The Iron Lady

by Chelis


Introductions

When Soarin gave the order to engage, there was nearly half a minute of silence from Rainboom One.

"Rainboom One. You have-"

"Rainboom One here. Understood."

"Godspeed, everyone," Soarin said. He backed away from the microphone and joined Spitfire to view the upcoming attack.

"Alright, flight. We’ll go around again and dive in. We should be able to have an opening near the bridge. Baseplate, are the guided lasers ready?" Rainbow asked.

"We have three teams painting the target as we speak," The forward observer responded. They arrived a mere hour after the creature began their attack, five three-person teams that went into the city with nothing more than a pistol and their laser guidance equipment. Where everyone was running from the monster, they stuck as close to it as possible without risking their own lives. At the time of the engagement order was given, they had all staked out buildings surrounding the central park. Each team had their guidance lasers aimed directly at the creature.

The trip from Rainboom One's side of the island to their opening for the attack took around ten minutes, with everyone under her command sweating profusely. A few were muttering prayers. One was quietly sobbing in fear. All of it was echoed throughout the control room.

"Rainboom One. You are coming up to your attack vector. Can you engage?" The forward observer asked.

"Are you kidding? We got this." Rainbow Dash’s confidence echoed throughout the control room.

"Alright, cleared hot."

"Alright, Rainbooms!" Here we go! On me!" Rainbow Dash said. She turned her jet sideways and then banked down towards the chaos and smoke that was the West River. Everyone behind her followed suit.

"We are going to have to go below the skyline for the attack. Once we reach Central Park we spread out and give it one shot! After our wave, it’s Fighting Griffon’s turn. Rinse and repeat until we are out of ammo!"

As the Rainbooms viewed their attack route, Rainbow Dash gave out one last rallying cry. "Alright, you hideous looking asshole, in the words of my generation: GIT… GUD!"

Her rallying cry was interrupted by the confused chatter coming from the shared frequencies.

"Lightning Dust! What are you doing?! Pull up! I repeat! Pull up!"

Rainbow looked to the Fighting Griffons to see Lighting Dust joining them in the dive from the other side of the city.

"Lightning Dust, what did I tell you! Don't be a hero!" Rainbow Dash screamed.

"Lightning Dust! Return to your flight at once! This is insubordination!" The flight commander reprimanded.

"Lighting! Don't do this!" Griffon One pleaded.

"Dust! Turn Back!" Rainbow Dash joined.

The radio went silent with the diving jet. Everyone started to think that maybe something was wrong. That was until-

"I'm tired of waiting. I'll be pushing on to flank the monster. See you all in a minute."

All three raised their voice at her, trying to get in a word that would make the young hothead change her mind. A two-sided attack was dangerous, and could spell disaster.

"Uh, Guys. She cut her comms," The flight commander said.

That bitch, Rainbow Dash thought.

Rainbooms flew as a unit through the city, staying either low to the rooftops of the city or between buildings above the fleeing citizens, looking out for any power lines or water towers in the pitch dark of the city. With only night vision goggles to light the way, the jets screamed above, with many stopping to look at their nation's finest on the attack.

"Coming up on the park. Here we go! " Rainbow Dash said as the city building gave way to the massive clearing that was the Central Park. They fanned out as soon as they reached the park and saw the creature still squatting in on top of the bowl it made.

"AGMs away!" The flight commander replied. Behind him, Soarin looked on in fear while Spitfire was still emotionless.

The missiles dropped from each planes’ hardpoint simultaneously, igniting and screaming to the target, guided by the lasers.

"Pull up, and out! Watch out for Lighting Dust!" Rainbow Dash commanded as they came close to the missiles’ target.

The creature stood up to look curiously at the incoming objects, and was pelted by each one, a fiery explosion accompanying the sting from the impact, causing the creature to bellow a piercing cry of pain.

“Hits.” The flight commander confirmed their marks.

It began to flail around its arms, like the swatting of flies. One pilot could not pull out in time, and was on a collision course with one of the creature's fingers.

"I can’t pull away, fuck!"

