A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Chapter Two: Fuel for the Fire
Shane paced around the conpod of Midsummer Night uncertainly, the dim lighting casting deep shadows across the control surfaces as he paced tirelessly. The reactor had failed after their encore performance with Switchback, leaving them back on battery power until someone got down into their reactor spaces with a hammer and bashed it back into shape.. True to her word though, the princess had sent aid to them. A small armada of boats and dirigibles had formed over the space of a few hours and were now slowly towing them through the harbour under the direction of a quartet of the curious winged ponies.
“Where are they taking us?” He asked, glaring through the windshield as one of the flying ponies shot past, leaving a thick trail of black smoke in its wake.
“You’re asking the wrong guy.” Michael said with an air of indifference that annoyed Shane immensely. His older brother was leaning against the side of the conpod with his hands cupped behind his head. “How about you ask one of them?”
Shane scoffed derisively. “Fat chance.”
“Relax.” Michael said, lifting his head slightly.
“Relax? How can I relax? For intents and purposes we’ve been captured by an alien race of sentient ponies who can goddamn fly.” Shane snapped. “I think I’m well within my right to be freaking out a bit.”
“Well we introduced them to our three hundred foot friend and they seem to be doing fine.” Michael said. ”I think its fair to say that both parties here have had a bit of a rough day.”
Shane crossed his arms in frustration, conceding that Michael had a point. “Whatever.” He grumbled, sitting down next his brother. He pulled a glove off and wriggled his fingers around. “So now what?”
Michael shrugged. “I reckon we roll with it. Give these things the benefit of the doubt and let them help us.”
“Or pretend to help us.” Shan muttered darkly
“Call it a gut feeling, but I think these guys are better than that.” Michael said before his face hardened. “And really, look at us, what other choice do we have? We’re in no position to fight again and I don’t think I could hold off an entire county by myself.”
Shane grunted and pulled his glove back on. “Don’t suppose you’ve got any food? I’m starving.” He asked, quickly changing the topic.
Michael shook his head. “Our 'captors' might feed you if you ask them nicely.”
Shane grimaced. “Don’t horses normally eat hay? Who knows if they’ll have something edible?”
“Well these are alien horses remember?” Michael said with a chuckle as he clambered to his feet. “Who knows what food they do have?” He stepped up to the control panel and activated the external speakers. “Hey, Smokey!”
The pony that had just buzzed the conpod snapped around and looked at the Jaeger in a way that Michael could only describe as 'Pant-shittingly terrified.'.
“Yeah, you. We’re hungry, don’t suppose you could organise some food for us?”
The poor pony’s jaw worked up and down for a second as it tried to comprehend the metal giant talking to it. It eventually nodded its head and darted away, another trail of smoke drifting behind it.
“Well that worked.” Michael said idly. He turned to Shane. “Do you want the chicken or fish?”
“I’ll take the lasagne thanks.”
***
Twilight paced back and forth across the hotel suite, her hooves thudding away on the luxurious carpet like a storm of hail. While the hotel Princess Celestia had organised for them was well away from the trail of destruction that ran through Manehatten, the smell of charred wood and concrete dust still assaulted her sinuses. Celestia had promised them an explanation… later. Twilight growled, she didn’t want later, she wanted now! She wanted to know why a good chunk of the city had been turned to matchsticks, she wanted to know what she could do about it and most importantly, she wanted to know what that thing out in harbour was! Rarity glared at her from the bed, Twilight’s constant pacing distracting her from another one of her sketchs.
“Twilight, do settle down please; your constant thumping is very off-putting.” She said levelly.
“Settle down? Half the city is in flames and you want me to settle down!?” Twilight snapped crossly. Feeling a little guilty she stopped pacing and curled up on another bed, a scowl etched on her face.
“I’m with you Twilight, I can’t just sit here and watch. I need to do something!” Rainbow Dash said, her wings jittering occasionally as she sat by the window. Her head snapped around to track a streak that flew past the window, a trail of dark smoke billowing in its wake. “That was a Wonderbolt!” She exclaimed, her wings snapping out in excitement. “I can’t just sit here, the city’s ruined and the Wonderbolts are here! Maybe I can finally show them my stuff!” She said giddily, pulling the window open.
