Chapter 3- Manehattan Lunadome
Chapter 3- Manehattan Lunadome
The coach landed on the sleek stone landing surface outside of the Manehattan Lunadome smoothly. The two pegasi pulling it unhitched and trotted over to the door leading to the personnel recreation chamber. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy got out, and Fluttershy cantered up to two ponies approaching from the enterance to the Lunadome, so as to introduce them to her companion.
“Twilight,” she said, “This is Applejack”, indicating a orange mare with a cutie mark of three apples, a blond mane and tail gathered in at the ends by a band, “and this is Rainbow Dash”, indicating a blue, blank flanked pegasus with pink eyes and a rainbow mane and tail.
Twilight bowed to each of them. “Pleased to meet you, I'm Twilight Sparkle.” she said.
Applejack replied: “Well, it's nice to meet you too”, in a south-equestrian accent. Rainbow Dash simply nodded.
Fluttershy continued: “Applejack is a Hussar who's going to be your Earth Pony partner. Rainbow wishes to be your Pegasus partner.”
Twilight felt uncomfortable. She didn't wish for another partner, not after what happened to Big Macintosh, but it was the end of the world. You had to take what you got, and Twilight optimistically hoped that they would make a good team. Applejack took her out of her thoughts when she came forward and tapped Twilight on the shoulders.
“C'mon, Twilight. Let's show you the base, here.”
Applejack led the way, and Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash followed. They cantered through the unfamiliar (to Twilight) halls of the Manehattan Lunadome. As they walked, Applejack filled Twilight in on the history of the Lunadome:
“This is the only Lunadome operating. PONs are being destroyed like you wouldn't believe. Council wants to shut us down. I don't know why they left us this one, the zebras and the Saddle Arabians are having worse Major trouble than us right now, but it's what we got, and we're grateful”.
She made a right turn, and led them down to the living quarters. Once she got there, she pointed out to Twilight where she'd be sleeping.
“Twilight, this is your room. Rainbow Dash is across from you and I'm over to your right. Trixie is to your left. Down the hall are Lightning Dust and Time Turner, and over thataway (Applejack pointed) are Kwanza, Niyi, Durga, Shiva, and Vishnu.”
Twilight commented: “Kwanza, Niyi,... those are odd names.”
Applejack replied: “They're zebras. Their naming conventions are different.”
Oh. Zebras. That made sense. Twilight had had a Hussar friend (not from the same PON-Jaeger) called Mstari. Twilight mentally clubbed herself on the head for forgetting that the zebras and griffins had their own PONs. Speaking of the Griffins...
“Um, Applejack?” Twilight asked, “Are there any Griffin Nation PON-Jaegers here?”
The orange pony shook her head. “Naw, the last Griffin PON, Kaiser Agustus, got destroyed a month ago. We haven't heard of any new PONs from them. Their politicians, or at least the ones on the Council, are for the Harmony Dome. Don't think much of the Dome, myself. It just seems a bit too static to stop the Majors.”
Fluttershy meeped quietly and softly told Applejack the news, which she had apparently missed: “Um, Applejack... it's not that it's just too static. It's too weak also. A Major attacked in Vanhoover, and went right through the shield. Took it less than an hour. Princess Celestia stopped it, eventually, but ponies died.”
Applejack stopped and looked back at Fluttershy, shocked. Her head drooped, and she held a mournful silence. Rainbow Dash also stared at Fluttershy, looking horrified. The silence lasted for two minutes, after which Applejack shook her head to clear it. She resignedly motioned for the three to follow her. Rainbow Dash snapped out of her shock and fell in to second place. Applejack led the party of ponies (but not the party of party ponies) through the halls to the main attraction of the Lunadome, the Stable, where the PON-Jaegers were kept.
The stable was huge. It had to be, to keep the PONs in it. The ceiling soared many hundreds of feet over the heads of the small group of ponies walking into it, as well as the many workers clustering around the PON-Jaegers, with griffins and pegasi fluttering about the higher portions, and earth ponies, zebras, and Saddle Arabians either walking around on the floor or standing on platforms to reach the higher-up parts of the PON-Jaegers.
There were four PONs in the stable. One was a great big brute of a pony, with the head a complete circle, its visor extending around its circumfrence. It had a mark on its flank that looked vaguely Zebrican. Applejack noticed Twilight looking at it, told her: “That's Janus. Zebrican Jaeger, it saw its first action a little after you left. It's one of their best works. The pilots are Kwanza and Niyi. About the flank, that's the PON-Jaeger's cutie mark. It was started soon after you left the force, as an identification thing. Janus was the first to have it, but now all PONs do.”
