“Can you see the real me...
Can ya, can you?”

“I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink.
I sit and tell him about my weekend,
But he never betrays what he thinks.”

“Can you see the real me, doctor?”-The Who: The Real Me, Quadrophenia

Privately, Twilight dreaded entering the factory, far too full of too many old demons for her liking really. She’d been there when the idea of this place was only just one tiny thought in Pinkie’s head during the wartime years. She’d heard of it constructed, although she’d never really had the luxury of seeing the thing for herself. And yet, here she was now, entering the damn place for herself.

A part of her trembled in terror. Needless to say, she’d had plenty of unresolved issues with Pinkie even though one of her old bodies did get the former Element of Laughter’s last message. For a moment, she smiled. Ditzy Doo or Muffins as she used to be called. The new bearer of the Element, it was only fitting. She always kept up a happy face even when life chose a moment to shit on her, get her fired from a job due to her sheer clumsiness. Another pony would take her, she always said with the biggest grin on her face. Then her smile faded once more.

“I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be here…” Twilight thought to herself, before she shook those thoughts clear from her mind. “No, I have to be here. If there’s anypony alive with even the slightest glimmer of hope, a ghost of a chance of talking sense back into the AI that runs this place, it’s me for better or for worse.”

Twilight thought back to a time, centuries ago when everything seemed to be all well and good between her and her marefriend, even when the war with the Zebras was at a tipping point. It was… Oh, she’d forgotten the exact date really. All she remembered was it was at the Ministry of Arcane Sciences lab in Maripony. Yeah, that one.

Pinkie did her usual hopping in place like she normally did. “Twilly! It’s so happy! What is so happy?” She stopped herself a moment thinking. “I don’t know.”

“...Don’t see what’s there to be happy about. Just got words of Zebra scouts from one of our lookouts at the Bucklyn Cross. Tempest warned me about a possible incursion there, ignored her saying that Echo and his troops had that place well-covered,” Twilight said, not even bothering to look up from her desk, away from her papers and at her marefriend.

Pinkie just looked at Twilight a frown forming on her face. She grew pretty angry. “War this!! War that. Why.. war…” Pinkie shaking her head. “No more..”

“Honestly, with the benefit of hindsight, and something -I don’t know what it is- tells me I’ll be saying that a lot in the future, if we’d just tried to talk to the Zebras, tell them that Luna isn’t some madmare descended from the stars then maybe… just maybe…” Twilight whispered to herself, taking a swig of a nearby bottle of booze.

Pinkie like she normally did took a drug those Party Time Mint-Als as they called them. Not that Twilight noticed this at the time, she’d started to busy herself in her work more, distract herself from the Hell that Equestria was becoming. She started to act odder but happier. She stared off into no direction in particular like she was seeing something just out of view. A smile formed on her face. “We’ll be okay, Twilight, you will save us. You will do so much for us even after the rest of us are long gone!”

“Wish I could believe that one…” Twilight mumbled. “And what’s this talk about all of us being long gone, we can get through this! The Elements haven’t failed u-us yet…” she continued, starting to choke on her words, some of her bangs framing the side of her face, wings drooping off to the sides.

Pinkie finally looked away from whatever she was seeing. She placed a hoof under Twilights chin to lift her eyes to hers. “You need to be strong Twilight, this war has ruined so much laughter and happiness in a once beautiful land of friendship. I’d hate to say it but Neighsay was right.”

Twilight finally looked up from her papers, and her gaze turned hard, stern. Cold even. It was a gaze she’d picked up from Tempest, the kind that said she had no time for beating around the bush or any form of bullshit.

“Right about what?” Twilight growled venomously.

“Teaching friendship to bunch of stripers. The fact they would never accept our way of life even if you tried teaching them that. They’re what they have always been, striped fools. If they did that school of Luna’s wouldn’t be full of the dead.”

Twilight’s eyes glistened with tears. “P-Pinkie…” she whispered. “How can you say that? What about Zecora, what about her? She’s been a dear friend to both of us for years now!”

Pinkie started her singing. “She's an evil enchantress, she does evil dances. And if you look deep in her eyes, she'll put you in trances. ..It's been years. I forgot the rest of the song.”

“Wow, catchy.” Twilight deadpanned, in an eerie echo of what she’d said to Pinkie the first time she sang that ‘song’ all of those years ago. “I… I can’t believe you…” Twilight sniffled. “Even you, getting caught up in all of this… this bullshit!” Twilight roared and gestured to the door. “Get out! I said get out!”

