//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: I can't pilot that! // Story: My Little Evangelion // by ProfCharles //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle I wandered down the empty and unfamiliar streets of Canterlot-2, lost and alone. Where was Cadance? I wondered to myself. I looked uneasily at a flashing, electronic street sign advising me to evacuate to the nearest shelter, but being a newcomer to the city I didn't know where they were. Well, relitive newcomer. The last time I had been in Canterlot-2 it was still under construction, and I was just a filly. All public transport had halted, leading me to my lost state, whilst the phone boxes merely rerouted my calls to an automatic server. I sighed and looked at the letter Princess Celestia sent to me for the hundredth time. There was three parts to it, a formal summons from the Princess, an informal letter from Cadance and a photo of her—even though I already knew what she looked like. What I didn't understand was why she felt the need to draw a red arrow pointing at her flank. Not only was it a little inappropriate, but I wasn't into that. I think. Although come to think of it, Cadance was quite nice to look at. Something across the street caught my eye. Looking up, I saw a hazy figure in the distance. Another pony, dark blue in colouration. I was about to call out to her, but a loud noise from behind the hills distracted me, and by the time I looked back, the figure was gone. Must have been my imagination, I thought. The loud noise repeated itself, and this time I felt the earth move beneath my hooves. Looking back at the hills, my jaw dropped. There was the Equestrian Military, a proud and mighty organisation, in full retreat from a monster straight out of my nightmares. Literally from my nightmares. That, that thing, huge and equine shaped—if not for the absent head—had been haunting my dreams ever since the Second Impact. I saw the military open fire on it; explosions rippling across its enormous, skyscraper-tall body, forcing it back a step. For a brief moment I thought they had defeated the beast, but when the smoke cleared, it stepped forward and retaliated, a laser firing from a red gem located on its chest. The laser swung round, incinerating all that it touched—sky chariots, tanks, even the ground itself was subject to it's power. A screeching noise caught my attention and turning around, I saw a ponyless carriage (a rather peculiar invention), with a familiar pink alicorn inside. "Cadance!" I cried out happily, bounding over to her. "It's been too long, Twilight," Cadance said, nuzzling my head. "Sorry I am late, I got caught up. Now get in before that thing gets here, the Princess needs you." "Princess Celestia... Needs me?" I asked, incredulous. "No, Princess Blueblood does," Cadance replied sarcastically, rolling her ees. This took me back a bit, since the Cadance I knew was the furthest thing from sarcastic. Looking over her, I noticed that she wasn't wearing her royal regalia, but instead a tight fitting jacket that accentuated her curves. Cadance must have noticed me looking. "Like what you see?" she asked with a wink. "You've changed," I said. Tact wasn't a word that had been used to describe me. Thankfully, Cadance merely laughed at this. "It has been five years since I last saw you, Twilight, so of course I've changed. Even you have changed—you're no longer the adorable filly I remember, but a fully grown mare now. Speaking of which, is there a special somepony in your life? Mare or stallion?" she asked with another wink. "Cadance!" I said, aghast at her. Again she laughed good naturedly at me. What has happened in these past five years? I quietly asked myself. And what about Celestia? It's been ten years since I last saw her. My musing was brought short as the monster came into sight again. Earlier, I had been too far away to get a proper sense of scale, but up close it had to have been one of the largest things I had ever seen, towering over many—but not all—of the skyscrapers in the city. "Shit!" Cadance swore, swerving to avoid the thing's laser as it tore up the road. "Not this way!" The chariot swung round and returned the way we had just come. She grinned at me. "That was close. I still have two payments left on this thing." I frowned at this. Surely as a princess, she could afford a chariot outright. I asked her this. Again, tact is not my strong point. "I'm not a princess anymore, Twilight," Cadance said with a frown. She gave me a look that even I could understand. She didn't want to talk about it. I decided to change the subject. "What... What is that thing anyway?" I asked, pointing back at the monster. "An Angel. Codenamed Sachiel. I'll tell you