A Midsummer Night's Dream.

by Killbles

An Unexpected Friend

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Chapter 21: An Unexpected Friend

If the general excitement that pervaded the shatterdome from Daring Dragoon’s trail run wasn't’ enough to make Soarin excited, his sudden promotion and the impending strategy meeting should have been.

Oddly enough though, he found himself feeling bitter.

It seemed like a kick upstairs into a position he had never wanted, a way to keep him off the front lines and out of a conpod. Coupled with the surge of the unexpected feelings he had experienced during Daring Dragoon’s trail, the gnawing, biting feeling that sat in his gut as he considered his new position, left him in a decidedly foul mood.

He didn’t have time to dwell on his feelings though, between the congratulatory slaps on the back he kept receiving from ponies he only half-knew, a throng of journalists that had somehow infiltrated the facility to question him and the excited ramblings of the facilities two newly minted Rangers, he found it almost impossible to even clear his mind before being swamped again.

It was so bad that he viewed the imminent strategy meeting as a nice, quiet place he could relax and gather his thoughts. As he made his way towards the nominated meeting room, he actually found himself, oddly, quite looking forward to it.

As he trotted into the meeting room Soarin had to admit he was a little taken aback though. The rectangular room was dominated by a thin, polished wooden table which sat squarely in the centre of the room. A dozen uncomfortable looking chairs were organised around the table, most the seats already taken by scientific looking types. He only immediately recognised two of the the scientists in the room; Twilight Sparkle sitting on the far side of the table next to another J-Tech officer Soarin couldn’t remember the name of. He looked around uncertainly for a moment, he hadn’t expected to be quite so badly outnumbered at the meeting. His dismay only lasted a moment before Twilight waved him over and invited him to sit next to her.

“Hello Soarin!” She chirped cheerfully.

“Ma’am.” He replied curtly, not quite managing to look at her directly.

Twilight frowned for a moment, reading the slightly irritated look on his face. “Something bothering you? I’d thought you’d be a little more upbeat, you must be very proud of Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust.” Twilight beamed.

“Yes.” Soarin replied gruffly. “You must happy be your Jaeger worked.”

“Oh there was hardly any doubt.” Twilight boasted. “I must admit though, it did perform beyond our wildest expectations.”

“Great.” Soarin remarked, shooting an annoyed glance at an earth pony and a unicorn that were squabbling loudly on the other side of the table. The two were almost polar opposites, the earth pony looked like she’d just woken up and her notes were scattered across the table messily like a miniature tornado had blown through them. The unicorn’s pile of papers though, were enatly stacked up as far away from the earth pony as she could manage, along with most of the other equipment she had brought with her.

“Those are my pens!” The unicorn growled.

“I never touched your stupid pens!” The earth pony fired back, twirling a pen on the table.

“You’re holding one!”

“Those two…” Twilight muttered under her breath. “Should’ve fried that earth pony while I had the chance, would’ve been easy to pass it off as an accident.”

Soarin’s ears perked up and he looked at Twilight in alarm but the alicorn made no sign of her casually murderous remark. She looked back at him with a worryingly harmless look.

“Anyway, I think it’s a remarkable achievement for us. Our first Jaeger built and designed from the ground up in Equestria, by Equestrians, with only limited outside influences.” Twilight said proudly, puffing her chest out slightly. “I’ve organised a small gathering with my friends tonight, you and Wave Chill are welcome to join us if you’d like.”

Soarin tossed her a somewhat skeptical look.

“I just thought it could be nice to celebrate, that’s all.” Twilight explained, slightly taken aback by his slightly frumpy attitude.

“From what I understand, Wave Chill is going to a bar with Lightning Streak. He’s flying down from the academy. I’m sure they’ll think of something stupid to do together while they’re there…” Soarin explained in a manner that held a small bit of disdain for his co-pilot.

“And you’re going with him?” Twilight asked.

Soarin shook his head slightly. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

“Well you’re welcome to join us if you’d like, I’m sure Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be delighted to have you along.” Twilight offered politely.

“I’ll consider it.” Soarin muttered as the doors at the other end of the room swung open, Shane and Michael sweeping in and taking the last two seats at the head of the table. The quiet banter which had floated around the table almost immediately ceased as the two humans took their seats, even the bickering scientists across from Soarin stopped and paid attention.

Michael, pleased that he didn’t have to call the meeting to order, sat up a little straighter. “Thank you all for coming, I understand many of you are quite busy in your own fields so I appreciate you taking the time to sit in. As you should already know, we’re considering our options for an offensive action, hitting the Kaiju right where it hurts.” He pulled a small holographic projector out of his pocket and placed it on the table, a moment later, a slightly fuzzy projection of an imagining of the Breach appeared over the heads of the assembled scientists. The entire table fell silent, many of the scientists simply staring into the writhing mass of energy that made up the core of the tear in reality.

“Okay, what’s the plan rhen?” Soarin prompted. “I assume you have some sort of idea of how we’re going to mount an attack on this thing?” He added, his head cocked to the side slightly. “You do have a plan, right?”

Michael hesitated for a moment. “Now that’s where this kind of falls flat on its ass. See, back on Earth we tried to destroy the breach. Nothing worked, burying it under thousands of tons of seafloor. Kaiju ate right through it. A pair of nukes bounced right off.” He sighed.”I’m looking for fresh ideas.”

The earth pony across from Soarin raised a hoof. “Nuke? What’s a nuke?”

“A missile armed with a nuclear warhead. Big boom, basically.”

She nodded understandingly. “How do they work?”

