“Sunset, darling, one of those Rev Raptors seems to have crippled my poor Zaber Fang’s knee,” Rarity said. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it to the Cannon Tortoise as planned.”
“Don't worry, Applejack and Pinkie are already on it,” Sunset replied. “Their Zoids will have more trouble avoiding the Tortoise’s particle blasts, but they can soak a few before going down.”
“Sorry about this, I didn't expect them to be quite so precise with those pile bunkers.”
“Don’t git yer hair uncurled, we’ll handle this,” Applejack said reassuringly.
“Judging by the angle those blasts are coming in from, it looks like the Tortoise is just on the other side of that stone outcropping directly ahead of you,” Sunset said. “You’re out of its sensor range, but the pilot knows where you were when the Rev Raptors went down, so spread out to either side and approach him on an arc. Don’t run directly towards him, he’s probably expecting that.”
“You got it, Sunset Shimmer!” Pinkie said, veering to her left.
“Roger that!” Applejack added, moving towards the right. particle rounds from the Cannon Tortoise landed between them, just as Sunset had predicted.
“Looks good, girls,” Sunset said with just a hint of smugness, “he’s assuming you’re coming at him on a straight line, just like I thought. You should be safe until you get within range of his sensors.”
“And by the time that happens, he’ll hafta pick one of us t’ shoot at,” Applejack said.
“And you’ll be far enough off his center point that he’ll have to pull up his anchoring spikes and reposition,” Sunset pointed out with a grin. “Even if he manages to defeat one of you, he won’t be able to turn again before the other takes him down. Cannon Tortoises are tough little Zoids, but they can’t hold up to a full-out assault from either of you for very long, and their direct-fire weaponry is severely limited.”
“Speakin’ of this feller’s sensor range, when do we git into it?” Applejack asked.
“At your current speeds, I’d guess about thirty seconds. Then you’ll take fire after however long it takes to get that Cannon Tortoise moved. Get ready for evasive action.”
Sunset’s prediction proved accurate. In just over a minute, a charged particle bolt flew over the rocky outcropping, arcing high into the air before slamming into the ground mere feet away from Pinkie Pie’s Dibison, prompting a startled “Hey!” from Pinkie. Both she and Applejack began zig-zagging left and right as more shots nearly missed Pinkie. Both Zoids passed the rock simultaneously, locking their legs to grind to a halt while turning to face the Cannon Tortoise, which had pulled its anchor spikes from the ground and turned to face the Dibison. Unable to lower its cannon enough to hit Pinkie with it, the Tortoise’s pilot was instead forced to resort to its small-caliber automatic cannons. All four barrels opened up, peppering the Dibison but dealing no significant damage.
“Applejack, you wanna do the honors?” Pinkie asked over the clattering of autocannon rounds against her armor.
“Nah, I’ll let you do it,” Applejack said, “S’more polite to hit someone when he’s lookin’ at ya. Besides, yer the one he’s shootin’ at.”
“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie guided her Dibison to hunker down so she could direct all seventeen linear cannons at the Tortoise. The first two shots hit the front of the Tortoise’s shell just off-center, turning it partially to the right. The next five shots slammed into the small Zoid’s side, knocking it over.
“The battle is over! The battle is over!” The Judge called out, its capsule’s horn blaring. “The winner is… Empyrean Team!”
“Well, that’s that for that!” Pinkie declared, turning her Dibison to head back to the Hover Cargo.
“Excellent work, you three!” Sunset said, grinning in a slightly maniacal way. “Six matches, six wins!”
“Another exceptional match, ladies,” Celestia said, “A winning streak like this from a new team is almost unheard of.”
“This one was a bit more difficult than the previous matches, I think,” Rarity said, her Zaber Fang limping towards the Hover Cargo. “My poor Zaber Fang can barely walk!”
“I’ll do everything I can for it as soon as we get it loaded,” Fluttershy replied nervously, “but I don’t know if I’ll be able to fully repair the Zaber Fang’s knee until we get it back to the base.”
