A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Chapter 26: Terrible Two
Applejack was cheery, the most cheerful she’d been for a while. She packed her saddlebag with an uncharacteristic spring in her step. It was her last day in the shatterdome for two weeks.
She and Big Mac were about to embark on some well-earned leave back to Ponyville, Applejack had found her mood improving all day. It wasn’t to say she didn’t like the shatterdome at Trottingham, or the ponies who made it their home, but neither had been to Sweet Apple Acres since she’d signed up for the Ranger Corps.
Applejack had been looking forward to it for a while, going back and working the farm for a little while. Others might think it crazy, taking time off work to work, but she had greenhooves through and through. To her it was equally as crazy to not go back and work the land. It wasn’t even a question of what she’d do once this war was over; straight back to the farm and the simple life for her.
A quiet knock came at the door. Still grinning at the thought, Applejack sauntered over and opened it, unsurprised to find Rainbow Dash waiting outside. Her grin remained, ho was Rainbow Dash going to survive without her? She wouldn’t have anyone to spontaneously challenge (and then lose to...) who was worth the time. She could only imagine her being restlessly bored during her free time.
“Hey.” Rainbow said, her wings flicking restlessly as she lingered at the threshold. She peered at the small mess Applejack was sorting through and suddenly looked bashful. I’m not interrupting, am I?”
Applejack shook her head and beckoned her friend. “Not at all RD, just packin’ is all.”
“Oh yeah.” Rainbow muttered jealousy. “Would be nice, getting some time off away from this dump. Planning anything cool?”
“Not really.” Applejack admitted. She was just looking forward to working the farm again for a few weeks and had not planned anything else. “Get plenty of excitement ‘round these parts as is.”
“Hmm.” Rainbow grumbled. “You used to be fun, AJ.”
Applejack shrugged silently.
Rainbow rolled her eyes dramatically. “Well, make sure you say ‘Hi’ to everypony for me. Be a while till I have enough leave for it to be worthwhile.”
Applejack smirked. “You’ve spent enough time napping to make up for it.”
“Hospital time doesn’t count!”
“Well if you stopped shoving your face down every Kaju’s throat you came across, you might not be there so much.” Applejack advised her.
“Pshh. Me and danger go hoof in hoof.” Rainbow boasted.
Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “Your funeral.” She remarked darkly.
Rainbow scowled, Applejack’s humour evidently having taken too dark a turn for her. “You’re packing an awful lot just for a trip home.” She observed suspiciously.
“Well there’s the stop off in Baltimare first-.”
“Baltimare? I thought you were just going back to Ponyville.” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
Applejack gave Rainbow a flat look. “Well we were, but since it’s on the way back, the boss figured we could make some media appearances. Try and fix our public image or something.” She shut the flap of her saddlebag. “So we’re making a few stops here and there.”
“Ugh! So jealous.” Rainbow Dash sighed wistfully. “What’s the point of being super famous if there’s nopony around to appreciate it.”
Applejack snorted with amusement. Where would Rainbow Dash be without an audience. Maybe she did need another knock to the head to sort her out.
“I mean, Big Mac doesn’t even talk! What’s the point of putting him in front of cameras?” Rainbow Dash continued, fluffing her wings up as she spoke. Applejack shared a look with her brother, his expression jumping between amused and indignant.
“Just wish they’d pick me for something cool.” Rainbow finished, staring up at the ceiling dreamily. No doubt she was imagining being in front of a sea of cheering fans.
“You’re a Ranger, sugarcube, that’s ‘cool’ enough ah reckon.”
“There’s cool and then there’s cool. You wouldn’t get it AJ.”
Applejack smiled wryly. “So... doing interesting things and just showing off?”
Rainbow scowled. “I knew you wouldn’t get it.”
“Well, just be careful what you wish for.” Applejack shrugged. “Not everythin’ that’s ‘cool’ is really that ‘cool’.”
Rainbow was undoubtedly mustering up some sort of smart response when the ready-action alarm went off. There was a moment of uncertainty before they sprung into motion, she and Big Mac abandoning their packing and practically leaping from the room. Something had to be wrong, they weren’t expecting another Kaiju for over a month. Maybe it was just a drill.
Regardless, the three barrelled their way down towards the command centre, bumping into a much more nonchalant Lightning Dust and Wave Chill in the corridor outside.
“What’s going on?” Rainbow demanded, the words out a second before Applejack could ask herself.
“Dunno, but it’s probably not a breach. I would’ve heard somepony screaming about it.” Wave Chill answered, tapping the small headset he and Soarin now habitually wore.
“So it’s a drill then,” Rainbow stated, her scowl darkening as Wave Chill shrugged his wings in response. “...Nice timing then.” She added, flashing AJ a smug look.
Applejack glared.
Wave Chill shook his head as the five pilots entered the empty briefing room adjacent to the shatterdome’s LOCCENT. “Good way to ruin a perfectly good day if it is, but Soarin just finished up his stint in the command centre so I think not. He’s probably asleep. Well, was, asleep at any rate. Drink, anyone?” He offered, casually trotting over to the sideboard which hosted a variety of hot drinks. Hearing no replies, he busied himself with a pot of tea.
“Do you think he just wears that thing for show AJ?” Rainbow asked quietly, guestering at Wave Chill discreetly. “He’s supposed to be in charge around here and doesn’t know anything.”
Applejack didn’t respond outside of a sidewards glance. She understood Rainbow Dash’s sentiment, if she were in charge she would’ve made inquiries and kept everypony informed. Bellyaching behind his back wasn’t going to change anything though.
Rainbow continued unabated, shooting a dirty look around the room in general. “Soarin works himself to death and all Wave Chill does is sleep around, mope and occasionally sing his own praises.” She muttered, adding a few crude descriptions about their commander for effect.
Applejack raised an eyebrow, the hypocrisy of Dash’s statement was not entirely lost on her. Still, it wasn’t often she heard Rainbow get anything approaching irritable at anything with, or that had worn a Wonderbolt’s patch.
“You look in the mirror lately?” Applejack asked drly. “Sounds just like you.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but he’s way worse at it. And I can’t get him out of my head”
Applejack shot her a perplexed look. Since when did Rainbow Dash of all mares chase anypony, other than herself.
“Ugh, Not me! Lightning…Dust...” Rainbow Dash trailed off, her eyes dropping to the floor in embarrassment. Her look switched to irritation as Applejack’s confusion switched to quiet bemusement.
“Hey, you try putting up with it all the time!” Rainbow complained.
Applejack let out a quiet chuckle. Who rolled around with who was none of her business and not something that overly concerned her. The fact that Rainbow was apparently so worked up over it amused her greatly.
She decided to take a direct tack. “Has it affected her sim performance any?”
“No,” Rainbow admitted grudgingly, “but she won’t stop telling me, or thinking about it. All the time, blab blab blab. It’s like she thinks I’ll be jealous.”
Applejack suppressed a snort of amusement, no doubt Rainbow Dash was forced to experience quite a bit more secondhand than she would’ve liked. Picking and choosing what you got from your partner wasn’t an option in the drift… and she probably was just a touch jealous.
“Don’t know what you’re complainin’ about then.” Applejack whispered back, taking small pleasure in her friend’s evident discomfort.
“Something to share, Dashie?” Lightning Dust crooned condescendingly from the end of the table. She had been watching their muted conversation with interest.
“None of your business.” Rainbow Dash huffed.
“Anything you say is my business.” Lightning Dust scoffed, waving her hoof dismissively. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll catch up on the goss latter.” She added with sly wink.
“I dunno, sounds very interesting.” Wave Chill asked, catching Applejack’s amused grin as he returned to the table with a mug of tea.
“Nope.” Applejack and Rainbow answered in tandem.
Wave Chill gave them a searching look. “Are you sure you two aren’t supposed to be in the same Jaeger?”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a look, catching each other’s eye for a moment before looking away awkwardly.
“Very.” They answered together again, prompting a chuckle from Wave Chill and a momentary stutter of embarrassed gibberish from Rainbow Dash. She was saved from further teasing as the door into the briefing room swung open again, admitting a ragged looking stallion.
“Good morning all.” Soarin said, almost dragging himself in and dispelling whatever levity had existed in the room at that point. He looked like he’d just been woken, his mane messy and one of his wings ruffled and unkempt. The ever-present bags under his eyes only ever seemed to grow each time Applejack saw him.
‘Maybe Rainbow has a point about Wave Chill.’ Applejack thought, feeling a pang of sympathy for the commander.
“What’s the word then?” Wave Chill asked.
“About two hours ago, we had a report from a frigate patrolling up north. Apparently they crashed into something. Note that I say crashed, they didn’t know the thing was there until they practically ran over it.” Soarin explained.