Pinkie looked at the door, her hair drooping. “Twilight, are you trying to tell me something?”

“I… I said get out,” Twilight whispered, nearly on the verge of tears. “I don’t want to talk to you right now. Go, just go.”

Pinkie’s ears drooped along with her mane slowly walking out the door, and just for a single moment in time, she dared to try and look back. “I’m sorry Twilight,” She smiled weakly, before exiting through the doorway and shutting it. “But you’ll see… in time.”

In the end, Twilight often wondered which of the two was right. Perhaps both were, or maybe neither. Her mind was such a jumbled mess of memories that weren’t always her own it was impossible to tell who won the war in the end, Equestria or the Zebra Empire. Or perhaps everybody lost. That’s what she generally ended up believing most of the time.

“Thinking again Twilight?” Gabby asked softly. “About how we ended up in this… mess?”

Twilight never answered, giving Gabby her answer. The ghoul sighed sadly to herself, and used a paw to wipe away a tear from her eye in remembrance and clutched the wooden shield on her saddlebags just a little tighter for a brief moment. Behind them. Stripped Gear and Jabari shared a look and sighed.

“How’s that old expression go?” Stripped asked, his Cutie Mark of a rusted gear quite visible on his flank. Jabari blinked, he could have sworn that his Cutie Mark had been different before. Stripped then smiled sadly in remembrance. “Do not pity the dead. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.”

His Cutie Mark was a regular old cog again. Jabari blinked, maybe he’d just remembered wrong.

“Since when did you get so poetic, Stripped?” Jabari asked him.

“Eh, you sit around doing nothing, waiting for the next bit of news on the Enclave you get anxious and you find yourself needing something to do. So, I do what anypony else with nothing else to do does… Turn to books and the like,” Stripped answered. “I’ve picked a few things up here and there. So yeah, I am a bit poetic as you put it. What’s wrong with being cultured?”

“...Fair point, and I’ve really got no room to talk given my sword’s been given the name Bleeding Edge.” Jabari admitted shrugging his shoulders.

“Does give the sword a certain je ne sais quoi as Flashfire would probably put it,” Stripped commented before he laughed. “Trust me man, you do not want to know how many times I’ve had to play translator to his Prench phrases.”

Jabari burst out laughing, before a huge black paw covered his mouth and shushed him.

“Anybody else get the feeling that we’re being watched?” Riptalon asked, eying the rafters and catwalks above them quite carefully. For just a brief moment, he could have sworn he saw something dart through the shadows above them. “Could be nothing, could be just radroaches but still…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s too quiet in here. I’ve been half-expecting us to get jumped ever since we stepped hoof into this damned place,” Nimbus agreed. “Part of me wants to think all of those Pinkie Pie bots we’d encounter were at the doors and in the trenches and we made short work of them all, but the logical, and possibly paranoid part of my mind says… they were only just the beginning.”

“Got two things for you then. One, it’s not really paranoia if everyone’s out to get you. And two: “To most ponies, paranoia carries a negative connotation. I believe it is one of the most valuable attributes a leader can have. It is about self-reflection and having the courage, humility, and discipline to constantly ask uncomfortable questions that can potentially poke holes in your strategy and challenge your conventional thinking.” Stripped recited.

“...You know, you sounded like Stormy Skies for a moment there. Please don’t do that again, had enough of his remarks for one lifetime,” Nimbus deadpanned before he slipped another magazine into his pistol. “Though in this instance, and as much as I loathe to admit it, you might be onto something here,” he sighed before going for his radio he’d picked back up at the command center in No Man’s Land. “Target, you got eyes on the factory?”

A voice crackled through the other end of the radio.

“Yeah, got my rifle trained on the windows. Managed to position myself on a ridge that overlooks the right side of the factory windows,” Target replied. “Now, don’t mean to brag, but I could hit a flea on a wall inside the place from here!”

Nimbus groaned and muttered something that distinctly sounded like: “Pudding brain…” before speaking. “Then don’t brag. Either shut your bloody piehole, or give us something I’d actually like to hear,” he replied, in an annoyed tone of voice. “Just tell me, are we or are we not being watched?”

