A Midsummer Night's Dream.

by Killbles

We’re Drift Compatible!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Chapter 19: We’re Drift Compatible!

It seemed like such a dull day for the world to end.

Even with the promise of dawn not far off the sky was still dark, laden with dark storm clouds and streaked with fat, heavy drops of rain that made the formation of machines winging through the gloomy Equestrian skies look like they were ploughing through heavy seas.

The three squadrons of Broadways kept a tight formation all the way to Bolton despite the poor weather. Despite the inexperience of the green crews, the three squadrons of craft managed through the rough weather quite well with their massive cargos. The amassed air power would’ve been a sight to gawk at, even if it hadn’t been for the three enormous mechanical beasts slung beneath them. The going got a little better, half an hour out of Bolton they left the pounding rain behind, emerging out of the almost solid cloudbank and running into the first rays of sunlight creeping up over the eastern ocean on their right.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.

The light did little to reassure Soarin though, every dark patch of ocean seemed to conceal a Kaiju and even the sight of Castle Bravo and Frontier Justice leading the formation some distance in front of them did little to comfort him. He pushed the thought down, trying to settle back into the shared consciousness he was a part of. It was harder than he remembered, there seemed to be a slight rift between him and Wave Chill, as if somehow their neural bond wasn’t quite complete. The third, almost unfamiliar presence was back as well, though now it was almost comforting rather than intimidating. He probed a little further silently, feeling the Jaeger’s fingers twitch in their sockets reflexively as he explored the machine mentally.

‘Odd.’ He thought, gradually forcing himself back to reality before he became lost in the intricacies of the machine.

The rotaries adjusted course above him, making his gut squirm uncomfortably as gravity shifted. Soarin was well and truly used to flying, but he had to admit that flying in a Jaeger was still something of an odd concept. The thought of two and a half thousand tons of flying iron, computers and two squishy pilots in the middle of it all somehow made him feel a little queasy.

“We’re coming up to Bolton now.” One of the pilots announced, again changing course a few degrees so that the Jaeger’s crew could see for themselves.

Bolton had never properly recovered from the devastation wrought by Rasputin and Lucky Seven’s suicidal ram. Two long scars still haunted the city, one littered with rusting debris of the once formidable cruiser and the other with what was left of the Kaiju’s almost solid skeleton. Although Lucky Seven’s fiery demise had limited the spread of Kaiju Blue somewhat, several city blocks adjacent to the scars were unnervingly devoid of life, nopony daring to live near the remains of the massive creature which had torn through their city. .

“It’s like everypony just… upped and left.” Wave Chill remarked as Wild Mustang roared overhead, the downwash from the assembled broadways making the windows rattle and the branches on the trees whip around wildly. Unlike Manehatten, which had flourished and grown with the construction of the shatterdome under the watch of the Jaegers, Bolton had seemingly faded to obscurity. Millions of ponies still lived in the sprawling city, that much was obvious, but it was a mere shadow of its former glory.

Soarin nodded in tacit agreement, words weren’t needed to convey his thoughts. They roared over a section of Lucky Seven’s bow and he felt Wave Chill’s gut clench, a wash of memories filtering through their shared consciousness. Soarin tried to filter them out but couldn’t help but feel the heat of fire and the burn of smoke in the back of his nostrils.

The two pegasi had a few more seconds to consider the view before the city rushed behind them and the sweeping bay filled their view screen. The sun was starting to crest over the horizon in earnest now, painting the water with a bloody red streak and gleaming brightly off some of the still factory-grey broadways. A few abandoned ships littered the edge of the harbour and further out, the broken masts of an Equestrian navy vessel stuck up above the water’s surface, another reminder of Rasputin's brief but destructive trek through the city.

“Wild Mustang, we’re in position. Disengage when you’re ready.” The Broadway’s load chief said professionally.

“Copy Avalanche One, disengaging now.” Soarin replied crisply. Whoever was leading the squadron of transports sure took their job seriously. He punched in the override for the Jaeger’s harness, his gut dropping away like a rock as the Jaeger plunged into freefall. The entire conpod shuddered as Wild Mustang slammed into the bay, the monstrous shock absorbers in the legs doing little to ease the blow of two and half thousand tons of iron slamming into the ground. He felt two more faint tremors as Castle Bravo touched down with a textbook three-point landing followed by Frontier Justice slamming down with all the grace of a brick.

“You’re clear, good hunting. We’ll hold back in grid eighteen with Jewel and Warhammer. Holler when you need a pickup, over.”

”Will do, thanks for the lift Avalanche.” Soarin replied as the rotaries peeled away towards the city.

“Hey, Soarin. Check it out.” Wave Chill said disbelievingly.

“What?” Soarin asked, following his co-pilots gaze curiously. He couldn’t have spotted the Kaiju by now, it still wasn’t due for at least another half-hour. His jaw dropped as the camera panned over the city. “No way…”

“They’ve gotta be joking right?” Wave Chill muttered.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Soarin murmured. “Castle Bravo. Frontier Justice. You guys seeing this?”

“Wish Ah wasn’t.” Big Mac replied, his voice cold even over the radio.

“Unbelievable.” Misty muttered angrily.

Several hundred metres of the harbour front was taken up by a crowd of ponies, many of them holding large signs or waving placards. Though Soarin couldn’t hear what they were saying, he got the impression from the slogans scribbled over the protester's signs that they weren’t too happy see any of the Jaegers.

“Don’t they know we’re here to help them?” Applejack asked incredulously. “They should be happy to see us.”

“Yeah, well they got a funny way of showing it.” Soarin muttered back. Wild Mustang took a few awkward steps backwards, moving closer to the crowd and stooping down so they could get a better look.

The crowd was unfazed by the machine’s attention, instead jeering all the louder. Soarin felt a few sharp pings and clicks as bits of broken pavement and rocks started bouncing off Wild Mustang’s armour.

“That’s gratitude.” He muttered dryly, blasting the Jaeger’s massive foghorn in response. The angry rebuke scattered the crowd, most of them scurrying away like rats down a refuse pipe at the thundering noise. Just as many stood their ground though and pelted more missiles and abuse at the Jaeger, cheering loudly as it rose up and strode away to rejoin the other two dumbfounded machines.

“Ungrateful pigs!” Misty growled over the radio, blasting Castle Bravo’s own foghorn at the crowd, but doing nothing more than eliciting more jeers.

“Leave them, we’ve got bigger things to worry about.” Soarin ordered firmly, spinning away from the crowd before he did something stupid.

The radio pinged quietly as Wild Mustang wheeled back around and joined the other two Jaegers, a message from LOCCENT. “Heads up guys, we’re getting the first whiff of it on the mid-range scanners. It’s moving faster than we thought, ETA in ten minutes.” Michael reported.

“Copy that.” Soarin replied curtly the three Jaegers fanned out into the their designated patrol pattern. Each step forward was accompanied by the grating of metal against metal and a quiet, but almost feral growl in the back of his head. Soarin found the butterflies in his stomach flutter off, combat was imminent and somehow that realisation made him calm down a little.The mission clock ticked away slowly in the centre of their display until nearly eight minutes later the radio crackled again.

“Signature has entered the outer edge of the harbour. Should be visible any moment now.” Michael said cautiously.

No sooner than the warning had piped through a shrill beep from Wild Mustang’s sensors sounded over Soarin’s helmet speaker. A red alert started flashing in the corner of their view screen and a low growl grated in the back of his mind as Wild Mustang smelt the first traces of foe for itself. A moment later an ugly head reared out from the water, sunlight gleaming of its slick skin as more of the Kaiju broke the surface.

Tusker was big. Bigger than anything they’d fought before. The sheer difference in size could not be understated, the Kaiju weighed more than Quillback and Bile combined and despite being down on all fours, it was tall enough to reach Wild Mustang’s conpod. It paddled towards the waiting Jaegers like a dog, eager to get out of the water and set its massive feet on solid land. A thick, sloping, plate of armour covered the front of its chest and head, two small glowing ports above its fanged maw indicating where its beady eyes were. A pair of tusks, each nearly the size of a Jaeger’s arm, shot out of the side of its head and dropped below its muscular shoulders like a bull. It roared as it gained purchase on the earth with a clawed foot, a thundering sound which shook windows in their frames and made what little of the crowd that remained by the waterfront gallop for shelter in fear. The six Jaeger pilots shifted uncomfortably in their harnesses, Tusker looked like a creature straight out of Tartarus.

And it was coming straight for them.

“Well, this could sting a little...” Lightning Streak said, voicing the thought that everypony had been thinking but dared not say.

Soarin grimaced, even a glancing blow from one its horns looked like it would gut any of the Jaeger, bar Frontier Justice, instantly. He forced down the urge to run away and instead pivoted Wild Mustang to face the Kaiju.

“Cut the chatter. Misty, Lightning Streak, Try to flank it, I’m sure it peripheral vision isn’t great. Applejack, Big Mac, you’re probably the only one of of us who can tie it up. Me and Wave Chill will try and distract it, try and get it under control once we have its attention.” Soarin instructed, already searching for a way to bring the creature down. The neck looked relatively unarmoured but the creature’s sweeping horns and snapping jaw would make it a hard shot.

“Copy.” Misty replied curtly, all too happy to be out of the firing line and powering off to sidestep to Kaiju. Applejack seemed distinctly less impressed with having to grapple the massive beast to the ground but accepted it regardless, Frontier Justice stomping forward boisterously so she and Big Mac could wrangle it..

“Now, uh, how did you intend on distracting it?” Wave Chill asked. It was a pointless question, he already knew the answer but the simple action of talking seemed to help calm his nerves a little.

“I hadn’t quite got around to thinking about that.” Soarin admitted

“Figured.” Wave Chill grimaced. They slowed their pace cautiously as they closed in on Tusker, the threat indicator clicking away noisily in top of their displays as the metres between them and the Kaiju whittled away with worrying speed. Tusker reared its head and roared another challenge, kicking up a massive spray of water and silt as it pawed at the seafloor.Once again, Soarin had to wonder why they were advancing straight towards the creature bent on tearing them apart rather than running, but forced the thought down, clenching the Jaeger’s fist so hard that the middle of his hoof started stinging.

Tusker swept its head from side to side, its beady eyes focusing first on Castle Bravo, then Wild Mustang, and then finally onto Frontier Justice. The three Jaegers had formed a sort of semi-circle around the Kaiju, Castle Bravo riding out on the extreme left flank and Frontier Justice sitting a few hundred metres off to their right. The Kaiju hesitated, acutely aware that it was surrounded and outnumbered. It stooped down slightly, its massive frame hunching over and a low growl escaped its twisted mouth.

“I think it’s goin-.” Soarin warned

A bellow erupted from Tusker’s mouth, drowning out the rest of Soarin’s belated warning as it pushed off its hind legs and charged straight at Wild Mustang.

“Shit!” Wave Chill exclaimed as the Kaiju bounded towards them, much faster than either of them had thought possible. Trying to block or redirect the Kaiju’s earth shattering charge would’ve been futile, Wild Mustang simply didn’t have the tonnage nor the strength.to wrestle with something that big.

“Dodge!” Soarin barked, trying to shift the Jaeger’s weight onto one foot and spinning out of the way of the Kaiju. Wild Mustang wasn’t nearly fast enough though and one of tusker’s horns caught the Jaeger’s underarm and punched straight through with a screech of metal and the warble of a dozen alarms suddenly going off. Soarin and Wave Chill had a moment to look on in horror before one the Kaiju’s massive talons caught on their leg, and pulled the Jaeger underneath its bulk. Their horror only lasted a moment before reality snapped back into focus and the Kaiju’s horn ripped up through their shoulder, tearing through the Jaeger’s arm like it was soft butter. Supports crumpled like foil and the arm came loose, sparks, hunks of metal and hydraulic fluid spraying everywhere as the limb plunged into to the water. In the conpod, alarms buzzed, sirens flashed and the control screens flickered as the computer tried to cope with the sudden damage. Wild Mustang’s pilots were virtually rendered helpless by pain, even Wave Chill was barely able to think clearly over the second-hand pain he was feeling through his link with Soarin. Waves of static crawled across all the screens and arcs of blue lightning jumped up and down Soarin’s drivesuit as the circuitry inside it blew out violently. There was nothing they could do but watch as the next foot came down hard, crushing their chest in like a tin can and setting off another blizzard of alarms as the reactor space started flooding .Tusker’s third foot slammed into the ground two metres away from their conpod, the impact shaking the pilots in their harnesses. Then, like the eye of a hurricane passing, a sudden calm swept over the conpod. Tusker rolled over them, its feet clawing at the ground to bring its massive weight to a grinding halt. They probably had less than ten seconds before Tusker came back to finish the job.

“LOCCENT! We’re hit bad!” Wave Chill managed, unsure if the radio was still working after the sheer amount of abuse the Jaeger had suffered. A sharp squeal and a pop of static a half second later answered his question. He swore loudly and turned to Soarin. “Soarin, Soarin you still with me?”

Soarin could barely respond, his mind struggling to cope with the scalding, pricking, burning pain which spiked at his shoulder. His entire foreleg felt numb and his brain was still trying to catch up. “I- I-.” He stammered, his green eyes wide with terror.

Another rumble shook the conpod and for a moment all the screens went dark. A foul, screech sounded above them, the sound of teeth punching through metal.

“Soarin, it’s trying to break the conpod!” Wave Chill urged, “Come on, I need you buddy.” He tried grabbing Tusker with his hand but the limb was unresponsive.

Another crunch came from above them, this time accompanied by a freezing spray of water. Tusker withdrew and for the first time since stepping foot in the Jaeger, the pilots saw raw sunlight stream into the conpod.

“Oh damn.”

***

“Wild Mustang is down!”

The short message from LOCCENT send a lightning bolt down Applejack’s spine. She could see the carnage for herself, the massive Kaiju crushing the Jaeger beneath its feet like it was a toy. The message snapped her out of shock, they had to act fast or Soarin and Wave Chill would be joining the long list of ponies that had already fallen prey to the Kaiju.

“Come on, they need our help!” She urged frantically. She didn't need to tell Big Mac twice, her massive brother already starting to break the Jaeger into a run before the words had left her mouth. Although slow at a walking pace, once Frontier Justice built up speed, it became an nearly unstoppable juggernaut of iron capable of crushing almost anything underfoot.The Apple siblings worked every iota of speed out of the Jaeger they could, each foot leaving a four metre deep imprint in their wake as they gained speed. The thrumming of the reactor resonated in time with the machine’s footfalls as they closed the gap, the horn booming out on its own violation as the pupils in Tusker’s eyes became visible.

