Rainbow Dash hung limply from her restraints in total darkness, her mind barely functional. She'd struggled against her bonds until she'd passed out, then lay nearly catatonic in her cell. The only thought she could process was killing Applejack, then Pinkie Pie. She would crush that deserter's throat with her own augmetic hand, then Pinkie Pie for working with the monsters that had killed her Fluttershy. That was all that existed for her. No memories of friendship, no battles fought and won together, no plans of living. Only vengeance, only death.
She winced as the door slid slowly open, the bright LED lights hurting her eyes sore from weeping. She blinked away the pain and saw Twilight stepping silently in, a grimace on her scarred face. She heard Twilight say in a voice cold and hard as iron, ''I've got a job for you."
Twilight, instead of being pleased with the discovery of Pinkie's location, was furious beyond reckoning as it lent credence to the notion that Pinkie was a traitor. She'd argued without conviction that she was leading them to their enemies. She had worked furiously with S.P.I.K.E. and had developed a weapon of retribution. A fusion bomb that would unleash a blast not in a sphere, but in a disc. It was intended to split the entire Changeling homeworld in two, then its own tectonic action would slowly grind the planet into dust.
S.P.I.K.E. was distraught that his new found creativity was being used for destruction, not protection, not instruction. All he wanted to do was find a way for Rarity to escape the fleet's computer, instead his processing power was being used for what for all intents and purposes was genocide.
Rarity had scraped together every ship in the fleet and they had loaded the device into Rainbow's new mech. Applejack had healed from her surgery and was recalled back to the Damocles for the invasion. She strode slowly through the cargo bay and stared in horror at her mech. The armor on the entire right side of the machine was melted from taking the broadside, the back armor was scarred with deep rents from point defense lasers. She was genuinely surprised she'd survived the battle.
Twilight scowled as she teleported into the cargo bay. She thought to herself, "What the fuck is so goddamned important that she couldn't tell me over the comms?" She made eye contact with Applejack and her surface thoughts hit her like a slap to the face.
Twilight's eye went wide and she went through several emotions very quickly. She felt shock, then anger, then betrayal, then sympathy. She spluttered as she fished for something to say. "Applejack, yo-you can't you. . . You swore an oath! You can't do this to me! I CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!"
Applejack looked at her in despair. "Twahlaght. . . Look at it." She gestured limply to her mech. "Ah can't do this anymore." Her voice gained a subtle hint of anger. "Ah've given you EVERYTHING!" The anger dropped back into despair. "And look what its gotten us. What're y'all gonna do? Nuke em? Then what?" She lowered her head.
"Y'all don't need me fer that." She weakly climbed the ladder and sat in her cockpit. "Ah'm done. Ah'm gonna clear out mah mech, and Ah'm goin home." The her voice cracked with emotion as she shouted. "N if y'all gotta kill me fer bein an oath breaker than you go ahead!" She hung her head and sobbed. "Ah got nothin left here."
Twilight ground her teeth and her hand gripped her sword hilt tightly. She glared hatefully out of her one remaining eye at the oath breaker. Then she remembered how she'd fought tooth and nail to save her during the Lunar coup. Then she remembered every battle, every skirmish, every bullet she'd loosed in Twilight's service. She saw the scarring on Applejack's mech suit, it was an engineering miracle that it still ran, much less that it was still in fighting condition. Twilight teleported away without saying a word.
Applejack stared into space. She'd gotten her answer. She'd return to Pomum Dulce a traitor, an oath breaker, never to return. She tearfully gathered up the few things she kept in her cockpit and started up her mech's computer to wipe its files.
Suddenly a morbid curiosity stole over her and she instantly felt guilty at the idea that had popped into her brain. She looked through her mech's battle records and brought up her last battle. She couldn't resist, she had to know. "How close was ah?"
She fast forwarded past the beginning of the battle, then ground her teeth at seeing Pinkie Pie's mech again. She thought to herself that was probably her biggest regret in retiring, that she'd never be able to, "wring that double dealin bitch's neck." She continued to skip forward past the battle. It didn't occur to her that neither killing nor the risk of being killed held any significance for her now.
Then she arrived at the critical moment. She saw the Valkyrie class and had to draw in a long breath before continuing. Her eyes snapped open with terror as she heard a voice from beyond the grave. "My power core's dead Applejack. Take good care of Rainbow Dash for me."
Applejack screamed, "RAINBOW!" She leapt bodily out of her mech and sprinted for the ship's teleporter. She ran down the corridors to the ship's brig and the two armsmen stationed at the entrance knew better than to stop the large charging knight barreling towards them. They each took one big step out of her way and she shouted for Rainbow as she looked into the small cells. She opened the cell marked with her name and the door slid open. The scorch marks were still on the wall but the woman herself was gone.
Applejack stared in confusion and surprise. Her knees buckled under her and she fell heavily to the floor. She turned and saw that S.P.I.K.E. had silently appeared next to her, his face drawn and sad. "She's gone Applejack."
The crew of the I.N.S. Manehattan cringed in fear as they manually flew the ship to the coordinates that had been preset in preparation for the invasion. Rainbow slowly fanned her las rifle back and forth across the few crewman she'd kept alive. Her eye twitched, both from stress, and at the random sparks given off by the smoking transponder that she had shot to pieces. Twilight had given her a job, she decided she was going to do it her way. Her mech sat in the cargo hold, its fusion bomb blinking menacingly.