Chapter Five, or "Pony Psychological Problems"
Five long days.
For Michelle Bluebottle, five long days from Monday to Saturday passed by with the oddness of nightmare. School days were skipped moments between somehow realizing that she had had breakfast and now all of a sudden the school bell was ringing. Nights...when she could sleep, her dreams were full of the looming figures of her mother and sister, flaying her apart with words and how she had failed them. Otherwise...it was silence. And the ringing of her own thoughts-and her own fears inside her mind.
Thursday night, Michelle had dragged open her cloak drawer and found the bottle there. After what happened last year, her aunt had taken her to a doctor and he had prescribed medication. “It’s not a sleeping pill,” the doctor said. “Giving that to young fillies is only when we’re really desperate for them to get any sleep. It’s more of a super anxiety reliever, allowing the patient to relax enough so that they can sleep normally. Natural sleep for this kind of situation, especially a full night’s sleep, is one of things she needs the most-lack of it will make her anxiety and other issues worse.”
And, Michelle had checked when nopony was looking-that even if she swallowed the whole bottle of medication, the worse that might happen was she’d be asleep for a day or two.
A couple of nights...that was a hard temptation to give up.
The bottle of thirty pills was down to about twelve. Michelle sighed, got a glass of water and swallowed the pill. And...it helped.
And it kept helping until Saturday.
Saturday morning, Michelle pulled on her saddle bags and found in a box in the back of her closet. Inside that box was her old school uniform and the last recording of her trace data from Saint Megera. She walked out of the house, locked the door (her aunt was away this weekend at a trade show-Michelle was happy, her career had seriously taken off in the last few weeks), and was heading down to Old Gulch Mine.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had met her about half-way there. They were...enthusiastic. The pegasus foal, Scootaloo, was going on like an engine at full power. She drowned out her friends, whom would have drowned out any other pony under normal circumstances.
Did I ever enjoy the idea of being in Jaegery as much as they do? Michelle asked herself. I did...when I wasn’t around Mother.
Suddenly, fierce elation clutched at her heart. Even if I have to face her again...I want to be back. I want the feel of a Jaeger under me, I want the sound, the thunder...the dreams. Dearest Celestia, let me have my dreams back!
Scootaloo came up to Michelle with a huge smile. “Hey! I’m glad you’re here!”
“Me too,” Michelle replied. And, she realized, she was glad to be here. Even if her fear was twisting her guts around like a homicidal taffy pull machine.
The Earth pony that tied her up, Apple Bloom, came beside her, “I’m sorry about Monday. Applejack was very unhappy when she learned what I did. I’m still gonna be doing chores for weeks ‘cause of it. And, it was wrong, I’m sorry.”
Michelle nodded. “It was wrong,” Michelle said, carefully. “But, I was so angry and scared...it might have been the right thing to do.” She gave Apple Bloom a good nudge with her cheek. “Thank you.”
Sweetie Belle, the unicorn foal, nodded. “Come on, we’ve got a whole day ahead of us!”
Michelle nodded. “It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been fitted with a Drive suit. It’s going to be a very long day.”
“How long?” Scootaloo asked.
“Hope you didn’t have any early dinner plans,” Michelle replied.
When they arrived at the base, they were already cycling the first few kids through the initial testing process. Cranky came up to the four and looked at them. “Good morning. We’ll have to get you all fitted into Drive suits and do a Manifold test today. Lucky for us, we got the data on three of you last weekend, which leaves Michelle…”
“Got my last copy of my biometric trace data here,” Michelle replied, pulling out a chip from her saddle bag with her mouth. “Should help speed up testing,” she muttered around it.
“Probably should,” he replied. He took the chip and plugged it into a computer. “Yea, it will,” he said with a smile. “We’ll be able to put you all through baseline testing, no worries. If you’ll follow me, we’ll get you fitted with Drive suits.”
Following Cranky up two flights of stairs, there was a large room with a number of circular depressions in the floor. “Take off everything, and I mean everything,” Cranky said, tugging at Apple Blossom’s bows with his hooves. “Once you’ve done that, stand on the scanner platforms over there and we’ll get you all scanned for the suits.”