“The Princess told us to stay here.” Rarity said firmly, slamming the window shut and locking it before Rainbow Dash could fly away.
“Yeah, well, that sucks.” Rainbow grumbled, folding her hooves across her chest crossly.
“Rainbow, I can understand you want to get out and help but we don’t what’s going on. You could get hurt… or worse. We should sit tight till the princess can see us.” Applejack said firmly.
A quiet knock came from the door and an armoured Pegasus guard pushed it open. “The Princess will see you now.” He said “Please, follow me.”
“You head the man, let’s go.” Rainbow said, swooping out the door before any of the other ponies could respond. There were a murmurs of assent from Applejack and Rarity and they trooped out behind her. Pinkie, who had been silent since they reached the city wordlessly followed. Twilight looked around for Fluttershy, spotting the timid Pegasus hiding in the corner.
“Come on Fluttershy, we can’t keep Celestia waiting.”
“I think I’ll just stay here.” Fluttershy squeaked.
Twilight sighed and gave her shy friend a gentle hug, “I understand a lot has happened since we got here but I need you Fluttershy, we all do. You can be brave.”
Fluttershy whimpered. “But it’s so hard. Just seeing all that wreckage and ruin. I can just imagine so many empty seats at the dinner able…” Fluttershy cried. “So many foals who’ll wonder where their parents went.”
“We can mourn them later.” Twilight said, biting her lip in an effort to stop her chin from wobbling. “But right now we need to do what we can to help.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath, her body still shaking slightly. “Alright, I’ll try.”
“Good girl, now come on. Let’s catch up to the others.”
Celestia looked over the vast city scape from her suite’s balcony and let out a long, heartfelt sigh. A dirigible buzzed slowly across the sky, coordinating search and rescue in some shattered part of the city. The towering machine that had effortlessly destroyed the invader was occasionally visible as it was slowly dragged towards the large drydock at the mouth of the harbour. Celesta turned her head towards the bay where the remains of the beast were barely visible above the waterline. Tiny shapes, teams in protective gear, darted around on top of it, taking what information they could from the shattered corpse.
The Jaeger, admittedly, hadn’t left them much to work with.
A dot of bright white light appeared next to her for a moment, catching her attention. The light expanded and with a quiet pop turned into a scroll. Celestia unrolled the scroll hesitantly and read its contents; revised casualty figures and property damage from one of her aides on the ground.
She winced, better than she had feared but still an unparalleled tragedy. Thousands dead, tens of thousands more injured and an untold number of buildings and vital infrastructure turned to rubble.
A quiet knock on the door broke the silence and Celestia vanished the scroll with a nod of her head.
“The element bearers, your highness.” A guard said quietly, ushering the six ponies onto the balcony before retreating. Celestia turned to greet them.
“Princess.” Twilight said with a small bow.
“Twilight.” Celestia said, putting a happy face on for her student. “It has been a while since I have seen you. If only it were a more joyous occasion that we met for now.”
Twilight nodded and looked around solemnly. Celestia summoned half a dozen chairs and gestured them to sit.
“Today we face one of the greatest disasters our nation has faced in living history. One of our greatest cities lies in ruin and we were completely powerless to stop it.” Celestia said.
“You’re talking about that big thing in the harbour right?” Rainbow Dash interjected. “We saw it on the way in.”
Celestia smiled wryly. “It depends on which one you refer to.”
Rainbow Dash’s face fell. “There is more than one of those things?”
“Precisely. Jumping to conclusions is not always the smartest thing to do, my little pony.” Celestia said sternly. “A giant beast, one of which I have never seen the likes of before rose out of the water and assaulted the docks. My guards and I launched an immediate counter-attack but our blows did little more than aggravate it.” Celestia shuddered. “It was only the arrival of the second one that ended its rampage. The first is little more than an environmental hazard in the bay now.”
“And then what, how’d you subdue the second one?” Twilight asked.
“We didn’t have to. I talked to it.” Celestia said.
Six mouths dropped to floor in surprise.