“It’s about time we went home anyway,” Celestia said. “It’s been close to five weeks since we set out, after all.”
The damage to Rarity’s Zaber Fang had been even worse than Fluttershy had first thought. She hadn't been able to do much for the Zoid with the spare parts in the Hover Cargo, so the Zaber had remained immobilized until Empyrean Team returned to their base, a large complex located in a broad, little-explored grassland a few miles from a towering mesa to the west and rolling hills to the east and south. In the main hangar, the Zaber Fang stood with a triangular metal crutch in place of its front left leg. Such crutches were devices of Fluttershy’s design, lattices of steel tubes similar to a pair of crane arms meeting at the Zoid’s shoulder. Fluttershy found these structures more stable than the normal method of suspending a Zoid by steel cables hanging from the ceiling. The damaged leg was in pieces, scattered across the floor nearby. Fluttershy sat cross-legged on a pad amid the multitude of parts, the control box for the various crane and pulley assemblies she’d used to move the larger parts next to her, and a tablet PC in her hands. A great many vital components had been damaged, and some had been outright obliterated. Fluttershy had removed all the fragmented remains from the leg in the process of dismantling it, and pulled replacements for most of the irreparable parts from the warehouse on the other side of the tarmac. Unfortunately, spares were not available for a number of vital components without which the leg could not operate.
“How’s it going, Fluttershy?”
“Meep! Oh, Sunset Shimmer, you startled me!”
“Sorry. I was just checking in. Looks like the Zaber Fang’s gonna be down for a while.”
“Yes, a few parts were broken that we don’t have spares for. I've been going through this list of part dealers Luna gave me, trying to find one who has them all.”
“Not going well?”
“No,” Fluttershy said with a sigh, “most of them have at least one of the parts I need, but no one seems to have all of them. And I still need to inspect the Dark Horn and Dibison, so I can't take three days to go around to all of them in Canterlot.”
“I guess you’ll have to get them delivered, huh?”
“Uh-huh,” Fluttershy said in resignation. “I don’t really want to since I won’t be able to inspect the parts before they arrive, but there’s no other way.”
“I hate to put more pressure on you,” Sunset said, kneeling down and patting Fluttershy’s shoulder, “but the Commission handed down a Zoid battle on us a few minutes ago. It’s two against two, so the Zaber doesn’t have to be ready, but I really need you to make sure the Dibison and Dark Horn are fighting fit. Also, our opponents use flying Zoids, so please re-attach the Dark Horn’s surface-to-air laser.”
“All right, I’ll get started as soon as I place these orders. I’ll have both Zoids ready by tomorrow.”
”Thanks, Fluttershy, you’re the best.”
“No, it’s not that big a deal. I’m just doing what I can to help.”
“Help nothing, this team would fall apart without you. Our Zoids literally. Well, I’ll get out of your hair and start working on our strategy.”
“All right. And, um, thank you. You’re really nice, Sunset.”
“I... Thanks. I'm not really used to having people say that.”
“Here I thought we’d be gettin’ a break, but we’re already gearin’ up fer our next fight,” Applejack complained. She leaned back in one of the couches in the base’s large sitting room.
“The Zoid Battle Commission sometimes arranges battles between teams in addition to allowing us to challenge each other,” Celestia explained, “if a team refuses to participate, they’re penalized more points than they stand to lose if they’re defeated.”
“I see, you’re thinking of our score,” Rainbow said.
“I know fighting so often puts a great deal of pressure on everyone, but we’re making a lot of progress towards C-Rank, and refusing would have been a serious setback.” Celestia said. “Once a team has fought in one of these arranged matches, the Commission waits for some time before putting them into another one, so after this I’ll just turn down all challenges for a while so we can rest.”