As the four of them walked over, Scootaloo was curious. “Mind if we ask questions?”
“Sure,” Cranky replied. “Just stand as still as you can while you’re on the platforms. Talking is fine, but don’t toss your head around too much.”
“So,” Scootaloo asked, fitting her hooves into the holes in the platform, “Why do Jaegers look like minotaurs and not ponies? I mean, we’re using our brains to control them, why not control ponies?”
“Morphic body perception,” Michelle replied, getting her hooves into the holes. “At least, that’s what they told me. When they first built Jaegers for the Kaiju Wars, they first started out with pony-shaped Jaegers. Problem was that the fidelity of the Drift simulation was so high that ponies were stroking out when the Jaeger took damage, thinking that they had actually gotten their legs ripped off.”
“That’s the big one,” Cranky nodded, tapping at controls in front of him. “Also, the body form we use has better agility and flexibility than a pony form, especially since it’s metal and we can’t use magic-not really-from inside. So, we’ve got to choose a form that gives us advantages-and the form we use does.”
“And, I thought you needed two ponies working together to control a Jaeger,” Sweetie Belle asked, getting herself settled into her slot. “At least, that’s what the movie did.”
“You saw Equestrian Rim, right?” Cranky asked in reply, then sighed as Sweetie Belle nodded. “Don’t move your head so much, Sweetie. Yea, that movie was the last few weeks of the first Kaiju War, and the early Jaegers needed that kind of teamwork to pull off. These days, we have the Manifold to serve as the simulation body for the Princepis to work with, and the Moderati run everything else-sensors, support weapons, keeping the powerplant and such working.”
“Wow.” Scootaloo said. “So…”
“Hold still…,” Cranky said. There was a soft pop sound and a bright flash of light. “Okay, now, we get to see the magic happen.”
“Oh?” Sweetie Belle said, staying perfectly still and through her teeth.
“Oh, you can move now,” Cranky said, smiling. “The fabricators are building you Drive Suits right now, and in about an hour, we’ll get you in a Jaeger.”
Michelle took a deep breath. She really, really needed to fake calm right now.
“Ooof!” Scootaloo grunted. “These things are tight!”
Drive Suits were the connection between a Jaeger and the pilots. And, the term “skin tight” for a pony covered in fur was something that was...interesting. Cranky was using a power tightener to ratchet shut the chest piece for Scootaloo, and grunted as she adjusted herself.
“Can you breathe?” Cranky asked, working on the next set of ratchets.
“Yes…,” Scootaloo gasped softly.
“Then, it fits right. If you aren’t feeling tight, or you can’t breathe, we’ve got it adjusted wrong in either direction,” Cranky finished with the second set of ratchet points and nodded. “How are your wings?”
“Good,” Scootaloo nodded, and moved the portion of the suit that had her small wings inside of them.
“Always the worst part of fitting a Drive Suit,” Cranky muttered. “You get a pegasus in one, and it’s like figuring out how not to have it pinch your goolies when nopony is looking.” He tapped a panel on the suit’s back. “Got a good sensor read. Helmet on,” and he helped Scootaloo into the helmet. “Seal check…,” and checked all the seals in the suit. “Good. How is everypony else getting fitted?”
“All done,” Michelle said, shrugging in her suit a bit. “Twilight Sparkle helped us get settled in and we did a full check.”
Cranky checked the other three ponies suits and nodded. “Good fitting. Now, off we go to the main bay, and we’ll get you plugged into the Odin.”
They walked out of the bay, and watched as other students were being tested. The CMC were enthusiastic in their suits, Michelle was remembering her breathing exercises-ten count through her mouth, hold for ten, ten count out through her nose. Reverse it every third breath. Bring down the heartbeat, the rest of the fear and the adrenaline spikes from her being scared shitless would follow.
Thank Luna Drive Suits had collection pans for if she was truly scared shitless.