Tusker, still intent on tearing the fallen Jaeger apart, didn't see Frontier Justice coming until it was less than twenty metres away, foghorn bellowing like an assembled army. It roared back defiantly, trying to bring its cumbersome horns around to impale the Jaeger.

But It was much too late for that.

Like a freight train hurtling out of control down a hill, Frontier Justice slammed into Tusker, the sheer force of the Jaeger’s forearm slamming down onto the Kaiju’s shoulder making the ground tremble. One of the Jaeger’s heavy feet came down on the Kaiju’s foot crushing the Kaiju’s limb with a sickening crunch of bone and armour. Using the momentum from their ground-breaking charge, Applejack swung the Jaeger’s other fist around, catching the massive Kaiju straight between its glowing eyes as it roared with pain.

The massive war machine took a step forward, a sweeping uppercut forcing Tusker back as Frontier Justice’s’ oversized knuckles caught the Kaiju’s jaw. Tusker squealed again, a few fat globules of blood dripping out of its mouth as it started struggling upright. It rallied faster than either Applejack or Big Mac expected though and threw its bulk at the Jaeger, thousands of tons of flesh, bone and armour crashed into Frontier Justice like a tidal wave. Big Mac barely managed to raise the Jaeger’s arm in time to block the blow, sending the Kaiju’s massive horns squealing off the Jaeger’s armoured gauntlet. Undeterred, Tusker pressed forward with blinding speed, slamming the Jaeger back with a fierce roar. The two titans struggled against each other for a moment, 2800 tons of iron and grit pushing back against the 3800 ton mountain of flesh and animalistic fury. Tusker had the upper hand though, slowly pushing the Jaeger back little by little until its centre of gravity went past its tipping point.

Applejack felt a brief moment of vertigo as Frontier Justice’s balance tipped backwards before they finally tumbled over with an impact that made the earth shake. She swore silently, the breath knocked out of her, despite the harness she was hooked into.

Before Tusker could capitalise on its advantage over its prone opponent, the Kaiju found itself beset upon by another foe. Castle Bravo came in low, swinging one of its gleaming sting blades at the Kaiju’s injured leg. Caught blindsided, Tusker could only watch as the blade cut deep into its foreleg with a sickening squelch before striking hard against bone. The Kaiju stumbled, and with a lightning fast blow, the nimble Jaeger batted aside a horn, clamped an arm around the enraged Kaiju’s neck and pounded down on its face, shattering teeth and turning one of the beast’s eyes into a battered, bloodied mess.

“How do you like that?! You want some more?!” Misty taunted, readying the other stingblade. She was about to plunge the long blade through the top of the Kaiju’s cranium when Tusker suddenly pitched sideways, dropping its weight onto its injured leg in a show of incredible toughness and flipping the stunned Jaeger sideways between its horns. It loosed another bellowing roar, its one good eye fixed on the Jaeger. With a contempus flick, it whipped its head forward, hurling the dazed machine towards the floundering form of Frontier Justice.

Still struggling to rise to their feet, Applejack and Big Mac had no chance in dodging the other tumbling Jaeger, the two ponies only able to watch and cringe as the white machine hurtled towards them like a rocket.

The impact sent the two machines sprawling again, pieces of armour spalling inside Frontier Justice’s conpod and the delicate electronics spluttering as Castle Bravo slammed into them. One of Castle Bravo’s stingblades plunged into the ground barely a metre from Big Mac’s shoulder and the other wedged itself neatly between the Jaeger’s conpod and the other pauldron. In any other situation, the scene could’ve been funny, the sight of the white Jaeger face down against Frontier Justice’s conpod, the larger machine’s arms almost wrapped around its lithe body lovingly. Neither crew had the time to appreciate the funny side of the situation before Big Mac cried out a warning.

“Get up, its coming over!”

It was a useless warning though, only a Jaeger like Striker Eureka could’ve gotten up from a tumble like that so quickly, and for a sickening moment, the four dazed pilots were sure they were about the watch as the Equestrian Jaeger program came to a sudden and undignified end.

Another fog horn bellowed out across the bay, followed a split second later by loud WHOMP! as a heavy rocket slammed into the Kaiju’s flank.

Still stuck under Castle Bravo, Frontier Justice could only watch in amazement as another Jaeger staggered back defiantly into the fray, oil and sparks dripping from its stump of a shoulder, its severed arm grasped tightly in its other hand like a club. It loosed another rocket at the Kaiju, burning a ragged hole in its neck and blasted its horn again, challenging the Kaiju to a second round.

Wild Mustang wasn’t quite finished just yet.

***

All Soarin could feel was pain. A biting, cutting, electrifying surge that set every nerve alight and made the edges of his vision fuzzy. He was no stranger to pain, he’d broken more bones than he could readily count and been in more than enough fights over his career as a Wonderbolt, but this pain was different. It crawled and squirmed under his skin, it ran up and down his spine. It burned and seared his skin like he’d sat on a stovetop.It was something else’s pain and to the stallion, something about the way it coursed through his body just seemed distinctly wrong.

“How you doing Wave Chill?” Soarin asked, trying to distract himself from the unnatural feeling. They took a step, the entire conpod lurching dangerously as Wild Mustang staggered forward with a growl.

“Just a scratch, I’m sure that’ll buff out.” Wave Chill panted. His helmet had come loose in the tumble, opening up a long gash just above his eye and matting his fur down.”Any ideas?”

Soarin bit his lip until he drew blood. He could barely think straight, his forelegs didn’t seem to want to work and a incascant snarling in the back of his mind kept interrupting what thoughts he could gather. How they’d managed to pick themselves off the bottom of Bolton harbour was beyond him. Wild Mustang and its pilots were falling apart at the seams yet they pushed on with a dogged determination, forcing the pain aside and coaxing everything they could out of their battered machine.

They took another lurching step forward towards Tusker, readying themselves for round two.

If anything, the Kaiju seemed amused by their determination, plodding towards them and leaving the other two Jaegers in preference for live prey. It struck Soarin as a strange gesture, perhaps the Kaiju had a sense of honour? The idea seemed absolutely absurd, but to his pain racked mind, anything seemed possible.

Whatever the Kaiju’s motivations, Wave Chill was all too happy to oblige its desire to fight, taking another unsteady step forward, raising his arm and swinging their severed limb at Tusker’s face. The blow clipped Tusker across the side of the head, sending it stumbling backwards with a roar of pain. Wave Cill didn’t let up, swinging the arm down again and again until the Kaiju’s face was a bloody mask.The barrage of blows was only halted when Tusker finally managed to catch a strike on its horns, sending the crushing blow skittering off to the side like a pebble off a stone wall. Thundering with anger, it’s tail arced around, the end splitting into a almost sickening parody of a long, gangly four fingered hand.

“That’s new.” Wave chill yelped with surprise as the tendrils wrapped around their makeshift club and with a powerful tug ripped it free from their remaining hand. The two pilots barely had time to react before the arm came sailing down on top of the conpod, Tusker gleefully mimicking the Jaeger.

The crest of the conpod caved in like an eggshell and Wild Mustang tumbled backwards, its pilots completely stunned by the blow.

It’s opponent now prone again, Tusker lowered its head and charged, scooping Wild Mustang up in its horns and pushing it along the floor of the harbour like it was a snow plow. The juddering roll came to an abrupt halt as Wild Mustang slammed flank first into the harbour wall around Bolton’s extensive dockyards.

“Get… off!” Soarin muttered furiously, arming the Jaeger’s two port-side missiles and firing them point-blank into Tusker’s face. The two rockets whooped out of their launch tubes, one spluttering weakly and falling into the water at their lap with a tiny splash. The other slammed into Tusker’s neck, burning a ragged hole through its throat which its tongue fell through sickeningly.

The Kaiju stumbled back, freeing Wild Mustang for a brief moment, allowing them to half stand, half stagger back to their feet. They stumbled backwards almost tripping over a warehouse as Tusker roared towards them again, its feet touching dry land for the first time.

Wave Chill grasped frantically for something, anything to swing at the Kaiju. His fingers found an idling diesel locomotive and instinctively wrapped around it, warping the loco’s edges and spraying foul black oil over the Jaeger’s hand. With a blast of their horn, Wild Mustang rose back off the ground, pivoted around and swung the locomotive at the Kaiju, sending several dozen wagons still coupled to the engine hurtling through the air like they were at the end of a whip. The veritable barrage of train cars flew over their shoulder and slammed into Tusker’s face and bounced off its back, spilling crates of machinery, fuel and tons of metal over the Kaiju’s head and body. Soarin lit up the last pair of the Jaeger’s rockets, two fiery streaks whooping out their tubes before slamming into the Kaiju’s armoured hide with twin fireballs. For a split second, Tusker was wreathed in a glowing halo of burning thermite before the fuel splattered across its body ignited with a mighty whoomp.

Wild Mustang stumbled backwards again, reflexively shielding its visor from the blinding ball of fire with its remaining arm. Tusker screech of pain was titanic, the air shaking as the Kaiju blazed from end to end. Sheets of its skin sloughed off from the heat or burnt and peeling away like a ripe fruit. It rounded on the battered Jaeger, its remaining eye glowing with anger.

“Oh crap.” Wave Chill panted as the penny dropped. The city block sized monster they’d been trying to kill was now not only wrapped in sheets of flames, it was thoroughly pissed off.

And arguably, the only thing worse than an angry Kaiju trying to kill you is an angry Kaiju trying to kill you while on fire.

Not wasting any more time on pleasantries, Tusker lowered its head and charged again, smashing trains, storage tanks and warehouses aside like they were toys. Wild Mustang, already on its last legs, was too slow to get out the way and with a sickening screech of metal, the Kaiju’s massive tusks carved through the Jaeger’s gut like it was putty, opening up a pair of long ragged tears from its torso all the way to the bottom of its shoulders. Unable to match the sheer force of Tusker’s charge, Wild Mustang was slammed backwards again, allowing Tusker to roll over them like a steamroller, its massive legs crushing the machine as it trampled over them. Its forward momentum couldn’t be fully denied though, leaving Tusker to dig its claws into the ground as it overran the prone Jaeger.

“Up. Up!” Soarin panted as dozens of alarms screamed at him. The right leg didn’t seem to want to work and if the searing pain which crisscrossed his left foreleg was any indication, there wasn’t much left of their last arm either. He wanted to scream, to fall back and let the wave of pain wash over him, but to do so would be to die, and Soarin had no intention of meeting his end quite yet. He was barely conscious, but he gritted his teeth and forced the Jaeger on, ignoring the grey that crept in around the edges of his vision like fog. They had barely gotten to their knees when Tusker limped back around for them, its flesh still sizzling away merrily as if it had become the world’s biggest barbecue. Wave Chill raised his arm to try and ward the creature off but the Kaiju batted it aside and smacked the Jaeger to the ground again with its horns. With another roar the creature stomped down on wild Mustang’s remaining arm, pinning it firmly beneath one of its clawed feet.

Driven by animalistic rage, Tusker bit down on the conpod, teeth the size of a man biting and snapping at the Jaeger’s head. peeling strips of armour away like a ripe orange skin and making delicate electronics short out as the its jaws ripped and tore. The cranial frame crumped like it was made of paper, for a moment exposing the two pilots to the foul miasma of the Kaiju’s breath and allowing them to see the Kaiju with their own eyes. The raw horror of nearly being inside a Kaiju’s gullet lasted barely a second before Tusker’s fanged maw vanished and was replaced by the clear morning sky and the almost overwhelming smell of burning flesh. In its lust to rip Wild Mustang’s pilots apart, Tusker had failed to notice Frontier Justice approach from behind and latch its hands around its thick tail and swing until it was airborne. The Kaiju was too heavy for the Jaeger to throw more than a hundred metres but it was far enough to put the remains of Wild Mustang out of immediate danger.

Pounding forward before the Kaiju could recover from its brief flight, Frontier Justice slammed a fist down on Tusker’s head, its foghorn bellowing as the heavy knuckles cracked down on the Kaiju’s skull.

Wild Mustang had saved them once, it was time to return the favour.

***

Applejack and Big Mac were operating more on instinct than considered thought, Tusker’s brief and one-sided fight with Wild Mustang had impressed one thing in their minds. Tusker had to die and it had to die now. Neither could reach Soarin or Wave Chill on the radio but the main structure of the conpod was still relatively intact, so it was possible that the two Rangers were still alive.

Their last blow still ringing in their ears, Applejack and Big Mac raised the Jaegers arms in tandem, motors squealing with protest and gears grinding until the limbs were hovering above the conpod. The Jaeger paused for a fraction of second, as if contemplating where would inflict the most pain on the Kaiju before slamming its fists down on Tusker’s skull again.

Knocked down and reeling from the last blow, Tusker couldn’t dodge the powerful overhead double-fisted slam which cracked down on top of its head. Its heavy skull held but the Kaiju was knocked senseless, promoting Frontier Justice to raise its fists above its head again for another mighty blow.

“Torque limit.” The computer protested, its voice snarling bitterly in the back of Applejack’s helmet. She brushed the warning away, letting gravity take over and unlocking the solid iron fists for another strike. Frontier Justice’s foghorn boomed out again as the blow connected with a wet crack, a mighty roar of vengeance for its fallen comrade.

Tusker yelped with pain, unable to gather its wits and organise an effective counterattack. the Kaiju snapped its jaws and let out a half-hearted roar as Frontier Justice’s fingers wrapped around its shoulders and pushed the Kaiju back onto its hind legs. With a snap of muscle and a drawn out growl of stressed motors, Frontier Justice twisted the Kaiju around and forced its foreleg back towards it, putting it in a textbook submission hold. Tusker struggled and squirmed but the behemoth of a machine held true, shifting its weight so the Kaiju couldn’t slip from its hold. Now firmly stuck in place, Tusker could only watch and roar as another Jaeger slowly approached it. Castle Bravo looked at the Kaiju coldly, its gleaming stingblades making it look like an executioner.

“Now, now!” Applejack yelled, her face twisted into a snarl as she let her baser instincts come to the fore. Tusker had possibly killed Wild Mustang and his pilots, she wasn’t going to let it anywhere near anypony else.

With Tusker being held up obligingly like a punching bag, Castle Bravo strode in casually, ducking under a desperate swipe and ramming one of its wickedly sharp blades into the Kaiju’s armoured underbelly. The blade barely stopped, plunging through the Kaiju’s chest, slicing clean through one of Tusker’s already fractured ribs, narrowly missing the Kaiju’s thick spine before bursting out of its back in a spray of blood and fractured armour.