Michael flashed her a harmless but slightly irritated smile. “Twilight, all the Jaegers currently operate with some sort of nuclear fission reactor, yes?”

“Correct.”

“Okay, take one of those reactors, refine the fuel and allow the splitting of atoms to run wild. Lots of energy. As I said, big boom.”

The mare visibly paled.

“Even if we wanted to hit the breach with a ‘nuke’, we couldn’t. We have nothing like that.” Soarin interjected quietly. “I mean, I’ve been out of the military for a while now, but we’ve never needed anything on that level of power.”

“Well, technically we could.” Twilight piped up. “As you said, we have the Jaeger’s reactors. They could be programmed to run wild in a manner like you mentioned.”

Shane chuckled skeptically. “Great, so we just have a Jaeger jump into the rift and blow itself to kingdom come? Shot not.”

“I’m sure we could find another solution.” Michael agreed.

“Yeah, if only we could just close it by magic or some-.” Shane cut himself off mid sentence, his eyes swinging around to Twilight like she’d farted loudly. “Could we close it using magic?”

The entire table’s attention turned to the unicorn.

“Um, well… uh…” Twilight stammered, literally at a loss for words. “I… I don’t know, it’s something I haven’t really thought about before.”

“Never at all sprung to mind?” Shane pointed out disbelievingly. “It’s a pretty simple thought!”

“Well, no it’s not.” Twilight said, trying to claw back a little dignity. “Firstly, you don’t know anything about how unicorn magic works. It’s not quite as easy as snapping your fingers and making everything perfect… if we, ugh, had fingers that is.”

Shane crossed his arms defensively. “Okay then, explain.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Well, firstly you’d need to be close enough to the breach. Magic gets exponentially harder the further away you are from the target. That in itself is problematic, the breach is almost 9 kilometres under the Eastern Ocean.”

“Use a submarine then.”

Twilight shook her head. “The pressure would almost certainly be fatal for any vessel we have on hand.” She furrowed her brow thoughtfully. “ A Jaeger might be able to take it for a short time though.”

Michael shrugged. “Well I know the old girl can. She’s been pressure tested to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. Ten kilometres or so.” He clarified for the sea of blank faces which looked at him.

Twilight tapped table thoughtfully. “For how long though?”

Michael shrugged. “It’s just a thought.”

Twilight scribbled something down quickly before returning to the problem at hand.. “Second. The breach is several hundred metres long and wide if our data is accurate. Even if I could find a spell or make a spell to close it, the amount of power a unicorn would need would be immense. Too much for one pony to handle.” She shrugged. “An alicorn could handle it, maybe.” Twilight added with a healthy dose of skepticism.

“How about two?” Shane joked.

“Well it would almost half the load.” Twilight muttered seriously. “That’s a considerable difference… but there’s only four Alicorns in Equestria and none of them can pilot a Jaeger.”

Michael drew an imaginary line on the table aimlessly. “How much power are we talking about, just out of curiosity?”

Twilight shrugged helplessly. “I wouldn’t have the faintest idea.”

“I may be able to help there.” The earth pony spoke up. “High Noon, K-Science.” she said, introducing herself to with Twilight a quick smile that Twilight didn’t return. “I’m probably the foremost researcher on the so-called breach.”

“What do you know about it?” Michael asked.

High Noon’s smile wavered. “Not a lot… actually. I could spend years looking at it and I would probably still have so much to learn.”

“Well, what do you know?” Michael asked, a trace of irritation in his voice.

High Noon rolled her eyes “It’s nuclear in nature, it gives off healthy doses of Gamma, Beta and some other sort of high-neutrino radiation and it’s sticking to some sort of schedule in regards to how often it spits out Kaiju. It’s energy capacity is also enormous, the breach alone outputs several terawatts of energy each day.”

“So, nothing useful right now then.” Shane summed up.

“No, not really.” High Noon agreed reluctantly. “But that’s something I can work on and it looks like I’ll have time, as you still haven't figured out how you’ll get down with a unicorn anyway.” She pointed out snidely.

“The Mark III Jaegers will be magic capable.” Twilight reminded the table at large. “Provided nothing goes disastrously, that is probably our best delivery system. I can make a note to ensure their designs meet the pressure requirements and to refit our current Jaeger fleet as well if necessary.”

“Okay, so we have a basic idea of what we’re doing then. Sparky, I want you to coordinate with High Noon whenever you can and try and figure out a way to close it down. Whether that means magic or just simple brute force, I want a solution by the time our first Mark III is operational.”

“Yes sir.” Twilight answered smartly.

“Also, I would like you to assist in the selection process of our Mark III crews. From what I’ve seen you’re rather good at this magic bullshit. If we go with your assumption we’ll need a good crew and an even better machine to go with it. Speaking of that, how are we looking with the Mark IIIs?”

“I’d say we’re looking eleven to thirteen months before the first Mark III is operational. Another few weeks for Everfree Bandit and maybe another month or two for the final Mark II.” Twilight answered, briefly consulting the pony next to her along with some of her notes.

“That’ll have to do I guess.” Michael murmured.

“With respect sir, I disagree.” The unicorn next to High Noon interjected flatly. Everyone looked at her as if she’d burped loudly at a formal dinner. “Aurora, K-Science.” She introduced herself haughtily. “The Kaiju are getting larger and more aggressive. In the time since records have been kept, there has been an almost 8% increase in muscular and bone density in Kaiju tissue samples taken. They’re adapting faster than any organism ever recorded.”

“So they’re adapting to match our current Jaeger fleet?” Shane asked.