“Oh yeah… I’m getting heat sigs all around you,” Target replied, and there was the sound of another magazine being loaded into End of the Line over the radio. “There’s definitely someone, or rather something, watching you alright. Prepare yourselves, in the next few minutes or so you’re bound to get jumped. I’ll see what I can do to give you some breathing room, but I’m not offering much. Low on ammo as it is. You’ll be on your own pretty damn quickly here. My advice, get yourself the Hell out of wherever you are, charge ‘em if you can, and then find yourself someplace to hole yourself up,” Target stated, drawing on every bit of her Steel Ranger training she had. “Avoid choke points, if possible. I don’t know what’ll be coming at you, but-”

“Yeah, I know,” Nimbus replied as he began to break off into a gallop. “The whole point of such a thing, limit how many enemies can get past you. If they’ve got guns, no point to it as they can just fire right at you. I’m not stupid remember? I have fought in a gunfight before,”

Nimbus spread his wings and rocketed up to a catwalk and took aim as a nearby door exploded, with a hoard of Pinkie-Bots pouring into the room chanting “Fun!” over and over. Nimbus thought that was the exact opposite of the situation, personally.

A sniper shot flew by, hitting a Pinkie-Bot in the head, and Nimbus’ gun rattled in his hooves as he fired, with the Zebra Rifle’s specially enchanted bullets igniting the internal mechanisms of the bots.

A barrage of shots flew by his head, and one nicked him in the shoulder, drawing blood as Nimbus grimaced out in pain. He turned, only to see another group of Pinkie-Bots approaching him from the side.

“What the flying fuck…?” He thought even as another shot from End of the Line blasted a hole clean through his shooter’s head. “It’s like they knew I’d do that! Sure, basic battle tactics, get up high if you’re a sharpshooter but still, it’s almost like both squads are coordinating with each other. Like they know every move we’re going to make before we even do it! It’s almost as if they’re… Oh, Celestia.” he realized, but far too late to voice his fears to the others. Another set of doors blew open, and another squad of Pinkie Bots came at the group below him from behind. Twilight threw up a shield as attacks came from both sides, and an aura of purple magic surrounded the group, the former Princess of Friendship’s eyes narrowed in concentration. She fired several small purple fireballs in the air like mortars, and blew holes in the squads, dispersing them, before they regrouped into much smaller ones.

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun together, don’t you agree Twilight Sparkle?” a voice asked, rather cheerful. But in a psychotic manner, and if you listened closely you could detect a hint of disdain.

“Pinkie…” Twilight thought, as a tear rolled down her face and she thought back to how everything went so wrong.

“I’m leaving,” Twilight said with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have come.” Her voice, it was barely audible over the noise of the party. Pinkie Pie’s voice however could somehow be heard clearly over the intense rock music.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Twilight! It’s a paaaar-teee! Have fun! Have fun! Have fun! Have fun! Have fun!” She sang it like a mantra.

Twilight lifted one forehoof off the ground, and just for a moment, events could have gone either way. But then she stomped the hoof down with a loud noise, cracking the floor beneath her.

“I’m not having fun, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight snarled, her voice dangerous and loud. “And do you want to know a secret? Neither. Are. You!”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Of course I’m having fun! There’s cake and ice cream and cupcakes and the best party music and drinks and party favors and…”

Twilight was swift to cut her off.

“And these?” The unicorn floated a tin off a nearby table. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were.

“Yep! Especially those!” The pink pony was nearly beaming. In everyone’s eyes, -Well, everyone who wasn’t high as a kite- they could easily tell that type of grin didn’t sit right on Pinkie’s face.

Twilight ripped open the tin with a surprising show of force, and then she tipped it over, spilling Party-Time Mint-als all across the dance floor. Some bounced over the side of a nearby balcony, others down the stairs. The pink pony gasped and jumped for them, scooping them up.

“I’m sick of lying for you,” Twilight snapped, her gaze intense. “For covering for you with the Princess. Everypony is. And I’m not going to do it anymore.”

Pinkie looked up with a glare as she picked up her Party-Time Mint-als. “You didn’t have to do that, you witchy-twitchy-rhymes-with-itchy.”

“You’re not a party pony anymore, Pinkie; you’re just an addict. Like half the ponies at your parties.” The purple unicorn stared at the pink pony, unleashing a swelling of anger that’d been building up inside her for quite some time now. “Well this is it. I want my old friend back. I want my Pinkie Pie. You are not her. But if you should happen to find her, have her give me a call.”

With that, everything went into a dead silence.

“Twi…” Pinkie whispered, a small tear forming in one of her eyes. She wasn’t alone, as Twilight’s own orbs were welling up with tears with what she had to say.

“No, don’t ‘Twi’ me. It won’t work this time. Either clean up and fess up...” she took a deep breath. “…or this friendship is over!”