“Watch it!” Applejack barked in alarm as the blade came to a juddering halt a few metres short of Frontier Justice’s conpod. She shifted back reflexively but didn’t loosen her grip on the Kaiju a single inch.

Misty and Lightning Streak ignored her, plunging their second stingblade into the other side of Tusker’s chest with a cold, calculated precision that was more at place in a sniper’s nest. Applejack could imagine Misty’s face locked in a snarling visage as she and her brother exacted their revenge on the yowling monster that had downed their comrades.

The second stingblade cut a bloody path through Tusker, severing several nerve clusters and tearing through the creature’s massive primary heart. It punched through Tusker’s back as well, emerging just under its right shoulder with a sickening crack. They tried retracting the blades but there were well and truly jammed, gunked up with gore and lodged through several layers of bone and armour, the blades were beyond worthless. Driven by rage, and with their other weapons denied to them, Applejack watched wide eyed as the Jaeger’s gun ports flipped open, each of the barrels elevating until they were squarely pointed at the base of Tusker’s jaw.

“Down, down!” She yelped, loosening her grip on Tusker and ducking, Frontier Justice’s leg motors whining with protest as the Jaeger tried squatting.

Tusker lived just long enough to see the blinding flash of the Jaeger’s six cannons and feel the heat as the incendiary payload exploded inside its brainpan.

***

There wasn’t much left of Tusker in the end. The Kaiju’s entire head had been blown open like a ripe watermelon by the barrage of shells and its neck was little more that a ragged stump. Lost in their emotions, Misty and Lightning Streak had fired their Jaeger’s entire load into the creature’s face, even well after the Kaiju was dead. Several of the battleship-grade shells had missed, and landed in Bolton itself, levelling a couple of buildings and starting a fire which roared dangerously out of control for nearly an hour before being brought to heel by the city’s fire department.

Adding insult to injury, Tusker’s body was unwilling to release Castle Bravo’s stingblades from its grip. After many failed attempts and despite assistance from Frontier Justice, the Jaeger was only freed several hours later when teams of hazmat suit clad ponies clambered inside the Kaiju and cut away strips of flesh, chunks of bone and fragments of the Kaiju’s shattered armour.

Castle Bravo and Frontier Justice were whisked back to the shatterdome by their Broadways, neither of the Jaegers has sustained serious damage in the fight but it would take several weeks of repairs and trails before the two machines were in top condition again.

Wild Mustang was a bit more of a problem. A veritable horde of salvage crews and rescue personnel were over the site within minutes of Tusker’s death. Soarin and Wave Chill were pulled from the tangled remains of the conpod, battered, bleeding and bruised, but still alive. Soarin’s right foreleg was scarred and burnt almost black in places and he was rushed to Royal Bolton Hospital for nerve and skin rejuvenation. Wave Chill was hardly in better shape but had at least been conscious when the rescue crews cut into the mangled cockpit. Soarin spent the next few days drifting in and out of consciousness, he would live, but some of the scars of the battle would take longer to heal, if ever.

A few days after the battle he and Wave Chill were transferred back to the Manehatten shatterdome, Soarin still confined to the infirmary until the doctors were happy with the progress of his recovery. It was nearly a week of blurred half-consciousness before Soarin finally became lucid enough to snap back to reality.

“You sleep like a brick.”

Soarin half cracked an eye open. “Spitfire?”

“No, it’s your mother.” The fiery pegasus drawled.

Soarin cracked a thin smile, his face felt like dry plaster. “Hope not, if you were my mother, I would’ve been suffocated long ago.”

“What, do I smell?” Spitfire asked wryly.

“That wasn’t what I meant, but now that you mention it, yeah, you smell. When did you shower last?”

Spitfire cracked a thoughtful expression. “Can’t remember.”

“Yeah, thought so.” Soarin muttered, sitting up slightly and grimacing as his body cried out in protest. He felt stiff, like a engine running without oil. He blinked quickly, his forelegs felt like they’d been detached and put back on again. “Where’s Wave Ch-.”

“He’s fine.” Spitfire said simply.

Soarin let out a quiet sigh of relief. “I take it we won?”

“That thing is dead.” Spitfire said with a nod. “You’ve been asleep for nearly a week.”

“And I guess you’ve tearfully sitting by my bedside since. Tears for your long lost XO?”

“Me? Nah, I’ve been here for like, twenty minutes maybe.” Spitfire answered

soarin shook his head slightly. Something didn’t quite feel right, like a part of him was missing. “Wait, how’d you get in here?”

Spitfire let out a quiet sniffle. “My best friend was nearly killed, not even the entire griffon army could keep me out.”

Soarin felt the edge of his mouth twitch. “Don’t suppose you found your friend yet?”

Spitfire looked down at Soarin wryly. “Nope.”

Soarin chuckled quietly, resting his head back against the bed. “It’s good to see you, Spits.” He said after a moment of companionable silence.

“Yeah, you too.” Spitfire sighed, her mechanical foreleg clicking slightly as she lay it on the small bedside table. She seemed incredibly tired and her mane seemed a little paler than Soarin remembered.

“You look like shit.” Soarin remarked in a friendly tone.

“Yeah, and I bet you look like a feathering beauty model.” Spitfire growled. gesturing at Soarin’s forelegs. “You trying to copy me or something?”

“Ah.” Soarin said simply, following her gaze. A web of angry red and white scars snaked up his leg and around his shoulder. The burns shimmered slightly under the light, a telltale sign of some form of magical rejuvenation at work.

“Nasty.” Spitfire remarked dryly..

“I’ve seen worse.” Soarin countered, watching flatly as Spitfire seemed to shrink away a little. “So, where’ve you been?” He asked accusingly.

Spitfire bit her lip. “Around.”

“You haven’t been replying to my letters.”

“Didn’t have much to say.” She shot back defensively.

Soarin folded his forelegs across his chest, wincing as the almost glassy scars touched skin. “You doing alright?”

“What do you think?”

Soarin didn’t need to answer that. Spitfire looked like a mare defeated. She had lost weight and the dark rings under her eyes made her look like she was out of a bad B-grade horror flick. The only part that seemed unchanged was her eyes, they seemed to burn as brightly as ever. “It’s Lucky Seven, isn’t it?”

Spitfire nodded slowly. “I close my eyes and all I can see it burning like a pyre. I always ask myself, how did I survive that? How did I live where so many others died?”

“Most of the crew got off, you know that.” Soarin reassured her.”

“Most.” Spitfire shot back. “I should be dead.”

“You’re lucky.”

“Or cursed.” She snarled quietly.

Soarin bit his lip softly. “I know how you feel.”

Spitfire was about to retort crossly but held her verbal lashing back, realising Soarin had a point. “Yeah, suppose you do. Must be hard, considering how much of a connection you have with those... things. More than I should to a stupid airship.”

Soarin withheld a cry of shock. He’d suspected Wild Mustang hadn’t pulled through the fight but he could hope. Maybe there was still a chance for the Jaeger. “Yeah, guess it feels like I just lost a part of me.”

Spitfire pulled an unimpressed face.

Soarin stifled a laugh, realising that he could’ve worded his last statement much better. “Alright, that was in bad taste, sorry.”

“You are so not.” Spitfire grumbled, looking up at the roof as if he’d made an inexcusably bad pun.

“Hey, Spitfire. Can you lend me a hoof? Har har har.” Soarin jeered.

“Shut. Your. Feathering. Rat. Trap. Shithead.” Spitfire barked, slapping the stallion across the back of the head with each word. She held a ghost of smile though and for the first time since she and Soarin had started talking she seemed at least a little happy. “That reminds me, got something for you.” She muttered, reaching down with an augmetic wheeze and returning with a brown, battered package balanced on her hooves.

“What is it?” Soarin asked flipping it over curiously.

“Something for you to get better with.” Spitfire mumbled,

Curious, Soarin tore the stained paper off, revealing a slightly damaged copy of Daring Do.

“It’s the one you gave me.” She explained, looking away as if she was embarrassed.

“I’m fairly sure regifting is some sort of mortal crime.” Soarin joked.

“Yeah, well, I’m already half-dead so what have I got to lose?” Spitfire remarked darkly.

Soarin was about to rebuke her morbid attitude when the infirmary doors swung open and a dozen guards led by one of the doctors stormed in.

“Official visiting hours are between nine and three.” He said meekly, hiding behind one of the burly guards as Spitfire glared at him.

“Jeez, Spits, how many did you knock out getting in here?” Soarin muttered dryly.

“A few thousand maybe? Didn’t bother counting.”

Soarin snorted at Spitfire’s terrible lie and looked at the cowering doctor. “Doc, can you just give us a minute here?”

“You need your rest. Your friend can come back later when she has proper clearance.”

“Proper clearance, my arse. Since when can’t she be here? You know who she is?”

“We’re on a level Red Alert sir.” One of the guards rumbled. “Essential personnel only.”

Soarin frowned, surely there couldn’t be another Kaiju already. “Why?”

“Your Jaeger is being airlifted back into the shatterdome, the marshalls thought it prudent to keep everypony out of the way while the recovery process is underway.”

“Why would they do that?”

The guard’s wings shifted slightly, “You’re the pilot, you tell me.” He turned to look at spitfire, undaunted by her fiery look. “Ma’am, come with us please.”

Spitfire didn’t move.

“I’d rather not use force.” The guard said firmly.

Spitfire laughed. “Look at you, you don't even have a nametag. You really think you could make me go with you?”

“Spitfire, go with the nice guard.” Soarin said sweetly. “Maybe if you ask him nicely he’ll do you behind the dumpsters.”

“Well that’s an ide- wait, hey!” Spitfire complained.

“I doubt you’d make it back to your place.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side slightly. “Touche.”

“I’m still here, you know.” The guard said flatly.

“Oh right, sorry.” Spitfire said dismissively. “Arsehole...” she muttered under her breath. She turned back to Soarin. “Now you. Get better and stop trying to get yourself killed, I’ve got enough shit to worry about without you throwing yourself in front of the first alien creature you can find.”

“Comes with the territory I’m afraid,” Soarin said back, trying to sit up on his haunches.

“You need your rest.” The doctor said firmly, taking a cautious step out from behind the wall of guards between him and Spitfire.

“Like hell I do, I’m seeing my Jaeger.” Soarin objected.

“You risk further dam-.”

“I don’t give a damn doc, I need to see it.” He interrupted.

The doctor bowed his head slightly. “Alright, fine. But you’ll have an escort. If you’re not back here in an hour, I will have you bound to that bed.”

“He might enjoy it.” Spitfire remarked under her breath.

“I’ll take you down, sir.” The guard offered, striding around to the bedside. He gestured to the other guards. “Escort her off the premises.”

“Yes sir.”

“Guess that’s my exit then.” Spitfire sighed, standing up with a quiet mechanical creak. “Don’t suppose I’ll be seeing you for a little while Soarin.”

“Why, where are you going?”

Spitfire shook her head.”I don’t know. Away. Somewhere. Maybe somewhere down south. Brayford maybe, I hear they have a bit of a drinking culture down there. I just need to get away from everything for a while. Start somewhere fresh.”

“We’ll keep in touch though?” Soarin asked. sliding off the bed and almost collapsing. He gratefully accepted the guard’s offered shoulder, putting as much of his weight on the burly pegasus as he could.

Spitfire shrugged. “We’ll see. Take care of yourself, Soarin.”

***

With Spitfire being escorted away by nearly an entire squad of guards, Soarin was half carried down towards the Jaeger bay by his silent escort. The medical bay was sited on the upper levels of the shatterdome, far away from where the Jaegers were kept. It took the pair several minutes to make the journey through the almost deserted halls to the lifts which would take them further down. It wasn’t until they were in the dimly lit elevator car that Soarin tried striking up conversation.

“About what I said about you and Spitfire…” Soarin started hesitantly. “Sorry, that was inappropriate.”

“It’s alright sir.” He replied, punching the button for the Jaeger bay’s ground floor. The car started creeping downwards, the gentle accelerated making a new pain shoot up Soarin’s foreleg. He clenched his jaw and banished the pain away from his mind.

“She’s a bit down at the moment and she’s always been one to enjoy, uh, ‘interpersonal activities’. If it came out as a bit, er, lude…” He trailed off with an awkward smile.

The guard let out a quiet snort of amusement. He didn’t seem like most of the guards Soarin had the ‘pleasure’ to met in his career; he wasn’t overly stern and at least seemed to have a sense of humour.

“Does the guard have a name?” Soarin asked.

He brushed a piece of his mud-brown mane out of his eye. “Maple, sir.”

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Soarin.”

“Figured that, sir.”

Soarin grinned. “One thing I hate about being famous is that everypony already knows you. Greetings are always so one sided.”

“Yes, sir.” Maple agreed.

“You haven’t always been a guard, have you?” Soarin asked, looking the pegasus over. “No, your uniform’s a little messy and there’s a certain amount of good natured humour in you. What did you do before coming here?”

Maple nodded, seemingly not at all put out by Soarin’s guesswork. “Used to do middle management at a factory.before coming here.”

“Weather factory?” Soarin guessed. Most pegasi had a natural affinity with the weather and it was no surprise that the Equestrian Weather Service almost exclusively employed pegasus ponies.

“Toys, actually.”

“That’s a bit of a career change.”

Maple chuckled lowly. “Yeah, suppose so. Thought I might give back to the ponies protecting us.” His voice almost reminded Soarin of a stone crusher and whenever the guard spoke, Soarin could feel his entire chest rumble. “Your co-pilot’s did me a great favour.”

“Sorry, I don’t recall him ever mentioning anything.” Soarin apologised.

“He rescued my daughter after Switchback’s attack. My wife wasn’t quite so lucky. Died from radiation sickness a few days afterwards.” Maple said hollowly.

Soarin bowed his head slightly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, your lot have done enough for my family since the Kaiju arrived. My dad manages that toy factory, he makes quite a good amount off action figures based on your Jaegers, he and my mum were in Bolton when that big one hit home. They’re alive thanks to you.”

“Don’t suppose you’d ever want to get in a Jaeger would you?: Soarin asked.

The guard shook his head, his blue eyes shrinking slightly. “They scare me.”

“The Kaiju? Well, they scare me too, that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“The Kaiju are scary. The Jaegers though, they terrify me.” Maple explained.

“Bit of an odd career choice then, working around them.” Soarin commented wryly. “What scares you about them?”

The pegasus shivered slightly. “They’re not natural…You stand near one and you feel like it’s watching you. You’ve heard the stories about them, right?”

They brushed past a few guards standing watch at one of Jaeger bay entrances, the half dozen ponies standing aside wordlessly to let them pass.“Can’t say I have.”