A trace of uncertainty clouded the unicorn’s gaze. “I have nothing to substantiate that claim. Thanks to your trigger-happy subordinates, the last few specimens have left very little useful evidence behind.” She said as if she’d found a drowned fly in her soup. “A live specimen would be preferable for study-”

“And that’s never going to happen.” Michael said forcefully. “A Kaiju would far too dangerous to keep alive, even in a crippled state.”

“Well,” Aurora shot back crossly, “Until I have access to better specimens, my ability to help your cause are somewhat limited.”

“I hear much more of this and I think my brain is going to throttle itself.” Shane muttered under his breath, prompting a few smirks and sniggers at his end of the table.

Aurora didn’t notice. “I would suggest that if the opportunity to contain a live Kaiju arises, we should take it. The amount we could learn about the creatures would be monumental.”

“I’ll take it under consideration.” Michael replied diplomatically. “Still, with that development, I suggest you light a fire under the Mark III development, Twilight.”

“I’ll try, but it’s unlikely there will be much progress without major losses in quality and reliability. This isn’t exactly something you want to rush.” Twilight pointed out.

“Fair enough.” Michael sighed defeatedly. “Alright, I think we’ve got what we needed out of today. I want updates when they happen so that if we need to scrap this idea, we can come up with something else. Clear?“

A chorus of affirmative replies came from around the table.

“Good.” Michael nodded. “Now-.”

He was interrupted by the doors at the end of the room swinging open and an incredibly nervous assistant walking in, almost tripping over a small decorative plant by the door.

“Sorry. Sorry.” She blurted out, half torn between fixing the plant and talking.. “Sorry, Sir. Sir, it’s important.”

Michael gave the intruder a soft, patient smile. If was irritated at being interrupted, he didn’t show it. “How about you start at the beginning.”

The pony seemed to regain a little of her composure. “We just received a communique from someone, it’s important.”

“Someone.” Michael repeated cautiously. “Does this someone have a name?”

“Sorry sir, a message from Wing Lord Forsyth. He has requested a meeting with you. In a week.” She said, licking her lips nervously. The rest of the table visibly stiffened at the name.

“Now forgive me if I don’t know my history, but who, sorry?” Michael asked.

Twilight recovered first. “Wing Lord Forsyth is the supreme military commander of the Great Eyrie, Oberon. He is the Shrike’s military advisor and oversees the defence of the city.” She explained. “He’s a griffon, sir, quite possibly the oldest one alive.”

Michael turned to face the messenger, thinking back on the words Celestia had given him in his office some time ago. “Did he say what he wanted?”

She cleared her throat. “He, uh, he said he wants to commision a Jaeger.”

***

Several floors above the meeting, Rainbow Dash lay in her bunk, a small, unassuming double decked steel framed bed with was roughly shoved up against the wall of an equally unassuming room. There were no windows but the air was cool and fresh thanks to a large cent buried in the ceiling. Dozens of tiny cracks and lines crisscrossed the roof and as she lay, feeling a little bored, she traced imaginary lines along them with her eyes.

She and Lightning Dust were to stay in the shatterdome until Daring Dragoon was shipped to Trottingham. In the meantime they’d practice with their Jaeger, engaging in field tests as well as simulated exercises. To Rainbow it sounded exciting, she was looking forward to playing around with her new Jaeger, finding its limits and honing herself to be the best she could be.

Some small part of it did seem a bit worrisome though. Piloting Daring Dragoon was incredible, she wouldn’t dispute that, but from her brief time in the lithe Jaeger she had started to develop an almost subconscious desire for action, a thirst to pit herself against the greatest foe she’d ever known. It went beyond the regular ‘twitchiness’ that she regularly experienced and bordered onto something else a little darker.

That scared her a little. She’d never been afraid of a scrap before, at least not that she would admit, but this was different. The energetic Jaeger was almost downright bloodthirsty. Somewhere down there, was a desire to fight for fighting's sake. To snap bone and pulverize flesh joyfully, without concern for life or limits.

She shivered slightly at the thought. She had nothing against fighting, she just preferred it for a reason, like defending her friends or bringing a bad guy in.

Maybe it was something to do with Lightning Dust, her copilot was certainly more aggressive and gung-ho than she was, an almost impressive achievement in the case of the later, but Rainbow didn’t think she was quite that vicious.

Hopefully.

As if somehow hearing her thoughts, the door slid open with a faint scrape and Lightning Dust practically pranced into the room, a self-assured smile on her face.

“Somepony is in a good mood.” Rainbow remarked dryly, not looking away from the thin crack which ran across the roof. She quickly brushed the concern she’d felt away, it wouldn’t do to confront Lightning Dust about it just yet.

“Of course I am.” Lightning Dust said back,her chest puffed out proudly. “It’s been a great day. I got to test a Jaeger and I got invited out tonight.”

Rainbow Dash spared her a glance. “That’s nice.”

“Yeah, Wave Chill and Lightning Streak were going out a bar nearby and Wave Chill invited me.” Lightning Dust boasted

“You seem awfully excited.” Rainbow droned.

“Well he’s kinda cute, isn’t he?” Lightning Dust stumbled

Rainbow felt a smile creep across her face, it seemed that Lightning Dust’s tough persona was much easier to crack through than her own. “He’s nothing incredible, I spent a couple of days working with him when this whole thing started, he’s nice enough…a bit too regimented though I reckon.”

“You’re just jealous.” Lightning Dust fired back.

