Forever With You
“This is Ranger 017, Black Flash, reporting to the capital,” One of the Machina pilots contacted their mission control, “We have yet to make contact with the detected enemy, please brief us once more on what sort of Gurosaur we are searching for,” He said.
“They are Category 1 Fenrir-types, we last saw them around that wooded area, keep your eyes peeled and continue the search,” A female voice responded over the communicator. It wasn’t long until the squad of pilots found what they were looking for, a pack of three wolf-like creatures, each one roughly the size of an average house, their ‘skin’ was a dark silver, with visible lines and tubes carrying a mint green fluid through their body. Their heads were like flat masks with a rather unsettling mouth full of sharp teeth around the underside.
“Black Flash, reporting to the capital once more, we found them,” The male pegasus spoke once more.
“Alright, now do what you have to, but proceed with caution,” The mission control mare replied.
“Nobody said my first mission would actually be dangerous!” Black Flash’s co-pilot briefly protested, but as it was her job, she followed her partner’s orders when he told the squad to circle the targets before attacking. The four Machinas strafed around the Gurosaurs before activating their back engines and dashing at the wolves, attacking them with the spears they were armed with. Black Flash made a deep gash on one of the creatures’ necks, making the green blood flood out onto the snow as it keeled over. One of them bit another mech’s arm, damaging it severely.
“Captain, my unit’s right arm got hurt, and pretty badly at that!” Another pilot shouted over the communicator.
“Suck it up, it’ll get fixed later, focus on the two targets le- Where did they go?!” Black Flash was surprised at the monsters disappearing so fast, however, when one of them tried to jump at his Machina, he was quick to slice it in two before it landed any hits, “One more to go,” He stated. The last wolf attacked one of the pilots from the front, as if it was just giving itself up, and it quickly died with the others.
“Phew, that was pretty easy, I expected more,” Black Flash’s partner sighed with relief that it was already over.
“I did too, but they were only Category 1,” He replied, “Let’s get going,” Black Flash stated, and began to move back to base, although, one of his fellow pilots brought up a good point.
“Isn’t it odd that they got us all the way out here? It’s pretty far from the capital, pretty much the middle of nowhere,” She said, “What were they even looking for out here? Aren’t they just animals?” Black Flash briefly reflected on those words, but by the time he made some decision, it was too late and some mysterious, until then undetected, Gurosaur took them and their robots out one by one. The ponies at the base panicked as the signals for each duo of pilots just went blank, no camera feed, no vital signs, just static.
About 4 Years Later
A few years passed since the incident with Black Flash and his squad disappearing, presumably never to be seen again. It was spring when one Twilight Sparkle returned to Canterlot, she had been living in the town of Ponyville for a while, and was having quite a peaceful time, so she found it odd when she was summoned to return to her home city. Arriving at the princesses’ castle, Twilight was met by their receptionist, who took her to a guide that would lead her to Celestia’s throne room.
“I mean, I know my way around here, why did Celestia have to make everything so much more complicated like having guides and other workers all around the castle?” Twilight was confused at her old mentor’s choices, but as she didn’t get an answer, she didn’t complain further.
Arriving at the throne room, Celestia was happy to see Twilight, who was allowed to walk up to the princess on her own.
“Ah, Twilight, you certainly are a sight for sore eyes,” Celestia began, “In times like these, seeing my most renowned student brings nothing but joy, if only we were just here to talk about how we’ve been and share some tea,” She got more serious as she spoke.
“So, what did you need me for?” Twilight asked.
“Well, it’s very simple, I have summoned you here to tell you that you’ve been accepted into the Equestrian Defense Corps,” Celestia stated, clapping her hands together.
“But… I never enlisted or anything,” Twilight replied.
“Well, no, you didn’t, but you are the one I trust the most, I genuinely thought you’d be excited to get away from living in a quiet little town and actually protect Equestria,” Celestia said.
“I mean, on one hand, sure, but on the other, I moved down to Ponyville out of your own recommendation, that I shouldn’t overwork myself in Canterlot and try to follow my dreams of living a normal life, not surrounded by any royal duties,” Twilight responded, “But, y’know, if you say I should do this now, I didn’t have much going on anyway,” She added.
“Come on now, there’s no need to feel bad on any front,” Celestia got up and hugged Twilight, “I know my decisions regarding you can get confusing, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to follow everything I say,” She assured her.
“Alright then, when do I start?” Asked Twilight.
“The headquarters is just under the castle, I’ll call up a guard to take you there,” Celestia said.
