//------------------------------// // My Little Nuclear Platform // Story: Time Soldier // by Havelock //------------------------------// The four were almost paralyzed in shock. An insect-like mare standing over them, probably considering how they'll taste. Chrysalis had little interest in what they were, surprisingly. What she did have an interest in was if they could love, given their sentience. She began to form a plan within her twisted mind. But when Gabe, through instinct, shot a nearby rock as a warning, Chrysalis denied the plan of deception and chose brute force. "Attack!" she shouted. Snapped back to reality, Gabe grabbed his friends and tried to drag them with him down the nearby mountain path. Behind them boomed with activity as they rushed down the mountain with changelings in hot pursuit. Gabe's armor proved to be heavier than what his friends were wearing, and they gradually sped ahead of him, but that didn't keep Gabe away from the changeling jaws chasing after him. He suddenly tripped on an imperfection in the mountain slope, sending him tumbling down, and bringing the whole human crew with him. With their speed greatly increased at the cost of comfort, they reached the bottom of the slope within a few moments. Fortunately for them, their armor absorbed the shock of the tumbling, allowing them to continue running without injury. They charged head first into the deep Everfree Forest, oblivious of the greater dangers hidden within its vegetation. Chrysalis pulled her army back, not wanting to lose any in the vast forest. "They won't survive in there..." she muttered under her breath, and turned back to continue her true goal. The armed four sprinted headlong into the thick Everfree, hardly watching where they were going. For a few long minutes they continued onward, to finally stop and rest. The crew was exhausted, having spent more than they had in avoiding a fight even they couldn't win. Jack leaned back on something, though it was... harder than everything else, and... bulkier. "Jack, what are you sitting on?" asked Michael. Jack looked back at the strange structure he was sitting on. It resembled a giant machine, a mech to be precise. Upon mechanical haunches sat a large platform with the cockpit placed beneath it. The machine bristled with heavy weaponry, with two arms hanging down serving solely as cannons, with even larger and more impressive Punisher Cannons mounted on the shoulders. Below the cockpit hung two intimidating gattling guns that seemed to almost boast about their high caliber. On the platform laid several hatches, two of which led to large silos built into the mech's back. The other hatches housed smaller, yet still deadly, tomahawk missiles. The silos housed, as any human could guess, tactical nukes. "Damn... how'd this get here?" asked Tevin. "That's not all I'm concerned about," said Michael, gesturing to a human corpse next to caches of ammunition. "Other people have been here? For how long?" asked Jack. "Er... I... have a theory," said Michael. They all turned to listen to Michael's thoughts. "Humans may have been coming here since, well, since the first episode aired. Lauren Faust may have come here, lived those episodes, then made some story about development to cover it all up, that's probably why we were to gas that cave," claimed Michael. "Why would the government care about this place? Keeping it safe and secret?" asked Jack. "Resources, research, there are many things here, which is becoming harder to find back at home," "Then why the military force?" "Natives probably aren't too excited about us taking their resources, went hostile and we needed to fight back," claimed Tevin. Gabe whistled to get their attention. They all turned to see what the supposed mute wanted, who pointed at the towering mech. "Gabe's right," said Michael, "since this huge thing is here, why not use it," "Yeah, how're we supposed to get in without the keys," said Jack. Gabe held up a small glittering object. "We'd have to worry about that if we didn't have a Gabriel in our ranks," laughed Tevin. Climbing up the gargantuan machine, both Jack and Gabriel manned the mech from the cockpit, while Tevin and Michael sought refuge within the walking fortress' living area. All around both Jack and Gabe were enough instruments to make even an experienced jet pilot dizzy with confusion. "You know how to use this?" asked Jack. Gabriel nodded confidently. "Good, you work the leg assembly, I wanna kick ass with these arm-cannons," said Jack. Sparking the war machine to life, Gabe took a few small steps on the machine's chrome legs, testing its locomotion. "This one may be a newer one, she's running pretty smoothly," Jack looked at Gabe with an excited look, "think you can pull off some those crazy leg tricks?" Gabe nodded vigorously to his companion. Making some adjustments and pulling some switches aggressively, the whole mech ducked down, balancing on a single leg, while twirling the lower body to swing the other leg around in a neat sweep. The sweeping leg was then flipped from the back overhead to land neatly at the mech's side, which was no longer ducked down now. "Jesus, Gabe, you need to take the time to show me how to make that move, saved our asses more than once," Gabe nodded again, a