“Trust me, I’m not.” Rainbow mumbled back, staring intently at the ceiling. It took her almost a minute to realise that Lightning Dust was still sitting down, looking up at her expectantly. She let out a quiet sigh. “What do you want?”

“I was uh, kinda hoping you’d want to come.” Lightning Dust muttered. “Since we’re, you know, friends, and all.” She added awkwardly.

Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her belly. “Well, I had planned on going out with Twilight and Applejack someplace, but I’m sure I could convince them to go wherever it is you’re going.”

Lightning Dust’s jaw seemed to tighten a little but she accepted the proposal with a nod. “So that'll be the eight of us then. I saw Misty with her brother before, can’t imagine how he convinced her to go out past her bedtime.” Lightning Dust chuckled.

Rainbow shrugged indifferently, rolling off her perch with a brief flutter of wings.

“Where are you going?” Lightning Dust asked, examining her mane in a small mirror.

“To tell my friends what’s happening.” Rainbow said, scrunching her nose up with annoyance as Lightning Dust brushed her mane back. “And to get away from you before you start swooning.”

“Jealous!” Lightning Dust barked playfully, prompting Rainbow to pull another disgusted face.

“Desperate…” Rainbow fired back, zipping out before Lightning Dust could come up with some clever comeback.

***

The shatterdome seemed colder than Lightning Streak remembered. After months at the much less spartan Academy, the starkly utilitarian structure was a bit of a jarring comparison. He wasn’t one to complain though, and took the change as phlegmatically as he could; he was only planning on staying for a day or two anyway.

But it wasn’t just the shatterdome which was bothering him.

For reasons unknown and despite his social plans, Misty had accompanied him. She had not even been included in his plans originally, only finding out through sheer dumb luck and then immediately offering to join him.

He suspected that she was, of all things, still a little scared of him and had tagged along for no other reason than to show that she could be reasonable. Whether that was actually the case remained to be seen though, Lightning Streak suspected she probably wouldn’t be able to put up with a night out but she had surprised him before..

Either that or she was actually starting to change for the better.

Lightning Streak shuddered slightly as if a cool breeze had brushed past him, the idea of his sister becoming sociable was disturbing for some reason.

Still, could be worse

He checked the small clock set on the wall of his dorm, it was time for him to go. He pushed away the few bit of paperwork he had brought down and left the bare room, spinning the locking wheel behind him. It was a short walk to the elevators and then another two hundred metres or so to the main foyer, he was supposed to be meeting Wave Chill and whoever it was he was bringing down there in a few minutes so Lightning Streak didn’t rush, he had plenty of time.

He called for the elevator, waiting patiently until the door slid open with a soft pong. The car was already occupied, a short, youthful mare standing absently in the back corner with the markings in an engineer embroidered on her uniform’s shoulder . He flashed her a smile as he entered, it never hurt to be polite. The doors slid closed with a quiet thunk and he considered himself to a few moments of peaceful silence.

“Um… hi.”

Or not

Lightning Streak looked back at the mare with a polite smile as he could. “Hi.”

Her mouth almost seemed to flip open and the most fan-girlish squeal Lightning Streak had possibly heard in his life come out of her life.

‘Oh boy… He thought, searching for a way out of the metal cage.

“Wow! I’m actually talking to you, this is the best thing that’s happened all day.”

‘Please don’t start, you look so nice...’ Lightning Streak thought desperately, taking a tiny step away from the almost giddy pony.

“I mean, wow, you were great with the Wonderbolts and all but wow, what you do here is so much cooler.” She gushed, brushing away a lock of her mane nervously. “I’m a huge fan of how you suit up and turn into a enormous, white, fighting machine. Thing.”

“Uh, thanks.” Lightning Streak replied, wondering if the elevator could possibly move any slower. The poor mare kept on rambling, only coming up for air when Lightning Streak was sure she was going to asphyxiate. He was thankfully saved when the car clattered to a stop, the doors slid open and Misty Fly trotted in, giving her brother a curious glance but otherwise making no other indication of his presence. The other mare shut her mouth for a few seconds before firing up again, although no less quieter than she had been before. She seemed to practically on the verge of talking her own mouth off at the idea of being with both of Castle bravo’s pilots.

Lightning Streak slowly counted off to ten in his head, wondering how long it would be before Misty’s fragile temper would snap.

His sister lasted all of four seconds before almost ungraciously slamming the button for the next floor down, causing the elevator to jerk to a sudden halt.

“This is your stop.” Misty said, waving the mare out.

“Uhh, no I’m down on sub-.

“Yes, it is.” The Ranger repeated dangerously, giving the poor pony a look that could melt ice.

The mare let out a quiet squeak of fear and quickly disembarked, the door sliding shut behind her with a solid thud. For a few moments the only sound was the quiet whir of the car’s motors and a soft electric hum.

“You know, I don’t say this much, but thanks sis. I thought she was going to eat me.” Lightning Streak chuckled nervously.

“Oh don’t sound so upset.” Misty smirked, throwing him a dirty look. “I’m sure you would’ve enjoyed it.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Lightning Streak intoned humorlessly, getting a soft chuckle of amusement out of Misty. He looked at her incredulously, astonished to see her struggling to hold a laugh back. “Come on, laugh it up fuzzball!”

Misty crackled another chortle but remained otherwise stoic, the only sign of her amusement a slightly upturned smirk. The two siblings exchanged a few silent glances, both privately wondering which one would break first.

“Look at us, its like one of us farted in a packed elevator and doesn’t want to admit it cause it smells.” Lightning Streak joked.