“I hear things from the deck crews, strange things. One said he saw the damn thing twitch, another said a floodlight turned on by itself.” Maple whispered, as if somepony walking past would think he was crazy for saying it out loud.

Soarin considered this for a moment. “Do you believe them?”

“Well, I don’t think they’re lying.” Maple chuckled nervously. “Point is, you couldn’t get me in one of those things even if you paid me a million bits. Some things just ain’t supposed to be. Giving a machine a mind just ain’t right.”

Soarin wanted to point out that wasn’t how the pons system worked but found the words died in his throat. He couldn’ flat-out deny he hadn’t felt it in his head when he’d drifted in Wild Mustang, a third partner in their mind, a third body which made up the shared entity he and Wave Chill made. This was different though, Maple was suggesting the machines were alive proper.

“You’d rather not have the Jaegers around?” Soarin asked.

Maple shook his head slowly. ”No, I’d rather them not being so damn creepy though.”

Soarin frowned. He’d found it ridiculous to think that somepony could think a Jaeger was creepy, he’d always found them warm and inviting, well, maybe just inviting in Castle Bravo’s case. Since he’d taken up the mantle of piloting he felt almost more at home in the machines than out.

“Maybe I’m just crazy though, I’m sure most of the ponies around here love ‘em.” Maple said, seeing soarin’s look. He leaned over and punched the access code into the large keypad set on the wall. A moment later, the locking bars in the door clicked back and the heavy door slid apart, granting access to the main Jaeger bay. Maple hesitated at the threshold, unwilling to go any further.

“Oh come on, they’re not going to eat you.” Soarin chuckled. More pragmatically though, he probably couldn't walk very far without the guard helping him.

“Yes sir.” Maple muttered weakly.

“There’s a good lad.” Soarin said cheekily, earning a soft glare from the guard.

As usual, the Jaeger bay was bustling, ponies in harnesses dodging earth ponies pulling carts laden with parts and machinery. Wisps of steam drifted around the roof like clouds and burning spotlights hung from the ceiling and studded the walls like barnacles. The place seemed darker than usual though and the usual babble of conversation was eerily missing, it was like someone had sucked the heart out of the bay and left a vacant hole in its place.

It wasn’t hard to see why.

Propped up in it’s bay like a drunkard, Wild Mustang instantly drew the eye like a red stain on a white shirt. It was slumped over, held up by a dozen thick cables and nearly as many flaking yellow docking booms. Unlike Castle Bravo and Frontier Justice which were almost completely devoid of life, Wild Mustang was positively brimming with activity.

“It’s dead.” A voice said quietly.

Soarin didn’t look around, he knew Wave Chill would’ve been down here. He had never been attached to the machine like Soarin had been, but every Ranger, even the most cynical ones like Misty Fly, shared a special bond of sorts with their Jaeger.

Soarin was at a loss for words, staring at the Jaeger like it was a dead child. “I didn’t think it was this bad.” He choked, his heart sinking like a rock.

Wild Mustang was a sorry wreck. the Jaeger’s chest was crumpled like a tin can and torn open in several places. The legs were a little more intact but most of the armour was either crushed and cracked or torn off, exposing charred wiring, busted shock absorbers and gutted engines. One of the Jaeger’s shoulder was little more than a ragged stump, a mess of tangled cables and torn metal. The conpod was hardly recognisable, the golden visor almost completely shattered and every surface either torn open or twisted horribly. Somepony had taken the decency to wash the Jaeger down and attempt to make it look a little more presentable, but the wrecked machine slumped up against its supports looked like it would be more at home in a graveyard

“Not much for it I’m afraid.” Wave Chill said, placing his hoof gently on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re alright?”

“I’ll be fine.” Soarin said lowly. “You?”

“I was out of the infirmary in a day.” Wave Chill answered. “Never realised how dull it is around here without you. Or how much sleep I could get without your constant chatter, that’s one small relief I’ll miss.”

“You’re welcome.” Soarin remarked dryly. Losing Wild Mustang was bad enough but losing Wave Chill would’ve been disastrous. Machines could be repaired and rebuilt. His friend wasn’t so easily replaced. “Do you think it can be fixed?”

“Dunno. It’s been the hot topic for the last few days. Come on, the marshalls are down here I think, why don’t we ask them?”

Soarin nodded in approval, indicating for Maple to follow Wave Chill. The trio trotted closer to Wild Mustang, moving between the workers hauling piles of scrap off the Jaeger. The two humans were easy to find, they’d established themselves on a slightly raised gantry overlooking the Jaeger. A small group of foremen and J-Tech types milled around beneath them, yelling instructions at other workers and fussing over sheets of paper.

Michael had a mug of recaf in one hand, the heavy rings under his eyes and the half-vacant look on his face enough to tell Soarin that he probably hadn’t slept much in the last week. He was talking lowly with Shane, the constant thump of machinery and banging of metal more than enough to drown out their conversation.

His brother still looked a little pasty but at least he was up and about again. They both seemed a little ill at ease around the destroyed Jaeger, almost as if it reminded them of something unpleasant.

“Oi! Look what the cat dragged in.” Shane yelled out, spotting Soarin and Wave chill out from the crowd of workers and waving them up. “Didn’t think you’d be up yet.” He said to Soarin.

“Me neither, had to see it though.” Soarin said, lamely gesturing at Wild Mustang.

“I understand.” Michael responded tiredly. Maybe it was Soarin’s imagination, but he looked like he’d aged a few years since he’d seen him last. “You have no idea how hard it was to bring it back, almost considered stripping it down and just leaving it out there.”

The very idea shocked Soarin, leaving it to rust hardly seemed dignified.“Why?”

“Tusker did a real number on the chest, most of the internal structure was too badly damaged to do much more than just sit. Move it, and the whole thing would probably collapse in on itself. We spent a few days putting about a gazillion reinforcements in there just to keep it up. Took another few days to prep it for transport. Most of the mounts were torn off or damaged so we had to improvise. Smaller parts were a bit easier to bring back but well, there was a lot of them.” Michael explained, looking down at Wave Chill and Soarin. “You two are lucky sons of bitches. I’m told that pegasus physiology is tough, but you’re lucky to be alive, let alone walk..”

“Yeah. Lucky.” Soarin echoed hollowly.

“I get the feeling you want to ask us something.” Shane said, looking at Soarin out of the corner of his eye.

Soarin and Wave Chill exchanged a glance. “Can we fix it?” They asked in unison.

Michael snorted, as if somehow something about the situation was funny. “Short answer, no. The amount of time and money we’d have to sink into wouldn’t be worth it, we’d be better off building a new one.”

The flicker of hope in Soarin’s heart spluttered and died. “Can you build a new one then?”

Michael shook his head. “Nothing more than what we’ve got already started. We would have to ask for more funding for any more Jaegers. And after Wild Mustang got totalled, well, public confidence took a little bit of a hit. They know we’re not invincible.”

“How bad?”

“Well, no one is panicking or anything, which is a small relief. The official press release said that Wild Mustang was slated for decommissioning anyway.”

Soarin and Wave Chill frowned. “Is that true?”

Michael smiled wryly. “Is now.”

“Don’t suppose it’d be too much to ask for a new one then?” Wave Chill asked hopefully.

Shane looked at him like he had suggested they do the Full Monty on top of the shatterdome. “Wave Chill, I can count the number of pilots who have piloted more than one Jaeger on one hand.”

“Guess your bosses didn’t like giving the guys who wrecked the expensive shiny things new toys.”

“Well, no.” Michael chuckled. “But it’s probably because I can also count the number of Jaeger pilots that didn’t die in their Jaeger on one hand as well. I think that’s the point Shane was making.”

Wave Chill blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah, a little morbid. But them’s the dice I guess.”

“Training new pilots is hard We started with what, a few thousand recruits didn’t we?” Shane asked, waiting for Michael to nod in agreement before he continued. “Of that, I think there’s maybe nine or ten groups at the moment that are practicing in a simulator. Of those, I’d say that only a three or four of them are actually at the standard we’d want them to be or better. Then of course, none of them have any actual combat experience...” He trailed off.

“What Shane is saying, in short, if you want a new Jaeger we’ll give you one. You two are good pilots, your Jaeger… well, it left a bit to be desired, to be honest. It was a prototype after all.”

Soarin and Wave Chill stared at him in surprise, neither had seriously expected to get another Jaeger. “W-which one?” Soarin stammered.

“Well unless one of you springs a horn from your head it’ll have to be a Mark II. I’ll have a talk to Twilight about it, I’m sure she’ll be able to get something sorted.” Michael said, wincing slightly as a part of Wild Mustang’s conpod was peeled away in a way that reminded him uncomfortably of Romeo Blue being torn apart by Switchback in Seattle.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t mention it.” Michael muttered. “Are you two ready to go back to the academy?”

“I don’t think the doc wants me out of his sight just yet.” Soarin groaned irritably..

“Well you two are a little useless down here at the moment, so as soon as you’re in shape, you’re heading back. I’m sure Applejack and Big Mac will be thrilled.” Michael ordered.

“I’m not sure we’re cut out for teaching.” Soarin said back quietly.

“The joy of being in command means every bastard under you gets to second-guess you. You’re not afforded that luxury, the moment you start second-guessing yourself you lose.” Michael said back firmly. “If we thought you and Wave Chill were bad teachers we wouldn’t send you back.”

“Of course not, it’s just hard to not have doubts sometimes.”

Michael and Shawn exchanged an amused look. “Have a look at the lot you had under your wing and tell me that again.”

Soarin looked at them suspiciously. “Why, what happened with them?”

“I think you’d want to see it for yourself.” Shane said.

Soarin grimaced. “Oh boy, this can only be bad...”

“Sir!”

The four pilots looked down from their platform, a young mare dressed more for an office had parked herself below them and waved to Michael.

“Yes?” Michael answered.

She balked for a moment, clearly not expecting all four to stare at her so intently. She saluted awkwardly. “Sir, I have message from Princess Celestia, she’s asked to see you immediately.”

Michael looked down at the mare with irritation. “We’re on a lockdown, she can come later.”

The pony smiled awkwardly. “By requesting to see you, I mean she’s in your office right now.”

Michael sighed explosively. “Alright, fine. Shane, keep an eye on these jokers down here. I’ll go and see what sunbutt wants.”

“That’s Princess Celestia you’re talking about, sir.” Wave Chill reminded him sternly.

“Yeah, well right now she’s a massive pain in ass.” Michael shot back, prompting a quiet chuckle out of both Shane and Soarin. “Alright, I’ll be back in a bit. If not I’ve probably passed out in my office and in that case, don’t disturb me.”

“Mikey needs his precious sleep.” Shane teased.

“Shut it.” Michael grumbled, taking one last contemplative look at Wild Mustang. “Right, let’s see what the princess wants.”

***

Michael worked his way quickly through the shatterdome up to his office, it took barely two minutes from when he’d left the Jaeger bay to reach his door. He punched the locking code in wearily and pushed the heavy door into his office open, revealing Celestia lounging in his chair behind his desk. “There’s a thing called ‘knocking’, you know.” Michael muttered dryly.

Celestia smiled thinly, spinning herself around on his chair playfully like it were a top. “I’m afraid teleporting leaves little need for such formalities.”

Michael shooed her off his seat, silently wondering there was some way he could magic-proof his office. “Well at least you didn’t drop in when I was in the shower…” He muttered before dropping into the comfortable chair with a sigh. “Now what do you want? We’re a little busy at the moment.”

“I came to deliver a message, normally I’d just send it by magical means but I think something of this importance is necessary to bring this before you myself.”

Michael sat up a little, Celestia’s playful expression had dropped like concrete block and now the monarch almost looked a little worried. “Okay?”

“In the senate assembly today there was a motion raised concerning your organisation. It was dismissed, thankfully, but only after a bit of debate. Your good friend is starting to perhaps gain a little traction.” Celestia warned.

Michael cocked his head to the side. “You mean that dumb bi-.”

“Senator Lotus, yes.” Celestia hastily interrupted. “Your most recent defeat has very well impressed in the minds of our politicians that your machines are not quite as invincible as they once thought.”

“Noted. What can we do about it then?”

Celestia shrugged. “Nothing directly. It’s something I’m sure a good performance record will keep in check. I’m sure the committee will quickly forget your loss if you start winning again.”

“Well, yeah, that’s fairly obvious. Anything else?”

Celestia hesitated a moment. “I’ve heard some, rumblings, from my international contacts. Apparently there has been a little talk in the Griffon aristocracy concerning the procurement of a Jaeger. Now, whether they mean to buy one or if they intend to acquire one through more nefarious means…”

“Hold on one sec, we’ve done deals with them before. What makes you think they’d try and steal one?”

Celestia looked a little ashamed. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that. They’re a highly efficient and businesslike lot, I’m sure they’ll approach you if they want something.” She took a breath. “Just, be aware that you now have the eyes of more than one government on you.”

“I think that’s been the case since we got here.” Michael chuckled.

Celestia cracked a thin smile. “Indeed. Now, I would love to stay and chat a while but I have other matters which need my attention. Thank your pilots for me, I trust they are recovering well?”

“They’ll be fit soon enough.” Michael assured her.

“Good, such brave little ponies…” Celestia said quietly. She sounded guilty, like she should’ve been in their place

“Yearning to answer the call, princess?” Michael jeered.

“No, of course not.” Celestia shot back. “I have my place and it is certainly not at the helm of a Jaeger.”

“If you say so.”

Celestia glared at him silently for a moment before vanishing in a crack of air and a flash of blinding light. Michael stared at the spot she’d been occupying for a few good minutes, his mind wandering aimlessly. He finally snapped back to reality with an amused snort.

“I give her six months.”

***

Despite Soarin and Wave Chill’s absence, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust’s tutelage continued much as before; Applejack and Big Macintosh taking over while the two pegasi recovered from their brawl. While Rainbow Dash was absolutely delighted to see her friend again, Applejack insisted on keeping a professional distance lest she give Rainbow any more favour than any of the other cadets.

“It’s rubbish.” Rainbow said to Pinkie over a meal in the mess hall. “Applejack knows me, she knows that I’m not just full of hot air.”

“Are you full of cold air then? I heard that’s unhealthy.” Maud interjected.

Rainbow blinked. “Wha- no?”

Maud returned the gesture. “Then shouldn’t you be full of hot air?”

“It’s an expression, silly.” Pinkie said, thankfully being the voice of reason for once rather than going off on a wild tangent about something like hot-air balloons as she was normally prone to.

“I know.” Maud replied, looking at her meal like she’d just spotted a drowning fly in it. “I was trying to make a joke.”

“Might want to work on your timing, bud.” Rainbow suggested dryly.