Twilight turned and walked away. The pink pony seemed to deflate. Even her hair fell limp. “Oh gosh, Twi.” Applejack sighed to herself.

Rainbow Dash, who had long stopped laughing, flapped her wings. “She’s kinda right.” And then the blue pegasus slowly flew towards the exit. She still beat Twilight out the door.

In a voice that to this day that she was never quite sure reached Pinkie, Twilight responded “If you decide to be my Pinkie Pie again… really do… and need help, you know where to call.”

“I’m so sorry Pinks,” Twilight thought to herself, as another tear managed to work it’s way down her face. “But I did what I had to.”

A volley of bullets bounced off Twilight’s shield, even as the group inside fired off everything they had in their arsenal, Gabby and Riptalon using their knives to slice apart any bots who got a little too close for comfort. Stripped Gear’s eyes widened when he saw where this volley was coming from.

One Pinkie-Bot, holding what looked to be a hand-crank powered gatling gun was spitting out bullets like some sort of nightmarish fusion of a pepper grinder and a minigunner.

“Shit!” Stripped swore. “One of those old handcrankers? I thought those things went out of production ages ago!” he shouted. He was referring to, of course, the infamous peppermill crank gun, deemed rapidly obsolete and a use only by the truly desperate. It was first designed by either the Ministry of Awesome or the Ministry of Wartime Technology as some sort of experimental thing during the early days of the war when weapon design was really in its infancy. Quite quickly, the weapon had been figured out to have various crucial flaws. One, it expended ammo quite quickly, secondly it required a brief wind-up before you could fire, and finally, the reload time was appalling. Only thing more appalling than any of this, were the casualties racked up on the battlefield by those who used it. Not those on the receiving end of course -Although those figures were fairly high- but by those who used it. More often than not, whole squadrons of crank gun users were wiped out by superior Zebra weapons tech.

Now normally, Stripped would be laughing at someone even trying their hands at using such an obsolete weapon against them, but considering the current situation, he had every right to be afraid. That was, with one crank-gun user coming from the right side, and another from the left. And Twilight’s shield could only hold out forever. Even now, small cracks were beginning to appear.

Finally, some breathing room was gained as one of the crank gunners was hit squarely in the head, as a loud bang tore through the air, and a bullet whizzed by Riptalon’s head. He felt the rushing of air as it hit, blowing the Pinkie-Bot’s main computing systems to smithereens. The body fell to the ground, headless and sparking with the peppermill crank gun clattering loudly as it hit the factory floor.

“I’m out!” Target shouted over the radio. “That was my last magazine!”

“One down… A hell of a lot more to go.” Riptalon muttered as he, with a loud boom shot another one of the Pinkie-Bots to pieces with a sharp blast from Lawgiver, reducing it to just a mess of gears, wires and various limbs.

It’s head rolled in front of Riptalon, and let out one last drone of “Fun…” before giving up the ghost.

As if to make matters worse, the shield finally broke from the constant outpouring of bullets thrown at it, and shattered like glass.

“Oh fuck me with Celestia’s horn!” Riptalon exclaimed, as everyone ran for the nearest piece of cover they could find. “You only choose now for that rifle to finally run out of bullets!?! No, seriously, fuck me with both Celestia and Luna’s horns! Both of ‘em!”

Lawgiver barked, and reduced several more Pinkie-Bots to piles of scrap metal. The only reason the group managed to survive was at that moment, the other crank gun chose that very moment to jam.

“Not my fault custom ammo is hard to come by!” Target’s voice crackled over the radio. ‘I’ll backtrack, I know one of you left a Novasurge Rifle around here somewhere!”

The galloping of hooves was heard before Target cut the connection.

“This is on you, Twilight Sparkle, fun-killer and ruiner of all parties!” the Pinkie-AI screeched over the din of various gunfire, blasts of magic, the swings of metal blades slashing through the air and sometimes hitting their marks, and the constant outpouring of shouts of “Fun!”. “You could have chosen to support me, let the party continue forever! But no, instead you forced me to go cold-turkey!”

“I… I had to! There was no other way!” Twilight pleaded. “You weren’t yourself anymore, Pinks!”

“It’s not Pinkie, it’s just an AI who thinks it’s the real deal!” Stripped shouted, lining up a shot with his rifle, and pulling the trigger. A red beam of pure magical energy scythed through several bots, including one going for the crank gun rendering them to nothing but ashes. But his words fell on deaf ears, as to Twilight for all intents and purposes, this was, in fact, Pinkie Pie.