more later. Ah, we have arrived!" Cadance announced, pulling up to a cliff face. I looked at her questioningly. Cadance merely winked at me and honked the horn. Slowly, the cliff face rose up, revealing a tunnel. My jaw dropped for what felt like the hundredth time that day. We drove down the tunnel, past an automated security gate and onto a large lift. Cadance reached into the back of the chariot and retrieved a brown envelope. "Whoops, almost forgot to give you this," she said, handing the envelope to me before climbing out of the car. "Employee's booklet, your security card and a declaration of secrecy—I am going to need you to sign that," she said as the lift moved downwards into a large cavern. "Wow, you have an actual geofront?" I said in wonder of the sight in front of me. The natural cavern was now officially the largest thing I had ever seen, with a lake and a small pyramid shaped facility located at the bottom and the skyscrapers of Canterlot-2 hanging from the ceiling above me. It was so huge that I was unable to take it in all at once. "Twilight Sparkle, welcome to Nerv." --- We wandered several gleaming steel corridors, twisting this way and that. Eventually I came to the conclusion that Cadance was lost. Just as I was about to ask her this, a brown stallion wearing a lab coat approached us. "Lost again, Cadance?" he asked with a frown, before looking at me. "Is this her?" "Doctor! How are you? Twilight Sparkle, meet our Head of Research and Development, Doctor Whooves. Don't worry, he's always grumpy." "Quite. Well come along now, we don't have all day." With that he turned and walked down a corridor. As we followed him I continued reading the handbook Cadance had given me. It wasn't that interesting, being a guide to how the chain of command worked, operating procedures and actions to take during an emergency and so on, but very little about what Nerv did. I asked this out loud. "You'll see," the Doctor said with a small smile. Eventually we came to a large, darkened chamber. We were walking on a gangway over some sort of fluid, but in the low light I couldn't tell what. Suddenly, lights flared up, revealing a huge robotic head, eqiune in nature, but not in detail, partially submerged beneath a strange, orange fluid. I fell on my rump in surprise, letting out a small scream. "Twilight Sparkle, this is Evangelion unit 01, codenamed 'MAGIC'," the Doctor announced, a hint of pride colouring his grumpy demeanour. "You're its pilot." "What! I can't pilot that!" I exclaimed in surprise. "You have to," said a new voice. Looking up, I saw Princess Celestia stood on a balcony overhead. Instinctively I bowed my head before her. "The Eva’s were made to fight the Angels and MAGIC was made for you, Twilight Sparkle. It is the only thing that can kill that Angel on the surface and you are the one who will pilot it." "But I have never seen one before! I've never even heard of the Angels or the Evangelions! How can you expect me to go up there and fight?" I protested. Celestia held my eye for a moment, before turning away. "Very well, if Twilight can't pilot it, Luna will have to," the Princess declared. Cadance and the Doctor gasped. "But your highness—" Cadance began, but a look from Celestia cut her off. There was a moment's silence and then a gurney appeared. As it passed me I saw that its inhabitant was a dark blue mare, the same age as myself. It couldn't be the figure from before, could it? I thought to myself. Looking down at her I too gasped in shock, for the mare was heavily injured, wrapped up in bandages. Suddenly there was a rumble that shook the room. "The Angel begins its attack," Celestia reported calmly, not breaking eye contact. Another rumble, louder than the first shook the room, causing the gurney to collapse, its inhabitant rolling out. I stared in shock- the dark blue mare was an alicorn! I rushed over to her—Luna, the Princess had called her. When I reached her, I noticed that she was barely conscious, her injuries restricting her movement. There was no way she could stand, let alone fight. Another rumble struck the room, followed by a sharp crack as part of the ceiling gave way to a pile of rubble—rubble that was headed towards Luna and myself! Shield spell, shield spell! I thought, but in my terror I couldn't cast it. I stared in horror at the falling rubble. I thought I was going to die. I closed my eyes. There was a crack above my head. Looking up, instead of rubble I found my line of sight blocked by a large, metal, purple hoof. My eyes followed it along it's length, where it descended into the pool alongside the robotic head. The Evangelion had protected me. "That's not possible!" the Doctor exclaimed, falling to his rump. "There's