“My main concern is whether we’ll be able to deal with this team,” Sunset said, tablet in hand. “Two Pteras Bombers? Even if the Zaber Fang were operational, I’d be worried. We can’t get flak shells for the Dibison in time, so you’ll have a hard time hitting them with your main guns, Pinkie. Your guided missiles may be your only reliable option. That leaves you, Applejack. I asked Fluttershy to put the Dark Horn’s surface-to-air laser back on, so get some simulator practice with that before we head out, okay? That laser and your Gatling gun are our main options.”
“Can ya tell us anythin’ about the pilots?” Applejack asked.
“Ugh, don’t I wish,” Sunset replied. “Vinyl Scratch runs the show. She has a pattern of high-risk, high-reward tactics, but nothing else is consistent. She even changes her Zoids frequently. It seems like every few wins she goes out and buys a new Zoid, I think she’s trying to work her way up to something. Or just experimenting, it’s hard to tell. Either way, predicting what she’ll do is going to be a problem. Her teammate is a total amateur named Mystery Mint. She’s never been in a battle before, but her official Commission profile notes high simulator performance in air-to-surface combat, which is exactly what the both of them will be doing with their Pteras Bombers.”
“Talk about an uphill battle,” Rarity moaned, “it’s enough to make a girl think the Commission is trying to end our winning streak.”
“It may be more of a case of bowing to viewer demand,” Celestia pointed out. “A number of fans have been calling for the Commission to pit us against a flying team. In any case, I know you’ll all continue to do your best.”
“Heck yeah!” Rainbow said, “I just wish we had a flying Zoid! I’d go up there and show these chicks a few things about air combat!”
“A flier would be great,” Sunset agreed, “Pteras Bombers are packed with missiles, but most of them are meant for attacking ground-bound Zoids. They’re slower than a standard Pteras, and their air-to-air armament is limited to a pair of missiles and a small-bore vulcan. Without escorts, they pretty much always lose in dogfights. But we can’t dogfight them, so this will need a lot of thought.” Sunset stood up and went to the door, still looking at her tablet. “I’m going to see what I can come up with.”
Pinkie’s Dibison was down. It had taken every single one of Mystery Mint’s weapons to do it, including some creative misuse of her air-to-air missiles, but it had been done. Applejack had finally managed to shoot down Mystery Mint’s Pteras Bomber with her surface-to-air laser, but had found that the peculiar handling of the weapon made it nearly impossible to bring to bear at the same time as her Dark Horn’s laser Gatling. Applejack was tracking Vinyl Scratch’s Zoid with the Gatling, being of the opinion that a well-timed burst from it might shoot down any missiles coming her way. She hadn't been able to stop the missiles targeting Pinkie, but the Dark Horn was too slow to evade the radar-guided explosives, so trying to shoot them down was her only defense.
“Come on, ya zippy li'l so-n’-so,” Applejack growled. “I’ll git you yet, just you -what the?” Vinyl’s Zoid turned sharply and rocketed straight towards the Dark Horn.
“She’s got something up her sleeve, Applejack!” Sunset said from the Hover Cargo’s control room. “I don’t know what she’s up to, but she’s not the type to fly right into your field of fire just for laughs.”
“I dunno what she’s figurin’, either!” Applejack said, firing a burst from her laser Gatling. The shots fell short as Vinyl changed course again, switching to a wide, banking turn and rapidly gaining altitude.
“I don’t think the Gatling can track that high!” Sunset said.
“It can’t, I’m switching to th’ SA laser!” Applejack replied. The surface-to-air laser was designed to be installed at a sharp upward angle, and could easily be swung to fire vertically. Laser beams lanced from the weapon, but Vinyl was able to avoid them as her Pteras curved through the sky, eventually ending up directly above the Dark Horn. Vinyl rolled the Pteras, dropping it straight down.
“That’s a high yo-yo!” Sunset shouted. “Why would she try that on a ground target?!” The Pteras rolled through the air, releasing missiles in every direction, all of which quickly turned to approach the Dark Horn.
“That’s bad,“ Applejack said flatly. She began firing her surface-to-air laser as fast as it cycled, shooting down missile after missile as she swung her Dark Horn’s turret around.