She then pointed to the next Jaeger over. It was an odd looking thing, with two arms coming out of its shoulders, painted a bright pink, a 'cutie mark' of an odd, flowing script, circled. It also had very strong shoulders, but was a thin, for a PON, everywhere else. Twilight guessed that it had come from Sadlle Arabia, as that looked like their writing on the 'cutie mark'. Applejack said:
“That's Doubled Fun. Comes from Saddle Arabia. If it looks weird, well, that's 'cause Pinkie Pie designed it. She's a bit odd. But odd or not, there's no denying that it's a good piece of work. Those arms are darned dangerous in a fight, especially with their 'Kali Maneuver'. It's been all the protection that Saddle Arabia has needed for most of the war.
Applejack then pointed out another PON-Jaeger, a sleek silver one. Twilight recognized it as 'Thundercracker', the one shown defeating the Major over Vanhoover. Now that she got a better look at it, even with its wings folded across its sides, she could make out a 'cutie mark' of a bright yellow lightning bolt inside a half-white, half-black circle. The PON stood tall and proud, less stockily built then Janus, but sturdy and not as tall and 'willowy' as Doubled Fun. Its visor was a light gray, and it had kind of a cold look to it.
Applejack gave Twilight more information: “And that's Thundercracker, from Manehattan. It's the latest one, incorporating some of the Forerunner tech we couldn't turn to magic before. It's the best one made so far. Pinkie sure surpassed herself with it. She...”
Applejack never got to finish her sentence, for she as interrupted by a pink pony with a poofy, curly mane, who had just bungeed in from the ceiling. Seemingly oblivious to the shocked look on Twilight's face, or the resigned expressions everypony else was sporting, the mare chattered on, broken up by bungee-ing back up:
“HI everybody! I just heard...” (bungee) “That there was a new...” (bungee) “Hussar, and I was all...” (bungee) “OOHH, someone new who I can...” (bungee) “Introduce to everyone and...” At this point Rainbow Dash, who'd been silent up to that point, interrupted the bungee-mare.
“Pinkie, can you come down? Twilight is shocked into silence and it's really hard to talk to you when you keep bouncing up like that.”
In between bungees, the pony called Pinkie nodded. When she bungeed up again, she came down via parachute. With her no longer moving rapidly up and down, Twilight was able to get a good look at her for the first time, and she saw her cutie mark. It was a cannon firing three balloons, two blue and one yellow, along with a few other party decorations. Twilight knew that decoration. It was emblazoned on most of the devices used at the dome, and on most of the magitech used pretty much everywhere recently. It was the logo of Party Time Magic and Technology, headed by the genius Pinkie Pie, who appeared to be the one who had just introduced herself via bungee cord. Twilight was a bit startled. She hadn't expected such a powerful pony to be such a complete lunatic.
Twilight was startled about that for as long as it took Pinkie to notice her, after which she was a whole new variant of surprised. Pinkie studied her for a few seconds, and then burst out with her motor mouth: “Oooh, you're the new Hussar! Twilight Sparkle, isn't it? Hi! I'm so happy to meet you! I mean, I know you're supposed to be all “work” and everything, but I just heard 'new mare'' and I was all 'party!', and...”
Had Rainbow Dash not interrupted her just then, she probably would have gone on forever. As it was, Dashie was able to stem the tide of words, and lead the party of ponies (now including the Party Pony) to another PON-Jaeger. This time, nobody needed an introduction to tell Twilight anything about the PON. She knew it all. There, in all its pre-Major-ravaged glory, stood Sonic Eclipse, Harmonics glowing, stance strong, looking ready to take on any amount of Majors. It, too, had a 'cutie-mark'; a lavender six-pointed star encircled by a rainbow, with wings on the sides of the circle. That didn't give Twilight any clue as to where Sonic Eclipse came from, but she knew already that Sonic had been built in Ponyville, so she supposed that that was the Ponyville mark.
Rainbow Dash told her about it. “You already know Sonic, of course. She was salvaged when you left the force, and has been given some repairs and upgrades. Rarity herself helped upgrade the Harmonics, and it's currently got some better armor, more mobility, and easier magic-channels. I've been told that with upgrades to the wings, it will fly as easily as a pegasus. But other than that, it's about the same PON you're used to, just awesomer.”
Twilight didn't know how to respond. It brought back memories. Memories of past battles won, and Majors trampled on like nopony's business. Memories of past loss, of Big Macintosh's death, and the horror that that had brought. She'd left the force after that, and so had Hoops. She didn't know what had happened to him after that. But the memories were just that, memories, and they were in the past, where they belonged.