“My timing is excellent, I’m very rarely late. That’s why I have a watch.”

Rainbow wanted to explain to subtle differences in the meaning of her words but decided it would be pointless. She knew Maud was quite clever but when the stoney-faced pony look everything at face value, it was a little hard to see how.

“Speaking of time,” Pinkie butted in, talking through a peice of bread coated in rainbow sprinkles. “Do you think it’s time to bring the,” She looked around suspiciously. “Supplies in?” She whispered across the table.

Maud turned to Pinkie, her shoulders raising the slightest amount. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t been looking closely she would’ve missed the gesture entirely.

Pinkie blinked. “Yes, you’re right. Might just leave it for the moment.”

Rainbow Dash looked between the two sisters skeptically. Whatever Pinkie and Maud were on about, it seemed a rather serious issue to Pinkie. “No offence Pinkie, but shouldn’t you be focusing more on making sure you make the grade rather than this… thing?” Rainbow asked uncertainly. She considered figuring out exactly Pinkie meant by ‘supplies’ but decided against it, while trying to understand Maud was simple enough, if one had the patience, but Pinkie’s mind could be like a bag of angry cats at the best of times. Trying to understand her somewhat roundabout thought patterns usually ended up being painful. “Last I heard, you and Maud weren’t exactly in the good books of your trainers.”

Pinkie Pie pulled a look that fell remarkably well somewhere between irritated and upset. “Misty Fly is weird… and that’s me saying that. She’s way too serious, maybe delirious, m-”

“Yeah, I get it.” Rainbow hastily interrupted before Pinkie could spell out ever rhyming word for herd. She let out a sympathetic sigh, her pink friend seemed increasingly worried and frustrated at the former Wonderbolt’s behaviour. “I dunno Pinkie, maybe you could just… not be so… you?”

“So me? How can I not be me? I’m me!” Pinkie protested. “That’d be like asking a cake to not be a cake and be a muffin!”

“I know her type.” Rainbow explained hastily. “They see humour as something that undermines their authority, they’ll only start to respect you if you’ve actually got any talent. Maybe you should show her.”

“Talent, eh?” Pinkie pondered, tapping her hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Ah-ha! Maud, we need to get ready, quicksmart! What’s the time?”

“Five past seven.” Maud answered, her eyes barely flickering up to a clock somewhere above Rainbow’s head. “Hmm. Didn’t your simulator session start at seven?” she asked boredly, her eyes slowly creeping over to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow dash froze with horror, a mouthful of food halfway to her mouth. How that had slipped her mind was completely beyond her. “Oh damn, gotta go!” Rainbow Dash yelped, her bowl clattering to the table. Lightning Dust would never forgive her for being late.

“Have fun!” Pinkie called after her, a bright technicolour streak the only indication that Rainbow had ever been there at all.

***

By the time her bowl had come to a complete halt in the mess hall, Rainbow Dash was already halfway to the suiting room, her mind already set on the upcoming drift session. She powered across the academy grounds, blatantly ignoring several flight regulations in her haste to reach her destination. She perhaps then, felt a little foolish when she arrived only to find Lightning Dust waiting outside the suiting room playing with a strand of her mane impatiently.

“You forgot, didn’t you Rainbow Crash?” Lightning Dust asked, not even bothering to turn around.

“Of course I didn’t, Lightning Bust.” Rainbow shot back.

”Imaginative as ever.” Lightning Dust yawned.

Rainbow cracked a thin grin. “Speak for yourself. What’s the hold up?”

She shrugged silently and continued playing with her mane, her frustration at the dealy quietly bubbling away under the surface.

Rainbow didn’t prod her further, Lightning Dust wasn’t overly sociable, not towards her at least, and in Rainbow’s experience it usually took teeth-gritting amounts of prying and patience to get her into an actual conversation, a effort she wasn’t willing to go to at the moment. Instead she sat down a measured distance away from the pegasus and waited, running through a mental checklist of things she had to remember before getting into the simulator. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long and Rainbow was only halfway through her list when a gangly technician opened the suiting room door and popped his head out.

“They’re ready for you now, come on through.” He said, gesturing them to follow him through to the suiting room. Rainbow and Lightning Dust followed him silently, stepping up onto the slightly elevated plates in the centre of the room so the dozen or so technicians milling about could get to work.

“Hey, Dusty. This time, try not to fall straight onto your arse like you did yesterday.” Rainbow reminded Lightning Dust mockingly.

The other pegasus simply grinned at her obnoxiously, lifting a leg so the technicians that swarmed around them could fasten her armour into place. Although saying that her attitude towards Rainbow Dash had improved could have been overstating things, she had become markedly less hostile since they’d first drifted. Tolerable, was the best word Rainbow could think of. Neither of them liked admitting it, but Soarin had been right from the start. Under Applejack’s supervision, they'd successfully drifted the evening of Tusker’s demise and had spent as many hours as they could beg, coerce or plead in the simulator since.

“What do you bet she makes us do the basic course again.” Lightning Dust piped up sourly. “I’ve had enough of this one kick, one thousand times bullshit, let me fight a damn Kaiju already.”

“I think Applejack would rather we master the basics rather than just pushing us off into the deep end. With a shark.” Rainbow explained with an exasperated sigh.

“I’m ready. You’re ready. What is she waiting for?” Lightning Dust grumbled. “Unless of course, you don’t think you’re up to it?” She asked snidely.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Rainbow replied indignantly. “Maybe you just shouldn't be so keen to stick you head in the lion’s mouth.”

“Bah.” Lightning Dust remarked, flicking her tail in annoyance and marching off the pad as soon as the last securing bolt had been drilled in.

Rainbow followed behind a second later, wearing a small smile on her face. She shared Lightning Dust’s enthusiasm to get on with the program but she was just much better at hiding her impatience, which was truly saying something as she was hardly a patient pony at the best of times.

They made their way out along one of the gantries, their metal boots clanking loudly enough to be mistaken for a marching army. Lightning Dust suddenly stopped in her tracks, nearly making Rainbow crash into her armoured rump.

“What the ha-?” Rainbow started, trailing off with a surprised ‘Oh’ as she noticed what Lightning Dust was staring at.

Instead of the massive form of Big Macintosh and Applejack though, Rainbow was surprised to find Soarin and Wave Chill stationed outside the door, the older of the pegasi still bearing some bandages across his back and leg. Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust exchanged a look, neither of them had been told that their previous trainers had returned to the academy.

“You’re late.” Rainbow said gruffly, forcing her helmet on and trying not to look at the angry red scars which ran down Soarin’s leg and crisscrossed his shoulder.

“Spare us the cheek sweetheart and just get in the simulator.” Soarin said with a faint smile.

Rainbow suppressed a wry smirk and brushed past the two injured pilots, Lightning Dust tottering along behind with a remarkably flat expression.

“I didn’t know they were back.” Rainbow said, gently prodding her copilot.

“You think they tell me anything?” Lightning Dust retorted, snapping her boots into the simulator’s drivetrain with two sharp clicks.

“Yeah, right. What was I thinking?” Rainbow muttered, snapping her visor down. A flood of information swamped her senses, a dancing array of coloured lights, ticking numbers and blinking displays suddenly filling her vision.

“So… which one do you want to rut then?” Lightning dust asked cheekily.

“Excuse me?” Rainbow asked, sure she’d misheard her copilot.

“You heard me.”

Rainbow stared at her with as much of a flat expression as she could manage through a helmet. “I don’t think I need to answer that.”

“Oh come on, I saw the way you were looking at them.” Lightning Dust jeered. “You can’t say you wouldn’t.”

“It’s not like that.” Rainbow protested vehemently.

“Then what is it?”

“They’re my friends, when your friends narrowly escape death, it’s natural to be worried for them. Of course you wouldn’t know that, because you haven't got any friends.”

Lightning Dust snorted, hiding a slightly hurt look behind a contemptuous smirk. “Yeah, right. ‘Friends.’ I’m a mare of the world and I can tell you right now there’s a very good reason why I think what you’re telling me is bullshit.”

“Maybe you should ask them yourself then.” Rainbow said back, finding herself smiling despite her irritation. She reckoned Lightning Dust was just jealous that she was well connected with many renowned ponies. “Besides, Soarin is… old, and Wave Chill? I’d rather not thanks.”

“He’s not old, he’s experienced.” Lightning Dust chuckled.

“Why thank you, Lightning Dust. Now if you two are quite done..?” Soarin remarked dryly over the comm link.

The two mares froze in horror, blissfully unaware that they’d left the channel open.

Rainbow diligently flicked off the channel. “Well then…” She muttered embarrassedly, trying to desperately suppress a giggle..

Lightning Dust nodded silently, chomping her mouth shut so she wouldn’t laugh. She didn’t need words for Rainbow to understand how she felt. “I think we should get started.” She said quickly.

“Yeah.” Rainbow said flicking the channel back on so Soarin and Wave Chill could hear them. “So what are we doing today?”

“From the notes Applejack and Big Mac thoughtfully left, you two are becoming quite adept at the basics. As you’ve yet to actually fight a simulated Kaiju, I think now is a good a time as any to get started.” Soarin explained cheerfully. “Which Jaeger would you like to be?”

The view screen flickered to life and displayed rough holographic projections of the Jaegers stored in the system. All the Mark Is were there along with the three new Mark IIs, further across was a limited selection of human Jaegers, the simulator data for a handful of the machines had been stored on Midsummer Night and had been transferred over for completeness sake. The two pegasi were limited in their choices though, they had only been allowed to choose from three Jaegers, the Mark IIs currently in production.

“Same as always I guess.” Rainbow said, selecting the middle machine, a small Jaeger that looked like a dog ready to pounce. She could barely keep the trace of excitement out of her voice, she’d been dying to use the simulator’s combat features.

They’d tried out all the hulls during their time clocked in the simulator but both pegasi had naturally gravitated towards the lean, agile machine. Unlike Everfree Bandit, which for some strange reason felt like it was simply borrowed, the Jaeger seemed like a natural extension of their body, a brilliant display of raw speed and power that the two pegasi enjoyed. They’d clocked nearly twenty hours in the small Jaeger, an almost inordinate amount of time compared to the number of hours they’d spent in Everfree Bandit and the last, dark, almost brooding Jaeger

“I see you’ve grown quite attached to the little one.” Soarin remarked.

“It’s like us, fast.” Lightning Dust boasted, giving Rainbow a rare, somewhat friendly smirk.

“Well I guess we’ll see if she’s fast enough then. You’ll be fighting a CAT II today, lovely guy called Atticon.” Soarin said, loading the Kaiju into the simulator with well practised ease.

“It’ll be a piece of cake.” Lightning Dust boasted, running a systems check like she’d been taught.

“I like your enthusiasm.” Soarin remarked slyly. There was something in his voice that made an alarm bell in Rainbow’s head ring but she couldn’t quite place a hoof on it.

“Two pilots in neural bridge, ready to connect.”

“Initiating neural handshake.” Wave Chill announced.

The now familiar sensation of being forced through a blue wave washed over Rainbow Dash, a flood of memories feelings and raw emotion rushing past her eyes like a stick of butter going down a metal slide on a hot day. She was used to this now though, the sudden surge had been overwhelming at first but she’d grown used to it. What she was still adjusting to though, was Lightning Dust. Every time she drifted with the pegasus she got the sensation of looking into a mirror and not quite seeing her reflection. It left an uncomfortable feeling crawling under her skin, like she was having sandpaper rubbed all over herself. The moment of irritation lasted barely a second before passing though and once again Rainbow could see clearly, the swarms of blinking lights and indicators across her console swimming back towards her.

“Neural bridge established. Initiating simulated combat environment. Pilots, prepare for combat.” The computer hummed.

The view out their front screen changed. A storm wracked ocean leapt into view, a massive half-finished wall jumping up into existence to their extreme left. Behind them, a thousand blazing lights of a city burned through the blankets of rain which filled the dark sky.

“This isn’t Equestria.” Lightning Dust muttered insightfully, pinging the Jaeger’s sensors experimentally. The torrential rain was reducing their visibility to a few hundred metres and the constant thumping of waves and heavy machinery against the massive wall behind them was hardly making it easy for the acoustic sensors to pick up anything solid.

“Contact five hundred metres. Kaiju signature detected, Category II.” The computer sang quietly, a blood red blip appearing on their state of the art threat indicator.

“Ready?” Lightning Dust purred excitedly.

Rainbow gulped. “Ready.” She answered slowly, hoping that her anxiety wasn’t transmitting over the neural link as much as it felt it was. She was hardly a coward but the prospect of facing a Kaiju head to head, even a simulated one, didn’t seem quite as exciting as it had a few minutes ago.

“Ah quit being such a scaredy-cat, this’ll be a cakewalk.” Lightning Dust reassured her teasingly.

“Four hundred metres to contact.” the computer chimed.

A pair of glowing blue orbs materialised out of the pelting rain and the rest of the Kaiju swiftly followed. It was feline in appearance, a long stinger tipped tail jutting out above it awkwardly. The two roving orbs spun and locked on the two pilots, each looking more like a large bauble rather than a normal eye.

Lightning Dust gave the Kaiju a disgusted look. “Oh sure, a Kaiju that looks like a cat. I wasn’t being literal you smartarse.” She grumbled.

Atticon regarde the Jaeger with curiosity for a moment, it’s head cockign to the side slightly and a long, forked tongue slipping out between its barbed teeth as if it were tasting the machine. It hissed quietly, a grating, rasping sound which filtered in over the steady thrumming of rain striking the conpod.

“Let’s go!” Lightning Dust growled, breaking the Jaeger into a flat sprint. Rainbow followed reluctantly, now probably wasn’t the best time to be second-guessing herself. A mechanical whine filled their ears as the Jaeger built up speed, quickly passing the two hundred kilometre an hour mark as it accelerated towards the Kaiju.

“Fifty metres to contact.”

Atticon waited patiently until the last moment before ducking under the Jaeger’s swinging arm with a surprising burst of agility and leaving their strike sailing through thin air.

Now overextended, Atticon assumed its target to be easy pickings, gnashing its teeth and swiping a paw at the Jaeger in a wide arc. Rainbow and Lightning Dust followed through with their punch, the world spinning as they performed what could only be described as a improvised combat roll to avoid the blow.

Atticon yowled as its prey slipped under its strike, the lithe Jaeger was much faster than the Kaiju had expected. Rolling back upright, Rainbow Dash slung a quick jab at the Kaijus’ exposed ribcage, her blow being rewarded by a loud squeak of pain. Atticon took a step back and rallied, its prehensile tail whipping around and clattering off their shoulder before they could properly regain their footing. Before Lightning Dust could rip it away, the bulbous stinger sitting on the end twitched and jabbed down, punching clean through the pauldron and injecting a voracious, toxic mixture into the Jaeger’s shoulder. A slew of warnings popped on the screen as the toxins started eating through the arm’s actuators and control circuits.

