Upon that order being given, Hitch, Sunny, Pipp, Zipp, and Izzy all climbed into their respective, colour coded machines, all of which stood idle and inert at the moment. Upon finishing climbing in and checking over the controls, ready to get moving, each of them hit a lever that brought the onboard engines rumbling into life, causing the cockpit to start to bounce.
"It's like a bouncy castle in here!" Izzy radioed.
"Yeah, how are we supposed to operate these things without getting motion sick?" Zipp asked.
"Engage the gyroscopic stabiliser," Sprout radioed. "That's the red button next to the control column."
All five pilots reached for said button and hit it. Immediately, the wobbling stopped, and the cockpit was now completely level.
"Does this machine have a phone charging port? Mine's getting a bit low," Pipp asked.
"I didn't have time to install them," Sprout replied. "Alright, I'll run you through the controls. The stick on the left is the throttle, and that's currently in neutral position. Push it forward to go forward. The more you push it forward, the faster you go. Move it backward from the neutral position to move backwards. The stick on the right controls turning with the legs, and the buttons on top of it allow you to rotate the torso. This will allow you to keep operating the weapon systems and make a flank move."
"We've got it so far!" Sunny radioed. "I think..."
"Right, next set of controls. On the joystick is another-"
"Which joystick?" Hitch called, as he wanted this to be clarified.
"Right hand joystick." There was another pause as Sprout checked his control manual. "Right then, away we go. Press that to fire your weapons. The onboard targeting computer will automatically lock the nearest target so you don't need to worry about manual aiming. Just be aware the torso can only pivot up and down about 60 degrees, and be careful not to exhaust your ammunition supplies."
"How do we switch between weapons?" Zipp radioed.
"Is anybody keeping notes on this?" Izzy added. "This could get very confusing."
"You switch between weapon banks using the green buttons in front of you. Here's how weapons are allocated." Sprout paused, so he could be certain they were paying attention. "Group 1 consists of conventional kinetic weapons, like machine guns and autocannons. Group 2 is lasers and energy weapons. Group three is missiles. Make sure to check whether yours require a target lock or are dumb fire before you fit the trigger. Don't fire every weapon at once or else your mech will overheat."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Sunny noted. "Are we ready to go? I don't think Maretime Bay could withstand much more of this carnage out there."
"Deployment to commence immediately," Sprout radioed. "Doors to the hanger are being opened imminently. Best of luck ponies, I think you'll need it."
Izzy switched to internal comms. "You do have a plan, Sunny, right?"
"Nearly!" Sunny replied, trying to cover up the fact she actually did not.
With a bang the doors to the factory slid open, and each pilot slid their control columns forward. "Go, go, go!"
With a whirr and a roar of engines, the five mechs stomped forward and out into the streets of Maretime Bay. It did not take them very long to find their target. Cloudpuff was absolutely enormous. He was so big now that he blotted out the sky, and the frequent laser blasts and stomps that flew forth from him were wreaking absolute havoc on the ground.
"We need to draw him away from Maretime Bay!" Sunny called. "Find some way of distracting him!"
Izzy lumbered forward, and hit the second green button along, firing off a short burst of laser fire. "Hey! Over here, you big puffball!"
She rotated the stick to turn the other way, but had to dodge when Cloudpuff's foot came down in her movement path. She tripped, crashed through a railing, and fell off the cliff.
"Izzy!" Pipp called. "Guys, Izzy's mech just fell over the edge!"
Seconds later, it landed in a new location. "These things can fly!" Izzy called. "Whoohoo!"
"Oh," Sprout suddenly interrupted. "I forgot to mention these units have jetpacks. However, you only have limited fuel, which can be seen on the gauge to the right."
Zipp lined up her shot, and let forth a barrage of autocannon rounds at Cloudpuff's nose. Normally, these shells would have demolished anything in front of them. However, as Cloudpuff was so large they merely tickled his nose. It did, however, get his attention, and he growled at the strange metal machines walking round him.
"I think we've got his attention!" Zipp notified the others, as she narrowly avoided walking into a building.
"We need to ensure he doesn't fly away!" Hitch called across the radio. "I think some missiles will do the trick!"
"Switch to dumb fire rounds!" Sunny added.
"It's a bit mean to call the missiles dumb!" Izzy retorted.
"It means they don't need a target lock in order to fire," Sunny replied. "Put some into the air! That'll prevent Cloudpuff from flying away!"
Sure enough, all five mechs aimed for the skies, and put up several barrages of missiles. These flew over the gigantic flying pomeranian's head, preventing him from taking off for fear of being shot down. He barked at the mechs, the noise incredibly loud and causing the ground the shake.
"Lead him this way!" Sunny called, and the machines began to march towards an empty field.
"Guys? He's not following!" Hitch called.
"Stick a couple of rockets up his butt! That ought to do the trick!" Zipp replied.
"And make him even madder than he already is? That sounds like a really bad idea!" Izzy commented over the radio.
"I just wonder what's drawing him in to that part of town!" Pipp commented, noticing a rather curious pattern to all of Cloudpuff's movements.
"He's going after the sweet shop!" Sunny realised. "We can't let him eat any of the chocolate!"
"Oh yeah! Good idea! I don't think it'd agree with his stomach!" Pipp called.
"And not only that it'd be incredibly hard to move him at that size," Zipp noted.
"I have an idea!" Hitch said down the radio. "How about we utilise our firepower to get rid of that particular problem?"
"You mean blow up the sweet shop?" Sunny asked. "Isn't that illegal?"
"It's that or the entire town gets flattened by a gigantic flying dog," Zipp pointed out. "I say we do it."
There were numerous shouts of agreement across the board as the team heard the idea. "Right then. Missiles away!"
All five mechs locked their target, and with a single hit of the trigger fired off their firepower. Several homing rockets flew out off the various weapon ports on the mechs and screamed through the air. Time seemed to slow down as their fuel supplies dropped off, and the engines stopped seconds before impact. They whistled underneath the gigantic form of Cloudpuff, and smashed into the sweet shop with the force of a thunderbolt. The chained series of explosions severely weakened the building, and it collapsed onto the ground, the contents of the store being flattened in the process.
"My shop!" shouted a pony nearby.
"Sorry!" Sunny called over the loud hailer. "I shall see to it that you are fully reimbursed for your losses."
With nothing else to attract him away from the gigantic walking, beeping machines, Cloudpuff decided to swing back around and continue his attack. He barked extremely loudly and began to chase the column of robots into another location, the noise of weapon fire continuing to attract him even if the weapons were proving to be largely innefective at damaging him in any way.
"This is Sprout to squadron. How's it going out there, over?"
"Target is being drawn out of town. We should be able to employ countermeasures to undo the problem soon, over?"
"And how precisely do you plan to stop that thing, over?"
Sunny had formulated her plan, and with great speed began to explain it. "Cloudpuff is wearing the Alicorn Amulet, a very powerful and incredibly powerful magical device that grants the wearer great power in return for gradually corrupting them. This is what must have caused him to grow to such incredible size and be able to inflict so much damage!"
"So, how does that help us, over?"
"The Alicorn Amulet can only be depowered when it is removed from the wearer, but the problem is it can't be forcibly removed- the wearer has to willingly remove it. This is where Queen Haven comes in."
"I'm listening!"
"You know Cloudpuff better than anypony else around here. We need your help to pursuade him to remove the Alicorn Amulet of his own accord, and then we can return him to normal and get this artefact to a safe place."
"Whatever you do, hurry!" Izzy called over the radio. "I have a coolant leak!"