Prologue Pt. 2- The Thing About High Places
“Major Alert! Major Alert!"
The call echoed through the bare corners of the Hussar quarters, through the door marked 'SONIC ECLIPSE', and into Twilight Sparkle's ears. Blinking back her sleepiness, she got out of her cot, and began getting on her uniform.
“Ready to go kill some Majors?” asked a voice.
Twilight turned around to see Hoops, the pegasus pilot for Sonic Eclipse, who'd gotten up before the others and already had his uniform on. His brown mane had gotten into his eyes, but he didn't seem to care. He had a cocky smile on his face, and he was fluttering his wings to get rid of pins and needles. Twilight smiled cockily back, the expression not coming quite naturally to her, and cantered over to the kitchenette to grab a snack and brush her teeth before she had to go out in her PON-Jaeger. Another chance to increase her kill count. Sonic's current was four, with two killed by Twilight's contribution directly. Hoops had one direct, and so did Big Macintosh. Speaking of Big Mac... where was Big Mac? Twilight got her answer when he stuck his head out of his sleeping area.
Twilight grinned at him and asked: "Morning, Big Mac! Ready to go show some Majors what we're made of?
Big Mac nodded yes and quickly finished his routine, leading their way out to the the room where they'd put their PON-Jaeger control armor on. Twilight and Hoops followed almost as enthusiastically. Though they had never known each other before they became Rangers, Twilight, Hoops and Macintosh shared a special bond. Despite difference in their personalities, they understood each other well enough to be drift-compatible. Sure, it might have taken a bit for Macintosh to open up enough, but they were a team, and their piloting Sonic Eclipse showed it.
They reached the room where they were to be gotten ready for their venture. An attendant pony attached the 'spine' of their costume to their back and neck . They themselves could put the smooth gray plating of their control armor on, and they did. Twilight put on a special horn-ring, Big Mac leg-bracelets, and Hoops covered his wings with a special material. All to help control their PON-Jaeger.
With their preparations done, they rushed through the corridors of the Lunadome and into the PON-hangar. A retractable walkway led the way into an entry port on the back of Sonic Eclipse's head. Half-way to said walkway, Twilight stopped to admire their PON-Jaeger. She knew it well, but pure awesomeness never stops turning heads, even heads who are used to it.
Sonic Eclipse was made of titanium, an extremely strong and relatively rare metal. She was in the moderate shape of a pony, an alicorn, with a long, sharp horn perched on her head, titanium wings on her back, and the strength of an earth pony in her legs. The horn was the Unicorn's area of control, and the reason Twilight needed that horn ring. Hoops got the wings, and Big Mac... no real specialty, except in strengthening Sonic Eclipse.
In the center of Sonic's chest, there was an embedded crystal array, the Harmonics which gave Sonic Eclipse her power. It was open to the air, to vent excess magical power. Wouldn't want the very expensive PON-Jaeger exploding, now, would we. The had was also vaguely pony-shaped, with a visor the pilots could use to see whatever battle they happened to be in.
“Hey Twilight! It's time to go!”
Hoop's yell interrupted her admiration. With one last longing wish that she could have been the one to have modified the original Jaegers into that, or better yet, have invented it from scratch, Twilight turned and ran across the walkway, into the PON-Jaeger.
Inside Sonic Eclipse's head, there were three sets of hoof-stands, where the pilots would control the PON-Jaeger. Twilight stepped into the middle one, Big Mac took the one on the right, and Hoops the one on the left. A robotic arm descended from the ceiling and connected to the spines on their armor, their hoofs were clipped into the stands. Helmets were lowered onto their heads, and with them ready, Twilight contacted Mission Control.
“Sonic Eclipse to Lunadome, ready for Drift.”
She got the reply, filtered through a speaking crystal in her helmet: “Lunadome to Sonic Eclipse, prepare for Drift. Initiating Mental Hoofshake.”
About a second after Lunadome said that, the Mental Hoofshake was initiated, and the minds of Twilight Sparkle, Big Macintosh, and Hoops were connected. It was a weird feeling, going through the memories, feelings, and instincts of the two other ponies, but the Sonic Eclipse team had done it before. They knew each other better than their mothers knew them, and had since long before this drift. It was no trouble, and the mental handshake was initiated smoothly.
With the the handshake initiated, Hoops spread his wings, with Sonic Eclipse imitating him. He began flapping, and the pilots folded their legs into a flying position as Hoops' movement activated the flight gems embedded into Sonic Eclipse's wings. The PON-Jaeger rose into the air and left the Lunadome Hangar, heading to wherever the Major might be.
Twilight contacted Lunadome, and asked for the Major's actual location, which could be found from their position.
Lunadome returned: “off the coast of Marecorage. It is near your position, five minutes flying turning 5 degrees west”.
Twilight nodded, and Sonic Eclipse turned in that direction.
In five minutes, Sonic Eclipse had reached the spot, and splashed down into the water off the shores. PON-Jaegers sought to meet Majors in the water, as there was a limit on how much collateral damage you could do in the water. Sonic Eclipse waited.
And waited.
While Majors were known for their punctuality (great in the workplace, bad in the war), PONs were always sent out a while before the attack, so that they could always be ready. Twilight was on edge, looking around for the attack which she knew was going to come. Hoops was cocky, ready to beat down the Major when it came. And Big Macintosh was quietly confident in his, his copilots' and his Jaeger's ability to beat that Major senseless. It had happened before, and it could happen again. Soon, all of the pilots' expectations were answered.
The Major came, exploding out of the water to the left of Sonic Eclipse.
It was as big as a PON-Jaeger, and quadrupedal. It had scale-like armor, claws on the ends of its legs, a clubbed tail, and a head like an arrow. It was oddly lizard-like. Not all the Majors looked like this, they were all very different, but all shared this one's feeling of extreme dangerousness.