“Bad kitty!” Lightning Dust snarled, ripping the barb out and squeezing the bulging acid sac between her fingers. Atticon squeaked again as the pulsating sac expanded before blowing out at either end like a party popper.

“Son of a bitch!” Rainbow squealed, resisting the urge to grab her shoulder. It hurt a lot more than she expected, a gnawing, biting, burning pain working its way deep into the joint and spreading down her foreleg. She tried moving the limb but it seemed sluggish in response, many of the delicate control circuits had evidently been damaged or destroyed by the Kaiju’s attack.

They were down an arm and Atticon had only lost its stinger.

“Not exactly the best outcome, Lightning Dust.” Rainbow summed up accusingly, trying to work some feeling back into her numb foreleg.

There was no time for that though as Atticon came at them again, deliberately targeting their crippled arm and managing to sink its claws into their already damaged shoulder before Lightning Dust punched it off, giving the Kaiju a blackened, bleeding eye for its trouble. It hissed again, making the fur on Rainbow’s back stand up on end.

“You ready for more?” Lightning Dust taunted, blissfully paying no attention to the trouble Rainbow Dash’s side of the Jaeger was in.

Atticon evidently was, lunging forward again, jaws outstretched while simultaneously restraining their good arm with its tail. The Kaiju tore at their shoulder with a claw sloughing away another sheet of armour and clamped its jaws down on the conpod with a distressing crack of metal shattering.

“It's going to breach the conpod!” Rainbow yelled, another ominous crunch sounding above their heads. She struggled against the claw pinning her shoulder in place to little avail. If it wasn’t for the slurry of acid and melted parts that ate away cheerfully at the joint she might’ve managed but the pegasus simply couldn’t muster the strength to push the Kaiju off.

“Well maybe if you hadn’t let yourself get hit we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Lightning Dust snarled, forcing Atticon over but not quite far enough to break its hold on their head The Kaiju’s teeth tore into the conpod again, another squeal of tortured metal ringing around theor metal sanctuary.

“Me? If you hadn’t been such a reckless idiot we…” She yelled, trailing off as she looked at Lightning Dust.

Or more accurately it seemed, where she had been.

The entire side of the conpod had been torn away cleanly, revealing an office with a panoramic view over a green vista standing out amid an ocean of clouds. Pegasi in blue and yellow uniforms dotted the sky outside and whizzed around, cheerfully oblivious to the Kaiju which was trying to tear the conpod open a few metres away. As she looked, the interior of the cockpit seemed to melt away, leaving her stranded in the oddly familiar office.

‘I know this place...’ Rainbow thought dumbly, taken aback by how out of place she was in her perfectly white drivesuit. She took a step forward, her hooves clanking noisily on the hard, wooden floor and a bunch of papers neatly stacked on a desk ruffling slightly as she passed. She spun around with surprise as the door behind her slammed open and an angry mare stormed in.

‘Spitfire!’ Rainbow thought with surprise, half-tempted to dive behind the desk for cover. Spitfire though, ignored her as if she were a ghost and forced herself down into her chair, drawing a bottle of scotch out of a draw along with a small glass.

“You waiting for an invitation?” She snarled.

Rainbow jumped, thinking the clearly angry mare was addressing her. “Uh-?”

“Thought not, get your arse in here.” Spitfire growled.

“Ma’am?” Rainbow asked, but Spitfire dutifully ignored her. She spun around, surprised to see a slightly younger looking Lightning Dust in a Wonderbolt training uniform.

‘Oh...’ Rainbow thought, suddenly aware of where she’d seen the office before. Everything suddenly made sense and her brain, which seemed to have been plodding along slowly finally clicked.

‘Something’s gone wrong, we’re out of alignment.’ She thought. wheeling around to face Spitfire again. ‘Right?’

The Wonderbolt didn’t answer her, in fact , Spitfire seemed completely oblivious to her presence at all, glaring straight past her and at the distraught looking Lightning Dust.

“You know why you’re here?” She asked, pouring herself a measured glass of the strong smelling liquor.

Lightning Dust didn’t answer, instead staring impassively past Spitfire’s head at the flights of ponies buzzing past the window.

“You used to be quite fond of running that mouth of yours, what’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

“No ma’am, I don’t understand why I’m here.” Lightning Dust said snidely.

Spitfire let out a faint chortle. “Odd, cause I got five reasons why you should be.”

“That wasn’t my fault.” Lightning dust fired back with parade ground efficiency. “those idiots shouldn’t have violated military airspace without clearance.”

“Those idiots are some of the greatest heroes in Equestria.”

“Then they’re idiotic heros.” Lightning Dust retorted cooly. “Doesn’t change the facts.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that your actions nearly killed five ponies, endangered your entire class and the staff at this academy.”

“But it didn’t.” Lightning Dust said, a trace of irritation in her voice. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about, ma’am.”

“Of course you don’t. You’re a reckless idiot and frankly, after your latest stunt, I think we’d be better off without you.” Spitfire said levelly.

Rainbow felt like a shank had been driven through her heart. For the first time since entering the room, Lightning Dust’s resolve seemed to wave. “Bu-.”

“You nearly killed Celestia’s personal student, do know how much unwanted attention we’d get if that had happened?”

Rainbow felt the spike go in further. It wasn’t her fault. “But it didn’t-.”

“But it could’ve!” Spitfire roared. “If it hadn’t been for Rainbow Dash’s quick thinking, we’d be cleaning five stains off the welcome mat.”

A surge of anger shot through Rainbow and for a moment she didn’t care about anything, not the spike being driven into her chest , not her imminent discharge and certainly not the equally furious mare sitting across from her. She wanted to roll up in a ball and cry but she didn’t, instead came back firing. “You never had any problem with my attitude before.” Lightning Dust shot back. “Are you really only concerned about your squadron’s image now, huh? Gonna kick out your best cadet just because some idiots violated a military base’s airspace and made you look like a fool?”

Spitfire put her forehooves together. “Look kid, I made a mistake in my initial judgment of you. You’re a good flier but you’re an arsehole. You put yourself before your teammates, that’s not something the Wonderbolts stand for. We’re a team, a family. When we join, we expect each other to keep to a certain code, a set of standards that we trust each other to stick to, especially when shit goes sideways. That’s something I had to be reminded of today.” She admitted sourly. “You’ve never even bothered with them.”

Lightning Dust scoffed contemptuously, any semblance of politeness well and truly gone. “Let me guess, Rainbow Dash came and whined about her friends having a little fall and blackmailed you into getting rid of me. Figures she’d get special treatment.”

“What I talk about with others is none of your business.” Spitfire growled. “Now, you have half an hour to get your things together and get off my base. If you’re still here after that, I’ll throw you off a cliff with your wings bound myself. We’ll see who comes to your rescue then.”

Lightning Dust was too angry to care. She knew it, Rainbow Dash had always been jealous of her getting the leadpony position and had finally made her move. It didn’t seem quite right that she’d stab her in the back like that but it was the only conclusion Lightning Dust could bring herself to, after all, it wasn’t her fault. How could nopony see that? It had never been her fault.

She glared at Spitfire, holding back a storm of tears and pent of frustration. This had been her dream, her aspiration. A hour ago it had been a normal day but now it was quickly turning into the worst moment of her life.

Rainbow Dash winced, she knew the feeling Lightning Dust felt. It was strange that she’d felt it barely an hour before, the only difference was that she’d chosen it while Lightning Dust was being forced into it.

“Lightning Dust.” She beckoned quietly.

The pegasus ignored her call, her head bowed in resignation.

“Lightning Dust, this is just a memory. Please, snap out of it, I need you here. Now.” She said, unsure if the Lightning Dust seated in front of her could actually hear her or not. She let out a sigh of exasperation and took a step forward. “Well if you won’t listen…” She muttered, slapping Lightning Dust roughly across the face with her hoof. “You hear me now?”

Lightning Dust jumped like she’d been electrocuted, her eyes wide and her breath quick and panicky. For the first time she seemed to noticed Rainbow Dash, a look of pure bewilderment appearing over her face. She looked between Spitfire and Rainbow Dash like they’d both suddenly turned into Changelings. “What the-?” She exclaimed before the office shook like a giant had picked it up and had thrown it.

“Pilot Two, out of alignment.” Spitfire said, her voice oddly flat and devoid of any emotion.

“Snap out of it!” Rainbow yelled, slapping the stunned Lightning Dust across the face again.

“Rainbow Dash?!” Lightning Dust blurted out in surprise.

“You’re drifting, none of this is real! It’s just a memory! Now snap out of it!” She ordered, hitting Lightning Dust once more.

“Get off me!” Lightning Dust snarled, rolling with the blow and moving to strike back.

“Get control of yourself or we’re going to fail!”

Lightning Dust froze in place, eyes going even wider as a persistent klaxon started ringing in their ears. A metallic crunch sounded behind Rainbow as something vital gave way and Atticon forced its way into the conpod. For a moment she was greeted with the sight of a snarling maw and rows of razor sharp teeth before everything turned to a merciful black.

With a crack like a firework going off, the scene snapped out of existence and the interior of the simulator snapped back into view, a faint but persistent buzzer ringing in her ears. Rainbow Dash slumped backwards, her motion mirrored by Lightning Dust. The other pegasus ripped her helmet off, her chest rising and falling like she had been holding her breath for a few minutes. The front view screen was slowly pulsing red with the words ‘Mission Failed’ but neither of the pilots seemed to really pay it any attention.

“That was…” Rainbow panted, trying to clear her vision of the swimming blue dots which danced like pinpricks of light at the back of her mind.

Lightning Dust didn’t respond, shakily disengaging from her harness and almost falling flat on her rump. Rainbow moved to help her but forestalled the motion as Lightning Dust clumsily staggering back to her hooves.

“Don’t touch me, don’t even…” She spat between breathes, her eyes burning with what Rainbow Dash could only describe as fear and regret Lightning Dust forced herself upright and stormed out of the simulator, slipping through the door as soon as the heavy metal portal was wide enough for her to fit through.

“What. Was. That.” Rainbow said between deep breaths. She took her helmet off slowly and let it drop to the floor with a crash, she knew exactly what had happened but needed somepony else to affirm it for her.

“You went out of alignment. You drifted into a memory and relived it.” Wave Chill said.

Rainbow shook her head, trying to make sense of what had rushed through her mind. “I was there, but that wasn’t me. I could could feel everything. It was almost like I was-.”

“Somepony else?” Soarin finished.

Rainbow scratched the side of her head, trying to soothe the steady pounding seated behind her temples. She knew she had just been inside Lightning Dust’s head, perhaps more, but she was still struggling to accept it.The whole thing was hard to wrap her head around, it just seemed so strange. “Yeah.” She muttered. “You… you were in control, why didn’t you stop it?”

“I considered it.” Soarin admitted. “But then I thought it would be important for you to learn first-hoof what it’s like to go out of alignment. It’s fairly safe in here.”

“Yeah, thanks. Real insightful.” Rainbow muttered sourly, wishing she had some water to wash away the coppery taste in the back of her mouth. She disengaged her harness, there was no point staying connected if Lightning Dust had stormed off. Rainbow staggered out to the door, almost falling onto a concerned looking Wave Chill as she pushed herself through the portal.

“Whoa there partner.” He said, steadying her incase she decided to topple over. Soarin appeared behind him, offering another steadying hoof to the wobbly pegasus. .

“How do you feel?” He asked.

Rainbow blinked. “Dizzy. Nauseous.”

“Great, your head isn’t all mush.” Soarin deadpanned. “Let me have a look at you.”

“I’m fine.” Rainbow protested, trying to push him away.

“Rainbow Dash, a quick checkup never hurt anypony.” Soarin admonished. “Now open your eyes wide.”

Rainbow let out an irritated sigh. “Alright, keep it quick.”

Soarin peered into her eyes, pushing her eyelids back a little as he checked them. He gestured her to open her mouth.

“Can you taste blood?” He asked.

“A little.”

“Good, you bit your tongue.” Soarin muttered.”At least your brain is still working right.”

Rainbow eyed him suspiciously. “Thought you said it was safe?”

The pegasus shrugged. “Safe enough.” He remarked wryly, giving one her wings a quick tug.

“Ow! What gives?”

“Just thought it’d be fun pulling your wings.” Soarin said cheekily. “Nah, just making sure all your bits are working fine.”

“I don’t think you know what the word safe means.” Rainbow snapped, folding her wing back in with a huff.

“Can you feel your legs? Any numbness at all? Teeth? Ears?”

“They’re going to go numb at this rate.” Rainbow Dash muttered just loudly enough so Soarin could hear.

“Well that lovely sarcastic wit you’ve got seems intact at least.” Soarin said, giving her another quick once over. “Everything else seems to be fine, your eyes are a little red though. Might be worth getting a quick checkup in the infirmary later, just to be safe.”

“Yes, dad.” Rainbow whinged.

“I’m was going to say that I’m not nearly old enough, but then I remembered that apparently I’m old.” Soarin drawled.

“Well you’re fussing over me like he would when I was sick. I can look after myself you know.”

“Yeah, and sometimes you don’t know your limits.” Soarin said, an edge of concern in his voice. “I think you’ve done enough for one day, I suggest you go get some rest.”

“And what about Lightning Dust?”

“Might be a good idea to find her as well. You two are a lot better than the last time I checked, it’d be a shame to lose that.”

“Better?” Rainbow asked. “Did you see what just happened?”

“Yeah, and it was an unfortunate blunder that you two would both be very keen on not experiencing again. I’m sure she’ll understand.” Soarin explained. “Talking with her now, rather than later, probably isn’t a bad idea.”

“Well that’s great and all but she just stormed off, how the heck am I supposed to know where she is?”

Soarin shrugged. “Beats me, you’re the one who was just in her head.”

***

Finding Lightning Dust didn’t take nearly as long as Rainbow dash thought it would. Rainbow Dash found her nestled in a small nook on the roof of one of the engineering workshops, hidden between a vent and the low railing which ran around the length of the roof. It was a spot Rainbow had visited many times before when she needed a moment alone, the vent kept the roost pleasantly warm and the location had a commanding view over most of the academy and the surrounding countryside.