no power, no pilot! It shouldn't be able to move!" I ignored him, staring at Celestia. She had enough power to stop the rubble, yet she didn't even move. That meant she either didn't care or she knew the Evangelion would move to protect us. "Is this the only reason you summoned me?" I asked of the Princess, pointing at MAGIC. She nodded once. My eyes widened in realisation. If I didn't pilot it, I would be sent away. Away from Celestia, away from Cadance, away from Luna. And most importantly, I wouldn't find out why Sachiel and a dozen other monsters had been haunting my dreams for the last 14 years. "Then I'll do it." --- The Evangelion was a huge beast, easily as large as the Angel rampaging on the surface. It superfically resembled a purple unicorn, with thick, blocky armour plates over it's legs, flanks and barrel. It was mane less, and the horn was a rectangular block instead of a cone. Over the armour plates on it's flanks, a large replica of my own cutie mark—a purple star surrounded by five smaller, white stars and backed by a larger white star—had been painted on, and underneath it were the words "EVA 01 MAGIC". It really had been made for me. I settled into the seat of the entry plug, my new 'plug suit' clinging tightly to my body, leaving little to the imagination if Cadance's approving wink was any indication, depsite having spent all day naked. I heard Doctor Whooves blare out orders over a loudspeaker, but I ignored it, focusing on my breathing. Suddenly, the entry plug moved, sliding into the back of the Eva’s equine shaped head. The plug began to fill up with the same orange liquid the rest of the Eva was submerged in. I briefly panicked, believing I was going to drown, but Cadance's voice came to my ear. "Don't worry, Twilight. You can breathe the LCL just fine." I let go of the breath I was holding, choked on the LCL going down my throat and discovered that I could, in fact, breathe. It must be some form of liquid breathing, I thought. Curious. "It smells like blood," I said, getting used to the sensation of being submerged. "Twilight," Cadance said, her face appearing on a small view screen. "Are you ready?" I nodded. "Then prepare for launch in 5...4...3....2...1...launch!" suddenly the MAGIC shot upwards at an increadible speed, through a hole in the ceiling and out into the middle of the city. I looked around, seeing that night had fallen, the moon high in the sky. I gulped as the looked at it, the Mare in the Moon looking back down at me. "Twilight—don't think about anything, just concentrate on walking for now." I did as Cadance said, thinking about lifting a hoof. The Eva lifted a hoof... And fell flat on its face. "Twilight! Twilight, are you okay?" "Ugh. Yes, I'm fine." I felt like I had just face planted onto the road. I suppose I just had. I managed to pick myself up and tried a few tentative steps. This time I didn't fall over. Within moments I was walking down the street. This is quite easy, actually I thought to myself. I turned a corner and stopped. There it was, Sachiel, the monster from my dreams. It had the vague shape of a pony, but the limbs were too long and spinderly, like an insect's, and it had no head, its face instead ocupying its chest. White pauldrons stuck out of its shoulders, contrasting with its black skin. A glowing red orb protruded from its chest just below its face. "Use the prog knife Twilight!" Cadance yelled. Reaching up with a hoof larger than most houses, I pulled off the blunt rectangular horn, extending it into a knife, which vibrated faster than my eye could follow, making it appear to glimmer in the moonlight. Before I could use it however, the Angel knocked it out of my hoof and smacked me in the head, knocking me back to the floor. It put a hoof on my—the Eva’s head and grabbed my arm—the Eva’s arm with its other hoof and pulled. "My arm!" I screamed, clutching at it from inside the entry plug. I had never felt such pain before. My arm felt like it was going to come off. I could see it streaching away from in the light of the cockpit, as if an unseen force was pulling at it. I heard a cracking noise and I screamed as the Eva’s arm snapped. My own arm hung limply, throbbing with pain. Blinking away tears, I saw Cadance's face moving, talking to me. "—light! The pain isn't real! Your arm is fine, you're just feeling what the MAGIC feels!" I looked up and saw a red lance slide out of Sachiel's elbow, before shooting back in and out of its hoof into the Eva's face. Blinding pain shot through my head, causing me to scream again. Down came the lance again. Again I screamed. And again and again, over and over, until I blacked out to the sound of Cadance's voice. "—ight! Can you hear me Twilight? Twil—"