As if she knew what Twilight was thinking then, Applejack told her softly: “I know what you're feeling, about returning to Sonic. Big Macintosh was my brother.”
There was silence. Rainbow Dash was giving Applejack a shocked look, as if she had never heard this before. Twilight herself gave a comforting smile and sidled up to Applejack to give her a hug. Of course she knew that Macintosh had two sisters, but she had never really paid them much attention, or ever really remembered their names. And now it was coming full circle, and she was going to be piloting with one of those sisters she could barely remember. Tartarus, that's probably why Applejack had been chosen in the first place. She now felt intensely uncomfortable for ignoring those memories of Macintosh's.
The silence was broken by a soft fake cough from Fluttershy. Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack gave a start, having sort-of-kind-of forgotten that the quiet pegasus existed. Fluttershy hid a little behind her mane, and softly told the group of ponies who really ought to be finishing the tour:
“Um, everypony? There's more to the facility than just the Stable, you know. We should show Twilight the way to actually enter the PONs, and after that the control room.”
Rainbow and Applejack snapped out of their reverie and turned around, heading back towards the Hussar dorms. Twilight and Fluttershy followed.
They backtracked through to the dorms, and then took a left turn, and then another left turn, into a lift-pad. Fluttershy activated the glowing crystal that put the magic in motion, and the lift shuddered up. It went up for twenty-five 'stories', represented by the crystal turning different colors, before Fluttershy stopped it. Twilight memorized what color it turned, because she would probably need it soon enough. Fluttershy led them through a hallway into the suiting-up room, with their 'armor' at the ready, and near the whole thing were the attendant ponies' dorms. The armor was different than Twilight remembered. Fore one thing, it was sleeker and less bulky than her earlier armor. For another, it was pink. Twilight suspected she knew who was behind that particular change. After she had had a good chance to look around and commit to memory the room and its surroundings, Fluttershy lead the way through a twisting set of corridors, into a room overlooking the Stable. There was a lot of softly glowing magical equipment in the room, that Twilight did not know the purpose of. There were several ponies manning posts there, but Twilight's eye was caught most by a beautiful mare, with a white coat and a purple mane, styled into a big ringlet, with her tail styled the same way. Her cutie mark was that of a PON's Harmonics. The mare was a bit busy, but soon she glanced over their way, and she made her way over to the party.
“Oh, hello, Fluttershy, what brings you here? And Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, too. And who's the new mare with you?”
Fluttershy replied: “Oh, this is Twilight Sparkle. She's the new Hussar for Sonic Eclipse. Twilight, this is Rarity. She is providing funding for the PON program, and she helps run the Mission Control.”
Rarity. Yet another big-name. Rarity was the brilliance behind the Harmonics, and most of the gem-tech used in Equestria. The tour of the Lunadome was sort of turning into a tour of Equestria's celebrities.
Rarity immediately turned her attention to Twilight, saying “Oh, hello, ms. Sparkle. It's so nice to see you. We here at the Lunadome heard that Fluttershy was going to get you, but I didn't know anyone else. Now that I see you, I think you look nice, and the pink armor- it was Pinkie's idea- might go well with you, and... oh dearest Celestia what left those scars?!?”
Rarity turned her attention to the magical burns on Twilight's side. They had been left there when that Major (Twilight didn't know its name), had attacked Sonic. Magical overload had left a burn there, but it'd healed, so Twilight didn't notice it all too much. Now she looked, at it, a bit self consciously, looked at Rarity, and said:
“This was from the Major fight that got me out of the force. I don't really want to talk about it. And, weren't you doing something when we came in?”
Rarity replied: “Oh, it's nothing that can't be interrupted. I'll respect your silence on those burns, but really. It mars your coat something awful, and I can't imagine what you must have gone through to get it.”
Twilight felt uncomfortable again. Why was this mare paying such attention to her?
Rarity, who didn't know what Twilight was thinking, told her: “You know where your room is, right? You should go there and freshen up, maybe take a short nap. There's a small bathroom at the end of the hall. There'll be combat practice in thirty minutes. Dash and Applejack here are the major candidates, but should they be drift-incompatible, there are some backups. And after that, we'll brief you on some of our new theories. You should find these things very interesting.”
Twilight considered Rarity's proposal. All things considered, it felt like a really good idea. After all the information that had been dumped on her recently, thirty minutes of alone time to process it would be a good thing. She said to Rarity:
“Thank you. I'll take you up on that offer,” and turned to leave. But before she could, Rainbow Dash reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. She smiled competitively at Twilight, and said: “I'm looking forward to meeting you at the combat. See you there, and I hope you can keep up with me.”