Rainbow watched from above, circling above Lightning Dust hesitantly for several minutes before finally deciding to intrude. Soarin was right, she was finally making progress with Lightning Dust and if they were going to pilot well, they needed to sort it out, preferably sooner rather than later. She touched down with on the roof a few metres away from her copilot, her hooves clicking quietly against concrete as she landed and waited patiently for Lightning Dust to notice her.

“I saw you,” Lighting Dust muttered, her voice barely audible over the soft thrumming of the vent next to her. “As soon as you left the ground. You circled for almost five minutes.”

“Thought I might find you out here.” Rainbow Dash said quietly, slightly annoyed that Lightning Dust had seen her despite her best attempts to be subtle.

“Yeah, and how’d you know that?” Lightning Dust grumbled, shifting away slightly.

Rainbow shrugged. “It’s where I would be.”

Lightning Dust muttered something under her breath and turned away, returning her gaze out over the sprawling academy grounds. She flinched as a few low crumps rang out over the academy, distant rumbles echoing over the landscape as a distant artillery unit commenced firing drills. The sounds reminded Rainbow of a Grizzly stalking them through a scrapyard and she involuntarily shuddered, that particular simulation of Raze’s would probably haunt her for a while.

“What I saw back there,” Rainbow said sullenly. “I never meant for any of that to happen. I didn’t convince Spitfire to kick you out.”

Lightning Dust looked down uncomfortably. “I know.” She said simply after a short but painful silence.

Rainbow looked up nervously. “After all that… Jeez, I know how you feel.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, I do!” Rainbow protested. “I felt it all, your anger, your grief. I was inside your head.” She shuddered, a cold chill running down her spine that had nothing to do with the cool mountain air. She put her hooves up on the railing, staring out at a distant peak. “I get why you’d hate me after that. I mean, if you swapped the circumstances I’d probably feel the same way.”

Lightning Dust grunted quietly, unwilling to discuss the matter any further.

Rainbow Dash hesitated a few seconds. “What happened after that, I mean, what’ve you been doing in the meantime?”

Lightning Dust looked over at her and let out a quiet sigh. “Can you just drop it?”

“No, I think this is something we need to talk about, we need both need to be more open with each other.” She said, aware of the distinctly unhappy look Lightning dust was giving her. “That is, unless you want to have a repeat of that last drift session every time the thought comes up.” Rainbow said firmly.

Lightning Dust squirmed uncomfortably on her roost as she considered the prospect. “Alright fine, but this stays just between you and me, got it? No yammering on about this to that pink friend of yours, savvy?”

“Fine by me.” Rainbow muttered, flinching again as a another wave of dull booms echoed over their roost.

Lightning Dust sighed quietly, taking a deep breath before starting. “Since the Academy I’ve been staying fairly low key, taking whatever jobs I could get, pretty hard to find willing employers when you’ve got a mark like mine on your record. Had a few odd jobs here and there, never really stayed anywhere long enough to settle down.”

“You didn’t go home?”

The other pegasus shook her head. “Didn't dare go back, couldn’t bare to think what my family would think. They all had... high expectations. I’ll put it that way.”

“You’re from Las Pegasus right?” Rainbow asked

“Yeah, makes Cloudsdale look a dump.” Lightning Dust said with a faint smirk. “Besides, there wasn’t much to back for unless I wanted to join the family business.”

“What do they do?”

“My mum and dad runs a line of casinos and hotels, not really my thing. Crunching numbers and greasing the highrollers.” She let out a soft chuckle. “I was always ‘Daddy’s Little Wonderbolt.’”

“Must be rich.” Rainbow said wistfully.

“Swimming. It’s never been something I’ve cared about though, I prefer to live the simple life.”

“Didn’t you have any friends? Wouldn’t they be worth seeing again?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, well, I only really had one real friend back home. She was a lot like you actually. We were amazing, it was like we were twelve foot tall and bulletproof. There was nothing we couldn’t do together.”

“Was?” Rainbow asked without thinking. She kicked her hooves up on the small perch and tried to act relaxed, Lightning Dust seemed a lot chattier once she’d gotten the ball rolling.

Lightning Dust hesitated again. “Bad case of feather flu. She had a bad reaction to the drugs the docs put her on, arseholes didn’t even bother checking on her.” Lightning Dust’s voice cracked slightly. “She just… never woke up.”

“Damn.” Rainbow said hollowly, cringing at the thought. She couldn’t imagine losing one of her friends, not like that.

Lightning Dust rubbed her face with a wing. “But no big deal, right? Ponies die all the time, no need to be a pussy about it.” She said, her voice cracking slightly. “It taught me to never take anypony’s work for granted though, they make mistakes.”

“Yeah, because you’re completely perfect, right?” Rainbow said dryly.

“I didn’t say that.” Lightning Dust protested. She bit her lip, struggling with the words. “I’ve… made mistakes.”

“Like the Wonderbolt’s Academy, right?”

“You just love dredging that up, don’t you?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “It was a defining moment in our relationship.”

“Lose the second friend I ever had, slap myself with a life-shattering discharge. Yeah, what a moment.” Lightning Dust grumbled, looking away grumpily. The sun had set behind a peak and a fierce chill now gripped the small perch the two pegasi were on. In the distance, small flashes of light were visible as the artillery barrage rolled on.

Rainbow’s ears perked up. “What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Lightning Dust shot back icily.

“Was I your second friend, your only friend?” Rainbow asked disbelievingly. She couldn’t say she hadn’t considered Lightning Dust a friend for a short while but after their falling out, she had never really considered that Lightning Dust may have reciprocated those feelings.

The mare looked away uncomfortably. “Yeah.” She admitted.

“But then why-?”

“Do I hate you so much?” Lightning Dust finished. She let out a quiet snort. “I hit rock bottom, I had nothing left I wanted. I had no future that I could see. I was sure you hated me, I thought I’d lost the only friend I’d had for eight years and it was my fault. Because I screwed the pooch too hard!” She yelled, her voice rising as she spoke. Lightning Dust stopped, calming herself with a deep breath. “I don’t know how I got through those next few days, I hated myself more than anything. I think I just.. convinced myself that it was your fault. I stormed out of Spitfire’s office with this wonderful idea that you had gotten me kicked out and it stuck, I wasn’t willing to admit that maybe I’d screwed up. Spend a few years like that and you get real bitter.”

“But you did make a mistake. You couldn’t control that tornado. Surely you know that?”

Lightning Dust nodded slowly. “Yes, I know. Just took a while for me to realise it.”

“Well I appreciate the change.”

Lightning Dust smiled thinly. “Thank yourself. It wasn’t really until I got in your head that I started seeing how wrong I was.” She let out another quiet sigh of relief. “I’ve been holding that all in for a while. Feels good to get it all out.”

“Sometimes it helps to have somepony around to just listen.” Rainbow said with a faint smile.

“Guess so.” Lightning Dust admitted. A brief flash in the distance caught Rainbow’s eye, a crashing wave of thunder rolling over them a moment later. There was a storm coming.

“Dash, I’m sorry for what happened back there in the simulator.”

“No prob, could have happened to anypony.”

“I mean how I acted. We’re a team now, me and you. That means I have to listen to you, not recklessly endanger you and not just give in to the whim of my ego. Glory isn’t everything.” She admitted.

“Well I’m glad you learnt that lesson, I think it’ll take a bit more than words to get through your skull though.”

“Probably.” Lightning Dust agreed. “Something to work on.”

“Yes, something to work on.” Rainbow echoed.

The two pegasi fell silent for a moment, watching the occasional strike of lightning and shell burst in the distance. The oncoming storm seemed to be doing little to deter the army from their firing drills, the barrage continuing on unabated.

Eventually, Lightning cleared her throat. “So, what do you want to call it?” She asked.

Rainbow Dash feigned ignorance. “Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. There are what, ten pairs in the simulators at the moment, we’re easily topping the scoreboard and most of others are still getting the hang of actually drifting. We’ll get a Jaeger.” She stated, not a trace of doubt in her voice.

“Yeah, the fast one.” Rainbow affirmed.

“As if there was any doubt.” Lightning Dust boasted. “So, what do you want to call it?”

Rainbow looked away quickly, she'd been thinking of names ever since they’d first tried the Jaeger but had kept them from Lightning Dust, she thought the other pegasus would’ve just laughed at them. “I don’t know.” She lied.

“Quit playing possum Dash, I know you’ve got something.”

“And what about you, huh, you got anything?” Rainbow fired back.

Lightning Dust immediately laid off the attack, her body shifting to a defensive stance. “Well…” she said, rolling the word around like it was in a tumble dryer.

“Yeah, thought so.” Rainbow smirked before looking away. She sat pensively for a few seconds. “Alright, fine, I had some ideas.”

“Like?”

“Stolid Sharkbait?”

Lightning Dust arched an eyebrow. “Do you want to get eaten?”

“Striker Eureka.”

“You stole that.”

“Omega Epsilon.”

“Too clichéd.”

“Lightning Dust is a shithead.” Rainbow growled.

“Too long.” Lightning Dust said back, cracking a thin smile. “I do like the usage of my name though.”

“Of course you would.” Rainbow muttered, rolling her eyes contemptuously. “How about Daring Do?”

Lightning Dust burst out laughing, a loud, hearty sound that made the tips of Rainbow’s ears burn. Lightning Dust lost herself in her mirth, almost rolling right off the edge of their roost amidst a fit of giggles.

“Wow, really?” She eventually managed before breaking down in hysterics again.

“Shut up, it’s a good name.” Rainbow muttered indignantly, her face burning red with embarrassment.

“Yeah, for an egghead.” Lightning Dust giggled.

“You got a better idea?” Rainbow challenged.

Lightning Dust immediately quietened down, her amused look broken as she broke into a fit of coughing.

“Better than anything you’ve got.” Rainbow said crossly.

Lightning Dust scowled. “Daring Dragoon. There, you get to sound like an egghead and I get to sound like a badass.” She said snidely.

“Hmm, allitr- alliret- allitra- damn it, what's the word for the same lett-?”

“It’s alliterative, genius.” Lightning Dust.interrupted.

Rainbow poked her tongue out at her. “Who’s the egghead now?”

“Shut up.” Lightning Dust grunted quietly.

Before Rainbow could press Lightning Dust further an alarm suddenly rang out around the campus, the sudden sound making the two pegasi jump with surprise.

“What the heck is that?” Lightning Dust spluttered.

“Dunno, but it sounds like trouble.” Rainbow said, looking over the edge of the building, a mixture of dread and curiosity building in her gut. “Come on, let’s check it out.”

Author's Note:

Technical Information
Given Name: Tusker
Breach Date: KDAY +662
Category: III
Status: Deceased

Specifications
Height: 281ft (86m)
Weight 3822 tons
Speed: 7
Strength: 8
Armour: 6

Battle Information
Attack Behaviour: Direct assault, Prefers to charge and gore with horns.
Toxicity: Medium
Powers: Large horns capable of severing limbs and punchign through armour.
Weaknesses: Neck and Joints.

Target Information
Cities Targeted or destroyed: Bolton.
Jaegers Engaged: Castle Bravo, Frontier Justice, Wild Mustang. Wild Mustang destroyed.

Fun, random fact: When I wrote the original draft for this story, Spike was going to be Rainbow Dash's copilot. That idea stuck around for a while before I remembered Lightning Dust was a thing and decided they would be a much more fitting due.

I also want to blame this story's delay on everyone but myself but I will instead attribute it to a Pacific Rim roleplay (My spellchecker reckons that word should be 'Horseplay'. Heh) I've been running, several parties and my occasional lack of an attention span.

Lastly, I had a very awesome picture of Frontier Justice commissioned which you can check out here!

Comments

[MrAskAPirate]

19,543

... screw it; I didn't feel like sleeping yet anyway,

[bloodwolf432]

With that picture, I would've gone with Tauros or something but I guess it could've been found offensive by the Minotaur's or cows.

[Kenshinryuu]

Poor Wild Mustang. But they should salvage any surviving weapons for a gunboat, you never know when a small agile craft could sneak around and hit a Kaiju from the side with a missile to cause it to slip up and give a Jaeger an easier kill. Lightning Dust and Rainbow will make a good team, I just hope they can get their Jaeger soon!

[Hokuto Ulrik]

Damn, that part with Wild Mustang getting trashed was hard to read. Feel sorry for Soarin' and Wave Chill. Loosin' something that was such a part of you has got to hurt. At least when Riley lost Gypsy he got her back, Soarin' and Chill are probably going to wind up grounded for quite a while now.

[Grahf]

OH god are the Jaegers developing machine spirits?
fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/t31.0-8/c0.88.851.315/p851x315/965798_10151676814853627_669840184_o.jpg

[CV12Hornet]

I see you've been borrowing liberally from Drax for Maud's character.

[Krysnha]

Nice Kaiju andpowerful cant wait to see daring dragoon and the jaegar of pinki and maud

[Richardson]

Surprisingly sympathetic take on Dust's past.

She's still a bitch dipped in premium grade bitch-sauce for the crap she pulled, but now she might just barely stand a chance of properly redeeming herself.

[Everbolt]

i sense your foreshadowing of Celestia maybe being a Jaeger pilot. i approve.

[Scarheart]

Another good chapter. A few errors (found Soarin's name uncapitalized), but nothing to flip tables over.

Bring on the next kaiju!

[Railbreaker]

Just out of curiosity, are you going to eventually make a super Jaeger powered by pure, concentrated Friendship Magic?

[Lord Death]

i was seeing Tusker with a lower and more bulky/blunt look too it....and 6 legs for some reason

[LtCWest]

Wow, tough fight there. At least no one died, althou I believe that Lotus is really going to be a pain in the flank later...

In regards to royal pony sisters getting a Jäger, I approve of this. Maybe something Gundam-y, with etherial wings powerd via magic.

5094046 "Machine Spirit" is just a fancier way of saying "Artificial Intelligence". Also, since AI research is forbidden in the Imperium...

[Grahf]

5096066 Actually its not AI they are random bits of data accumulated over the years/centuries to form random little quirks, essentially ghosts in the machine or machine spirits

[Lt Rainbow Slash]

Now all we need is Celly and Lulu in a jäger and away we go!

[Black Hoof]

I liked this chapter, like the others, going deep in the characters' development and a very good equilibrium with action parts. Though, I wish there was a bit more of Twilight. She's the head of the Equestrian Jaeger Program, so I'd think she'd be at the command center to monitor the "stop-the-kaiju(s)" operations, that she'd brief the pilots from times to times, ...
With Wild Mustang getting wrecked, I'd have imagined Twi be there to see how much bad state it went in and how it happened, ...
Now I know we can't have too many moments in a single chapter for every main character, but in the fic as a whole however...
But that's just my thoughts, and this fanfic is awesome.