They had peeled off the protective sheathing used by whomever stored the Jaegers here. Like all of the Fafner Jaeger line, the body was built up of angular boxes, ending in a much larger box for the torso, and leading outwards to the limbs. The head looked like a pregnant manta ray, the arms bulbous under their armor, and the flight pack was clearly still attached. “I’ve been in Yamato Jaegers,” Michelle said, looking at the Odin’s pearl-white skin. “I always heard that the Fafners were twitchy.”
“You got to watch your control inputs,” Cranky replied. “I’ve jockeyed both, and I always found the Yamatos to be very unforgiving unless you think three steps ahead. And, I swear to Celestia, the Fafner Manifolds are much more fond of their jockeys than the Yamato ones. Elevator up,” he warned as the elevator took them up to the cockpit level. As they watched, the head of the Odin moved up and forward with the rest of the torso armor plate, revealing the Jaeger’s cockpit.
“Okay, load order is simple-Scootaloo first, then Apple Bloom, then Sweetie Belle, and Michelle is in last,” Cranky said, as two other ponies helped Scootaloo into the cockpit. They began to plug in the connectors to ports on the Drive Suit’s spine, saying mildly arcane things like “A10 nerve connection is clean” and “intercostal nerve connection is complete”. Finally, they latched on the seatbelts and tightened them. “Hoof pads good?” one of them asked.
“Yea,” Scootaloo replied, “they’re in the right place.”
They proceeded to get Sweetie Belle in, and she grunted as the connections went in. Next was Apple Blossom, whom got settled into her seat and hoofpads, and smiled. “I’m in good,” Apple Bloom replied. Finally in was Michelle, in the Princepis Primus seat. There was a small electric tingle from the suits and they waited.
“Everypony’s in,” Cranky said. “We’re doing a simple Manifold test, very shallow-no deeper than the first glissando. Stay calm, keep your minds focused-remember the exercises we did last weekend, and don’t chase the rabbit.”
“The rabbit?” Scootaloo asked, as the cockpit closed up.
“RABIT-Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers,” Michelle said, “When you link in the Drift...you become a part of the system. You have to remember to stay here, stay in the moment...stay in the now.” Here, she whispered. “Stay away from the bad memories.”
The cockpit sealed shut with the soft hiss of hydraulics. The lights dimmed, then came back on as the cockpit projectors went from off-line to active, revealing a full view of the world outside of the Jaeger. “Wow…,” Scootaloo said, looking around. “It’s like...we’re huge….”
“That’s kind of the point,” Cranky said over the radio. “You’re tall and ready to fight tall enemies, like kaiju, other engines, and any pony crazy enough to go up against a Jaeger without one backing them up. And, Michelle is right-stay in the moment. Don’t get lost in your memories. We’ll be firing up the Manifold in five minutes.”
Cranky came up to the control room, where they had gotten every pony that could run a console to sit and be the team to put the first Jaeger through it’s paces. Standing next to the main console was Twilight Sparkle. “I thought I’d watch,” she said, stepping aside as Cranky came up to the console. “I’m curious, I mean, I’ve seen the Royal Guard get ready, but…”
“Yea, it’s worth watching,” Cranky said with a smile, then hit a control with his hoof. “How’s the board?”
“Green board,” one of the ponies replied. He tapped his control panel and looked. “Vitals are in the zone, I’ve got good synchronization, and we’re ready to trigger the Drift.”
“Okay, kids, how are you doing up there?” Cranky asked, switching the intercom on.
“We’re ready!” Scootaloo said, enthusiastically. “Let’s do this!”
Cranky looked at Twilight Sparkle, shrugged, then smiled. “Well, we heard her.” He turned to the team in the bay. “Emerald,” he said, looking at one particularly bright green pony, “bring them into the Drift.”
“Yes, sir,” Emerald Bay replied, hitting controls with his hooves. “Drift open in three...two..one...go!”
Inside the Odin, the four ponies felt a lurch, as it seemed like for an instant they were falling...into themselves. The next sensation was...warmth as they could feel and know that their other team members were there. Wow… Sweetie Belle thought. This is weird, but I think I can like it.