“The Navy couldn’t figure its arse out from its elbow, I’m not surprised they can’t read a screen.” Wave Chill interjected.
Soarin gave him a flat look and continued. “At first they thought it was a whale or a Carcharodon but apparently after a bit of confusion the thing took a swipe at them before taking off like a scolded foal. They didn’t get a real good look at it, but they weren’t sticking around to tango with something nasty enough to take a bite out of them. They reckoned it was a Kaiju and raised the alarm.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees as Soarin finished. Apart from the quiet hum of electronics, the room was silent as a grave. Applejack bit her lip nervously, noting how each of the other rangers handled the information. Wave Chill looked dismissive, Rainbow Dash looked positively thrilled and Lightning Dust’s face was an unreadable mask. Big Mac wore a thoughtful expression, as he were reviewing an exam paper.
“But we ain’t had anything since Harpy came through, have we?” Applejack asked, finally breaking the dead silence.
Soarin nodded. “No, and we haven’t had a whiff from any of the sensor nets or buoys.” He looked around, suddenly looking even more tired. “Which either means the navy boys are getting a bit jumpy or we have a very serious issue. You’ve all seen Kaiju, I don’t think I need to tell you how bad a potentially undetectable one would be”
Applejack shivered. Bad didn’t even cover it. If one the monsters could evade all of their sensors, there was no way for a Jaeger to reliably intercept it. No way to stop it from wreaking havoc on some isolated region before moving on. Worse still, what Soarin was suggesting should’ve been impossible. Kaiju couldn’t just hide in the open, they reeked of radioactive emissions which usually made tracking them easy. It was a natural, immutable part of their biology.
And that terrified her more than anything. She’d been thrown a few curveballs in her time, but for the most part, the world worked as it worked. Apart from the odd bit of ancient magic, nature followed a set of rigid, unchangeable laws. Those rules suddenly changing when the results could endanger tens of thousands of lives made Applejack shudder.
“That’s bad.“ Big Mac summed up laconically, clearly following the same train of thought as his sister.
“Which is why I’m deploying the four of you to check it out. Weather conditions are not suitable for flight conditions so you won’t have the eye in the sky keeping you company.” Soarin sighed, adding another layer of complication to the already tricky mission cake. “I doubt you’ll find anything and it’s probably nothing, but it pays to be diligent.”
“Not coming with, sir?” Lightning Dust asked, giving Rainbow Dash a pointed look. “Thought you’d be itching to get stuck in.”
“Sceptre is still undergoing shakedowns and needs bed rest for a bit longer.” Soarin answered unhappily. “We’ll be monitoring from here.”
“Sad.” Lightning Dust shrugged, rising from the table and motioning to her co-pilot. “Come on Dashie, let’s get this shit sorted out.” She said, prancing away cheerfully.
Rainbow Dash ground her teeth irritably, giving Applejack an annoyed look before making to follow her partner. Applejack and Big Mac followed a few steps behind, riding the elevator up to the suiting rooms in contemplative silence. Just as they were about to split off into their respective areas, Applejack broke the quiet, remembering something Rainbow Dash had said before.
“Something cool.” Applejack mocked Rainbow just before they parted. “You just had to open your mouth, didn’t you?”
***
‘It’s probably nothing.’
Soarin’s words kept echoing in Applejack’s head as they roared north. A fat juicy lie if ever she’d heard one. No one went to the time and trouble and prepping two Jaegers and all of their support crews for nothing. Not in weather like this. Not at a time like this, when everything was under the knife. Nothing was evidently some sort of slang for ‘Something, but we don’t know what and we’re too afraid to find out without two giant machines poking the proverbial stick down into the dark, scary hole first.’ the military-types who ran the joint enjoyed using.
“We’re gonna have to drop you here, AJ.” The Broadway’s pilot, a hard-working and dependable pegasus aptly named Whirlwind informed her. “It’s getting a bit rough with you hanging out down there. We’ll find a place to put down and circle back around when you’re ready for pickup.”
“Understood.” Applejack replied curtly, her gut lurching as the Broadway squadron hauling the Jaeger came to a stop and Frontier Justice swung on its harness. “Disengaging.” She said for the benefit of their pilots, punching in a rapidfire series of buttons to disengage the hooks. It was one of the few systems controlled completely by instruments, being able to mentally perform the task could be hazardous for an idle pilot in transit.
With a sharp snap the cable mounts clicked open and the Jaeger dropped from the sky like a brick, the massive Broadways wheeling away noisily as soon as their payload was clear.
She gritted her teeth as the Jaeger plunged into the water. It was very cold, just above freezing according to her external sensors. The water that had splashed up over their vision port was already starting to freeze over and mix with the flurry of snow and ice which swirled and drifted around them. A reassuring friendly contact appeared on their sensors behind them as Daring Dragoon dropped into the frigid waters behind them.
“Damn that’s cold.” Lightning Dust complained with a shiver
“Shut your trap and keep your eyes peeled.” Applejack said back, slightly glad that her friend’s copilot had made the complaint first.
“No need to get your tail in a twist, sheesh.” Lightning Dust snorted back as Daring Dragoon bounded past them, easily outpacing the hulking leviathan that was Frontier Justice. Applejack watched them vanish into the swirling mist, barely three hundred metres away. This was not an ideal deployment for them, they were too slow to cover much ground and too cumbersome if something ambushed them. Although barely two years old, Frontier Justice was starting to show its age compared to its newer generation of siblings. She shook her head, as if it would shake free the sheets of sleet which blasted against the conpod and obstructed her vision. Frontier Justice’s power plant growled, an irritable feeling dancing around the edge of her consciousness, as if the Jaeger was annoyed at her musings.
‘No. He’s not old. He’s in his prime.’ She thought, relieving the growl building in the vestiges of her mind.
Advancing behind Daring Dragoon, Applejack and Big Mac started sweeping their port side. They were down to sensors, and as much as the two rangers trusted them, they preferred the good old Mark 1. Eyeball a good slight more. Especially if whatever it was they were hunting was as stealthy as was suspected. True, the Jaegers were wired up the arse with fancy sensors and scanners, much more so than a typical sensor buoy, but they were so sensitive they could quite easily get thrown out by clutter. Her own vision was much harder to spoof.
‘Typical!’ She thought irritably, the sweep only returning Daring Dragoon ahead of them. The one time they really needed to see, there was a blizzard.
Frontier Justice prowled forward much like a hunter of old would, cautiously, slowly, taking a step and scanning before taking the ground in another few long strides. They did this for the better part of an hour, covering the area assigned to them with all the due diligence possible. All the while the blizzard roared and wailed around them, crusting the Jaeger in a fine layer of ice and snow.
Nothing. Nothing except shifting ice, shrimp farts and the odd bit of marine life.
Applejack was just about ready to pack it in when she caught a shadow of movement in the shifting wall of white around them, a dark shape riding just above the waves. She double backed, closely scrutinising where she swore there was a flicker of movement.
A row of electric white orbs stared back, wide with surprise.
“Horse Apples!” She exclaimed, wheeling the Jaeger around the face the half-submerged creature. She glimpsed a deformed, grotesque body, a maw filled with far too many teeth and a sleek tail before something whipped in and pierced her right knee. The Jaeger lurched precariously, the crunch of buckling metal mixing with her roar of pain. Before she or Big Mac could take a swing back, the half-formed shape vanished again as if it were no more solid than air.
“Son of a...!” Applejack exploded, taking a breath and reeling in her anger. She needed to focus, in case whatever what was out there came back. The Jaeger took an awkward step back, its weight shifting to its left leg. Applejack suppressed a whimper, the raw pain of the injury making her eyes water. She swore again silently, she was angrier at herself more than anything else, allowing one of those despicable creatures to catch her off guard. She bit back another curse, she could feel her knee burning under her drivesuit like a stamping iron had been taken to it.
“Bit small for one of them though.” Big Mac observed, his demeanor similar to if he were serving dinner. He had a grimace on his face though, his lips pulled tight and an eye twitching from feeling her pain second-hand.
Applejack bit her lip, trying to ignore the long barb which had punctured her leg. The thing, whatever it was, had easily gotten the drop on them and landed a damn solid blow. Why hadn't it it taken another swing at them, and more importantly how had it gotten so close without them noticing? She nodded her head, tasting blood.
“‘No more than 30, 40 metres, maybe?” Big Mac guessed, carefully scanning the opposing quadrant in case it somehow appeared behind them.
“Nope.” She agreed shakily. Applejack opened the frequency back to the shatterdome. “LOCCENT, we made contact. With… something. Whatever it is, it didn’t hang around for dinner, bolted as soon as we saw it.”
‘Damn well nearly trod on it.’ Applejack mused, wondering if machine or flesh would’ve won out in that fight.