Soon after, Twilight was in a completely different place, it was hard to believe the beautiful, pearly white royal castle was just above that drab, silver and cyan facility, but that was the Defense Corps headquarters. Passing the main entrance, Twilight and the guard came to a huge cylindrical chamber. The outer ring she stood at had many doors, while the hangar below held all the Machina units.
‘They’re a lot smaller than I honestly imagined’ Twilight thought, looking at the many mechs stacked and lined up past the large window.
Twilight followed the guard to a room, the door marked with the number ‘07’, the door opened and there were already six other ponies, one stallion and five mares, on the bunk beds and at desks and chairs in the room, they all turned to face Twilight, who was gently pushed in by the guard as the door closed behind her. Twilight was slightly uncomfortable being surrounded by these ponies she never met but who probably knew each other quite well by then, but when a pink earth mare stepped up to her and greeted her, the uneasiness was washed away.
“Hi there, miss…” She tried to guess what Twilight’s name was, but before she said anything, the purple mare spoke up.
“Um, Twilight,” She introduced herself, “Twilight Sparkle.” She looked at the other recruits in the room, there was the pink bubbly mare that greeted her, an orange mare with a piece of wheat sticking out of her mouth and very typical farmer attire, a yellow pegasus who seemed to be caring for a stuffed animal, a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and a roughed-up sporty outfit, a red stallion who dressed quite like the orange mare, but in a more masculine fashion, and a mostly gray mare with a purple dress, “And you all are?” Twilight nervously asked.
“Let me do the honors,” The rainbow-maned one stepped up.
“When do ya not?” The farmer mare said, annoying her teammate a bit.
“Anyways, welcome to Squad 07, Twilight,” She proceeded to introduce all of the members to the newest addition, “I’m Rainbow Dash, the one with the bunny is my partner, Fluttershy, she’s Pinkie Pie, and back there is her sister, Maud, and those two are also siblings, Applejack and Big Mac.”
“Well, hi to all of you! It’s nice to meet you,” Twilight said, “But, wait, you said something about Fluttershy being your partner? Celestia didn’t really say anything about driving those robots in pairs,” Twilight realized.
“Ah’m sure something will happ’n and the princess’ll get us yet another teammate to be your partner,” Applejack said, her brother nodded in agreement.
A few minutes later, when Twilight had set herself up on a bed to try and rest a bit, the door opened once more, another mare had arrived at the room, she had an orange coat with a red and yellow mane, and much unlike Twilight, she immediately had the confidence to introduce herself.
“Hello! I got transferred here from the Crystal Empire division by royal orders,” She began, “The name’s Sunset Shimmer, and, I guess I’m one of you all now,” Sunset said.
“So, do you have any experience?” Rainbow asked, looking at Sunset up and down.
“Well, of course, and I’ve heard plenty of stories about the infamous Squad 07,” Sunset briefly joked.
“Wait, we’re infamous?!” Rainbow’s eyes filled with completely unnecessary glee.
“Pretty sure that’s a bad thing,” Applejack said, Sunset and her then burst into laughter at Rainbow’s expense, and Twilight, in the back of the room, simply chuckled, watching the situation unfold.
“Anyways, Celestia also assigned me as the new squad leader, being the one with the most experience now,” Sunset pointed out, adding insult to Rainbow’s injury. Twilight opened the drawer on her bedside desk and found a white booklet with the picture of a robot, one of the Machinas, on the cover, it was a pilot’s instruction guide, and as much as she wanted to sit down and read it all, a voice over the facility’s intercom had other plans.
“Requesting squads 07 and 09, get dressed and report to the main hangar,” The voice called out. Twilight didn’t put down her manual and just tried to ‘speed read’ it before leaving, but Sunset took her by the arm and forced her to drop the small book, the entire squad ran to the locker rooms, pretty much at the other side of the circular corridor. All the stallions and mares from each squad entered their respective gender’s rooms to get dressed into their piloting suits.
After Twilight got over being too embarrassed to take off her clothes and get in the outfit, she was able to put it on with everyone else looking away, with the press of a button, the suit conformed to her body, and they all headed into the hangar, though, Sunset and Twilight stayed behind.
“Oh yeah,” Sunset said, not turning to face Twilight, “I forgot to ask something, what’s your name?” She questioned.
“Um, I’m Twilight Sparkle, why?”
“I mean, wouldn’t you say it’s good to know who you’re gonna be piloting with?” Sunset said, and the thought of using a robot with someone infinitely more experienced than her just made her more nervous than before.
To Be Continued