Me too, Scootaloo thought, then realized, did you just hear me…
We all did, Michelle thought. Her thoughts were happy...but, with this slight undertone of something metallic and hateful and... something else. When you’re in the Drift, it’s easy to hear when you’re thinking about somepony else. Apple Bloom, how are you doing?
A feeling of wonder, unadultered and unmarred by anything else, flowed through the Drift. I have t’say, this is pretty flanking awesome! If she could, Apple Bloom would have turned cartwheels. The enthusiasm was infectious, and Michelle felt it like a warm, snuggly blanket.
Smiling in her mind, Michelle triggered the intercom. “Looks like we’re solid in the Drift. How’s our synchronization? I suspect we’re running at eighty percent or so.”
“Try ninety-two,” Cranky replied. “You fillies are naturals, I got to give you that. We’re about ready to hook you up to the simulation body and open the Manifold. Remember, no deeper than the first glissando.”
“Understood,” Michelle replided. Then, she thought at Scootaloo, it’ll be another lurch when they open the Manifold. Ride it-you’ll connect up to the simulation body and it’ll just be a shallow connection, it should feel like you’re wearing a really heavy overcoat.
And the rest of us? Apple Blossom asked.
Same thing. Stay here, stay in the now and ride the lurch. Focus on what’s here and now and in front of you, Michelle thought, and remembered to control her breathing. Stay in this moment, she whispered in her thoughts, and none other.
“Simulation body is green, we’ve got a clean Manifold connection there,” Emerald Bay said over the intercom. “Five seconds...four...three...two...one, and the Manifold is yours.”
Scootaloo reached out in her mind to the Manifold, felt it, could feel it...then, was slammed from behind and inside by white.
And the Cold.
Twilight Sparkle’s head lurched toward the main screen when the screaming started. “What is going on?” she asked, scared.
Cranky hit three controls in an instant, cutting the intercom connection to stop the screaming, bringing up a diagnostic, and looking at Emerald Bay. “What’s going on?” he yelled.
“Really massive flanking lighting up of their brains, the Manifold is going nuts! They’re already dropped past the second glissando, and they’re diving fast and hard,” Emerald Bay yelled back, “Somepony is chasing the rabbit! It’s a flanking huge RABIT and it’s dragging the rest of them under.”
“We’ve got to pull them out!” Twilight Sparkle yelled, her horn flaring as she started to reach out with her magic to find the emergency disconnect.
“We pull them out now, we get four vegetables!” Cranky yelled back. “They’re dropping like a stone and if we pull them out now, we get four lobotomized fillies, if we’re lucky. Emerald, try to get that descent under control! If they pass the tenth glissando, we’re flanked!” He looked at the console, and pulled another diagnostic up. “Who’s chasing the RABIT?”
“It’s Michelle! She’s chasing it and chasing it hard,” Emerald replied, hitting controls on his panel. “I’m using the medical overrides to inject trezapaine, but that’s only going to slow them down.”
“Keep on it,” Cranky said, and touched a control on his panel. “Michelle, this is Cranky Dootle Dandy. It’s a memory...it is the past, and it needs to stay in the past. You need to come back to us. Come back to the now, Michelle.”
Cold.
Scootaloo felt cold. She could feel the Drive Suit around her, and she still felt cold. It was the sort of cold that chewed into a pony’s soul, and she knew it all too well.
Too many days, it was where she lived. She opened her eyes, and there was a wall of snow in front of her face plate. Pulling herself up onto her hooves, she looked around. It was quiet. It was white. And, it was the Cold. “Anypony here?” she yelled, hoping to hear…
“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom, still in her Drive Suit as well, ran up and ran into her, hugging her tight. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Scootaloo replied, “did you see…,” as a third body ran into Scootloo and hugged the both of them.
“Where are we?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking around. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, but we might be…,” Scootaloo started to reply, but then a booming voice roared across the landscape.
“YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE STEELHEART SCHOOL!” the voice roared. They all turned to look, to see two massive ponies, the size of mountains, standing in front of one little filly. A year younger, her mane longer, wearing a battered but well-kept Drive Suit, with the helmet off...and the spitting image of Michelle.