While the pilot only had a few seconds to accept her fate, an explosion rocked the side of the creatures finger, blowing it into fragments that the jet flew through without a problem.

"Did anybody fire that missile!?" The flight commander asked. Everyone was relieved that the pilot was saved, but somehow it couldn't of been just a coincidence that a creature's finger decided to just disappear in a ball of flames and bodily fragments.

"Told you I can help out!" Lightning Dust proudly proclaimed as she pulled out of her attack dive, the jet she just saved following close behind.

"Lightning Dust, good job, but we are still kicking your ass when we land." Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth.

"I'm going to second that. I can assume Griffon One, Soarin and Spitfire will join as well." The flight commander replied.

"I'm not, I'm glad you did that." The rescued pilot interjected.

* * *

"So sorry for that, babe!" Flash muttered to himself as he drove Rarity's car through the abandoned chain link fence that surrounded the abandoned runway. After bouncing around the dirt and rocks, the luxury car finally hit the pavement of the runway and hauled rubber down the mile and a half long runway. The car began to slow down and made a complete stop in front of the concrete hanger.

"Holy crap, I forgot how large these things are, " Flash said, admiring the building.

Twilight let Spike off the car first before her and rushed over to the door that was the side entrance to the hangar. Sunset was by her side the entire time, using a flashlight to help Twilight see. Twilight fiddled with her keys to find the right one and unlock it.

"I'll get the power on, just stay here." Twilight said after Flash and Sunset made their way inside. To the right of the door was a large lever, Twilight used both hands and all of her strength to pull down. At the end of the hanger and at the very top was, from Sunset and Flash's perspective, a office that spanned the width of the hangar, with the largest room having a giant window that was supposed to look down on all what was going on inside. Twilight went up the metal stairs to the top. Her footsteps echoed across the hangar.

When Twilight went inside, she went to the far corner of the room, where a giant industrial breaker panel was chained off from the rest of the room with a chain link fence. She unlocked the padlock to the gate and went inside. It took minutes of switch-flipping and priming using a giant lever. The final switch was thrown, which fizzled immediately and stopped. The lights, computers, and everything dependent on electricity turned on. The computers were installizing, the lights slowly filled the room with plain white light, and Sunset and Flash could finally see around them. The hangar was empty for the most part. One of the outstanding features were the four machines in the corner. all of them looked like jet skis, but were wide and looked like a one-man boat.

The other was a large humanoid shaped object hidden underneath a giant cloth that covered it completely

"Testing, testing… Can you hear me? Your PA is on the computer in front of you." Twilight's voice ran through the speakers. Through the window, they saw her on one of the computers, typing away. The inside of the room looked like a giant server room.

Flash walked over and pressed the button, "Loud and clear, Twi. What the hell is all this?"

"Several years ago, when I was still at Canterlot University and a protegee of the Princess, I became part of a 'defense project' designed to fight back against giant monsters. You see, it’s science fiction, or we thought it was science fiction, for monsters to attack. Combined with a 'What if?' and a zebra prophecy that the doctor mentoring me was obsessing over, we created a defence weapon against it."

"Sounds like a waste of money," Sunset chimed in.

"From the outside, yes. But, projects like these are important because they help the creation of technology for things like this to become possible. Inventions to make inventions possible, if you will. For example those bikes you see in the corner, those are hover bikes. We created the technology of thrust based anti-gravity machines to provide the eyes and ears of the weapon, spotters, as you will. As for the weapon itself: Well, the good doctor believed that fighting fire with fire was the best ‘solution.’" Twilight said as she input the last of the commands and hit enter.

The gears that were on top of the hangar began to grind and whirl, which forced the chains that were tied to the giant cloth, to rise. It took minutes, but when the veil was lifted, kicking up a giant cloud of dust in the air. Sunset and Flash saw it.

It was a giant robot, Clunky in nature, steel, and human in shape. They were taken aback by the ginormous machine.

"Flash, Sunset," Twilight said with a proud grin. "I would like you to meet my Opus Magnus: Machinka-01."