Story Snippet; Night of Steel Giants follow-up...

It's time for another random story-snippet, taken from the wanderings of my typing fingers. This is a semi-follow-up to the one I did last year titled 'Night of Steel Giants'. This vignette might not make a lot of sense, contextually, since it'd be roughly in the middle of a second or third chapter of a potential story. Then again, it's only slightly over 500 words, so you can't go expecting a masterpiece of depth and insight.

Set-up is this: In an isolated mountain valley in western Equestria sits one of the more unusual towns, New Providence. Inhabited by the descendants of a group of soldiers from the long lost Star League (BattleTech), the residents keep themselves isolated. With only a few trusted pony families living in the town to serve as a bridge and front between the humans and ponies, the inhabitants have formed a tranquil and idyllic home. When a scouting group of changelings come to the town, they kidnap a few of the residents. With the town council paralysed into inaction by uncertainty, the friends Moonbeam, a unicorn filly, and Samantha, a young teen, take it upon themselves to rescue their parents. And what better tool to use than seventy-five tons of ancient war machine?

... Probably anything, actually...

Moonbeam glanced around the many unfamiliar buttons and controls, chewing on her inner cheek.

“Come on, do something Moony!” Sam leaned over the pilot’s chair, her leg jittering as more and more of the townsfolk raced along the hangar floor towards them.

“I’m trying,” snapped Moonbeam, sheathing her horn in the tell-tale glow of spellcasting as she reached with her telekinesis and blue-grey hooves. “Come on, work,” she yelled, smacking more than a few buttons.

“Reactor start-up initiated,” Intoned an artificial female voice through the cockpit. “Reactor; Online. Sensors; Online. Weapons; Online. All Systems, Nominal.”

Below the teens, the metal giant hummed to life, a deep, reverberation echoing through ancient metal into their bodies. The giant, the BattleMech, exuded power, strength, and a feral desire to hunt as if it were a living thing.

Moonbeam licked her lips as she trotted the giant forward. It took a tentative step, the hangar filled with the metallic grind of its first footfall in years, and then another.

“The doors!” Samantha yelled, pointing over Moonbeam’s withers. Gears moaned and hummed as the mighty hangar doors began to rumble shut, attempting to keep the teens and the mech inside.

“I got it, I got it!” Moonbeam growled, leaning forward to will the metal behemoth to move faster.

Technicians had to leap out of the way, yelling, as the Marauder powered towards the shrinking sliver of sunlight and freedom. The reactor seemed to growl as all seventy-five tons of the giant slipped through at the last moment, a very faint squeal of metal on metal echoing up to Samantha and Moonbeam’s teeth. They paused there for a moment, New Providence ahead, and Equestria beyond the mountain town.

“Come on, let’s find our moms!” Samantha thumped the back of the pilot’s chair for emphasis. “Those Changelings aren’t getting away with this.”

“Right!” Moonbeam pinched her eyes into a dangerous line.

Like an unnatural bird of prey or some deformed dragon, the mech thundered through the valley, tree shattering against it’s legs and mighty feet tearing up loose soil. The sun glinted off the white-blue paintwork and eight-pointed star belonging to the long dead Star League. Its arms swung low and jutted forward, housing within their boxy for-limbs the powerful weapons of the mech. Glancing up as she settled into the co-pilot’s chair, Samantha marvelled at the swaying barrel of the mechs main cannon.

“So… Where to now?” Moonbeam asked as she glanced back at Samantha, the motion pitching the mechs torso to the right as it attempted to mimic her movements. After a brief yelp, Moonbeam righted the mech’s posture, a sheepish laugh accompanying the blush beneath her coat.

“Canterlot,” Samantha said after considering their options. “The princesses might know where the Changelings are hiding.”

"Let me get this straight..." Moonbeam hummed as she ducked and weaved down New Providence's wide roads, the townsfolk yelling as the rushed to get out of the mech's path. "You want me to walk an alien war-machine through the Equestrian Heartlands, with tensions running high from the Changeling Invasion still, up to the home of a trio of demi-goddesses?"

"Well... when you say it like that." Samantha gave a snarky sigh, sinking deeper into her chair.

“And what if they don’t know where the Changelings are?”

“I can’t think of anypony else who might know… Can you?”

Moonbeam was silent, concentrating on maneuvering the mech out of the town and into a shallow riverbed. “Nope,” she admitted before pushing the Marauder to its cruising speed of fifty kilometres per hour.

"Canterlot it is, I guess."

Right, now that that is out of my system, back to editing Myths related stuff! ^^b