Behind the little filly was Michelle, in her Drive Suit. And curled up so tightly in a ball that she had to be hurting herself to do so.
“Descent rate is high, but it’s slowing down. It’s not going to level off until well past the tenth glissando,” Emerald said, looking at his panel.
Cranky looked at his panel, and sighed. Then, he lifted the cover off of three switches, flipping two of them upward. “Tell me if they pass the ninth glissando,” Cranky said. He looked at Twilight Sparkle. “If they go much further...I’ll explosively disconnect the Manifold. It might be the only chance we’ll get any of them back with a half-intact brain.”
Then, he went back to the intercom. “Michelle, we’re here. It’s over now. We need you here, back to the here and now.”
Scootaloo looked in awed horror at the two giants. The only thing he could tell was...they loomed over the young pony there. And, they were flaying her soul with their words.
“YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY! VICTORY IS THE ONLY THING YOU SHOULD HAVE STRIVEN FOR!” the taller of the two said, their voice booming across the Cold. “THEY WOULD HAVE SURVIVED!”
“Mother,” the little filly tried to said, tried to speak up, but the giant’s words reverberated across the Cold. “Their reactor was overloading! The Cassandra’s Tears wasn’t going to get them out! Should I have let them die?!?”
“THEY WOULD HAVE ESCAPED! REGARDLESS! YOU ARE A DAUGHTER OF THE STEELHEART SCHOOL! THERE CAN BE NO WEAKNESS!” the titan boomed over the little filly.
“Mother,” the filly was begging now, you could see the tracks of tears still clinging to her face, “please...understand...please…”
“ANY DAUGTHER OF MINE WOULD UNDERSTAND THIS! IF YOU DO NOT, THEN CLEARLY YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER,” the Titan roared...and turned. The other, silent Titan...turned and walked away, as well.
“Mother...please…,” the little filly begged, as Michelle twiched behind her, saying “Please, please, take me back, please, please…”
Scootaloo was already at a full run and slid beside Michelle, trying to get her helmet in between Michelle’s body and helmet. “Michelle!” she screamed through her helmet, “it’s a memory! You’re in the past, you need to come back to the present!”
“Michelle!” Sweetie Belle was yelling as well. “We’re in the Drift! You’re having a RABIT! It’s over now!”
“Please…,” Michelle whispered...and then, there was a feeling as if something great and luminous came through the Cold...and pulled them upwards.
“Eight glissando reached...it’s leveling off…,” Emerald said in wonder. “They’re starting to come back up.”
You could hear a pin drop in the control room.
“At their current rate of ascent, they should be back up around the first glissando in a few minutes,” Emerald continued.
“I need medical teams to the bay,” Cranky said. “And, when they’re cleared, I want to see them all in the main briefing room. Miss Sparkle, I’d like you to be there, as well.”
“I think I need to be there,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “I want to know what’s going on, as well.”
Scootaloo had felt like this a few times, when she was with Rainbow Dash, flying at full speed. There was a sense that the world, for those few moments, made perfectly good sense. Celestia and Luna were in the Heavens, and all was right with the world. Her eyes opened, and she was not in the Cold anymore. She could feel the Manifold behind her like the wings of an angel, lifting her up ever higher. She twisted in her harness to look at Michelle...whom was still in her harness.
But, somehow, she knew that Michelle was just asleep, trauma and shock dragging her under. She was slapping the quick-disconnect points, and climbed over to Michelle, still connected to the Manifold. She looked at the indicator panels and realized that her feelings were right. “Scootaloo,” Cranky said over the intercom, “I need you to get back in your chair. We’ll be opening you up in a minute and getting you all out of there.”
“I’ll wait here,” Scootaloo replied. “I’m not leaving her until we get her out.”
There was a long, loud sigh, and Cranky grunted, “Well, you’ve got the nerve of a good Jaeger Principes, kid. We’ll be pulling you out shortly.”