Misty broke, a loud grating laugh coming from her mouth before she could hold it back. Lightning Streak quickly following suit. Neither noticed the elevator car stop nor the doors slide open.

“Uh…”

The two Rangers looked up, seeing a very confused mare with her mane done up in a tight bun standing in the hallway. She seemed completely frozen by shock, looking between the two cackling pegasi like they belonged in a mad house.

“You didn’t see anything.” Misty warned her icily, quickly regaining her decorum and returning to her usual no nonsense attitude.

The pony nodded quickly. “I’ll just take the next one.”

“You do that.” Misty smiled dangerously, closing the doors before the pony outside could make another peep.

“Well that happened.” Lightning Streak remarked wryly. “I didn’t know you could laugh Misty.”

“Yes, I’m sure that was taken out of my programming.” She replied emotionlessly as the elevator accelerated down again smoothly. Lightning Streak gave her a friendly smile as the doors slid open again, spitting them out near the front lobby. They moved on in silence, their brief moment of hysterics inside the elevator forgotten. They worked their way past a few empty offices and around one of the shatterdome’s libraries although it was more akin to a giant storeroom rather than a dedicated place to read and learn.

As they trotted past the entrance to the area, :Lightning Streak noticed Big Macintosh sitting in a far corner, reading a thick book silently. Almost feeling a little mischievous, he changed direction, starting to whistle innocently.

“Where are you going?” Misty asked before noticing the massive stallion and stopping dead in her tracks. She gave her brother a disgusted look. “Ugh, you can catch up.”

Lightning Streak ignored her, actually a little glad she hadn’t followed him over to talk to Big Mac.

“Hey, Big Mac what'cha doing?” He asked when he was sure he was in earshot.

The stallion glanced up over the top of his book silently before looking back down, the simple action apparently enough of an answer.

“Good book?” Lightning Streak asked, tilting his head slightly to read the title. “The History of Mathematics?”

“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh answered stoically.

“Huh, never took you for much of a scholar.” The pegasus mumbled standing around awkwardly as the large stallion seemed to ignore him. Conversation wasn’t Big Mac’s strongpoint. “Hey, I was going out tonight with a couple of others, don’t suppose you’d want to come long would you?” The pegasus asked, jumping straight to point.

Big Mac lowered the book slightly, staring at Lightning Streak suspiciously. The two stallions had never had much beef with each other, unlike their younger siblings, but it would be a bit of a stretch to describe their relationship as anything other than lukewarm.

“Where?” He asked eventually.

Lightning Streak shuffled his hooves awkwardly, as if he were being judged. “Well there’s this bar called the Horse and Jockey over a little ways, pretty nice place.”

Big Mac stared at the pegasus for a few seconds longer before going back to his book.

“Aw come on, I’d be a great night out. They do specials after eight and I’m fairly sure Wave Chill, in his infinite wisdom and with his delusions of immortality, will challenge me to do something stupid, or foolish. Probably both.” Lightning Streak said encouragingly. He let out a quiet sigh and looked Big Mac in the eye. “Look, It’d be great to have somepony else around to makes things interesting and I know we don’t really talk much but I’d like it if you were there”

The massive earth pony looked up again, a barely interested look on his face.

Lightning Streak made a resigned shrug with his wings. “And it would be nice to get to know you a bit better.”

Big Mac fixed Lightning Streak with a blank gaze, his book seemingly forgotten.

“Come on, give me something here, its like I’m trying to read tea leaves or something.” Lightning Streak complained.

Big Mac let out a measured sigh, carefully folding the corner of the page he was on in as a marker and putting the book aside gently.

“So is that a yes?” Lightning Streak asked hopefully.

Big Mac rose off his chair, the comparatively small wooden frame squeaking as his weight lifted off it. “Eeyup.”

Lightning Streak let out an amused snort. “Do you ever say anything else?”

Big Mac gave him a silent stare.

Lightning Streak let out an amused whiny. “Figures…” He muttered as Big Mac padded past him and the book back on the shelf before following Lightning Streak silently, a blank expression on his face.

“So, do you get out much?” Lightning Streak asked casually. “Go around much at home?”

Big Mac blinked once.

“You know you’d get along great with Pinkie’s sister Maud, I’m sure you two would have the most interesting conversations. You’d just blink at each other all day…” He fumed sardonically. “You’d be enraptured…” .

.Big Mac just blinked silently again.

“See?” Lightning Streak insisted, more to himself than anypony else. They rounded a corner into the shatterdome’s main foyer, prompting Lightning Streak to do a quick double take. He was expecting no more than five in their group but before him were nearly a dozen. Wave Chill was talking with Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash excitedly. Behind the two mares stood Applejack and the shatterdome’s J-Tech head, Twilight Sparkle, talking like old friends. Misty stood as far away from everypony else as she could, looking slightly aloof. Soarin idled a few metres away from her, trying to not look at anything in particular. Something about the stallion’s pose indicated he didn’t really want to be there but was more of convention than anything else.

“Damn, what are they all doing here?” Lightning Streak thought aloud.

Big Mac shrugged silently, seemingly indifferent to the large group of ponies.

Lightning Streak gave the stallion a wry look. “Somehow, I knew you would do that.”

***

It didn’t take long for the group to reach the bar that Lightning Streak had chosen. While the ten-odd ponies on their own probably wouldn’t have attracted much attention normally, their fame made any passerby gawp at the group incredulously or bounce up to them ecstatically. Thankfully though, there was no need to fight off packs of rabid fans and admirers with most ponies respectfully keeping their distance.