“I was… I was doing fine,” the AI bellowed, seemingly choking over her speech (Could AIs even do that, Riptalon wondered.) as a holographic head of it’s basis appeared on a screen. “Until you had to come along, and take everything away from me! My friends, my life! My parties! I built my life around being a party pony, and you ruined it!”

Several arms, on production lines, came to life and fired searing hot lasers at Twilight, who she only just barely deflected with shields of magic. Behind her, both Jabari and Gabby struck down more of the bots with their blades. Riptalon joined in as well when Lawgiver finally ran out of ammo and went to work with both of his combat knives.

“Well, that’s the last of it…” he sighed, looking through his pouches for any spare scraps of ammo he may have had on his person or even any explosives. No such luck. With that, he drew his knives to face the oncoming hoard. “Alright then, you want some fun? I’mma give it to you good, and then some!” he roared, and charged slicing through the robots in a flurry of motion.

Nimbus, as he went into S.A.T.S mode, muttered: “Luna fuck me over with her moon…” and lined up his targets, and let the bullets fly as he leaped to the left to avoid some gunfire sent towards him. He smiled when he saw several Pinkie-Bots catch aflame as bullets whizzed by his head. Not that he could smile for long really, as he saw Stripped Gear being backed into a railing against a deep, yawning black abyss leading deeper into the lower bowels of the factory and Celestia-knew-where-else. A Pinkie-Bot, with a powerful buck of her hind legs sent him tumbling into it.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Nimbus shouted, flaring his wings and rocketing down into the pit after him. For the briefest of seconds, he saw a pure white pony, with lime green detailing in the fur. This only spurred him on even more and soon, right before Stripped could hit the cold, unforgiving ground, Nimbus caught him. However, he couldn’t control his speed and both he and Stripped hit the ground, armor being ripped and torn through as fabrics shredded from the sheer force of the impact. They’d survived, but only just and their uniforms had paid the price as shown when they picked themselves up off the ground, covered in blood.

“Like some Angel from Celestia’s heaven, aren’t you?” Stripped teased, wincing out in pain. He figured a few bones had been broken in the impact. Nimbus’ right wing looked bent in a rather unnatural way.

“Well, you know what they say… Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread,” Nimbus replied, and Stripped gave him a look of abject shock. “What, don’t look so surprised. I’ve done some reading as well, about some of the only stuff I could do at times. You’re not the only cultured one around here.”

“You could swoon a buck or a mare, you know that right?” Stripped teased and Nimbus chuckled at that before he took a long look around him. Lining the walls were long brass pipes extending far beyond their line of vision into a deep yawning cave. Metal walls turned to rock, and concrete flooring turned to pure stone. Behind them, lay long abandoned factory floors with production lines having long gone silent, various parts lying all around them. Spellfire echoed above them, but Nimbus and Stripped paid it no mind. Not like they could rejoin their allies anyways.

“Where… where do you think we are?” Nimbus asked nervously. Stripped looked down the hallway, his eyes narrowing.

“How far do you think that tunnel goes?” he asked.

“Hardly the time to abandon our allies!” Nimbus snapped, but Stripped again asked a question.

“No, the wrong way to phrase that I think. How old do you think that tunnel is?” he questioned, and Nimbus’ eyes widened with dawning realization and horror as the penny dropped with a resounding clang.

“Oh sweet Celestia in Heaven…” he muttered before he heard an even more horrific sound as machines began to start up and build more Pinkie-Bots, before a door behind them opened and revealed a platoon of half-finished bots, not completely covered in armor plating revealing their internal mechanisms. Stripped Gear, if he was to be completely honest would admire the craftsmanship if he was in any other situation.

Nimbus meanwhile went for his radio again, and called Flashfire.

“Flashfire, please tell me you’ve got a lot of ammo stored up in that little command center of yours!” he shouted into the comms as he pulled out his pistol. The Zebra Rifle he’d been carrying had snapped on impact.

“Not a lot, but it should last me a good bit if anyone ever came a-knocking. Well, I’d go down in a flamboiement de gloire at least, if that’s what you’re asking, eh papillon?”

Nimbus, even as he fired a shot into a Pinkie-Bot’s head, quirked an eyebrow. He’d only later find out that’s what Flashfire called all pegasi.

“Mate, no time to consider being suicidal, or going out in whatever the hell a flamboiement de gloire is!” Nimbus snapped. Stripped opened his mouth to translate, but thought the better of it as he fired a shot into a half-built Pinkie-Bot.