Scootaloo got her head under Michelle’s chin, and held it there. She could feel Apple Blossom and Sweetie Belle as well, coming around to help.
And, they waited.
Cranky had made this clear to Twilight Sparkle-it was one of those now or never situations. They had to deal with whatever happened with Michelle last year and get it out in the open. Or, they could kick her out of the program.
Or, they could risk her killing her crew every time they plugged her into the Drift.
So, once the medics had cleared her, they brought Michelle into the office that Cranky had claimed, and he looked at her. “Let’s make this perfectly clear, I’m willing to cut you a lot of slack right now. But, that slack only goes so far. And, we’ve hit that limit.
“You had a RABIT event. It was bad enough that by the time we could slow it down, you were at the seventh glissando.” Michelle began to shiver. She knew how bad that was. I thought...I could handle it, she thought.
Cranky continued. “Now, I’m more than willing to give you time to heal, but when you have something like what happened...it’s time to come clean, kid. Because, you can either do that, or you’re out. That simple.”
Michelle stood there, her body shivering. She wanted to cry so badly, but couldn’t. She knew there was a second pony in the room, but she couldn’t see who it was through her unshed tears. I won’t let fear dictate who I am, she thought. But, is this fear...or terror?
And, if I run away from this now...will I be running my whole life? Michelle could see the image of herself in horror. If she ran now, she would never stop-not even in her own mind.
“It was the district finals-Saint Megera versus Hearth’s Fire. I was right front hoof, in a Susano Jaeger, and we had just ambushed two of Hearth’s Fire’s Kiev Jaegers and scored catastrophic kills,” Michelle said in a flat monotone. She didn’t even realize that she was talking for the first few moments… “We were about to move to our next attack position when something made me look at one of the Kievs again. And, I knew exactly what was going on-they were having a catastrophic core failure. Last I heard, nopony had figured out why, or how, just...a huge flare of mana like a burning building. The flare was going to prevent the Cassandra’s Tears system from working, and their ejection system was jammed. I knew, right then and there, what was going on.
“Before I knew what I was doing, I was taking command of the Jaeger. Had jettisoned all of my weapons and gear, pulled out the vibroknives and overrode the safety settings so they were actually functional on an opposing Jaeger. I carved their cockpit out of the Jaeger...and got them outside of the minimum blast distance in time, barely. But...the Jaegery sensors recorded the explosion and ruled that my Jaeger had suffered a catastrophic kill. So, we were there, sitting dead, while Saint Megera barely won against Hearth’s Fire.
“After that...the doctor released me,” Michelle continued. There were tears now, flowing down her face. “My mother and sister were there, waiting for me...my mother was upset, so very, very upset… She told me that I should have just let them die, as winning and the honor of the Steelheart Jaegery School was on the line every time a Steelheart was in a Jaeger. My sister...my sister, didn’t say a word. Didn’t say a thing. I tried to convince her, I tried! My mother…,” and here, she began to sob.
“My mother said, that if I wasn’t dedicated to winning, that I wasn’t dedicated to victory, whatever the cost, then I clearly wasn’t her daughter. They...just left me there...I got a ride home, the people at school gave me taxi money. When I got home...my stuff was in a box at the door. Mom wouldn’t let me in...she told me that if I admitted that I was wrong for what I did, I could come back in,” Michelle said, tears streaming down her face. “But, I wasn’t wrong! They were going to die, and if I didn’t have them, there wasn’t time for anypony else to save them!
“I kept yelling that at Mom...and, at some point, I just stopped…,” Michelle’s voice was very small and quiet here. “And, my aunt Eliza came and said that somepony had called her work and told her that I had been kicked out of the house by my mom and that I needed help. She tried to talk to Mom as well, but they had never gotten along, I never knew why...and, Aunt Eliza came and brought me to Ponyville to live with her. She said, ‘until your mother comes to her senses,’ but it’s been nearly a year and I haven’t heard anything from her and I know that Aunt Eliza has tried to talk to her as well, and…”
Michelle stopped, and dried her eyes. Cranky hoofed her a kleenex and she blew her nose. “I know...or, at least, I suspect...Mom told somepony that Ponyville didn’t have a Jaegery program. I got my transfer request for schools, and I’d be going to Saint Megera if the Ponyville school closed. And...I’ve already been hearing rumors from the few ponies I know that are still there that I’m a huge screwup that nearly cost Saint Megera the championship...if I go back, I’ll be a target. Or, I will have to admit that Mom was right. But, she wasn’t! Was she?”