The Horse and Jockey from the outside was a small, inconspicuous affair; a small sign overhanging the narrow street and a pair of relatively unassuming looking security guards standing watch out the front the only indication that the bar existed at all. Despite its relatively unassuming appearance, the bar’s surprisingly large interior was was usually filled with music and patrons of all shapes and sizes. The bar was one of the few in Manehatten that was host to some of the more exotic species of the world, griffons, minotaurs and zebras were occasional guests and if one were particularly lucky, they could even occasionally find a pack of small drakes visiting from time to time.

Tonight though was not one of those nights though and the only visitors the bar hosted was a small group of griffons who roosted away in a distant corner.

“This is it?” Misty Fly asked as she squeezed in past Big Macintosh.

“This is the place.” Lightning Streak affirmed as they spilled out into a spacious, well furnished bar. Ornate light fittings floated just below the ceiling , bobbing around whenever somepony passed underneath. Dozens of padded chairs, stools and lounges were set out across the bar, most of them occupied by other patrons. The arrival of the group had attracted a bit of attention, several of the bar-goers had stopped their conversations and turned towards the group.

“Well this is nice.” Misty remarked sarcastically.

“Go sit in the corner and stop whining you jumped-up killjoy.” Lightning Dust grumbled before making a beeline for the bar with Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Applejack in tow.

“Bitch…” Misty muttered once she was sure Lightning Dust was out of earshot.

“Good to see you getting along with the new rangers, Misty. I always had such confidence in you.” Lightning Streak remarked dryly.

Misty pulled an annoyed face and vanished into the crowd without another word.

“Well that was a good start.” Lightning Streak said, clearly resisting the urge to rub his face with a hoof. “Good a time as any to get started…” He added irritably, trotting after Wave Chill and Big Macintosh as the other two stallions made a beeline for the bar.

***

Already ahead of the stallions in the group, Twilight and her small group gathered at the bar. All but one of the four mares looked positively enthusiastic at having a night out together and even Lightning Dust still looked like she could enjoy herself if she tried hard.

Of the group, Twilight seemed particularly fascinated with the polished countertop.

“A bar.” She uttered gleefully, running a hoof across the polished counter. “I’ve never been to a real bar before.”

“You don’t drink?” Lightning Dust asked, clearly mortified by the prospect. She looked at Twilight incredulously over the top of an exotic drink she probably couldn’t even pronounce the name of.

“I try not to. I’ve done many studies and experiments in the area of alcoholic beverages and the results are far from optimal.” Twilight explained.

“You-.” Lightning Dust tried to interject

Twilight carried on without noticing. “With effects such as loss of basic motor skills, lack of cognitive and decision making skills, serious liver and brain damage, I don’t see why anypony would want to drink from a physiological viewpoint.

Lightning Dust opened her mouth to counter but Twilight continued as if she hadn’t seen anything.

Still, I must accept that from a psychological standpoint drinking does alleviate many social obstacles that may pop up, and is in itself, a relatively tame social tool when used in moderation. That has nothing to say for the benefits that a small amount of alcohol can have for your heart ...” She trailed off, noticing that Lightning Dust had now finished her drink and was staring off blankly. “Oh I’m sorry, were you trying to say something?”

“No, I think you just about covered it.” Lightning Dust grumbled sarcastically before going to find a part of the bar with a lower average IQ.

“I think you scared her off, Twilight.” Rainbow remarked with a small grin.

“Suits me, never liked that mare much anyway.” Applejack interjected, shooting a flare off after Lightning Dust.

“Aw she’s not so bad once you get to know her, she’s just like me only-.”

“Only a little rougher around the edges.” Applejack finished. “Ah think that’s only the seventh time you’ve said that?”

“Whatever.” Rainbow fired back.

Applejack shook her head, it had been weird without Rainbow Dash around. “Alright. what are ya’ll getting? First round’s on me.”

“Do they have a list of drinks?” Twilight asked uncertainly..

“They have cider on tap.” Rainbow Dash commented, her eyes gleaming slightly.

“Cider is nice.” Twilight agreed.

“And not just any cider! Sweet Apple Acres cider!” Rainbow cried excitedly, her mouth falling open with disbelief. She stared at the tap longingly. “I didn’t know you sold that stuff out here, AJ.”

“We didn’t.” Applejack frowned. “Never sold it much out of Ponyville actually.”

“I guess your family must’ve thought it was a good idea.” Rainbow chipped in.

Applejack let out a quiet huff of irritation. “Yeah, guess so.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Twilight asked. “Gets your orchard more a name for itself and earns your family more money.”

Applejack frowned. “Just guess it ain’t quite as special.”

Rainbow Dash, already holding a mug reverently, ignored Applejack’s comment, cheerfully downing the bubbly liquid with little regard for her friend’s complaint. Before Twilight could even think to glare at Rainbow, a slightly downcast looking stallion dropped onto the stool next to her

“Oh hey Soarin!” Twilight said cheerfully, immediately recognising the newcomer. “I wasn’t sure you’d join us.”

Soarin threw her a look. “I thought I might take you up on your offer, the only other real choice of company I had was the three stooges over there and I don’t feel like destroying my liver just yet.” Soarin remarked, waving vague towards Lightning Streak’s group with a flap of his wing.

“Could’ve gone with Shane and Michael, I’m sure they’d like the company.” Twilight pointed out.

“I don’t really want to be around them right now.” Soarin muttered, waving over a bartender and giving her a quick set of directions. She seemed a little confused at first but trotted off regardless, no doubt preparing a drink for the stallion. She returned a moment later with a short glass filled with an almost psychedelic range of colours running through it.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked, pointing at the blaze of colours which slowly settled in Soarin’s cup.