“The second being, calling itself a Jaeger, told me that it was from a faraway land. The beast… a Kaiju, I think it called it, was something it brought with it.”
Twilight spluttered incoherently. “What, for sport?”
“No, they said it was an accident. “
There was a brief silence.
“They?” Rarity questioned, noticing the Princess’ words.
Celestia blinked. “Yes, apparently the Jaeger is a machine with two pilots. They both talked to me briefly.”
Celestia was sure that if pony mouths were more flexible their jaws would be somewhere down near the lobby by now. “But… but… but that’s impossible!” Twilight spluttered, the reasonable part of her mind complaining lividly. “No nation could build something that big, it’s impossible! No one has the technology!”
“No one that we know of.” Celestia said.
Applejack looked at the Princess suspiciously. “Where did say this fancy machine thing was from?”
Celestia looked at the farmer blankly. “I don’t know. I could only infer from what they said that they’re not from our planet.”
There was a collective gasp.
Celestia let out a small chuckle. “Yes, aliens. Scary, isn’t it?”
“What do they look like? Are they like the little green men in the stories?” Applejack asked nervously.
Celestia shrugged. “I don’t know. I never saw them.”
“I have a question, what are they still doing here? What do they want from us?” Rainbow Dash asked suspiciously.
“A very good question, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia smiled. “From what they told me there machine was damaged beyond their capacity to repair. I agreed to help them fix it.”
“WHAT?!” Twilght screeched incredulously.
“Yes, yes. Why trust the aliens?” Celestia said predictably. She fixed them all with a steely gaze. “I believe this will be for the good of Equestria. Suppose more of its kind show up? It would better to have them as friends rather than foes.” She turned to Twilight. “Surely Twilight, you can see another benefit to this. Think of the technology we could reverse engineer, think of how much it could advance our own fields of science.”
“But that thing is dangerous!” Twilight and Rainbow Dash protested together.
“I’m no expert, but their machine looked like it was in no shape for another fight.” Celestia said confidently. “Besides, I doubt the pilots would be able to do much damage themselves. If they need such a brute to fight for them I doubt they’d be a credible threat to an entire nation. The way I see it, we’re holding most of the cards here.”
Twilight scratched her hoof against her cheek slowly. “I suppose so.”
“And you think the aliens are going to just let you waltz in and steal their stuff?” Rainbow Dash interjected again, brave enough to point out a slight flaw in Celestia’s plan.
“We’ll do it discretely if we have to.” Celestia said firmly. “But after such a disaster I think the ponies of Equestria need some recompense for an alien’s mistake.”
One by one, the six ponies nodded in agreement.
“What can we do to help then?” Twilight asked.
Celestia smiled pleasantly. “I’m glad you asked. Twiligh-.”
The princess was cut off by a loud whoosh and the clattering of hooves. In a flurry of smoke and feathers a Wonderbolt touched down expertly next to Celestia and bowed curtly, making Rainbow Dash squealed quietly with excitement.
“Your Highness.” He said, before noticing with some embarrassment the princess already had company. “Ladies.” He quickly added.
“Commander, how can I help you?” Princess Celestia asked, disguising her irritation with well-practised ease.
“I have a report from the Chief Surgeon from the Royal Manehatten Hospital.” The Wonderbolt said quickly, tugging a tightly bound scroll from a small pouch in his flight suit. “She said it was urgent.”
“Thank you, anything else?”
The Wonderbolt coughed awkwardly. “I was coordinating the flotilla when the machine spoke to me.”
Celestia’s eyes widened slightly. “What did it say?”
“I don’t suppose you could organise some food for us?” The Wonderbolt quoted sheepishly.
Celestia stared at the Wonderbolt for a few seconds before chuckling lightly. “Well I suppose it has needs like us. Perhaps I can convince them to come out for some dinner? Thank you Commander, you may return to you post. While you’re at it, get some food yourself. You look a bit famished.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” The stallion with a relived nod.
“Commander, before you go; take Rainbow Dash with you and assign her some duties. I know you’re shorthoofed at the moment and I can personally vouch for her abilities.”
The Wonderbolt saluted and jerked his head in Rainbow Dash’s direction, indicating for her to follow him.