Cranky was silent through all of this. Then, he looked at Michelle, sighed, and face-hoofed. “No, kid, you were right. Jaegery for kids is a sport-and, you did the right thing. Shit hits the fan, you clean up the mess, and you were in the right. I’ve heard rumors that your Mom was a bit...high strung, but this is just nuts. No wonder you had a RABIT.”
Cranky considered his hooves, and looked at Michelle. “I’m not pulling you off the team. Yet. But, your remaining here is conditional upon getting help. Twilight Sparkle, do you know of any good psychiatric help in town?”
“I can ask,” Twilight Sparkle replied, trying not to cry and hug Michelle. “Michelle, if I had known...I’d have gotten you help. And sooner.”
“I was...I was so embarrassed,” Michelle said in a small voice. “What, what if it was my fault?”
“It wasn’t,” Twilight Sparkle replied. She gave up, and hugged Michelle. “You’re a good foal, as far as I can see. And, we’ll get you the help you need.”
Cranky sighed. Let Twilight Sparkle hug Michelle. If he did it, it might be a problem later on. “We’ll review this in a week,” Cranky said. “And, we’ll try another Drift then, as well. And, you have something else to do, Michelle.”
“What?” Michelle looked at Cranky, her tears still coming down her face.
“Talk to them,” he replied, pointing with his hoof to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, standing in the doorway.
“Michelle,” Scootaloo said, “we heard, most of it...and, we were in the Drift with you. We were there, in the Cold, with you.”
Michelle looked at them, and started to cry again, “I’m sorry...you, shouldn’t have had to have your life put in danger because of me.”
All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran and started to hug Michelle. “Hey, you’re our teammate-getting you out of trouble is part of the job!” Apple Bloom said.
“Next time, let’s find someplace warmer,” Sweetie Belle said, hugging Michelle tight.
“Tahiti,” Scootaloo agreed, “much warmer place to have that kind of argument.”
Michelle just cried in their fur, and held them all close. She needed the contact, the close feeling between her and them.
Twilight Sparkle had brought them all back to their homes afterwards, and walked Michelle home herself. She stood in her doorway, and sighed. Michelle...you could feel so very sorry for her. She wasn’t giving up, but somepony had done a huge number on her head, and all Twilight Sparkle really wanted to do was go and use her wings to fly up to Manehattan. Find Callie Steelheart in the shortest time possible. And, do something truly unthinkable to her.
Instead, she took a long, deep breath, and walked to the library’s office. Spike had left a note that he was out grocery shopping, and she looked through the pile of backlogged scrolls in the “IN” basket. Every once in a while, she seriously thought about just getting a computer and a network connection, if only to save on parchment costs. But, she loved the scrape of pen on parchment, the smell of a new pot of ink being opened up, and Spike could get a message to anypony without interruption or interception.
And, she would never do anything to Spike that would make him think for an instant that she didn’t appreciate him.
One of the scrolls near the top had a Royal Equestrian Armed Forces seal on it, and Twilight Sparkle opened it up. Maybe it’ll be good news, she thought, and spread the scroll out on her desk with her magic.
TO: PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE
FROM: ROYAL EQUESTRIAN ARMED FORCES ARCHIVES
RE: ARCHIVAL DATA
Our apologies for not responding sooner. We have spent the last week searching through the archives for the files you have requested. In this search, we have discovered that all of the Fafnir-type Jaegers you have mentioned are not, I repeat, not logged or filed in our system at any point.