large smile creasing on his face. Jack picked up a small microphone and switched it on. "Alright, boys, where to now?" he said into the microphone. "Simple," said Tevin through the comm, "we find those bug-horses, and kick their asses now that we got some heavy duty for the job. By the way, Jack, what model nuke platform we got?" Jack checked the platform's logs, looking for the platform's identity. "Says here that we got a Minotaur-Class Nuclear Attack Platform, way I hear it, there's only one of these that were ever completed, and that's a prototype," Jack said with tremendous glee, "alright, Gabe, lead her away," Gabe carried the walking nuclear platform through the forest, trampling trees underfoot, which appeared as no more than ferns to them from the controls of the mech. The two pilots bounced up and down from every step of the engineering wonder, limited to how well they could recognize what was in front of them. Reaching the forest edge with in less than a minute, they saw a long line of black shapes moving towards a castle hanging off the same mountain they had emerged from. "Whoa, how'd we miss that?" asked Jack. Gabe ignored his comment and focused on the small shapes, which seemed to be attacking the huge castle. He pointed at them for Jack, then made a gesture to strike. "What?" said Jack. Gabe face-palmed, then pointed out the cockpit at a set of long, durable barrels, then at the small shapes. Jack understood and armed the large Punisher Cannons, while Gabe closed the distance between them and the changelings. "Come on, Gabe, get us in range already, it's time to kick ass, insect ass," Gabe moved the machine to the point of being a threat to their foes, then held up a fist to them, cuing Jack to unleash the cannons. "Chew on this, fuglies," Jack muttered, pressing the trigger. Concussive shells rapidly peppered the sky, knocking score by score of changelings out of the air. "Haha! 'Merica! Hell yeah!" shouted Jack. Changelings retaliated by rushing at the huge machine, only to crack to their skulls on the platform's thick armor made to shrug off the force of even anti-tank rockets. Seeing the machine's near impenetrable armor and devastating weapons, they had no choice but to leave Canterlot for the metal beast. With surprising speed, the entire swarm retreated behind the mountain, leaving all of Canterlot to admire the beast who had climbed the mountain in a few steps and at the same time, scattered an entire changeling army. "So..." began Jack, "think we're screwed now that they've seen us?" *** Celestia stepped forward to see the great mechanical wonder. Having been taken by surprise with the sudden changeling invasion, she was very grateful for some alien to clear them out so easily. "Strange..." was all she could say. She spread out her wings, ready to fly towards the sudden, yet unnecessary, savior. "Uh, Princess," said a guard, holding her back, "are sure that's a good idea? Looks like some more of those aliens," "If this alien meant us any harm, it would've done so by now," she said, pulling loose and beginning to fly to the metal giant. She reached the cockpit, flying some distance from it. "Hello," she said, "we are grateful for your intervention, is there a way we can repay you?" No answer. "Hello?" she said again, beginning to feel foolish. She looked closer at the cockpit, seeing strange shapes inside moving around. They seemed to be... Arguing? *** Gabe was speaking a mile a minute in Korean, debating with Jack as to what to do. Michael and Tevin had squeezed themselves into the back of the cockpit to put some feedback into the situation. "I'm with Gabe, let me speak to her!" shouted Michael. "You want to talk to some flying unicorn with the sun tattooed to her ass? Let's just get out, now!" said Tevin. "I say, we try and get some supplies from her, she is very hospitable, y'know," said Michael. "Screw that, I say punish the bitch then hightail it, like Tevin said," said Jack "You want to do what with her?!" shouted Michael. "I meant blow her up, Michael, I got better things to screw with back at home, we all do!" "SEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" shouted Gabe, reducing the crew to their minimum. He began to speak rapid Korean to his cousin, who translated everything to the letter. "This is a peaceful and magical land... we may never be found here... find freedom from fate here... not a soldier forever," said Michael. The crew sat in silence, considering Gabe's proposal. "Anyone... anyone tired of soldiering?" asked Tevin, seating himself against the wall. His only answer was Gabe opening the cockpit to step outside and show himself to Celestia. He lifted himself into her sunlight, allowing every inch of him to be bathed in its golden rays. Celestia flew closer to Gabe, curiosity eventually driving her to get close enough to land on the huge machine. There they stood, man and pony, slowly reaching out to each other, Gabe with his hand, Celestia inching her muzzle forward. Gabe stopped, then reached into a pack on his waist, pulling out an apple and offering it to Celestia. She knew right there, that this alien wanted peace with Equestria, and she was willing to give it. However, everything has a fee to go with it. And she was developing one in her mind.