“Yes! I get to work with the Wonderbolts! So awesome!” Rainbow squealed, spreading her wings and shooting off after the officer.
“Well that’s one down.” Celestia said with relief. She levitated the scroll up and unrolled it quickly. “Oh my…” She muttered as she read through the brief report.
“What is it?” Twilight asked, craning her head to read the scroll.
“It appears that even the beast’s blood is toxic. The Chief Surgeon has identified it as causing severe burns, poisonings and dark blue stains to anypony it touches.” Celestia muttered sourly. “Twilight, we have a small team examining the body. Go join them and set up a cordon around it, who knows how much of this has already spilled into the water. I may have to see if the Jaeger’s pilots know of this.” She turned to Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “I would like you three to go down to the Royal Hospital and help in any way you can. I’m sure the Chief Surgeon is neck deep in it right now and until we can bring in more doctors from further afield I’m sure she’ll appreciate whatever help she can get.”
“Princess? What can I do there?” Pinkie asked, finally breaking her unnaturally long silence.
“Pinkie, my dear. You have a talent for bringing a smile and a chortle to the faces of ponies everywhere. Laughter truly is the best medicine there is and I have a feeling we’re going to need a lot of it before this is over.”
“Ok, I’ll do my best.” Pinkie said with a nervous smile.
Celestia smiled reassuringly at Pinkie before turning to Applejack. “Applejack, there are many teams searching the rubble for survivors. Go help them, but first, take this message to the command post two blocks downtown. The captain in charge needs to know that the blood is dangerous.”
“You got it.” The burly farmer answered, snaffling the report and galloping back inside. “Hey Hunky where’s the command post?” Celestia heard her yell.
“Right this way ma’am.” A guard replied, promptly escorting her out of the building.
Celestia turned to the four remaining ponies. “You’d best be on your way, I have a diplomatic dinner to organise.” She said, frowning slightly. Her own task seemed incredibly superfluous compared to what she had assigned everypony else to do… she should be the one looking after her subjects, not the one coddling up to the aliens.
“A dinner with the green men from Betelgeuse V.” Twilight said with a small smile. “Sounds like the name of a terrible B movie.”
Celestia chuckled. “Well let’s hope it doesn’t end up like one either.”
***
Shane watched impassively as Midsummer Night was slowly hauled into the dock by a combination of heavy cranes and airship. The Jaeger had been slowly shifted to the mouth of the bay before being guided into a massive drydock clearly built for large oceangoing vessels of some kind. The ponies had flooded the dock and pushed the Jaeger in. They were now undergoing the laborious process of settling the Jaeger down on a set of heavy blocks and then draining the water out.
“Warning: Incoming dignitary. Recommend activating communication protocols.” The A.I. chimed, breaking Shane’s concentration. Sure enough he could spot the princess that had talked to them before winging through the sky towards them.
“Michael, get up.” He said, prodding the slumbering form of his brother with his boot. “Your pony pal is back.”
“Michael yawned loudly. “What’s the time?”
“2200 PDT. Unknown local time.”
Shane peered out of the conpod’s orange tinted windows. “I’d guess it’d be around 1800. Sun looks like it’s going down.”
“Except that’s not our sun.” Michael said, painfully reminding Shane that they were on some alien world, not Earth. “That reminds me… Sweetie, is the air outside breathable?”
“Analysing, stand by.”
“You thinking of riding with the top down?” Shane asked.
“I’ve been in this pod with you all day. I’ll take any chance I can get.” Michael said, wrinkling his nose up distastefully.
“Oh wow, thanks. Here we are stuck on an alien planet and you still complain about my B.O.?” Shane snapped.
“Gotta complain about something haven’t I?”
“Atmosphere is an Earth-like nitrogen-oxygen mix.”
“So it’s safe?” Shane asked, slightly surprised.
“Affirmative.”
“Well safer than in here at any rate.” Michael jeered.
Shane snorted and fixed his eyes back on the rapidly approaching princess. “What about her?”
“We’ll see what she wants first.” Michael said pragmatically as the pristine white pony hovered in front of the conpod.
“Hello Michael. Hello Shane.” Princess Celestia said simply.