“Copy. We’re showing damage here, are you okay?”
“Just a scratch.” Applejack growled, the Jaeger’s leg almost locking up as she moved it. The barb jammed through their leg shifted uncomfortably, making the Jaeger roar with protest again.
“Copy that, keep us posted. Daring’s on her way back to you.”
Fat help that would be! Applejack resisted the urge to snap something back and cut the link. No, this wouldn’t happen a third time. Not again. She vowed when they tracked down this beast she would crush its stupid skull between their fists.
They carefully nursed Frontier Justice forward again, every movement punctuated by the squeal of metal and a violent lurch. They’d barely taken a step before Daring Dragoon was at their side, appearing out of the swirling snow like a ghost.
“Shit, how are you two still walking?” Lightning Dust asked after the lithe Jaeger’s crew had stooped slightly down to inspect the damage. A long, slender barb was jammed through the Jaeger’s knee and protruded out the other side.
“We’re fine.” Applejack replied, the Jaeger growling affirmatively with her statement.
“AJ, you’ve pretty much walking on good intentions.” Rainbow retorted.
Applejack bristled, unwilling to back down. “You here to help, or fuss over us?”
The tone of her voice was seemingly enough to make the other two rangers quiet down, she knew her and the Jaeger’s limits well enough and didn’t need to be lectured on them. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, focusing on the sensor data which ran through her mind. Everything around her snapped into focus with crystal clear clarity, steadily growing fuzzier as it distanced itself from the Jaeger. She could feel the scrape of each jagged flake of snow against the hull, the soft whirr and click as the audiophones swivelled in their recessed armoured housings in the Jaeger’s legs and the aches and groans of Daring Dragoon’s joints a few dozen metres away.
Then she could feel the savage, predatory urge of something else, a thick wet purr growing in the back of her mind like a savage, chained dog. Two of the Jaeger’s fingers involuntarily twitched, balling into a fist.
‘Enough!’ Applejack thought, tasting bile in her throat. Her eyes snapped open, the waves of sensor data fading from her mind to be replaced by a dizzying sense of vertigo. The sync alarm flashed on for the briefest moment, signalling that the two pilots had been out of neural alignment. It had only been a slight thing, but AJ felt sickly and uncomfortable, like she’d been dragged out naked in front of a crowd. She looked over at Big Mac, her mind alight with confusion. He looked similarly sickened and disturbed.
“Applejack, Big Mac, what’s happening?” An insistent voice in her ear asked. “Your vitals just flatlined. Are you alright?”
Applejack took a moment to compose herself before responding. “We’re fine, just something playing up ‘round here.”
She hesitated for a moment, sharing a knowing look with Big Mac before activating the radio again.
“LOCCENT, we’re calling it and heading back. Whatever it was, it’s long gone and we ain’t finding it in a hurry.” Applejack finished with a frustrated sigh. It rubbed her the wrong way to leave the leave the job half done, but there was no way they’d find that Kaiju again in this muck. And neither her nor Mac were overly keen in potentially having another breakdown, they’d already had their fill of weirdness for a day.
‘Maybe not today, but we will find that slippery son of a bitch and teach it a thing or two, even if its the last thing we do.’ Applejack thought.
The thing in her head snarled in sympathetic agreement.
***
The unexpected encounter in the North Sea had the entire shatterdome at Manehatten on edge. Once the reports from the involved rangers had been disseminated, it soon became the premiere topic of discussion and thought. The K-Science biologists were left scratching and pulling hair from the head with confusion and dismay, J-Tech engineers were frantically working on new sensor packages for the Jaegers and technicians worked overtime to ensure the shatterdome’s three machines were in top shape.
While the place descended into organised chaos, Shane was busy drinking coffee.
Or at least something like coffee. The fact that it looked, smelt and tasted pretty much exactly like coffee, but wasn’t coffee was what bothered him the most. Not the slash and burn approach being taken to the shatterdome’s budget to make room for the Mk III, not the spooky invisible Kaiju and certainly not the last two (very special) ponies to join their pilot program.
Michael’s hairbrained scheme in getting Celestia and Luna to join the Jaeger Corp was working remarkably well. In some ways. The two sisters were taking to their work as well as anyone could have expected and were proving to be fast learners, picking up Jaeger-theory, Kaiju biology along the requisite mechanics and physiology faster than anyone Shane knew. Even the famed Beckett brothers, considered natural Rangers from the moment they first stepped into Ranger School, would’ve been impressed.
‘If they were alive. If anyone is still alive.’ Shane thought mournfully. He’d adopted a new habit, one which had more than several shrinks raise their eyebrows. For the past three months, each time he conducted his daily inspection of Midsummer Night he tuned the Jaeger’s communication suite to PPDC frequencies and despite the protests of the Jaeger’s dumb A.I. cranked the sensitivity up as high as it would go. Then he’d sit, sit and listen for an hour or longer for the faintest murmur or whisper of noise. He didn’t seriously expect it to work - ever since befalling whatever disaster the quantum tunnelling device had suffered the Jaeger’s comms had been dark of native traffic - but it was a simple routine which kept some other link with home alive. Even if it was a stupid one.
Still, he always hoped.
Today had of course been no different, and after growing bored of counting the rivets in the roof of the conpod, Shane had decided to spend the rest of his free time doing the one other thing he wholeheartedly enjoyed. Annoying his brother.
So armed with a fresh cup of not-quite-coffee and an almost equally fresh uniform, Shane strode towards the simulator bays where Michael (Or Misty, probably Misty) would be putting the new cadets through their paces. Or try to, at any rate.
He cut a striking figure, tall, imposing and completely at ease with his surroundings. Although infinitely more comfortable at the helm of a Jaeger, the shatterdome was his stomping grounds and he was the chief stomper. He was so preoccupied he almost stood on an earth pony which lacked either the wits or good sense to get out of his way.
“Hi!” She chirped, apparently not at all fussed that Shane had nearly trampled her.
“Oh sorry, didn’t see you there.” Shane said. He vaguely recognised her, but for the life couldn’t remember her name. Sun… something? She looked like one of the earth ponies on staff with the shatterdome’s weapon’s development program, but Shane honestly couldn’t recall. It took him a moment longer to place her - she’d been present (and awfully stressed) when their first attempts at a domestically built energy caster had almost blown up half the shatterdome. Fun times.
“Oh that’s alright,” She beamed. “Enjoying your morning?”
Shane grunted noncommittally. “It’s been better.”
“Oh that’s no good, I’m sure the rest of your day will be better. You’re looking nice today by the way.” Sun-something said with a cheeriness that made Shane’s ears want to bleed.
She tossed her mane slightly and smiled, almost batting her eyelids as she did so.
It was a disturbingly human-like gesture and immediately alarm bells went off in Shane’s head. ‘Oh god, she’s trying to flirt me with. No. Bad. Do not want.’
“Um. Right. Thanks. Bye.” He said mechanically, practically stepping over the pony in his haste to escape the situation. ‘Ick, ick and double ick.’ He thought, beating a hasty retreat towards the elevator.
Of course on a planet with several breeds of sentient species, the concept of an interspecies relationship would have been far less taboo than it was on Earth, not to mention the Equestrians seemed far more liberal on that front to boot. Not that the concept appealed to him in the slightest, even the thought made him feel a little squeamish.
He rounded the corner and came to a row of elevators. He was pleasantly surprised to find a familiar pegasus there, with a similarly sized thermos tucked underneath his wing.
“Sir.” Lightning Streak said as way of greeting, giving an awkward half wave/half salute gesture with his free wing.
“Sup.” Shane replied, suddenly feeling much more at ease and pressing the button for the simulator floor. He noted that Lightning Streak was going there as well, confirming his theory that Michael had palmed supervising Celestia and Luna off to his subordinate.
They rode in silence for a few seconds before Shane decided to strike up conversation.
“Am I attractive?” He asked with a casual air of indifference at odds with the question
Lightning Streak’s face seemed to twist and contort in ways that would usually be considered unhealthy for a moment, his mouth flapping open and shut like a beached fish.
Shane decided to dig deeper, enjoying the perplexed look on the ranger’s face too much. “To you. I mean, to a pony.”
Lightning Streak seemed to finally find his words. “I… what?”
Shane explained his earlier encounter with as few words as he could manage.
“I guess… to a certain… more, uh, liberated… kind?” Lightning Streak guessed once Shane had finished. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Shane suspiciously, perhaps starting to catch onto his shenanigans. “Are… you looking for pointers, sir, because I-.”
“On the contrary. I found it distressing and would rather it not be repeated.” Shane replied with a cheeriness at odds with his words. “I can recommend you to her if you’d like?”
