Four years ago
They were brothers. They were a team. They were two of the best pilots to ever come out of the ANZAC Avengers. Carlos and his brother, Jake. They were almost unbeaten in battle, relying on each other for help, and working together for the success of any mission given to them. Known as the Goliath Brothers, they were inseparable on the battlefield, always standing side by side. Carlos's Goliath was a complete opposite from his brothers, being a sleek silver, and brandishing long range weaponry. He was the long range combat specialist, but could prove beyond deadly in close quarters with his Talon rifle, and his suits fists. Jake was the close to medium range specialist. Both revered for their tenacity, and well respected. But that all changed on that fateful day.
"Oi, Jake. How many 'ave you got?" Carlos asked his younger brother as he just finished beating the daylights out of a Fang, a little one tone suit.
Meanwhile, Jake was currently dancing around a pair of heavy Vikings, his own Goliath looking like an 18 tonne ballet dancer. "I'm a little busy over here," he responded as he parred with one of the Vikings with his left hand blade. He responded to this by sweeping his right foot into the Viking's legs, causing it to tumble to the ground. Jake then plunged his left hand blade into the cockpit, killing the pilot instantaneously. Then turned to his right where the second Viking waited, it's name sake double edged ax poised to split him in half. The enemy pilot swung his ax in a downwards diagonal fashion, Fucking idiot, you're not supposed to do that when your opponent has swords, jake thought with a sadistic grin on his face.
Jake thrust his left blade out once again into an out and upward swing that would land it under the ax handle, he continued with this motion as the ax was deflected up and over his head which caused the Viking to stumble. And as he stumbled, he brought his back to Jake who then thrust his right arm blade deep into the armor and out the other side, then Jake pulled out his autocannon and fired a short two second burst into the back of the doomed suit. The Dire Wolf autocannon was designed as a mid range weapon of up to a kilometer, so of course at a range of three inches, his autocannons super dense rounds tore the pilots compartment apart leaving a massive hole in the chest of the now well and truly beyond repair war machine. "Make that about 30 kills so far," Jake finally answered his brother as he pulled out his sword, and retracted his weapons. "How bout yourself?"
Carlos's machine slumped it's shoulders, "Fifteen..."
Jake then pretended to act like he was rutting, pumping his fists in and out from his mid section, while moving his groin in time with his pumping arms. "Sssssuck it, and don't say it wasn't your fault. You're the one who insisted on chasing that Fang all over the place," Jake said as he pointed a giant steel finger at his brother.
Carlos just waved a metal hand in casual dismissal, "Ah fuck off," he chuckled.
Jake plodded over to his brother and slapped a flame painted hand on his shoulder, "It's alright bro... I'm just better," Jake said with a chuckle. Carlos put a metal hand on Jake's suits head, and promptly gave him a shove with a hearty laugh.
"Like fuck you are, little bro," Carlos said with a chuckle. "'Ay, I'll shout a pint of me own special brew. Whaddya say?"
"We still have diesel fuel? I thought we ran out a few years ago? Have you finally taken up a hobby, even though it could be called hoarding?" Jake asked with a laugh. He prided himself in being the only one who could make jokes of that nature to Carlos's face, and live to tell the tale. Carlos just responded with a raised middle finger, before plodding off for home.
After four hours marching, they eventually saw their home in the distance. "Fucking FINALLY," Carlos uttered before moving towards home. Jake though, his nerves were on suddenly on edge. He didn't know why, but something was giving him the shits as it were. He checked his radar, nothing, so he did a manual check by looking at the surroundings. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but still something was making him nervous. He didn't know what, but it was starting to scare him.
"Carlos? Something's wrong here, something is very wrong."
Carlos froze, Jake usually had a good nose for sniffing out ambushes or attack waves. Forgoing normal protocol, Carlos jumped on the radio, "Gulf-91-Alpha calling Red Glory, Gulf-91-Alpha calling Red Glory, over." Carlos's voice showing the slight hint of panic and fear. When ever Jake felt like this, he was rarely ever wrong.
"Gulf-91-Alpha, this is Red Glory. We have you on scope 10 clicks out, what's the hold up? Over."
"Glory? Something is setting off Betas ATBFA senses at the moment. Requesting a radar wide scan, full spectrum, over."
"Roger, request granted. We will have the results in five mikes. I say again, five mikes, over."
"Roger, confirm five mikes. 91-Alpha, out," Carlos then turned to his younger brother. "It'll be alright lil' bro, I promise nothing will happen to you, we're a team aren't we?" Carlos asked Jake. His words sounding like he himself was questioning the strength of their brotherly bond.
------
Present day.
Applejack heard Jake wake from his nightmare. She had heard him toss, tumble and mutter things in his fitful sleep from the couch in the living room. As she got up to check on him, she took note of the time, and made her way down
2:38am.
When she made the bottom of the stairwell, she saw the tall lanky figure that was Jake go out the door. Applejack followed as quiet as she could possibly could, she followed Jake into the barn and saw him standing there in front of his war machine.
"It was my fault he died."
Those words made Applejack cock her head in puzzlement, what did he mean? Applejack took this as an invitation, and went closer to the human and his kneeling vehicle.
"I should have been the one to take that sword. I was the one who should have had the seal failure," Jake said with a slight break in his otherwise, steel voice, as he raised a pale hand to the belly of the titan. He then placed his hand under some white painted text that Applejack thought was the war machines name, Carlos. "I love you brother..."
Applejacks vision swam, she had thought that name was just some unusual pun for his machine. Oh how wrong she was. Carlos was Jakes brother!, she thought repeatedly in her head. As she shook her head clear she noticed Jake kneeling on the ground with his arms limp by his sides, like the titan before him. Applejack walked over, sat beside him, and put a comforting hoof over his shoulder. She flinched a bit when Jake reached up with a hand, and rested it atop her hoof over his shoulder. But was equally surprised when he gave her hoof a gentle squeeze.
"I can't thank you enough for taking me in like this. Taking in a complete stranger, one who has known nothing but war for the past ten years. Death and destruction on a daily basis can take its toll on most men, we are no more, but we are the same. It all comes to a point, where we freeze. We lock up, unable to do anything when our loved ones need us." Applejack sat down next to Jake, and grabbed him in a full on hug when she noticed small spots of wetness on the ground in front of his knees. He didn't shy away from her nor did he even notice. She had no words of comfort for Jake, she hadn't even seen a soldier in her life, so her words of hones wisdom were for once, useless. The only thing she could afford to do for this haunted soul for the time being, is to give him some tender loving attention as he cried openly at his haunted past.
---
Canterlot.
Luna was jarred from her trance, her face showing fear and... relief. She had looked into the dreams of her newly acquired warrior, and was truly frightened by the scale of battles he was accustomed with, and relived that she had picked the perfect one for the job. The Gryphon Empire had acquired some new toys for their military. Where they had gotten them, she and her sister did not know. What she did know though, was this human would stop at nothing to rid them from their peaceful world, for he would be most familiar with them.
She knew that he would do anything in his power to protect his new home, and preventing it from ending up like his old realm. "I knew I have chosen wisely with you guardian. I foresee happiness in your future. Please don't let us down. We are counting on you."
Luna then looked off to the west, to see a large glowing red cloud. It spoke of death, destruction and doom for all.