Michael flipped the communicator on. “Hello.”
Celestia let a small smile creep onto her face. “I was told that you were hungry.”
“Yeah we are, princess lady. You got any food for us?” Shane asked bluntly.
“Be polite.” Michael muttered, “No need to be a prick.”
“I can arrange food for you. I was hoping you would dine with me and answer some questions I have. You must surely have some of your own.”
Michael turned to Shane. “She’s got a point.”
“I’m not leaving the Jaeger.” Shane said flatly. “And you’re not going anywhere without me.”
“The sentiment is touching.” Michael said in an annoyingly cute voice. He turned back to the floating pony. “But I agree. I’d rather not wander too far just yet.”
“What say you?” Celestia asked.
“We’ accept, but we’re not leaving the Jaeger.” Michael told her.
“She isn’t coming in here, this is a men’s room.” Shane muttered.
“Sorry, Shane doesn’t want you in here.” Michael relayed.
“We can dine on top of the Jaeger, is that agreeable?” Celestia asked.
Michael threw a quick look at his brother before nodding. “We can do that.”
“We are agreed then, I’ll be back in half an hour.” Celestia said, swooping away from the conpod like a massive eagle.
Michael immediately rounded on Shane. “What’s your problem?”
“My problem? What’s yours?” Shane said back, outraged. “Is it normal now to trust aliens at the drop of a hat now?”
“Shane, I’ve alrea-.”
“Look, she’s got to have some sort of ulterior motive. What does she really get out of fixing us up? Call me cynical, but I can tell she’s up to something.”
“I don’t know.” Michael grunted, carefully removing his drivesuit’s chest plate with a groan. “At the moment though, let’s just play nice and see where that gets us. If she tries to double cross us like you keep thinking she will, we can stomp them flat but until then, we try and be nice. Savvy?”
“Whatever.” Shane muttered, watching as Michael unclasped his bracers and greaves. His black bodysuit looked bare without the sleek white armour plates.
“Shane, I can understand you scepticism but I’m just doing what I think will get us out of here alive.”
Shane rubbed his forehead and nodded slowly. “Alright fine, I’ll play nice for now. But mark my words, she’s up to something.”
***
Celestia tilted her wings slightly, vectoring towards the massive head of the Jaeger. Rather than hover in front of it as she usually did, she angled to land on top of it. Like her last foray, she had left her guards behind. No point in spooking the aliens any more than she had to. A mischief grin spread across her face. ‘Well, maybe I can... just a little.’ Celestia had received various reports in the short time she was back at her suite; one from Twilight which detailed the extent of their cordon around the body and some basic attempts at neutralising its lethal blood and yet another from the Chief Surgeon confirming the arrival of several more doctors and nurses.
“It’s been a long day.” She said to herself, dipping down for the final approach. A moment later her hooves clattered against the worn metal exterior. The faint whining of servos reached her ears and she turned to discover a hatch rising at the back of the head. She held her breath as a black limb emerged above the rim of the hatch. A moment later, the rest of the creature followed, a pale white head with a sprig of sandy hair coming out of the top and a pair dark brown eyes recessed slightly into its skull, It took Celestia a moment to realise the black layer covering the alien was a bodysuit of some type and not its skin.
It extended an arm towards Celestia. “Michael O’Connell. Pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”
Celestia looked down at the five sausage-like fingers on the end of Michael’s hand curiously, wondering what he wanted her to do with them.
“A pleasure indeed.” Celestia said after a moment, slightly taken aback by the alien’s appearance. Fully upright she would’ve had no problem poking him in the eye with her horn. “I thought you would’ve been bigger.” She added.
Michael smiled, revealing two small rows of white teeth. “I tend get that a lot from the ladies.” He turned and offered one of his hands down the hatch. A moment later he had fished his brother out from the head of the Jaeger. While similar in appearance to his brother, Shane was a little stockier and better built. The plates of white armour that covered his black bodysuit certainly made for an imposing figure.
“Ma’am.” Shane muttered, not extending his hand like Michael had.
“A pleasure, Shane.” Celestia said, bowing her head slightly. While not outright hostile, his posture did not suggest he was entirely at ease with her presence.