“Is… Is that gunfire?” Flashfire asked nervously.

“Oh, what, did you think it’s cello music?” Nimbus snapped. “You’re going to have incoming in a minute if me and Stripped here fall! Hold the line as long as you can, and protect Starglow above all else! Do you hear me? Protect Starglow!” he bellowed, and over the radio, he heard a small explosion, the sound of gunfire starting up and a very familiar and very unwelcome sound.

“Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!”

Nimbus swore and fired off more rounds, reloading as needed.

“Oh, you really drag me into the loveliest of tasks, don’t you Morningstar!” Flashfire snapped, as he fired off a magical spell. What kind, Nimbus wasn’t able to tell, but he hoped it was a good one. Had to have been, judging by the loud explosion that followed.

“We feel free when we escape—even if it be but from the frying pan into the fire,” Stripped muttered to himself. From one battlefield, to another.

High above, Twilight was desperately trying to negotiate with the Pinkie-AI.

“Pinks…” Twilight whispered tearfully, drowning out all the sounds of chaos around her. “We’re friends, you know me.”

“We. Are. Not. Friends!” the AI screeched. “You ruined that, when you told me to throw all of those Mint-Als down the toilet!”

“It was for your own good, and you know it!” Twilight shouted back, tears streaming down her face, as she tried anything and everything to jog the AI’s memory, and remind her of who she used to be. And then she remembered. During some of those long cold nights, when the war was at it’s peak, Pinkie and Twilight poured over old Friendship Reports, just trying to remember times gone by, before everything all went to Hell. “It's hard to believe that two ponies that seem to have so little in common could ever get along. But I found out that if you embrace each other's differences, you just might be surprised to discover a way to be friends after all.”

“What the hell is she doing?” Jabari asked, as with one wide swing, he cleaved a Pinkie-Bot’s head clean off its neck.

“My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.” Twilight continued. Two robots charged towards her, but two blasts of orange energy incinerated them. Target stood atop a catwalk, holding a Novasurge rifle.

“No… No, those can’t be,” Gabby whispered, as she used her knives to strike down another bot. “I read those lessons in a book once! Twilight herself published it, just a few years before the Zebras began their campaign…”

“Lessons!?!” Riptalon roared. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Lessons, lessons on friendship…” Gabby whispered.

“I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives. Even when they don't always seem to make sense…” Twilight continued, and Riptalon swore he was imagining it, but the robots, they seemed to lessen in number. “I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them. And sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way.”

And astoundingly, something seemed to click in the AI’s mind, and she actually vanished from the screen, before swirling lines of code appeared in front of Twilight and they took form. A pink pony, bubblegum pink in fact with a perpetually bouncy mane and three balloons for a Cutie Mark stepped forwards, before speaking in that voice only one mare could ever speak in.

“There are many different kinds of friends, and many ways to express friendship. Some friends like to run and laugh and play together. But others just like to be left alone, and that's fine too. But the best thing about friendship is being able to make your friends smile.” The AI repeated before smiling and pulling Twilight into a hug whispering “Thank you.”

“No… Thank you, Pinkie. I finally got to see you one last time, even if you…”

“Weren’t in the best of sorts?” Pinkie laughed, and Twilight chuckled at that before the AI continued. “Did you ever get my… Well, not my message of course, but you know what I mean… right?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight wiped away some tears from her eyes with a wing, and smiled. “Yeah, I did.”

Pinkie returned the smile, before it faded. “I guess this is where the party finally stops, isn’t it?” she asked, and Twilight nodded. Pinkie lunged forwards and gave Twilight a very passionate kiss, cupping her face with her hooves before pulling away. “Wish I didn’t have to end things on such a low note, but… Well, I guess it’s time for me to pack up my balloons, streamers and for this Pie to hit the road! You can go on without me, right Twilight?”

“Y-Yeah, I’ll manage.” Twilight sniffled, and just like that, the former bearer of the Element of Laughter vanished, blinking out like a light. The last thing to be visible, before it too vanished? That would have been her smile.

Author's Notes:

Okay, I'm truly sorry for any tears shed. What I'm not sorry for, is Twilight using all those Friendship Lessons at the end to talk sense into the Pinkie-AI and the Halo 4-like ending to the chapter. I felt it worked, honestly.

As for credit where credit is due, thank you Malla (Or Megaskullmon, whichever you prefer) for helping me write the first flashback sequence with Pinkie, and credit to KKat for the original version of the Last Party sequence.