Lightning Streak considered this for a moment. “Thanks, but I think I only have the space for one dangerously lethal mare in my life right now.” He said carefully, evidently having caught onto the fact Shane was messing with him. The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open with a satisfying rumble. “Sounds cute though.”
“Look man, your cute is my cancer.” Shane sneered.
Lightning Streak shrugged his wings, evidently quite okay with Shane avoiding what he might consider ‘Cute’.
“You two having any luck with the rookies?” Shane enquired as they navigated towards the simulator control centre.
Lightning Streak gave him a wry look. “See for yourself.”
They entered the small command centre, Shane unsurprised to see Misty Fly banging her head against the control console and having an uncharacteristically polite, yet strained, conversation with someone through her headset. Behind her, lounged back casually and reading in the observation area was Michael. The area around him was piled with old looking books and a few discarded snack wrappers.
“Hey.” Shane said, injecting just enough cheer into his voice to annoy his brother.
Michael grunted back obnoxiously, flipping over a page in the old book he was scanning.
“How are the shinies going?” Shane asked conversationally. He’d had them the day before yesterday and could sum their performance up in two words. Not pretty. Judging by Lightning Streak’s comment, things hadn’t improved yet. Michael flipped through a few pages in rapid-fire succession, looking up to give his sibling a flat look.
“Oh. Excellent.” Shane surmised. “What’s with all the books? A bit of light reading?”
Michael set the heavy leather-bound book he’d been paging through aside. “Sure, just a comprehensive account of Equestrian history. Nothing major.”
“Humour me for a moment.” Shane replied, curiously cocking an eyebrow. “Why?”
Michael chewed his lip thoughtfully for a moment. “So I had the bright idea of asking Twilight about the history of these two, given she was Celestia’s former student and all that. I’d figure she’d know a bit. If we know a bit more about them, maybe, just maybe we can get somewhere.”
“And she gave you all these books” Shane guessed dryly.
Michael pulled an expression of faux surprise. “Books! I know, who would’ve guessed.” Shane suppressed a grin as Michael hefted another book, a journal penned by their Jaeger chief. “Turns out little Twilight is quite the fangirl.”
“Give me the laconic version.” Shane ordered, taking a small sip of the coffee-like-but-not-quite-coffee substance he favoured.
“Uh, Luna got jealous of her sister being more popular than her, had a fight, got possessed by a demon and tried overthrowing the government in a bloody revolution whose primary selling point was bringing about eternal night. Celestia won and turned her into the moon for a thousand years.”
Shane nodded as if this was all rational and took another contemplative sip. “That’s rough.”
Michael scratched his cheek absently. “Then she was unmoonified by… some stars, I think? And tried the whole thing again before Twilight and her friends, some of which are actually now Rangers I’ll point out, blasted her with, from what I can tell, a magic friendship rainbow laser and made her quote unquote ‘Good’ again.”
Shane swilled his thermos of not-coffee in deep thought. “Are you sure you translated that all correctly, or do you think this whole planet is just perpetually high on something?”
“I wouldn’t rule either out of the question to be honest.” Michael smirked. “Magic is weird.”
“Some of your technology is no better.”
They turned to see Twilight trot in, mane frazzled and eyes heavy with exhaustion. Shane felt a pang of sympathy for her, the poor thing was working herself raw trying to keep everything together. She exchanged a quick smile with Lightning Streak and waved at Misty but received no response.
She turned to look at them. “Imitation and replication is easy, understanding..?” Twilight’s look grew vacant and she shook her head. “Much harder. For smarter ponies than me.”
“So… no one?” Michael said jestingly.
Twilight smiled slightly at the compliment, evidently waving away the more disturbing ramifications of that statement for the time being. “How are they going?”
“Disgustingly.” Michael surmised.
Twilight didn’t need a deeper explanation, she was up and out of her labs to observe her mentors more times than either Shane or Michael bothered to count. Given her more ragged appearance than usual over the last few days it didn’t take a genius to figure where she was finding the time for her expeditions.
“Oh. Well...” Twilight sighed, unwilling to accept that Celestia and Luna were failing at something.
“We’ve still got plenty of time.” Michael reassured her. “We’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”
“On the plus side they’re both remarkably competent on solo drills and knowledgeable in all of the usual coursework. Misty is raving about them, which is probably the first I’ve heard her say something nice about anyone else.” Shane added if only to cheer Twilight up.
“But they haven’t managed a stable connection yet.” Twilight said, worry lacing her voice. “Nopony else took this long to successfully accomplish a short drift, and they can’t even do that! I’d be lying if I didn’t say it made me nervous.”
“You’re really worried about them, aren’t you?” Michael asked, prompting a ‘No really?’ look from Shane.
Twilight fixed him a steely look. “You don’t get it. Their relationship, or failings thereof are what defined the last thousand years of our history. I mean, all that bad blood is supposed to be behind them… but, what if it’s not? With their history, a tiny slipup could be disastrous.” Twilight snapped like she were scolding an ignorant foal. She sighed and recentred herself again, carefully straightening out a few strands of her mane. “Yes, of course I’m worried. Everypony is. Celestia and Luna are loved throughout all of Equestria. If there was an accurate comparison to your world, they’d be gods.”
“The whole sun and moon bullshit, yeah I get it.” Shane said, earning a downright withering look.from the alicorn for his trouble. “Okay, okay, they’re the boss. Bosses. Whatever.”
“And you want to shove them into a metal box atop a volatile reactor to face-off interdimensional monsters bent on the destruction of all life as we know it.” Twilight started to ramble, her eye twitching with worry. “So much could go wrong.”
Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. “We acknowledge that, but again-.”
“We need them, yes.” Twilight agreed. “It just worries me that we haven’t gotten anywhere. Those two should be excellent drift partners, with how long they’ve lived with each other, they should know the other inside and out.”
“They don’t trust each other.” Misty Fly cut in bluntly from the control board. “Simple as that, Sparkle. No amount of fangirling is gonna change that. They’ve got a whole bunch of problems, and this is me talking.” She added, proving she was at least somewhat self-aware.
Twilight looked like she was about to fly off the chain at Misty but the pegasus didn’t let her get a word in, quelling any dissent with a scathingly annoyed look that would’ve probably stopped a rampaging Kaiju cold.
Michael and Shane nodded, agreeing with Misty’s assessment. “She’s right. Trust is critical to the connection, and from what your books have said, I could see why they’d have some deep seated trust issues. Dropping those mental barriers is easier when it’s someone you know, but it’s still not natural. You need to trust that other person implicitly and without any reservation.”
Twilight scowled but reluctantly accepted their words. “Okay, then. What do we do?”
“Talk with them separately for a bit, and get a good understanding of what’s going on and we can work from there.”
“You can’t just confront them, it’s Celestia and Luna.” Twilight protested.
“That’s actually exactly what I want to do.”
Twilight looked about ready to explode into low orbit, her face warped into an incredulous expression. An eye twitched and her mouth hung open with disbelief. She looked set to protest further but gave in with a weary groan of resignation, prompting a half-stifled laugh from Misty Fly. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
“Excellent. Good to have you on side bookhorse.” Shane said with his well practiced faux cheer.
“This can only end badly.” Twilight groaned.
“Well aren’t you just a debbie downer.” Shane jeered, “Can’t ever have some good news or ideas now, can we?”
“Actually...” She straightened slightly, putting aside her discomfort with how they intended to deal with their Celestia/Luna problem. “I did come up here for another reason. Some good news, actually. I just recently returned from a sitting of the Senate Committee for Homeworld Defence in Canterlot, and well it was just excellent. A few of your old friends are sitting on it and they all loved to trash you. Bunch of closed-minded xenophobes I’ll show ‘em a thing or two about friendship…” Twilight trailed off, her tone growing borderline murderous. Her tone brightened again. “Anyway, there’s a motion sitting before them at the moment concerning the sales and distribution of ‘Dangerous Weapons and Other Advanced Technologies’.”
Michael blinked twice before jumping to the obvious conclusion. “Griffons. Jaeger.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. That. Apparently it’s not in our interests to pass on advanced weapons to states that have shown ‘Aggression’ and a have a ‘Desire to impinge on our land and sovereignty’. As it stands, they are likely to ban the sale outright.”
Shane and Michael exchanged a dumbfounded look. The Committee of Homeworld Defence was the body they were directly responsible to, and was supposed to operate in the interests of the entire planet and look beyond national politics. While it was probably within their purview, it seemed a highly questionable choice.
“Okay… in what universe is this good news?” Shane asked dryly.
“Oh it’s not. This is terrible news. The whole thing is barely half done and would be completely incompatible with any pony pilot. But... on the plus side we’ll have another hulk to rip and tear at for parts and beat up for loose change.”