“Well the, shall we get started? I was unsure of what your diet usually consists of so I had a bit of everything made up for you.” Celestia said in an attempt to break the tension. She focused a small amount of her power through her horn for a simple summoning spell. Shane and Michael jumped as a trio of large platters appeared with a quiet crack a metre above the deck. Their eyes locked on the hovering platters, jaws going slack with surprise.
“Well, that was unexpected.” Michael eventually managed to say.
“How’d you do that?” Shane asked, staring suspiciously at the slowly revolving platter that was now softly bumping up against his chest. Much to his surprise, the platter was covered in a range of food ranging from salads and pies to sandwiches.
“Magic.” Celestia said simply, a small smile forming on her face. “I’m guessing from your reaction that your kind doesn’t practice magic?”
The brothers shook their heads in unison. “Nope.” Michael answered, tentatively grabbing the platter in one of his hands.
“Interesting.” Celestia said. “Now, I hate to sound blunt but would you mind if I got right to it? There are some very pressing matters which I need to attend to.”
“By all means, go ahead.” Michael said, sitting down and crossing his legs. He laid the platter down on his lap and took an experimental sniff at one of the pieces of fruit on the plate. His brother wordlessly copied his actions, investigating one of the sandwiches methodically.
“Well then.” Celestia said, sinking to their level. “First, these beast-,”
“Kaiju.” Shane corrected, taking a cautious bite of his sandwich. Apparently satisfied, he tore into the meal with unrestrained gusto.
“These Kaiju, am I right in believing your people have experience in dealing with them?”
“You’d be right in that assumption. We’re had twenty three incursions since the breach opened.” Michael said.
“Incursions? You mean to say they’re not natives to your planet?”
Shane snorted. “Thankfully not. They’re from another planet we think. They come through a large breach in the ocean floor. How they do it? No one really knows.”
“I see.” Celestia said. “Well, we’ve encountered a few problems with this one and I was wondering ig you could help.”
Michael nodded. “Let me guess, Kaiju Blue?”
“Excuse me?” Celestia asked.
“That’s what we call it. The blood of every Kaiju encountered so far is extremely toxic, almost like a bioweapon in its own right. It’s expensive and sometimes extremely difficult to clean up. We try to get around it by combating the Kaiju with weapons that will cauterise their wounds.” Michael explained.
“You wouldn’t know how to neutralise its effects would you?” Celestia asked.
“I believe our HAZMAT teams use basic chemicals to try and neutralise the acids in their blood.” Michael answered. “Sorry about the mess, by the way.” He added, acutely aware taht the ponies might have an environmental disaster on their hands.
“We have contained it for the time being.” Celestia said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “I’m more concerned about any spills in the city proper.”
“Well we’re not of much help to you there sorry, we’re taught how to not spill their blood rather than how to clean it up.” Shane remarked.
“Very well then.” Celestia said, levitating a tea cup to her mouth and taking a sip of the fragrant liquid. Shane and Michael found themselves staring again as the little porcelain cup drifted from the princess’ lips to the platter.
“Secondly then, Jaegers.” Celestia asked. “Explain the Jaegers. Surely these mighty beasts of war aren’t common on your world?”
“Well there’s only about twenty Jaegers in still active service when we left. They were developed after the fourth Kaiju attack. We realised these monsters wouldn’t stop coming and we needed something that could fight on their level.” Michael explained.
“Surely more conventional forces would work?”
Shane laughed harshly. “Can you imagine me out there waving a stick around at some three hundred foot tall monster?”
“No, I guess not.” Celestia admitted. “Surely you have more than just pointed sticks though?”
“Well that’s about as well as any of our normal weapons worked. The only thing that worked well was the nukes.”
“Nukes?” Celestia asked curiously.
“Nuclear weapons.” Michael said after a brief pause. “Do your people know about the fusion of fission of particles?”
“We’ve done experiments with it, yes. We’re currently investigating it as a potential power source.”
“Well, a nuke is an uncontrolled version of that. Lots of energy. Big bang.” Shane said, imitating an explosion with his hands.
“One warhead would be enough to level a city to the ground.” Michael added.