Twilight felt a bit of the old spirit return, and smiled cockily back at Dash. “Heh, you should worry about keeping up with me.”
Rainbow laughed. “Big words, Twi” she said. “We'll see if you can keep them in the arena.”
Twilight simply smirked a little, and took another step, but before she could take a second, Applejack said:
“Good luck, Twilight. Be waiting for you.”
Fluttershy simply smiled in a cute, Fluttershyish way. Twilight smiled back, and went on her way to her rooms. She took the lift-pad down, and wound back toward the Hussar dorms. She found the bathroom where Rarity had said it was, and after a brief wondering why Applejack hadn't pointed it out to her, went in, and took a shower. She relished the warm water, which had been very scarce in Marelaska. It relaxed her muscles and calmed her mind. It cleared away the confusion caused by Pinkie Pie. How ccould she be such a genius, and yet such a nutcase?
Twilight stepped out of the shower, and dried herself off with an old towel that was in the room. She was tired. The nap option was seeming better all the time. Replacing the towel on its rack, she left the room, and walked over to her chamber/broom closet (she suspected that it had been converted from some sort of closet). Before she could open the door and step in, yet another strange pony hailed her.
“So, you're the pony that's going to be flanking the Great and Powerful Trixie if we get that plan to work?”
Twilight turned, and saw a light blue pony with a whitish, maybe really pale blue mane and tail, and the cutie mark of a crescent moon coming out of a wand. The pony was smirking in an arrogant way.
Twilight replied: “Flanking you? What plan? And can you leave me alone, I'm just trying to take a nap here!”
The Great and Powerful Trixie simply smirked harder. “Oh, haven't had the briefing, had you? You go on with your nap. Rarity will tell you later. Trixie is looking forward to seeing you in combat.”
Trixie then left, and went into her room. Twilight entered hers, closed the door, and then dropped down to the cot at the far wall and went to sleep. She had a feeling that she'd need all the rest she could get.
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Hmmm let see...
Manehattan Shatterdome=Hong Kong Shatterdome
Twilight=Raleigh Becket
Applejack=I don't know
RD=Don't know either
Fluttershy=Stacker Pentecost
Pinkie=The fuck should I know
Rarity=Hannibal Chau
Great story man! Although your reliving the past of Cherno, Crimson, Gipsy and Striker T_T
Also, the three-pilot Drift system is based from Crimson Typhoon, while the two-pilot Drift system is rarely used here.
3529754
They're called Lunadomes.
Pinkie Pie= Pinkie Pie.
And Rarity is going to be a bit different than Hannibal, as while Hannibal was only an uneasy ally, Rarity's going to be in the thick of the planning.
3529761
The three-pony piloting system is only used for Pony PON-Jaegers. Saddle Arabian and Zebrican PONs usually have two pilots. The ponies use three so that they can control every part of the PON-Jaeger. In essence, it's like every Equestrian PON has Crimson Typhoon's third arm.
3526923
As it turned out, I decided to do None of the Above, and called it the Kali Maneuver. Kali was goddess of death in Indian mythology, and she's usually portrayed with four arms.
3529781 Okay...Hmmm....Basically this story is revolving around based from 'Pacific Rim' with some alterations on it.
After this story, I'm looking forward on your sequel.
(BRING ON THE FIGHT BITCH!)
3529804 More or less so.
Would anyone who downvotes this story be kind enough to post a comment telling me why they're downvoting it? Thanks.
Oh my God, I saw the titled and HAD to read it, seeing as how Pacific Rim is one of my favorites.
3637220
And did you like it?
s6.postimg.org/dd47s96ap/Pirate_Approved.jpg
3858069
Thank you.
Okay, if you have any criticism at all, please post a comment. I'd like to hear it.
What is it with people down voting the story and then not telling me why? I'm trying to write quality fiction here, and I can't revise the story to make it better if no one will tell me what I'm doing wrong.
3888596
Thank you, epreeses1. I'll get to fixing it right away.
4606631
Hey, I didn't say that she wouldn't show up, only that she wouldn't be piloting a PON-Jaeger.
Can we get gypsy danger in this mix like they walk through a space time rip (much like the antiverse rip or a quantum tunneling rip)and join the fight? It'd make my day
5936301
Good things come to those who wait.
Unfortunately, you may have to wait a while, because I'm struggling with the current chapter.
5940277 ah it's alright mate as long as you can overcome writers block you should be good to go
Is it weird that in the back of my head I turned Fluttershy into Stacker in all but temperament and name? Including the whole "lost partners during drift, got hit with misdirected bleed off,but still finished the fight"? Possibly in Cloudsdale instead of Tokyo to explain RD.
6469496
It's not. That's her role in the story.