“Oh, brilliant. I guess the Griffons will want their their money back then.”
Twilight winced slightly as if she’d been trying to not fret over the idea. “Not my problem and I’m not going to make it my problem, they can sort that out with the Senate. They drop us into this mess they can sort it out as well.”
“Great. Two princesses who can’t drift, an undetectable Kaiju roaming the north and now a very, very unhappy customer who wants to see my manager.” Michael groaned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Twilight. “You don’t have any other problems to drop on us, do you?”
***
At first there was nothing but pain.
It’s first conscience thought was of never-ending darkness and then blue. Blue blue blue blue blue. And then the pain again. It caught a flash of a twisted, unnatural form being stitched together like a shirt. It screamed as its flesh and blood was assembled, ripped apart and then rebuilt at the whim of another. It was but a cosmic plaything, being constructed, regrown and then altered again and again to suit whatever purpose its master desired.
It lost count of how many times it died, only to be reforged again in unbearable pain and agony. Again. And again. And again.
And then blessed nothingness. No sight, no sound, no touch. After a life of pain the nothing was a welcome, if unsettling relief. It hung, suspended in its cocoon of nothingness. It was lost and alone. It screamed at the dark, unable to comprehend or feel. Only be. It roared at the dark, its mind shackled and chained like a beast. Where was it. Why couldn’t it see. Why was it here. It screamed again but the darkness held no answers.
Then a more primal, instinctual thought come to the fore. For the first time in its existence it was free to feel. The first feeling it had was of hunger, a ravenous unquenchable hunger.
‘No.’
The thing recoiled as the Other spoke in its mind, every instinct crying out to escape, to shield itself. It retreated into the staunch fortress of its mind to hide but the other followed it, tearing down the gates and smashing asunder the walls to get at it. It screamed as the Other greedily grasped and tore at its mind, reaching down into the deepest dungeons of its consciousness to root out every last vestige of its will. Every detail of its consciousness was carefully analysed, stripped and any undesirable thoughts or feelings sterilised. It was done with a speed and precision which belied millennia of cold practise, and the torment that lasted an eternity in its mind in reality took no longer than a blink of an eye.
And then the Other was gone. A flood of light and sound spilled across its mind. It could see the harsh light of machines, taste the viscous substance which surrounded and pushed against it and feel the heavy bonds which held it in its cage.
Then the restraints were released. It floated in place for a moment, its eyes drawn to the centre of everything. The vast burning eye of a black sun set against a dead, blue world. As it cast its eyes around it beheld vast, jagged holes of light scattered across the void. They beckoned to it, warm and comforting against the cold blue void. It wanted to go to each in turn but something stopped it.
‘NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoYesNoNoNo.’
It suddenly knew where to go, kicking its legs and making for one of the bright tears like a drowning man clutching for a liferaft. As it swam, its mind flooded with thoughts. Where there had been a void in its memory it could now smell, feel and see thoughts that were not its own. Hundreds of conflicting images and memories filled its mind, stacking on top of each other in a huge pile which threatened to topple at any moment. Pictures of iron giants and feeble insects filled its thoughts. It was hungry.
‘Kill.’
Now it knew what it was, its purpose was seared into its mind with a clarity it few creatures would ever know. It was death, the doom of worlds It was the harbinger of destruction, the child of the star-gods.
It roared again as it sailed into the hole of bottomless light, another alien horror born to plague a suffering, dying world.
Somewhere distant, in an city yet unknown to it, an alarm started to wail.
***
“Uh-huh, a Category III you say?” Soarin mumbled, his head still half buried in his pillow. The beeping of his pager had woken him a minute ago, and although he would’ve loved to ignore it, the message was coming through on an emergency channel.
“Yes sir, big one by the looks of it.” The voice of Skyray, the shatterdome’s chief LOCCENT operator replied.
“They always seem to be that way.” Soarin joked half-heartedly, trying to remember the last time there had been a ‘small’ Kaiju. He raised his head to look at the small digital clock beside his bed, swearing under his breath at the time. He’d only left the command centre a few hours ago and it was still early morning. Kaiju just had the worst timing. “ETA?” He asked hoping it would be ‘never’.
“Tracking from Manehatten indicates it’s heading up our way, it’ll make landfall sometime in the next twenty hours or so.”
Good. Still enough time to catch up on some much needed sleep. He could brief everyone in a few hours. “Get the Jaegers warmed up, schedule a briefing for eleven hundred hours and inform each of the crews in the meantime. Keep me updated if anything changes.”
“Of course, it’s a poor Kaiju that interrupts your nap.”
“I would damn well hope so.” Soarin grumped back, cutting the comm link and trying to get back to sleep. It was nigh on impossible however, his eyes kept snapping open and staring at the clock tick over with torturous slowness. With an annoyed grunt he knocked the clock down of its perch, its face pressed against the floor. He didn’t need to be any more jittery than he already was. His first real chance to show off his command potential didn’t really inspire confidence in his ability. One Jaeger crippled and nothing to show for it except more questions.
‘It could’ve been worse.’ He reminded himself, his old mantra not doing much to improve his mood.
After a moment of quietly stewing Soarin picked the clock up and returned it to its perch, a small crack in its display. He rolled over and jammed his eyes shut, willing himself to sleep. The sun was going to be up in a few hours, and it was going to be one hell of day.
***
The briefing the next morning brought another surprise.
The Kaiju, a large Category III named Charybdis, had pushed even further north than anypony had anticipated, putting it squarely out of Manehatten’s court and further and further into the North Sea.
This in itself wasn’t a problem, they’d deployed Frontier Justice and Daring Dragoon there to track the anomalous contact nearly three weeks ago, but it did cause a bit of confusion amongst the Kaiju analysts. Why? Why go so far north?
This wasn’t Soarin’s primary concern though . His thoughts were on how many Jaeger’s he’d have. Frontier Justice’s leg had been badly damaged on their last sortie and although repair crews had been working on the Jaeger since it returned to the shatterdome, it had never been a sure thing. And the Jaeger wasn’t exactly fast to begin with. Any formation they adopted would move at a deathly slow pace if repairs weren’t completed to a satisfactory degree.
Consequently, Applejack and Big Macintosh weren’t present, instead working on their Jaeger with their deck crew several floors below and listening in on an open comm channel.
Applejack finally radioed in as Soarin was starting to wrap up. “Sir, we've made some progress on the repair front.”
“Is Frontier operational?” He asked, half dreading the response.
“Barely. But we’ll walk out on crutches if we have to.”
Soarin allowed a smile to cross his face, feeling just a little relieved. At least they’d have all three Jaegers ready. That small matter sorted, he looked back at the map projected up on the threat board. The projected target area was still massive, it would still be hours before he could effectively deploy the three Jaegers at his disposal. He cocked his head to the side slightly, watching the projected track move further and further north.
‘What in the wide world of Equestria is it doing?’ He puzzled. There was nothing in the north. No cities or other large targets that Kaiju seemed to usually gravitate towards. It would take an age for the creature to approach anywhere near the Crystal Empire, though if that was allowed to happen Soarin knew that would be the least of his issues. Heads would go on pikes, probably his.
He stared at the map for a moment longer before looking back to his crews. “Alright, we’re on alert from this point on. Keep your ears sharp, I expect you to be ready to roll in thirty minutes when I give the word. Dismissed.”
A chorus of affirmatives answered him.
He looked back at the map, noticing everypony’s gaze following the Kaiju’s track as it arched further north. .
“Bloody hell that’s gonna be cold…” Wave Chill muttered, voicing the thought passing through Soarin’s mind.
Soarin tapped the map, noting the Kaiju’s original heading and then the wickedly sharp it had taken to drive it north. “Took a real turn here. What the heck is this thing doing?”
“Playing silly buggers, that’s what.” Wave Chill replied wryly.
Soarin bit his lip thoughtfully and brought up the old sensor logs, overlaying their last mysterious contact’s positions on top of Charybdis’. Nothing seemed to match up, but the last sign of their previous quarry had been much further north as well. Was there a connection between the two?
Soarin stared at the picture for a while longer before dismissing it, leave the grand strategies and behaviour analysis of the Kaiju to the eggheads in K-Science. He knew how to fight Kaiju, not how they thought. He filed the small nugget away and tagged it for later rumination.
With the briefing over, Soarin retired from the command centre for a while, intending to get some administrative work done before deploying. Hours of restlessly shifting between working, running pre-launch checks on Sceptre Six and trying to nap instead mostly resulted in him nervously checking the inexorable progress of the incoming Kaiju in his quarters. It was moving much slower than he had expected, almost like it was trying to drag out the wait as long as it could. Nearly eighteen hours had passed since the initial alert and Charybdis’ final approach was still in doubt. It had tracked further and further north, almost reaching the latitude where their last encounter had been. Soarin knew they’d have to deploy soon, else it would slip too far north for a sea-intercept to be possible.