“And you used these weapons on your own people?” Celestia asked, both amazed and disturbed.
“It was a last resort.”
Celestia looked up at the twilight sky. The odd twinkle of some distant star was visible in the sea of orange and purple fire the sky had become.
“How many cities were destroyed by your own weapons before the Jaegers took over? Surely even with civilian evacuations the death toll and destruction caused would’ve been enormous - how did your world react?” She asked.
Michael considered his words for a moment. “San Francisco was the first and worst. It took three warheads to bring Trespasser down. The fallout from the blast and subsequent Kaiju Blue contamination rendered most of the Bay Area unfit for human habitation. We were both born in San Fran, it was heartbreaking to see it go up in a nuclear fireball.” He said. “Next came Hundun in Manila. It made landfall during a massive tropical storm. Authorities didn’t even realize what was happening until it reached Taguig City. Fortunately for Manila, it was killed in the first nuclear strike just east of the city.” Michael said bitterly.
“One strike too many though?” Celestia asked.
“To me, having a nuclear weapon dropped on a city is a loss for everyone but the Kaiju.”
“I see.”
“After that was Kaiceph in Cabo San Lucas. Their attempts to lure the creature away from the city failed. The nuclear strike that killed it effectively halved the city’s liveable area… not to mention its population.”
Celestia winced.
“Then Scissure attacked Sydney. With great effort, military forces were able to lure it to an area on the outskirts of the city that had been evacuated. There they could nuke it without irradiating the entire city.” Michael paused for dramatic effect. “By this point, the level of international panic was unprecedented. We needed a new weapon.”
“So you made the Jaegers.” Celestia summarised.
“Exactly. We made a prototype and when the next Kaiju clawed its way out of the breach, we were ready. Now imagine you’re in Vancouver and Karloff staggers ashore. You know with a great pit in your stomach how it goes. When a Kaiju arrives the nukes are what comes next. But when the cavalry comes, they drop not a bomb, but a giant machine — a machine that then proceeds to beat the Kaiju to a pulp in the space of a few minutes.” Michael said. “I’ve watched the recordings of Brawler Yukon, the first Jaeger, dropping into Vancouver more times than I can count; you can almost imagine the shock Karloff must have felt at seeing that mighty machine.”
“So the Jaegers were heroes.”
“To say the Jaegers were just heroes is a huge understatement. Every human being on earth felt very big the day we fought back… and won. The Jaegers were more than heroes, they were beacons of hope for all of us.”
“Truly amazing.” Celestia said, looking back at quickly approaching night. “One last question, I noticed that your Jaeger is looks much like you. I find it interesting that your machine so closely resembles your own anatomy.”
“I reckon it gives people a bit of a morale boost seeing machines in our own image beating Kaiju. Also something about the neural control means a Jaeger with a similar anatomical layout to us will perform better.” Michael said, taking his glove off and picking at a piece of fruit stuck between his teeth.
Celestia raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“We control it with our minds. It’s complicated and I wouldn’t have a clue how it works. Don’t even ask.” Shane said tersely.
Celestia nodded, slightly disappointed. “Fair enough. Now I do believe I have asked my fair share of questions, what about you?”
“When can your people start fixing Midsummer Night?” Shane asked immediately.
“A few days. I’d like to tend to our wounds first. Even then, progress will be slow, we’re unfamiliar with your designs and materials.
“One sec.” Michael muttered, rolling over and prying a small hatch open. He gave the lid a rough tug before unceremoniously ripping it from its hinges. “Oops.” He muttered sardonically, flipping the panel over. Printed on the bottom of the lid was a drawing on the box’s circuit board. “Do you understand that?” He asked, tossing the metal square to the princess.
“It’s a circuit diagram.” Celestia said, her surprise evident.
“Seems we’re more alike than we thought. At least we can rebuild the electronics without having to start from scratch.” Michael muttered. “Our software is intact so it’s a case of repairing our reactor, rebuilding our armour and bunch of the muscle strands and replacing some of the circuitry.”
“And the teleporter-thingy.” Shane added quickly.
“Yes, and the teleporter-thingy.” Michael echoed.
