Enclave takes control over Tenpony Tower and the Celestia One Megaspell.