We have contacted Shirodyne Heavy Industries, whom manufactured all Fafner-type Jaegers with the 31 designation number, and their records confirm that they manufactured all eight Jaegers in 961 ANM, and they were delivered to Bader Jaeger Field in Northern Trottingham. We have no further records of the status or disposition of the Jaegers past this point. Shirodyne Heavy Industries does not have records of the disposition of the Jaegers after delivery. The officer receiving the Jaegers, Lieutenant Commander Harry Brightlight, is listed as deceased as of 998 ANM. To the best of our knowledge, the eight Jaegers mentioned are still at Baeder Jaeger Field according to all records that we have at our disposal.
We will continue to look through our archives for any record of these Jaegers, and we will contact you at the first opportunity if we discover anything. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Major Jerry Can
REAF Archives
Twilight Sparkle looked at the letter three times, and made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a grunt. How do you lose eight Jaegers...unless...they were supposed to be lost?
It was at this, that Twilight Sparkle truly did sigh, and whispered a small incantation, her horn flaring.
From mid-air, a small key appeared. She used it to unlock a drawer in the desk, and pulled out a small black book. Thinking about what she wanted to write, she then wrote a short note, then worked through the small black book. The contents of that small black book was a one-time key pad, with the only two copies existing being with Twilight Sparkle and in another office-in a secure, magic-proof room with a two-key lock system. If anypony but Twilight Sparkle tried to open up the book she was working from, it would explode into flames. Once she finished, she addressed the scroll to a small office in Canterlot that was the main point of contact for the Equestrian Foreign Research Department.
The EFRD was Equestria’s intelligence agency, and they were quiet, secretive, and very efficent. Having eight Jaegers be spirited away like this did seem to match their MO very well indeed.
Quietly considering things, she cleaned up after her writing, burned to ashes the original letter, and cleaned up the ashes to be disposed of in the toilet. While the toilet was flushing, she kept thinking. What if I stumbled into an official operation, Twilight Sparkle thought. And, if I did, what was the operation?
She sighed, and considered. What was left to do about this, wasn’t much. So, she could either indulge in fantasies of turning Cally Steelheart into a newt, or she could get work done.
Twilight Sparkle pulled the next scroll out of the IN box, and spread it out.
Time to get to work.
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91 legions is 26208 Jaegers, and another 1200 in the Royal Guard (at the moment) and who knows how many in the IKAF. That's a lot of Jaegers, and I'm assuming this doesn't even count the ones used by schools for Jaegery programs. When considering this it isn't hard to believe that eight Jaegers were 'misplaced' despite their incredible size.
3773738 Two "crest'-equivalents in the IKAF, so they can do Legion-level training.
3773797 If I worked it out right two crests would be 864 Jaegers. So the REAF, Royal Guard and IKAF combined would be 28272 Jaegers. Again though this wouldn't include school training Jaegers, so there is an awful lot of Jaegers in Equestria here.
Also, what the hell is wrong with Cally Strongheart?! Surely kicking a foal out of the house is illegal!
3773853 The joys of a post-industrial, post-magical economy.
(Or, I bolloxed up the numbers. Lemme see...).
Yep, bolloxed. Gonna fix.
3773866 Oh okay, while we're talking fixes. Her name is Apple Blom, not Apple Blossom, just saying. Also at one point in this chapter I think you called her Apple Belle, could be wrong about that though.
3773866 Ok, that brings the new total of military Jaegers to 14880, unless I messed up. Which is possible I actually slightly miscalculated my last numbers.
3773921 Now in the right league, if not the right ballpark or the right team.
And, I'm serious about a post-industrial, post-magical economy. It's the only way I can figure how the ponies live and survive on a death world like Equestria, Heavily armed and magical isn't paranoia, it's what allows you to survive long enough to have the next generation of ponies.
I found this fanfic and just from the title knew I had to read it. Girls und panzer mixed with Pacific Rim with ponys? Whats there not to like! Overall I'm enjoying this one and hoping it wont be cancled.
My one problem atm though is the jaegers themselfs. They're all names and thats fine. But thats it. And that the Odins head looks like a pregnant manta ray. But thats all I know about them. And the mecha geek in me wants to know more. But its a minor thing.
Anyways loved it so far!