Sonic Eclipse's crew didn't feel it. The PON-Jaeger turned, front hooves rising to meet the onrushing Major. They did, and the major was thrown into the water. Sonic reared up, and then came down, front hooves crushing the Major as it lay. Twilight fired off a horn-burst, the one spell that Sonic could do, to make sure, and Hoops started beating his wings in anticipation of leaving and returning to Lunadome, and maybe catching up on some sleep. Majors were never polite enough to time their attacks with a pony's natural sleep cycle.
And that's when it happened. The water churned behind Sonic Eclipse, and the Major erupted behind from it, a little beat up but still ready to fight. Before Sonic's pilots could react, the Major's clubbed tail had swung up along the PON-Jaeger's side, crushing a wing into smithereens, raking the flank, and, most importantly, crushing the side of the Con-pod that formed Sonic Eclipse's head.
Hoops cried out as the connection between his and the PON-Jaeger's wing shocked him, with magical energy crawling up and around the material used to form the connection, and Twilight did so too, as their connected minds meant that she felt it all. Big Macintosh felt the same thing, but he just bit his lip and turned to face the Major, ready to fight, even though they were wounded.
This act of bravery would be his last. The Major's claws came through the Con-pod and snatched him away. The Major ate him, and until his death, both Twilight and Hoops felt every last thing Big Macintosh did. They felt his terror, his pain, and his final hopelessness as the Major killed him. Hoops fainted because of this. Twilight felt it too, but she held on. There was one last thing she needed to do.
As the Major continued to ravage the PON-Jaeger, she charged up her, and by extension, Sonic's horn to its highest capacity. She stood firm, swallowing for the moment her fears of the Major, and the trauma of Big Macintosh's death. Those emotions she swallowed. But other emotions she used, her rage at the death of her copilot, her hatred of the Major, and her wish to protect all those ponies who would die if she didn't kill that Major. Those emotions, she used, and they gave power to her magic, charging that of Sonic Eclipse greatly. The magic crystal in the PON-Jaeger's horn began to shine, brighter than it had ever shone, or needed to shine, before. And when the pure magic reached a peak, Twilight threw it at the Major.
A beam of magical energy lanced from Sonic Eclipse's horn, and burned through the head of the Major. It gave one final cry as it died for good, splashing into the water, nevermore to come out. But the battle was still not quite yet over. Twilight turned, piloting the PON-Jaeger to shore.
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Beach Comber, an old Marelaskan unicorn stallion, lead his grandson, the earth pony Beach Ball, down the seashore. It was Beach Comber's hobby to use a metal finding spell to detect things that might have been left on the beach, and sometimes he brought Beach Ball with him. The colt didn't have much patience for combing the beach for little metal items of small value, but he loved his grandfather, and so went with him anyways. But still, even with that filial devotion, his patience tended to wear thin.
“Are we going to find anything soon?” he whined at Beach Comber.
Beach Comber, displaying the patience that had led to him discovering his cutie mark (a metal object half sticking out of sand) in the first place, replied: “Soon. I don't control what washes up on the beach, but things usually do. All we have to do is wait.”
Beach Ball fell silent, and the trip continued. Eventually, the glowing red ball that was the metal detector spell started flashing green, which indicated metal nearby. An eager Beach Ball and his grandfather dug into the sand, to find... a small toy ponybot. Beach Ball drooped his head and sighed.
“We never find anything good.” he complained.
Beach Comber sighed. Beach Ball's complaints were annoying to him, too, although he tried not to show it.
He levitated the toy into his saddlebags and told his impatient grandson: “Oh well. It'll happen someday, just not today. Did I tell you that I once found a coin on the beach from the early Unicorn Tribe? I got to show it to all Canterlot about it, and the royal museum paid me a lot of money for it. It's the only currency from the reign of Queen Gemstone the 4th that has ever been found. That was the best day in my life.”
Beach Ball had heard the story before, and he knew the response.
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago. We haven't had any luck since then. You even told me the five millionth time you told that story that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That means, it's used up, we aren't going to find anything good today!”
Beach Comber just shrugged and proceeded on. There was silence between them for the next minute or so, at which point the metal finder spell started flashing green very rapidly, and beeping for good measure. Beach Ball's jaw dropped, and even the ever-stoic Beach Comber showed outward signs of surprise. That's when they heard it. A great thumping noise from offshore, sounding as if a dragon were coming towards them. They, though mostly frozen with fear and anticipation, looked up to see, looming out of the early morning mists, a gigantic metal figure.
It was in the form of an alicorn, with one of its wings torn to shreds, and a limp in its right front hoof, and a ravaged head. There were great rakes along its sides, as if great claws had torn wounds in the proud creature's flanks, which was, in fact, exactly what had happened. Sonic Eclipse made it to shore, and once there, crashed down to her knees, and then on her side. And emerging from the wreckage, there was Twilight Sparkle. The lavender unicorn staggered out of the con-pod, magically dragging the unconscious form of Hoops with her. Blood seeped out of a wound on her shoulder, and she was extremely disoriented, not to mention, in shock.
She and her charge left the PON-Jaeger and somehow managed to get to the ground, where she muttered “Macintosh...” and finally, exhausted by her ordeal, fainted.
Beach Ball and Beach Comber were in shock too, although not as much as Twilight. Beach Comber recovered first, and rushed to the injured ponies' side. He checked her for a pulse, and found it, but she was bleeding, and wouldn't survive long without help. He motioned to Beach Ball, and then telekinetically draped the unconscious Hoops over his back, while he himself took Twilight.
“Quickly”, he told his grandson, “we must get help!”.
The grandfather-and-grandson duo made their way back to their house with their charges, and away from the wreckage of the once-proud PON-Jaeger.