So with this in mind Soarin found himself, as was his habit when faced with an impending crisis, down in the shatterdome’s commissary with his drive suit donned and helmet hung on the side. Truly there was nothing food couldn’t solve.
Despite the earliness of the hour which hung over Trottingham, he was pleasantly surprised to find all of the shatterdome’s five other Rangers there, clustered around in a group at one table. Various members of their deck and Jaeger crew were scattered around the noisy room, many waving or saying hello as he passed to join his comrades. As he approached he saw that Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash were playing, much to his surprise, a game of chess while Applejack and Big Mac watched and heckled. Wave Chill sat beside Lightning Dust, watching the game with silent interest. All, he noted with satisfaction, were suited up.
“You’re up early. Or is that you’re still awake? I know you weather ponies have weird sleeping habits” Soarin said without introduction, dropping onto the bench alongside Rainbow Dash to join the group of Rangers. She scooted over slightly, either to make a little more room or so he could see the board clearer but otherwise didn’t acknowledge him, her partner flashed Soarin a look reeking with disgust before she realised exactly who she was looking at and embarrassedly returning her attention to the board.
“Could say the same for you.” Lightning Dust answered, her face flushed slightly. She didn’t look back up at Soarin again, her gaze glued to the sparsely populated chessboard.
“Couldn’t sleep.” Soarin explained lamely, jumping a little as something behind him fell off a table with a loud crash. What a role model he made! An alarm goes off and suddenly he was more skittish than a bunch of foals at Hearth's Warming. If Spitfire were here she probably would’ve kicked him somewhere distinctly unpleasant before chewing his ear off with a delightfully creative insult. Soarin lingered on the thought, suddenly feeling regretful - he’d fallen out of contact with his former commander and not by his choice; she hadn’t responded to his messages and when he tried visiting while on leave had apparently moved again without a forwarding address. Soarin would’ve loved to have her unshakable leadership around right now.
“Didn’t pick you two for chess.” He said, taking a mouthful of toast buried under butter and jam and chewing quickly to bury his previous line of thought before it stuck
“I’ve been teaching her.” Rainbow explained. “I don’t think she’s been paying attention though.” She added with a snigger.
“No, you’re just more competent than a braindead athlete has any right to be.” Lightning Dust retorted crankily, despairingly holding her head in her hooves as her eyes flashed across the board.
Rainbow Dash smirked confidently. “I had a good teacher. And I like to win.”
Soarin watched on with interest as both mares stared intently at the board. No doubt there was an amazingly complex mental game going on between them, the usual strategising and planning that happened in chess amplified by the mind-link they shared. The number of moves each mare was thinking ahead must’ve been phenomenal.
Lightning Dust suddenly swore and crossed her forelegs. “That’s it, I give up!” she proclaimed hotly. “This is a stupid game for stupid ponies and you’re stupid for playing.” She boiled angrily at the smug looking Rainbow, her scowl deepening to a degree Misty Fly would’ve found impressive. Soarin half expected her to start pegging pieces at her copilot .
“And the streak continues!” Rainbow boasted haughty, snaking her head from side to side victoriously. “At this point I’d almost consider letting you win. Almost. It’s so sad to watch it’s funny.”
“Frak off.” Lightning Dust pouted, glaring at Rainbow Dash with the heat of a jet turbine. Soarin wondered if he’s have to break up a fight between the two - although some part of him wouldn’t have minded watching.
“The secret is to get her to agree to do something she ain’t ever gonna win, but spmething she thinks she’s gonna win.” Applejack piped up, giving Lightning Dust a genuinely sympathetic look. “Ah’m yet to see a time where her mouth runnin’ faster than her hooves hasn’t gotten the better of her.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and dismissed her friend’s remark with a wave. “As if, AJ.”
“Ah, the good ol’ selective memory trick. Classic Rainbow Dash.” Applejack said dryly.
Lightning Dust gave Applejack the slightest nod, as if to appreciate and agree with her statement “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea I’m working on.”
“As long as it’s not as stupid as your last one, I’m game.” Rainbow smirked. .
Lightning Dust snorted with amusement. “You still couldn’t do it.” She teased
“Because it’s physically impossible!” Rainbow complained.
Lightning Dust shared a look around the table “Didn’t stop her from trying it. I was laughing so much I couldn’t untangle her.”
“You are literally the worst.” Rainbow fumed under her breath.
“Come off it, you know you love me.” Lightning Dust teased.
They started bickering like an old married couple, as always managing to steal the spotlight and turn it firmly on them. It made Soarin smile, it was good to see everypony was keeping their cool. At least, hiding it a lot better than he was. He could almost pretend that they weren’t hanging around waiting for the word to go to battle, but instead a group of friends sitting around and just ‘shooting the shit’ as AJ put it.
Soarin would’ve loved that more than anything.
The sound of his headset chiming snapped him back to reality.
“Go ahead.” Soarin said curtly, aware that the rest of the table had dropped everything and was watching him with intent interest. Applejack and Big Macintosh sat still and attentive while Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust were both leaning forward slightly, already ready to spring into action.
“We’ve finally got an approach heading for Charybdis. ETA to coast is within the next few hours at current speed. Looks like we’re heading north.”
***
For the second time within a month Frontier Justice hung from its cables, swaying slightly beneath the flock of rotaries which hoisted it northward. No matter how much they did it, the feeling was always disconcerting to Applejack. An earth pony felt right on their own hooves on the ground, not suspended a few hundred metres above the deck by the grace of some infernal chattering contraption.
As if to prove a point the squadron of Broadways adjusted course slightly, making Applejack’s gut lurch. ‘Only a few more minutes.’ She thought to herself queasily as their transports settled onto their new heading.
“This seems familiar.” Big Mac remarked without concern.
Applejack agreed, the weather was almost as foul as it had been the last time they’d come out this way. Visibility was slightly better, but hampered by the all-encompassing darkness. Without moonlight breaking through the thick cloud cover, the only lights came from spotlights mounted on the swarm of rotaries and the Jaeger’s own running lights.
At least their sensors would be able to pick up and find Charybdis in this muck.
“Approaching the DZ. You’re off here folks.”
Frontier Justice dropped first, cracking through a thin ice sheet before plunging into the inky-black water. They’d dropped lower than normal in an attempt to prevent any damage to their hastily repaired leg. Even still, they almost botched the landing.
Daring Dragoon splashed down a few hundred metres to their port side and Sceptre Six a few seconds later, each Jaeger’s landing accompanied by a shuddering they could feel in the conpod. Squalls of snow and sleet blasted and whistled around the Jaegers, occasionally wiping out visibility completely. This was weather even the most sturdy and thick headed of pegasi would think twice about going out into. The fact that the the rotaries had gotten them this far was a testament to the ruggedness of their transports.
“You sure it came up this way?” Applejack heard Lightning Dust ask. “There’s nothing here.”
“Sure as I’ve got feathers.” Soarin responded from his new Jaeger, his voice punctuated by heavy footfalls as Sceptre Six advanced into the snowstorm
Applejack and Big Mac exchanged a tiny glance, Soarin was taking a bit of a gamble relying entirely on the sensor data and deploying everyone together so far out of the way. If Charybdis double-backed or otherwise started larking about, they could quickly find themselves in hot water. In her experience, Kaiju didn’t ever just do something for the hell of it. And coming this far north struck her as something bizarre. Lightning Dust was right; there was nothing here.
“Start searching, keep in sight of each other and keep your eyes open.” Soarin ordered them, his voice cool and collected… but breaking just a little at the edges.
Easier said than done, their visual range came and went came with all the certainty that unmaintained weather did. One moment they could see Sceptre Six and Daring Dragoon off to their left, the next whirling blankets of ice and snow. It it weren’t for the two reassuring contacts on the Jaeger’s scopes holding steady off their flank, they would’ve become separated very easily.
They pounded slowly through the choppy surf, water sloshing up their legs and freezing into all the little nooks and crannies it could make its way into. Applejack could feel the biting cold and cutting wind second-hand, shivering involuntarily despite the warmth of the conpod. Her left knee still felt tight and sore, the Jaeger’s actual leg grinding with complaint every time to they gingerly moved it. If she concentrated on it, she could feel the pistons which still needed to be reset and the seams of hasty welds which had been done to get the Jaeger back into service. It was a real hodge-podge job, but it would hold.
She hoped.
“Contact right.” Lightning Dust announced a second before Frontier Justice’s less sophisticated sensors picked it up as well. It was large and reassuringly unsubtle, slowly tracking away to their right. “I think it’s noticed us, contact is closing - and fast.”