“It’s called a Rowdy Bitch.” Soarin answered gruffly.

“Odd name. What’s in it?” She asked, leaning over Applejack to get a closer look at the drink.

Soarin peered into the drink blankly. “Stuff.”

“You seem to be in particularly fine mood.” Rainbow commented, getting a few nods of agreement from the other mares around the bar,

“I’d rather not talk about it.” Soarin mumbled defensively.

“Talking to other ponies about your problems can be good, Soarin. Maybe we can help you with whatever the problem is?” Twilight offered.

“Well, thanks, but I don’t think you’d be able to help me.” Soarin said with a half-smile.

“How about we just try, hmm?” Twilight suggested encouragingly.

The stallion sat and considered for a few seconds, his eyes flickering between his glass and the counter uncertainly. “Alright, but I’d rather you keep it among yourselves. It’s the promotion I got.” Soarin stared into his brightly coloured drink silently or a few seconds. “It just almost feels like it’s a bit of a kick upstairs.”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight exchanged a confused look. “I don’t get it.” They said in unison.

Soarin adopted a remarkably bad impersonation of Michael. “Hey, you two just wrecked Jaeger so you’re getting a promotion so you don't wreck another.”

“But they’re giving you a new Jaeger.” Twilight pointed out, the small umbrella in her drink spinning with a purple glow.

“You’ve seen how often they deploy? Duty of command and all?” Soarin shot back wryly.

“I thought you told me you didn’t want to see combat.” Rainbow asked.

“Well, yeah, but this is different. You said it yourself, it’s another story when someone else is holding you back.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “You’ve got a point, but I think you should take this opportunity and run with it. I’d jump at the chance to be in command of a strike group.” She said wistfully.

Soarin let a quiet chuckle. “I don’t think you’d be saying that if you actually did, there’s a lot more to commanding than just giving out orders.”

“Like there’s more to runnin’ an apple farm than just growing apples.” Applejack piped up helpfully.

“Didn’t Big Mac do most of the book keeping?” Twilight asked.

“That’s beside the point, Twi.” Applejack grumbled defensively. “There’s still a lot to it.”

“Oh, I’m not doubting that. I could imagine the bookkeeping alone would be rather impressive. Maybe I should look into it when this all blows over.”

The small group sat pensively for a moment, considering Twilight’s words. It was almost a foreign thought to consider the war ending, it had consumed Equestria for long enough already.

“What are you going to do when this is over, Soarin?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Hell if I know…” He muttered. “Something quiet, that’d be a nice change of pace.”

“You could be a librarian.” Twilight suggested with a soft giggle.

“I wouldn’t mind that...” Soarin said with a soft smile.

“Boring more like it, where’s the fun, where’s the thrill?” Rainbow butted in loudly.

“Oh I think I’m getting enough of that at the moment to last me a lifetime.” Soarin laughed. “You go have an arm ripped off and then let me know how you feel.”

“I’m too fast, I’d never give them the chance to hit me.” Rainbow boasted. “Fastest mare in Equestria in the fastest Jaeger in Equestria, rather fitting don’t you think?”

“Ah’d rather mine any day of the week. Your thingo looks like it would fall apart in a stiff breeze.” Applejack jeered.

“It’s been engineered a bit better than that, Applejack.” Twilight complained. “For starters-.”

“Ah know Twi, it was a joke.” the farmer said, hastily covering before Twilight decided that going into the details of the Jaeger’s construction was necessary.

Twilight hid an annoyed expression, turning back to Soarin. “I think you’re taking this whole thing the wrong way, I’m sure neither Shane or Michael meant any disrespect for you.”

Soarin slowly let out a long breath. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He admitted.

“See, nothing to worry about then.” Twilight said warmly.

Soarin didn’t seem to share her optimism, his face twisting up a little as if he wanted to disagree with Twilight was too polite to do so.He finished off his drink with a disatisfied grunt, wishing he was someplace else.

“Want another drink, Soarin?” Twilight offered.

“Nah, I think I’m going to head off, I’m sure there’s a bucket-load of paperwork for at the shatterdome to do.” Soarin said with a quiet sound that made it clear what he really thought of the idea of doing paperwork

“But you just got here.” Rainbow protested.

Soarin shrugged silently, placing a few bits on the counter for his drink and leaving the bar as quickly as he’d arrived.

“There is something seriously wrong with him.” Rainbow said suspiciously. “He’s not usually so…”

“Snippy?” Twilight suggested.

“Yeah.” Rainbow muttered.

“Ah wouldn’t worry yourself about it sugarcube, poor stallion probably has enough on his mind without you jumping up and down in front of him like Pinkie would.” Applejack said with a not at all reassuring smile.

Rainbow Dash huffed quietly, silently accepting that her friend was probably right.

“Maybe we should just put it aside for the moment, don’t want to ruin our night out do we?” Twilight suggest amicably. “Come on Rainbow, I’ll get you another drink. How’s another cider sound…”

***

A few metres away from where Twilight's herd sat, Lightning Streak’s small group had made camp. Wave Chill looked a little too eager and Big Macintosh had his forelegs up on the bartop, a perfectly blank and level expression on his face.

Lightning Streak eyed the counter dubiously, the mug-stained tabletop was worn from years of use and had an almost infused smell of alcohol. He’d been to the Horse and Jockey several times before, but never with a mute giant and a foolish showoff.