[Reader Review]

Rest in pepperoni Wild Mustang. At least it went down like a true champ (T-T)

[LtCWest]

5096133 Hmm, fair assessment.

[Killbles]

5094518
Depends on how loosely you define 'Super friendship magic'...

5094234
So not a a Misty 2.0.

Fantastic.

5094610
It's an approach I've abandoned, while I haven't accepted all the S4 continuity into this story for, well, continuity reasons, I've still tried to shape the characters based on how they've developed in the show.

Thank you, I do have hopes to publish my own original stories some day and I guess you could call this whole thing a big, fat, experiment/test bed for me to practice with.

5096133
More this. An observant reader will notice the Jaeger's already have an A.I.. Well, at least an A.I. in the dumbest sense of the word.

5096066
Heh...

5096797
Twilight will be getting more time in the limelight, she just hasn't quite reached her time yet. But soon. Soon.

[The Random Lord]

I have a feeling Maud and Pinkie are going to break records
like so many records that they are going to break records they didn't even have

[keaton-furman-prower]

“No, of course not.” Celestia shot back. “I have my place and it is certainly not at the helm of a Jaeger.”
(...)
“I give her six months.”

Celestia and Luna piloting their own Jaeger?

img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140829235648/walkingdead/images/3/3f/Shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg

[LtCWest]

5097841 I take that as a yes.

[SebasMarolo]

5097841
i don't know if i have said this before (i know i said something similar when i asked if you could post a draft of midsummer night to help me visualize the action scenes on my head...) but is there any way you could put images mid-story?

like, when a Tusker came out of the water (i hate when i have to go to the bottom of the page to see the kaiju because i always get tempted and take a sneak peak....) i don't mean like putting the image of Tusker like it appears on the autor notes, but a draft or drawing of him breaking the water's surface... maybe even for various parts of the story (of course, action scenes could/should use these the most). if you will do something like this, stick to white and black drawings, cuz i have read some stories that do it and those look better. kind of like a manga....

for example, one of Tusker as he reared its ugly head out of the water, one of Wild Mustang holding his own arm as a weapon, another one of Soarin, Wave Chill, Shane and Michael talking about the formers getting a new Jaeger with the salvage crews working on Wild Mustang in the back, and one to wrap things up of Rainbow Dash and Lighting Dust talking their problems out...

and to wrap this up... i cant believe neither Soarin or Wave Chill made a joke about being armed while using their Jaeger's severed arm like a club...

[Zer0prototype]

Ready to see a pic of daring dragoon.

[Killbles]

5101108
Yes, I can do that. I usually get several draft pictures like this so I might try it out next time and see how it works out. Mind you, this would be pretty much limited to Kaiju/Jaegers as almost all the art for this story is done completely free of charge by Zeiram because as far as I can see, he likes this story enough to do that and he's a really nice guy. I don't want to go about giving him more to draw considering he's got a lot on his plate already.

Oh, and I can't really draw for shit. But I mean, hey, here's Cherno Alpha riding a steam train... that's about the extent of it.

And levity totally has its time and place, I think when a Kaiju is trying to eat you is not one of them.

[SebasMarolo]

5101551

“What, with your ‘Rock ‘em, sock ‘em’ rockets?”

edit: that drawing is hilarious.
"choo choo cherno", priceless.

[Killbles]

5101809
Difference being 'Hey we just killed this thing, need to unwind.' and 'Brrr... aaaaa this thing just ripped my arm off fuckfuckfuckfuck'

Also Tusker was totally the type to go 'Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself!'

But lo, he could not because Tusker had Wild Mustang's arm and was hitting him with it.

[Terolie]

Celestia and Luna charging out on the first ever magically amplified mk.4 Alicorns Fury is a thought which is giving me more than my fair share of goosebumps.

Also, love the story. Which honestly I didn't expect to do.

Glad I gave it a chance.

[Robomac]

I got to thinking and that lead to me wanting to see an Ursa Major in this story. If you use the upper estimates of how big an Ursa Major is, it would be able to look a Jager and the Kaiju in the eyes if it were standing on his hind legs.

4920490 You have trouble writing Pinkie Pie? For me, writing her is as easy as pie. I've already imagined a what I believe to be a perfect setup for Pinkie to fight against Maud for the compatibility test without sacrificing on Pinkie's desire not to hurt her sister while also allowing Pinkie's moves to be far more crazed then would be for a normal cadet; she'd just have to convince her commander to let her do it.

If I had to pick a member of the mane six I'd have trouble with, it would be Rainbow Dash.

[Killbles]

5109289
I dunno, I'm looking at some pictures and I'd have to roughly gestimate that standing on its hindlegs, it would stand about fifty metres tall, or high enough to be staring at Frontier Justice's crotch. (Admittedly that's a bad example as Frontier Justice is massive, even by Jaeger standards.) That's providing it could stand on its hindlegs which I'll say it can for the sake that it's made of freaking magic swirlies and that shit's crazy, yo.

It could feasibly pass as a small Kaiju I suppose... but I mean, depending on how tangible they are, for lack of better words, a fight between it and a Jaeger would probably involve said Jaeger picking it up by the scruff if its neck or throat, glaring and thinking angry thoughts.

Or the Ursa does something kooky like materialise in the Jaeger's conpod or fire ravening balls of rainbows and unicorns. Because again, magic.

Pinkie is hard for me because its sometimes (Okay, most of the time...) hard to draw the line between 'Crazy', 'Stupid' and 'Annoying' to get that amazing sweet spot that Pinkie can fall into. She's an incredibly complex, clever character and I always feel that I can never do her justice simply because I have the wrong frame of mind to write her. By comparison, someone like Rainbow Dash is easy for me to write because she's easier to understand, her motives are much more clear-cut and she's much more stable character. I find her personality comes more naturally and as such. it's a lot easier for me to imagine her dialogue and thoughts because I am a naturally sarcastic and snarky person. .

Pinkie is more like a bag of cats.

[DarkEven]

They are small error but couldn't overlook them:

”Imaginative as ever.”

The first double quote have the wrong orientation.

calm down a little.The mission

No space after the dot. Saw it two/three time at least.
I also spot dots in the midle of a sentence were they shouldn't be.
You also have a sentence were you have a missing dot at the end (can't find it, sorry).
It was looking like :
Bla bla blabla bla(missing dot here)
"speaking here" blablabla

But no complain story wise

[Robomac]

5109448 Yeah, I just take whatever idea I have in my head for Pinkie and run with it. The only difficulty I have with her is when I think of something so crazy, I need to take a few minutes to wrap my brain around it before I can finally write it.

My difficulties with Dash come from trying to find a balance between her brashness and what I need her to do for the plot. It feels awkward to me when the story needs her to stay in place when everything I know about her personality would have her flying off within moments. (The setup I'm talking about is her being separated from her friends and being found by a group that annoys her.)

As for the Ursa, I imagine that it can stand up to 70 meters. I say 70 because I'm comparing it to the approximately 10 meters of height that the baby would be able to reach standing on its hind legs. An Ursa Major would be the size of a smaller Kaiju, but I can easily imagine it tripping some alarms if one ever decided to swim across the ocean. As for fighting one, I don't think the ponies would do it even if they could win. Mostly, I just want to see Michael and Shane's reaction to something that big being native.

[Trihors]

I feel like the only reason Wild Mustang got rekt was a shitty script...
Okay okay let me give a reason to why.
There were two more Jaegers there.
TWO more.
Are you REALLY trying to make me believe that neither would've been able to save Mustang before the third, or even second fucking blow?!
They have gone through JAEGER-TRAINING! They should NOT be standing there fiddling their fingers as one of their extremely important team mates is getting pounded by a Kaiju.

I feel like you just wanted a cheap excuse to bring some mechanical drama into this story by doing that...

Then again, it wasn't HORRIBLE, just annoying. Otherwise this chapter was, uh, fucking AMAZING. Especially loved the talk between Lightning and Rainbow C:

[Killbles]

5111879
Yes, maybe. I will explain my take on it thought rhough.

The first blow is what really did all the damage and Tusker is fucking fast, faster than any of the current Jaegers at least. It would taken a minute or two for Castle Bravo or Frontier Justice to reach them and by that time, Tusker has already charged, ripped their arm off and is nomming on the conpod. There's a reason that back when Soarin and Wave Chill were in training they were cheerfully told that fights tend to be over in minutes, if not less. If we're going on three team drops, Whatever-That-Kaiju's-Name-Was-In-Manilia managed to almost eat Horizon Brave while Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka, two really quick Jaegers, watched. The sheer size involved leaves very little in the way for errors in judgment unless we're talking about a very tough Jaeger (Cherno Alpha) or Kaiju (Most CAT IVs, Rasputin etc.) which neither of the major parties involved in this fight were. Keep in mind that Kaiju are generally more durable than Jaegers as they have the advantage of being a living organism and can benefit more from things like adrenaline and other natural stimulants.

The second stint is a little more erroneous will will admit but with the other two Jaegers just knocked into a heap and Tusker pushing Wild Mustang further away, I'd say that by the time it's finished its charge and Wild Mustang gets the first two rockets off they'd be about a kilometre away from the other Jaegers, far enough for them to actually take a little more time to get over (Again, only a minute or two but still, enough time for Tusker to do some more nomming.)

I can see why you would think it was all a bit stupid but I was hoping it come off more as Tusker begin clever and picking on what it perceived as the weakest Jaeger and keeping it separated from its companions to prevent exactly what you described; because if it had tried to fight all three Jaegers at once, it's pretty little skull would now be on a spike above the shatterdome and all the pilots would be enjoying a few drinks and celebrating their achievement.

But yes, cheap manufactured drama,, I can totally understand why you'd think that. My fault on a lack of description in how the fight played out.

[Trihors]

5112124
They were that far away from each other?
I was thinking it was along the lines of a couple hundred meters maximum, I must've misunderstood then, I can COMPLETELY understand the caused havoc then.
That itself already makes me not mad, the point it all started from...

And that explanation is good, I still think it was a bit silly but it's not annoying me anymore, I just have hard time believing that even still the Kaiju would be that fast, considering it's size, I think with that speed it could break the fucking sound barrier... well okay maybe not, but at least create a nice, destructive wind. Thanks for the answer btw, I appreciate it ^-^

[Killbles]

5113768
No worries

Here's some fun speed data that I very, very, very roughly pulled from the movie.

From the time Striker Eureka starts running to the time that it punches Otachi is about 25 seconds or so. If we take that there's about a mile (Roughly 1.6Km) between the Jaeger and Kaiju (Striker is on the coastline, they're out past the Miracle Mile) that means that Striker Eureka is moving and accelerating very, very, very quickly. After some quick calcs, I'd peg its speed at somewhere around 300-350km/h, so about a quarter of the speed of sound or similar to a commercial airliner hurtling down the runway, at a flat sprint.

Holy shit.

[Trihors]

5113830
Yup... seeing that fucker run like it did was probably one of the best moments in the movie tbh...

...now if only the sequel could come out a bit earlier, three years is too much for me xD

[RC]

Qcant wait for the nex chapter, i vot you ask for a fan made jeager and oc to put in as some assistance. You ask for a jeager, and an oc frome the people than you chose the best choice.

i want moar! Moar! MOAR!

oh, and auther, could you ask your artist frend to dray my coustome jeager? I really want to see primal liberty as she should be.

[RC]

5113836 true, but that still leaves mus(me atleast) wondering what their next foe is.

[Killbles]

5116747

Qcant wait for the nex chapter, i vot you ask for a fan made jeager and oc to put in as some assistance. You ask for a jeager, and an oc frome the people than you chose the best choice.

I vote no.

oh, and auther, could you ask your artist frend to dray my coustome jeager? I really want to see primal liberty as she should be.

You can ask him yourself, I link his dA profile every time I post a picture from him and yes, he does commissions.

[Trihors]

5116758
I feel like it's something like...
"War, war never changes..."
"WELL IT FUCKING DID WHEN THESE JAEGERS WERE BUILT HOLY SHIT!!!"

Then again... I still hope it's basically close to what the first movie had.

[RC]

5117067 ok, and thanks for that.

5117136 ok, so basicly a ripoff supersized version of titanfall?
and i would think the line being somthing more along the line of:
"War? War is death and dispare, pain and loss. We all live in fear of it yet we always end up in it again, the kiju, the jeagers, heck even the nucler bomb, they each changed the way its fought nothing more. But when somthing bigger than us comes, we fight back and we never give up..."
"But when the war isint ours to fight what do we do? Stand aside. But now, when we have scean what happens in war with those who can kill manny with few moves, we stand and we win along side new allis and new enimes, we never give up.

[Trihors]

5120609
Ripoff Titanfall? First of all, not even close. Second of all, nah, there has been many many things like that before Titanfall, lmao.
Basically I really don't care what's coming, it will be fucking awesome none the less x3

[RC]

5122023 hell yeah, and i belive that we are capable of creating a advanced robotic wepons syspem easaly.

[Baby Rhino]

Every chapter I wish I could up vote again

[Silver Wrench]

5121935
I am on the fence on the issue with Celestia and her "mother-knows-best" mentality.
It was something I was considering at the time when I was working on a writing project of my own. This line of though in part of "humanizing" Celestia and making her more fallible for my own head cannon.

[Deamon]

First of all, I invoked the Eight Deadly Words on this story a year ago and stopped reading, so this is from memory. In reply:

5121935
She flat-out stated "we'll just take it without telling them". That is stealing, pure and simple.

5125781
No they wouldn't, because that would be retarded. Whatever you can learn from their dead bodies and disassembled robot, you can learn far more from the living aliens and working robot with cooperation from the pilots. You don't kill and disect your only source of information, even if you have zero moral qualms about killing, that's just stupid.

And yes, I have read Stardust, but that's not the same. In Stardust, humanity was already at war with an alien invasion force, which they had every reason to assume she was a part of. Whereas this was a case of aliens whose first action in this world was to save the lives of thousands, losing their ticket home in the process.

As for helping them with food, (attempted) repairs etc: the moment they abused the trust placed in them to try and steal classified tech, those efforts stopped being about helping them and became nothing more than a deception and a lie intented to facilitate robbing them. When you say you're going to help someone, and it turns out you were taking advantage of their trust behind their backs, everything you've done, including genuine efforts to help, becomes suspect. Which is precisely why you shouldn't do that in the first place! And what for? They would have learned enough to keep Equestrian science busy for decades simply from the repair effort. Why risk everything to steal a few more pieces?

[ninjaguy77]

I think this is going to happen, when they are about to dismantle wild mustang it starts to move on its own, it gained a mind, in can't do much due to its horrible injuries unfortunately.