“Tighten up.” Soarin ordered.
There was still several hundred metres separating Daring Dragoon and Frontier Justice when Applejack caught sight of the thing through the swirling snow. Its head reminded her of a hammerhead shark, though the edges of the bony protrusions were swept back in a crescent-like shape. Four beady eyes glared out from under the growth like little candles, bouncing and lighting up the snow around it. Rows after row of teeth lined its jaws, so crammed together they seemed to be falling out of the beast's mouth.
The creature marched forward on two broad legs, the tops of which broke through the surf like pylons. Occasionally, as it moved forward, it would fall forward onto its front set of oversized claws, loping forward and sending a large bow wave racing ahead before standing upright again. A long tail swished out behind it in the darkness, crusted with lumpy growths and with a wickedly sharp barb at the end. Hanging loosely from underneath the creature's massive leathery shoulders was a second, smaller set of claws.
The Kaiju wasted no time in making introductions and surged forward towards Frontier Justice, barreling out of the night with a low roar. It was huge, larger even than Frontier Justice.
With their speed limited, Applejack and Big Mac set themselves firmly in the seabed and took the creature’s frenzied charge. The distance rapidly closed but the two rangers patiently waited for the right moment to move.
‘Now!’
Their first blow came with a grace at odds with the huge Jaeger, a quick uppercut catching Charybdis under the jaw as it tried to press home its charge. The two rangers followed up with a heavy hook, whipping the Kaiju’s head aside with a sharp crack. With the Kaiju momentarily off-balance, Frontier Justice took a half-step back, raising both fists above its head for an overhead strike.
Before the blow could connect, Charybdis’ tail flashed quicker than lightning, the piked babr on its tip punching through the hastily repaired plating around the Jaeger’s knee. The joint exploded in a shower of debris, gears, cables chunks of metal snapping free and whipping away. Frontier Justice lurched again as its leg gave out, this time the forces too great for them to overcome and unceremoniously pitching them into the ocean.
“Again?!” Applejack roared, this time her anger overwhelming the pain which burned her leg. Try tried to rise but the Jaeger’s entire leg leg was unresponsive and refused to take their weight. Charybdis had been lucky the joint was already damaged or its blow probably would’ve have been largely ineffectual.
Much to Applejack’s surprise though, the Kaiju didn’t follow up its lucky hit, running from the downed Frontier Justice instead of staying to finish them off. Whatever its reasons she was glad, they would’ve been sitting ducks. It instead made a beeline straight for Daring Dragoon.
“We’re down but we’re alright.” Applejack said brusquely, slowly, methodically starting to stand their Jaeger up again. ”Give us a sec to get back into it.”
***
Rainbow Dash’s heart lurched as Frontier Justice toppled over as if in slow motion, sending up a majestic wave of water as it impacted the ocean.
“We’re down, but we’re alright. Just give us a sec.” Applejack reported.
She breathed a silent thanks. A whack that like could hurt, but it sounded like AJ and Big Mac had bruised nothing more than their egos.
“We see it, it’s coming right for us.” Lightning Dust said, tossing a furtive look over her shoulder as if she could see out the back of the conpod. “You with us boys?”
“We got your back.” Wave Chill replied.
“Well then try and keep up!” Lightning Dust jeered as Daring Dragoon jumped into the attack. Charybdis had made it only a few steps from where Frontier Justice lay partly submerged before they were on it. Although not nearly as fast, Sceptre Six was right on their tail, skirting a little wider to flank the Kaiju while they distracted it.
As usual, Daring didn’t hold back, jumping right into the brawl with its considerably larger opponent. They easily slipped past the Kaiju’s first wide strike and caught the follow up in their left hand. The whole Jaeger shook as they took the hit, machine and flesh struggling back and forward to overcome each other.
It was strong. Too strong to try and flip or toss, so they threw a wide haymaker, their fist catching the underside of its broad hammerhead and momentarily dazing it.
Sceptre Six now came in, but its pilots hadn’t anticipated Charybdis stumbling and the jab which was supposed to connect with the Kaiju’s shoulder went wide, almost hitting Daring Dragoon.
“Hey watch it!” Rainbow yelped as they shifted out of the way of the wide swing. What were Soarin and Wave Chill playing at? Throwing a punch like that into the fight was just as likely to hit them as it was Charybdis. If they could just grab it and hold it still...
“Sor- ofph!” Wave Chill’s apology was cut off as Charybdis’ tail swung around and smashed Sceptre Six aside, the Jaeger toppling over backwards with a huge splash of frigid water.
The distraction gave Daring Dragoon an opening though, and the Jaeger pounced, a hand going between Charybdis’ arms and the other pushing back against the claw which held it, lifting it high above the Kaiju’s head. A burst from the Jaeger’s thrusters was enough to shove the Kaiju over onto its side. The Jaeger dug a knee into the Kaiju’s gut and fired an impact hammer into the Kaiju’s midsection.
CRACK
The sound of snapping bone and flesh rang out, uncomfortably loud even through the Jaeger’s conpod. Charybdis roared, its lower arm almost exploding at the joint and a bloody crater where the impact hammer had struck. Undaunted, it threw its hefty mass to the side, dislodging Daring Dragoon and regaining its feet with a deft roll. Down on all fours it hissed and spat, globs of ichor falling from its mouth. It looked much less certain of itself, breathing heavily and growling each time it moved. They’d hurt it badly, that much was evident.
Rainbow grinned as it rushed forward and they casually ducked under a wide, desperate swipe. This was too easy! Charybdis was too slow and cumbersome to wrestle with them this close, not with an arm out of the fight at least.
In the gloom they didn’t see its tail come from up high, aimed at where their dodge would take them. For all its ease, their dodge was flashy and easily telegraphed. Now suddenly trying to overcome their Jaeger’s inertia was nigh impossible.
‘Thrusters!’ Rainbow willed, the Jaeger’s oversized maneuvering jets firing to violently throw them off course.
It might’ve worked, had the Kaiju’s tail not come apart at the end like thin petals of a flower, petals sharpened to deadly points, and scattered out in a wide arc. With a sickening smash, two barbs ripped through the viewport of the conpod like paper, shattering the thinly armoured screen and latching onto the floor grate barely a metre in front of the two rangers. The third one burrowed into the bottom of the Jaeger’s head with a sickening squeal of metal, grabbing the Jaeger’s chin in a vice-like grip.
Full-blown terror gripped Rainbow Dash as the barb started tightening and tugging, ripping, lashing, clawing and scratching like a wolf trying to reach down a crevasse after a trapped rabbit. She scrambled back as far as she could, the barb slashing the air where she’d been half a moment before.
It knew they were in there.
The sync alarm chimed in her helmet but she barely heard it, the thought shaking her to her core. It knew they were in there. It knew. How did it know? How could it possibly know?
She didn’t have the time to ponder this question further as Charybdis smashed one of its claws against the side of the conpod, then the other, ripping through the Jaeger’s head like tinfoil. She felt the massive impact, her harness snap and then the side of the conpod rush to greet her before the world went black.
***
Sceptre Six hauled itself to its feet groggily, warnings flashing across every screen and pings and shudders sounding from its beaten hull. Soarin groaned, his chest felt like it had been crushed. He could feel a deep buckle high across the Jaeger’s chest where Charybdis’ tail had struck them. A coughing fit threatened to overtake him, and although he knew it was just neural feedback, it felt like every rib had been broken. He spat, a glob of blood streaking the inside of his helmet and grimaced; maybe something was actually broken.
Wave Chill didn’t seem much better, wincing with every movement as they hauled themselves upright.
“It hits like a freight train!” Wave Chill coughed.
Soarin resisted the urge to yell at him. He’d swung wide, far too wide, and left them open. They’d nearly hit Daring Dragoon. Anger replaced his pain, a raging fury threatening to overwhelm the drift. Dark storm clouds, a solitary ship being battered in a howling storm… He quickly reigned it in before one of them slipped, they needed to focus, now more than ever. Later, when they weren’t in mortal peril he could rip Wave Chill into pieces.
Wave Chill’s presence retreated, latching onto and starting to shield itself from Soarin’s anger. The mental weight of the Jaeger started to press down on Soarin, threatening to drive him to his knees.
‘Damn it, now isn’t the time for that either.’ Soarin thought instantly regretting losing his temper. He risked a quick look at Wave Chill, relieved to see him snap out of his brief reverie. ‘That’s it, focus! Remember your training!’