“She’s not pulling up! Why isn't she -Applejack, MOVE!” Sunset yelled, jumping to her feet. “You have to get out of there!” Several missiles slammed into the Dark Horn, shaking the Zoid and causing it to stagger.
“I’m okay! I took a few hits but -what-”
CRUNCH
At the absolute last moment, Vinyl whipped her Pteras nose-upward to slam talons-first into the Dark Horn’s back. The Dark Horn’s legs gave out beneath it and the mighty Zoid collapsed with a roar. Vinyl’s Pteras pulled its claws loose of the Horn’s mangled turret and back armor, then returned to the air on its Magnessor wings.
“I can’t believe it,” Sunset said in a daze, staring wide-eyed at the scene as the Judge declared Vinyl’s team the winners. She flopped limply back into her seat. “Decoys. She used her entire missile payload as decoys. I’d say she’s insane, but it worked.”
“I’ll say it anyway,” Applejack said, “that gal’s crazier’n a sheepdog at a cattle ranch. Darned if she ain't a good pilot, though.”
“I kept meaning to ask why she calls her team the Metal Thrashing Madwomen, but I think we just found out.” Pinkie chimed in.
“We’ll get her next time,” Applejack said, “uh, there is gonna be a next time, right?”
“Without a doubt,” Celestia replied, moving the Hover Cargo towards the downed Zoids. “I’m sure we’ll be facing the Madwomen again sooner or later. In the meantime, let’s get our Zoids home for repairs. I must say, I’m quite pleased that you’re all taking our first loss so well.”
"It helps that I kept tellin' myself we were gonna have something like this happen sooner or later," Applejack said.
“Everyone loses sometimes,” Pinkie agreed. “Besides, Applejack’s right, we’ll beat her in a rematch! Right, Sunset?”
“Oh yes,” Sunset said quietly, staring at Vinyl Scratch as she pulled Mystery Mint from her ditched Pteras and wrapped her in a tight hug. “There will be a next time. And I won’t let her get the better of me again.”
“That gal did a number on the ol’ Dark Horn, didn't she?” Applejack asked, looking up at the half-dismantled Zoid.
“Most of the armor plates need to be reshaped, and a few have to to be replaced completely. The entire turret mechanism is ruined, along with the weapons, I have to rebuild the hip and shoulder assemblies, and everything else should be inspected for stress and impact damage.” Fluttershy replied, standing next to Applejack with her tablet PC once again in hand. “Yes, quite a number has been done. Dark Horns are really tough for Zoids their size, but they weren't built to have a twenty-ton weight fall on them at almost the speed of sound.”
“Sorry about all this, Fluttershy,” Applejack said. “Anything I can do t’ help?”
“With the tools and machines we have here, I’ll be able to take care of everything easily enough once we get the parts, but if there’s any modifications you want to make, now would be a good time to tell me. I’m basically going to take the Dark Horn apart and put it back together, so I’ll be able to make any changes you can think of in the process.”
“Now that ya mention it, is there any chance of the new turret havin’ a bit more vertical rotation? I mean, the Dark Horn’s stock turret’s all right fer ground combat, but, well, you saw what happened out there. And if’n you feel like messin’ around with the head, is there somethin’ you can do with the sensors?”
“Well, Luna brought home a Multisensor the other day, I think I can make it fit into the Dark Horn’s sensor crown. That might take some time, though. As for the turret, I’ll see what I can do. We have a lot of parts in the warehouses, so I should be able to come up with something.”
“I’d really appreciate that, Fluttershy. I genuinely don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“It’s no problem, really.” Fluttershy blushed slightly. “Um, have you seen Sunset Shimmer?”
“She’s doin’ that broody thing she does sometimes. I think losing that fight got under her skin more than anyone else’s, y’know? ‘Specially not bein’ able to see what Vinyl was up to in the end. She’s never had that happen before, and I do not think she cared for it.”