“Very well then, I’ll get our technicians working as soon as I can.” Celestia said, clapping her hooves together happily.
“Gosh, you make it sound so easy.” Shane muttered.
***
Thirty Kilometres north of Stonefall – Crystal Mountains
Snow Blind trudged through the nearly waist deep snow, occasionally falling through some soft patch and covering his thick cloak in a layer of freezing slush. For what felt like the thousandth time since establishing his crystal mining venture in the harsh northern reaches of Equestria, Snow Blind cursed the ever present winter chill and almost daily blizzards which plagued his establishment. In the faint moonlight visibility was down to a few metres, something when coupled with the freezing temperatures and whirling snow would make almost any pony think twice before heading out to mine crystals. Not Snow Blind though; he had a secret weapon, something none of the other miners in the town of Stonefall had.
“How you doing up there Jax?” He asked through his muffler.
Jewel Axe, or as everypony called him, Jax. Turned his head slightly and focused another stream of magic through his horn. “Looking good, I think we’ve hit the mother lode this time.”
“That’s what you said last time.” Snow Blind complained, breathing in what felt like a flurry of needle sharp pins despite the thick cloth over his muzzle. Although a little scrawny to be a good miner, Jax was adept at a crystal locating spell, something that few other ponies could master.
“I got a good feeling about this.” The unicorn responded, ploughing through the snow with Snow Blind following doggedly at his heels. The visibility was so poor that the duo didn’t notice the wall until Jax ran face first into it. A dull ringing sound rang out briefly before being blown away by another gust of wind.
“Son of a gun!” Jax spat, rubbing his bruised forehead with a hoof.
“What in the name of Celestia’s royal balls is a wall doing out here?” Snow Blind yelled, looking up and seeing the frost encrusted wall curve skywards until it vanish into a flurry of snow. Snow Blind fiddled with his climbing gear, if the weather hadn’t been so shocking he would’ve considered scaling it. The two ponies looked from side to side, noticing that the wall ran in both directions as far as the eye could see.
“Come on, follow me.” Snow Blind said above the wind, leading Jax down the wall. A few odd bumps and curves were shaped into the metal and beneath the caked on frost Snow Blind could make out the remains of an aging grey paintjob.
“Woah, hold up!” Jax yelled, tugging on Snow Blind’s tail suddenly. Looking ahead, Snow blind noticed a half dozen massive metal spars jutting out from the wall that he had been about to walk face first into.
“Thanks Jax.” Snow Blind said with a nod, ducking under the metal beams and out of the howling wind.
“Well I’ll be damned.” Jax muttered as he joined his companion. A large tear in the wall lay before them, bundles of small cables and metal plates dangling loosely from the ragged hole. Snow was piled up around the gaping wound that lead deep into the wall.
“What is this?” Snow Blind breathed, taking a few cautious steps towards what he could only call the cave mouth.
“You can’t go in there.” Jax hissed. “It’s pitch black down there and we don’t have any torches.”
A deep boom came from within the cave, hopefully from some cave-in and not some ravenous creature that had taken up residence.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Snow Blind said, another echoing crash from deep within the cave dissuading him from venturing any further.
“We should go.” Jax said nervously. “This thing is giving me the creeps.”
“Mark the position, lets see if we can find our way back out here when the weather is a bit better.” Snow Blind said, clambering out from under the metal spar and fishing an extendable pole from his bulging saddle bags.
“What’s the point? By the time we get some good weather this place will be covered in a few metres of snow.” Jax pointed out.
“Something tells me this will still be here. This wall looks like it’d go up for a few meters at least.” Snow Blind said, slamming the bright orange flag into the thick layer of slush covering the ground. “Come on Jax, we haven’t got all day.”
Jax threw an uncertain look back at the iron wall. Where had it come from? Sure, he hadn’t been out here for a few months but there was no way Somepony had come all the way out to the arse end of nowhere to build a wall like this. A little nagging voice in the back of his head told him it was something more than just a mere wall. ‘But what?’
“Jax?” Snow blind asked.
“I’m coming, I’m coming keep your coat on.” Jax snapped back, clambering out from under the metal beam and back into the bone chilling wind.