Charybdis was fifty metres away, down on all fours at facing Daring Dragoon. A whole section of its gut looked like it had been caved in, clear evidence that the other Jaeger had been busy. It swung clumsily, too clumsily, Soarin realised. It had been a feint. A thrill of horror ran down his spine as its tail arced above it and dove for Daring Dragoon, the Jaeger having dodged the purposefully clumsy strike . A warning had only half formed in his mouth when the tail smacked home, ripping the front of the other Jaeger’s conpod to shreds.
“NO!” He and Wave Chill roared in unison, but it was too late. They were still twenty metres away when Charybdis ripped a claw through the crown of the other Jaeger’s conpod, shredding through it like a grater through a block of cheese. Daring tottered for a second before plunging sidewards into the surf, its limbs slack.
And then Sceptre Six was on it, the entire Jaeger howling with animalistic fury as it smashed into Charybdis.
A fierce uppercut knocked the Kaiju back, the tremendous force jarring Soarin’s shoulder as the Jaeger’s fist impacted the flat base of the Kaiju’s boney head. Charybdis righted itself, but the Rangers had anticipated this, a second wide punch catching the other side of the Kaiju’s head and sending it sprawling.
They were acting almost on instinct now, hammering the Kaiju without pause or hesitation. Muscle strands strained and threatened to break, the Jaeger’s pilots demanding more from them than they could manage. Soarin and Wave Chill moved in perfect unison, pummeling Charybdis with such ferocity it barely managed to get a return strike in. For a moment, the Jaeger and its crew was united in singular purpose.
The two Rangers slipped their Jaeger to the side, dodging an almost drunken swipe of the Kaiju’s claw by a hairsbreadth. With a fluid motion the Jaeger locked its hands around the monster’s shoulders, viciously yanking it aside to try and drag Charybdis from its feet. Despite the rain of blows it had taken, the Kaiju didn’t go over easily, its claws desperately scrabbling for purchase on the roof of the Jaeger’s sloped chest. Shrieks and squeals echoed through the conpod as talons scraped across the armour a few metres away. Soarin and Wave Chill immediately shifted their grip, grabbing the Kaiju around its wrists and forcing its claws away. Charybdis snapped and snarled, pushing back with a terrifying amount of strength. It was getting desperate, its eyes and strange body tattoos burning bright as fear and adrenaline gave its limbs strength. Without warning, Soarin released the Kaiju’s right arm, letting it drop away into empty space before Charybdis could react. He slammed his fist home once more, he and Wave Chill rolling Sceptre Six’s weight with the blow to push the Kaiju away. They took a half-step back, creating more room between them as Charybdis reeled.
“Rockets.” Soarin breathed coolly as the Kaiju started to rally.
They didn’t give it the chance.
Sceptre Six’s rocket tubes hissed open, the drab, scratched plates protecting the launchers flipping up smartly. The Jaeger planted its huge feet firmly into the ground as half a dozen streaks of fire whipped out from its shoulders and splashed across Charybdis in a whirlwind of fury. The first four blossomed against the Kaiju’s chest, and for a moment the Kaiju rose, clawing at the air with a strangled roar before the fifth impacted against its head, the armour piercing warhead burrowing through the creature’s eye before exploding. Charybdis toppled backwards, sizzling merrily as it crashed back into the surf. The last missile roared past the Kaiju’s shoulder and splashed harmlessly into the ocean some distance away. A great cloud of steam rose from the Kaiju as the fires which blazed across it were abruptly extinguished by the falling snow.
Sceptre Six didn’t waste any time, wheeling around to assist their stricken comrade as soon as it was clear Charybdis had breathed its last. Frontier Justice was already on hand though, its red-faced pilots finally having caught up with the fight and hauling Daring Dragoon upright without any hesitation or need for direction. Water poured in great torrents from holes in the Jaeger’s conpod, billowing away wildly in the freezing wind.
“Medevac. Now.” Wave Chill blurted, his mind too entangled with the body of the Jaeger to use words. He almost had a predatory look about him, his eyes drawn open wide and his mouth twisted into a snarl, his back slightly hunched in imitation of Sceptre Six’s stance. It took Soarin a moment of reflection to realise he probably looked the same.
“Wave Chill.” Soarin said aloud, struggling to distance himself from the machine-like thoughts which chattered and gnawed at the edge of his mind. It was the closest he’d ever felt to being the Jaeger, almost more machine than pony.
“Wave Chill.” Soarin repeated.
“What?!” Wave Chill snapped, rounding on Soarin like a hungry timberwolf. Soarin could see the helplessness, the anger in his eyes. He knew exactly how he felt over the flagging neural link and it took all of his strength to not retreat into himself as Wave Chill’s emotion crashed over him like a typhoon.
Eventually, Wave Chill pushed back the baying wolves and chattering machine in his mind and broke down into anguish. The combat high was wearing off, being replaced by an overwhelming sense of despair. “Oh fuck, I killed them. I fucking killed them. They’re dead and it’s all my fucking fault.” He sobbed, collapsing in his harness. He stared blankly out the conpod’s viewport at the ruined Daring Dragoon, alternating between whimpers and great heaving sobs. Soarin stumbled, suddenly nauseous as the drift unraveled unpleasantly. He tried to reign it in but Wave Chill’s consciousness had completely retreated into the fortress of his mind and was unconsolable.
‘He’s going into shock.’ Soarin thought numbly, amazed at how calm he was given the situation. It probably wouldn’t last. “AJ, status?” He asked quietly, casting his gaze towards the wreck of Darin Dragoon. Illuminated by Frontier Justice’s massive searchlights he could see the full extent of the Jaeger’s damage.
The conpod was still intact, incredibly, but three deep scars were gouged into the Jaeger’s crown and the viewport was managed almost beyond recognition. Each hit had compromised the hull and even if the direct hits hadn’t turned the two pilots to paste, the dip into the ocean might have.
“Wait one.” Applejack responded. Soarin could see her making her way carefully down Frontier Justice’s arm, heedless of the danger of slipping and falling some eighty metres to the water below. Picked out sharply in the lights from her Jaeger, the ranger almost looked like a valkyrie of legend. Once she’d made the hair-raising trip over to the other Jaeger, ot took her a minute or so to find way inside without shredding herself.
A Broadway appeared out of the muck, its pilot struggling to keep it steady over Daring Dragoon. A squad of pegasi debussed from the transport’s side, jumping out into the maelstrom one after the other without fear or hesitation. They descended on Daring Dragoon, land atop the Jaeger and similarly started looking for ways inside. Although he wanted to deny it with every fibre of his being, the analytical part of Soarin’s mind was sure there was no way the two rangers inside had survived and the medical team would only be serving as a burial detail.
“Soarin, it’s a real mess in here.” Applejack reported, her voice snapping Soarin out of his stupor. “Those docs better get here real soon, they’re in a real bad way.”
“They’re alive?!” Soarin responded, his voice breaking with astonishment.
“Barely. They’re… they’re… oh Celestia...” Applejack choked back, her voice on the verge of cracking. The fact that mare was still operating despite the circumstances, Soarin found amazing. She must’ve left her channel open as Soarin could now hear other voices, the medics having evidently found a way in. He couldn’t make out the words, but the urgency of their tone spoke of the seriousness of his pilot’s conditions. He heard a muffled clanging above his head, somepony was knocking on the top access hatch.
“Open up sir.” A mare with a voice as warm as honey asked over the radio.
He opened the top hatch, fumbling with the controls a moment before hitting the right button. He was operating on autopilot now, rigid discipline and training the only thing keeping him from collapsing into a heap and curling up into a ball. He was starting to visibly shake though, not a good sign.
‘Sleep when you’re dead, Clipper.’ A voice said in his head.
“Thank you, sir. Bit cold out.” The mare said in a surprisingly chipper tone, dropping into the Jaeger with another similarly dressed medic. “You alright?” Soarin nodded and wordlessly pointed at the catatonic Wave Chill, waving away the ministrations of the second corpsman. They spent a minute fussing over him before the mare reported back.
“We’ll take him back with us, are you right to handle everything here by yourself sir?”
“I’ll be fine.” Soarin responded hollowly as Wave Chill was bundled up and half carried, half walked out of the conpod. It didn’t convince the medic though, and she gave him a quick once over before declaring his condition tolerable. A minute later they were all stowed away in the rotary and it roared off south at full pitch.
Soarin watched until the machine had vanished into the swirling storm, wondering if he’s see Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust alive again. Daring Dragoon certainly didn’t look like it, hanging dead in Frontier Justice’s iron grip. If it’s injuries carried over to its pilots in any way, Soarin didn’t see much hope for them.
“Applejack.”
“Sir?” Applejack responded after an uncomfortably long silence. She was unashamedly crying.
Soarin wished he could hug her. Lie and tell her everything would be okay. “Can you rig Daring for transport?” He said.
“Yes- yes sir. I think so.” She replied.
“Good, we’re heading home.”