“She’s always been able to figure out what the other teams are planning, so I can see how being surprised like that would bother her. We should probably leave her alone for a while.”
“I suppose yer right. Anyhow, I’ll git outta yer way. And, thanks. I know you work darn hard keeping our Zoids in shape, and this don’t make it any easier.”
“It’s what I’m here for, Applejack. I've got everything under control.”
Luna leaned back in her Gustav’s pilot seat, idly watching the console screen as the transport Zoid’s autopilot made its way through the wastelands to the north of Manehatten. The large Zoid pulled two enclosed trailers, each one full of weapons, parts, and -fortune of fortunes- a handful of Zoid Cores. A new Zoid could be grown (for lack of a better word) from a Zoid Core in a matter of days just by putting the Core in a sufficiently large tank filled with a specific chemical mixture, and introducing controlled electrical impulses. This was the only way to manufacture new Zoids instead of simply repairing and refurbishing old ones, so Zoid Cores were highly sought after by those with the resources to use them. Zoid Cores salvaged from ancient ruins, as these were, commanded a premium because the only other way to get one was to remove it from a perfectly good (or perfectly repairable) Zoid. Luna had also found some interesting, if incomplete, data on some of the still-functional computers within the abandoned base, and she was eager to see how much of it could be verified. She was also eager to add to Empyrean Team’s Zoid fleet, an idea she was discussing with Sunset Shimmer over her cell phone.
“So, even with the surface-to-air laser, the Dark Horn couldn't take down both Zoids?” Luna asked.
“They pulled a couple tricks that none of us saw coming. Plus, let’s face it, flying Zoids are hard to hit from the ground.”
“Sounds like we need some air superiority.”
“That’s what I was thinking, yeah. Any chance you can get your hands on a Zoid that can dogfight?”
“I just collected quite a bit of valuable salvage, that base was practically unexplored. Manehatten has a handful of respectable Zoid dealers, so I should be able to find a flying Zoid of some variety once I sell all of this off.”
“That would be excellent, Luna.”
“Speaking of Manehatten, I’m getting a little close for the autopilot, so I’ll have to let you go. I’ll call you once I have a Zoid.”
“Sure thing. See you later.”
Manehatten was a large settlement on the shore of the eastern sea, making it a popular destination for tourists. It was also home to many of the world’s finest Zoid shops, making it an even more popular destination for professional Zoid pilots. The city’s dealers did brisk trade in new and used Zoids, parts, and weapons. A few of these shops specialized to an absurd degree, such as Gewehrwerkstatt, a shop focused entirely on the sale and support of Gun Snipers. Wings of Steel, the dealership Luna arrived at, was not entirely focused on a single Zoid, but did specialize in flying machines. They were a reputable business to which Luna had sold many a salvaged Zoid and Zoid Core, and they always paid a premium for quality finds. They were also regarded as one of the best places in the world to purchase a flight-capable Zoid.
“Luna! Good to see you again!” Wings of Steel’s proprietor greeted.
“Hello, Silver Lining,” Luna returned the greeting. “How are things around here?”
“The usual, buncha looking, not much buying. That’s how it goes in the premium market, though. I've got some beautiful Zoids here, but people want ‘em for the kind of price you’d slap on a Zabat with a bad paint job, y’know?”
“Well, you’re in luck then, I happen to be in the market for a flying Zoid,” Luna said.
“I kinda figured that. I saw the match, your girls took it on the chin. I guess they’re on you to bring home a dogfighting Zoid, huh?”
“I promised Sunset Shimmer I’d do just that, so I’m in the market for a high-performance flying Zoid. Something like a Raynos or a Rainbow Jerk.” Luna paused to consider that statement before adding, “actually, probably not a Rainbow Jerk.”
“Hm, yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want one of those in your fleet.” Silver Lining was fully aware of Empyrean Team’s roster. “Well, if it flies and it ain't imaginary, I've got one for sale, so c’mon back to the hangar and let’s see what suits your fancy.”