Rainbow smiled warmly at hearing Fluttershy's voice again. It took a few seconds to realize what she'd said. The voice came again, "My power core's dead Applejack. Take good care of Rainbow Dash for me." Her eyes snapped open and she found she was pointed at Applejack's screen, she saw Fluttershy's mech floating dead in the void, the battle raging in the background.
The video rewound and she heard the voice again, "My power core's dead Applejack. Take good care of Rainbow Dash for me." Rainbow stared in awe at the screen. Fluttershy looked just as beautiful as she remembered. She heard Applejack whisper "no" and her boosters thrust to full. Fluttershy's mech grew larger and larger until the screen lit up white. The video rewound and she saw the events play out again.
Rainbow slowly turned to Applejack and saw that she was crying. "Ah tried Are Dee. But Ah just wasn't fast enough. I'm so sorry." Applejack placed Rainbow Dash gently on the ground. She stood thunderstruck and Applejack scrambled out of the cockpit. "Rainbow?" Applejack asked timidly.
Rainbow clenched her augmetic fist and whispered, "All this time." She whirled around and decked Applejack. She grabbed Applejack by the collar and tried to strike her again but Applejack placed her large booted foot against Rainbow's stomach and flipped her over.Rainbow didn't stop. She kept moving forward swinging wildly. "IT WAS ALWAYS YOU SAVING ME! EVERY FUCKING TIME! WHY?! WHY COULDN'T YOU FUCKING SAVE HER? HUH? WHY?!!!"
Applejack caught Rainbow on the tip of the jaw with her augmetic fist and screamed. "BECAUSE AH LOVE YOU YOU FUCKIN IDJIT!" Rainbow stopped dead with shock. Applejack slowly lowered her hands. "Ah always have. Ever since ah first saw y'all." Her eyes began to tear up. "Ah tried to save er Dash, ah really did, but ah just wasn't fast enough." Rainbow grabbed Applejack's collar with her flesh hand and grabbed her throat with her right.
Applejack felt the cold steel on her throat and exhaled. She'd made her peace, Rainbow knew the truth to do with as she wished. Rainbow tried. She wanted to do the deed she'd dreamt of for years. She could feel how fragile the throat under her hand was. She tried, but she couldn't make her augmetic hand close on the throat. Applejack suddenly felt Rainbow's lips against hers and her eyes snapped open. Her shoulders sagged and she wrapped her arms around Rainbow. The two melted into each other and fell to the ground. After all these years Applejack finally got to kiss the lips she'd longed for. She held Rainbow against her tightly and her tongue danced in her mouth.
Suddenly she broke violently away. "SHIT! FUCK! GOD DAMMIT! THE BATTLE!" She started scrambling towards her mech. "COME ON WE GOTTA~"
She stumbled when she felt her ankle seized by Rainbow's augmetic hand. "Don't worry about it, Pinkie's got it." Applejack stared in wonder and Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Really? You thought Pinkie wasn't playing with a loaded deck?"
On the Damocles Twilight's aura went out like a candle extinguished. Her sword shook in her hand and she backed slowly away in terror. The last time Pinkie had been on this drug she beat five of them at once, she had no idea what she would do to just Twilight. Pinkie began to laugh softly to herself as the drug began to take effect. She took unsteady steps towards Twilight. Twilight made a desperate stab for Pinkie but the giggling woman grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a deep kiss.
As their lips connected their consciousnesses merged and Twilight saw everything in a flash. Twilight's sword fell limply from her hand. Pinkie pulled gently away from the kiss and whispered, "I'm not your enemy love muffin." The two revisited the memories just like when Celestia showed Twilight her history. They saw Pinkie's episode in her mech. Pinkie spoke gravely, "I saw what they planned to do to you Twilight. They wanted to make a race of super psychics based off of your genetic profile. I had to get you as far away from them as possible." She gave Twilight a small kiss.
"I was so scared when I saw myself attack you in the vision but. . ." She paused for a moment. "But after you didn't believe me I knew. . . I knew it had to happen. When you dropped your gloweyness." She took a second to run her face through Twilight's sparkly hair. "Gosh I've missed that. Anyway, I knew that I could knock you out and keep you away from them in your human state." She slowly pulled off Twilight's eyepatch and looked at the terrible scars she'd caused. "Oh Sparkly Warkly I'm so sorry." She began to cry again.
Twilight stroked her hair as she cried. "Cupcake. . . I'm so sorry. But why didn't you tell me?"
Pinkie's eyes flicked up to Twilight's and she clung to her tightly. "You didn't believe me. You thought it was just the drug. And if you knew the attack was coming you would've fought and gotten caught! I couldn't let that happen!" She reluctantly pulled away from Twilight. "I had to find these people and stop them from ever touching my love muffin. . . So I did. It took five years to track them all down. To bully them into joining me or kill them all." She turned with a sad smile on her face. "But I did it!" She resumed her hug and wept for joy. "It's over. . . It's over."
Twilight held Pinkie close and simply enjoyed holding the woman she loved. The shared consciousness gave her everything she needed to know. "And that's why Rainbow was with you all those years." Twilight scoffed in disbelief. "You even saw my bomb."
Pinkie chuckled weakly through her tears. "I couldn't have done it without it. That's how I got the first separatists to follow me. I said do or die, so they did." She giggled again.
"So Davenport then?" Twilight asked.
Pinkie gave her a confused look. "Chucky? What about him?"
"He was our only lead at the start. What was his role?" Twilight asked.
Twilight's heart leapt when Pinkie gave one of her trademark snorting giggles. "CHUCKY?! He was a single sprinkle in an ice cream bar. He didn't do shit!''
Twilight pressed. "But I saw him! I saw him in Hondo's memory. He was the one who negotiated the use of the Discord Serum in the clone army!"
Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Well duh. Then he got killed. That was the very end of his involvement love muffin!" She laughed again.
Twilight stood dumbfounded. "Well what do we do now?" She kissed Pinkie deeply. "I leave it in your hands." She looked around at the chaos and destruction all around them. "Cause we're kinda right in the middle of the people you went out of your way to keep me away from."
Pinkie gained a predatory grin. "Now we finish it!" She produced a detonator button from who knows where.
Twilight's eyes went wide. "My bomb. You still have it!"
Pinkie giggled. "And they're all nicely on an even plane."
Twilight took Pinkie's hand in hers and was about to press the button with her when luckily a thought occurred to her. "WAIT! Rarity's still on the ship!"
Pinkie just shrugged her shoulders. "Eh S.P.I.K.E.'ll get her. SHIELDS PLEASE!" And she pressed the button. Twilight reflexatorily threw a shield around them.
On the bridge of the Damocles Rarity was working off years of stress on the misshapen flesh of her enemies. "Get off! Get the hell off my ship!" She scolded coldly. She crushed a squad of clones with a bulkhead, she sliced through two boarders with her sword then threw their bodies at the on rushing horde. Suddenly the fusion device went off and sliced the Damocles in two with a flaming rainbow disc that spread outwards destroying ship after ship.
Rarity dropped to her knees screaming in agony and terror at the sensation of her bodies dying over and over again. S.P.I.K.E. saw his chance and performed a few functions on the ship's computer and Rarity went limp. He carried her to the escape pod he'd chosen not to use and blasted towards the planet.
They landed on a beach on an island near Terra's equator. S.P.I.K.E. carried Rarity's limp body over to the shade of some palm trees. He laid her on the beach and sat down in the sand beside her. He waited beside her all that night and all the next morning. Rarity's eyes opened and she saw nothing but blue skies and clouds. She inhaled deeply and sighed, "Well fuck I died. Time to go find Sweetie Belle I guess."
She sat up and saw S.P.I.K.E. sitting there and grew confused. "Wait, S.P.I.K.E. you're an A.I. how are you here? Do A.I.s have souls?"
S.P.I.K.E. blinked several times and answered, "I always suspected it would work, but it's something you can't really test. I'm sorry Rarity."
Rarity weakly stood up and moved her arms. "I'm not dead. . . Huh." Was all she could think to say. She looked around and saw that the area they were in was deserted. "Well come on S.P.I.K.E., activate the locator beacon. We need to get to a hardware store."
S.P.I.K.E. raised an eyebrow. "A hardware store?"
Rarity sat beside him and kissed his cheek. "Yes S.P.I.K.E.y wikey, we'll need to build you a dick."
Rarity could feel the heat radiating from S.P.I.K.E.'s glowing cheeks. "Well umm. . . Ma'am. . . You remember when Rainbow told you to umm. . . Well you see uhh. . . She told me to uhh. . . To build a uhh. . . And she was a knight at the time and umm. . . And I'm not allowed to deny an order from an officer so. . . "
Rarity looked down and saw a tube extend from his lower abdomen. "Oh. . . Well then. . . S.P.I.K.E.y wikey turn the locator beacon back off."
In the void Pinkie was showering Twilight in kisses to the point where she simply had to say, "Pinkie, cupcake, I love you, but I'm rather tired from the fight. I need to focus on this bubble or we will both die." Pinkie awkwardly detached herself from Twilight and sat hands folded until they reached the same cabin they'd landed on the last time. Twilight carried Pinkie into the cabin and hung the do not disturb sign on the doorknob.