“You know, I’m starting to have second thoughts about this. Are you sure you can’t be a little more imaginative?” He said, wishing he was suddenly with somepony he felt more comfortable with. Wave Chill was alright company but Big Mac seemed to alternate between staring at him and the lights bobbing over their heads.

“I’m young, I’m foolish, I’m prone to bouts of self-indulgence and I drink for the hell of it when I can. Did you really expect anything else from me?” Wave Chill rambled, whistling over a bartender and ordering the first round.”You got anything else better in mind?”

Lightning Streak shrugged. “When you put it like that, I guess not. You down for this Macarena?” He asked, turning to the silent Big Macintosh.

Big Macintosh gave him a blank look, clearly not expecting such a nickname. He eventually shrugged and took the drink without complaint.

“Steel yourself guys, I’ll have you know I was a notoriously good drinker in college.” Wave Chill warned slyly.

“Out of your group of one I would guess.” Lightning Streak muttered, enjoying the way that his comment seemed to rile up Wave Chill. The young stallion was sometimes like his sister in that regard. Push the right buttons and away you go. “You know, when I was in college I barely drank, you know, actually being busy studying, but the few times I did I was renowned as the ‘Stallion of Steel’.”

Wave Chill snorted contemptuously. “Bullshit, you got that from a comic or something.”

“Didn’t say it was an imaginative name.” Lightning Streak chuckled. “What about you Big Mac, you ever do anything like that in college? Can’t imagine you being much a social drinker.”

Big Macintosh looked a little embarrassed, hiding his face in his tankard for a moment. “Ah never went to college…” He mumbled, looking away. “Never did anything past primary school…”.

The two pegasi shared a surprised look. Secondary education in Equestria wasn’t mandatory but was almost universal in some shape or form. Finding somepony who had never received any form of higher education was an oddity, to say the least.

“Fair enough…” Lightning Streak trailed off awkwardly.

“I ain’t dumb though. Ah taught myself everything.” Big Macintosh added defensively, a soft scowl appearing on his face. “I know what you’ll thinking, Ah get it all the darn time.”

“I wasn’t thinking you were an idiot Mac, I know you're not. You’d have to be pretty clever or you wouldn’t be here.”

Big Mac rumbled lowly but said nothing else, giving the two Rangers a slightly dirty look.

“We’re kids from privilege. We had money, we had an education. I’m going to pretend I know that it’s like for you. I’m not going to judge you for it though.” Lightning Streak said kindly. “You’re a decent pony, that’s all that matters to me.”

Big Mac let out a quiet grunt, lifting the tankard and drinking heavily from it.

Wave Chill recovered first, grabbing his own tankard with indecent haste. “He’s off! Sneaky bugger!”

Lightning Streak hesitated for a moment before grabbing his own mug He gave Big Mac a friendly look, pleased to note that the stallion didn’t look quite as irked as he had a minute ago.

Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

***

At the other end of the bar, far away from the shenanigans of the other Rangers, Misty Fly sat alone. She’d chosen a corner seat at the end of the bar, far away from most of the crowd. In her corner she was fairly inconspicuous, she’d only been bothered by a few ponies who had recognised. Incredibly, she’d dealt with them relatively politely, only telling one of them to Piss off!’ when he tried buying her a drink. Despite everything, she actually found herself enjoying the bar. The atmosphere was nice, nopony was getting up in her face and she could watch her brother be stupid with his new friends from a relatively safe distance.

It was all relatively peaceful until an obnoxiously bright cyan figure slammed into the chair next to boisterously.

“Lucy, I’m home!” The pegasus announced loudly.

Misty looked at her like she had asked for her to pay the bill. “I’m not Lucy.” She replied flatly, shifting away from the interloper slightly. She immediately recognised the mare, she was one of Soarin and Wave Chill’s cadets, the one who had piloted the Jaeger earlier in the morning.

“I knew that... wait a minute you’re not Rainbow Dash.” Lightning Dust muttered, squinting at Misty closely.

Misty ignored her.

“You look familiar though, did I screw your brother or something?” Lightning Dust asked casually.

Misty looked at Lightning Dust furiously. “I have no idea. Now piss off!”

“Wow. You’re an arsehole.” Lightning Dust commented dryly. She thought for a moment. “And that’s me saying that.”

“I’m sure the Jaeger Corp values you for your ability to state the obvious.” Misty sneered.

Lightning Dust hit Misty’s shoulder in a friendly manner that did nothing to make the pegasus unwind. “You need to loosen up lady, enjoy your life a little more. Unwind a little, y’know.”

“Go away.” Misty growled.

“You sleep around at all? I mean, I did at some point, I think. Yes I had that stage where I needed a nice bi-.”

Misty clamped the pegasus’ mouth shut before she could go any further. “Shut up and go away.”

Lightning Dust blinked silently, slowly worming her jaw loose from Misty’s grip. “How many was it…” She trailed off absently as she slowly counted off in her head, her eyes shifting slowly to the left every time she mentally ticked somepony off. “Forty seven.” She answered. “I can name them all if you’d like.”

Misty’s eyes narrowed slightly, the other pegasus had something about her that she found oddly relatable. She decide to tolerate the mare for another minute, just to sate her curiosity “How do you even remember something like that?”

“I just remember things, it’s something I’m good at.” She boasted drunkenly. “Go on, ask me anything.”

“Alright then, how many Royal Darbys did I win during my time in the Wonderbolts?” Misty asked confidently.

Lightning Dust poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, her eyes losing focus as she considered the question. “Three. Four if you count the one you won while you were posing for Fleetfoot.” She answered triumphantly.

Misty let out a quiet snort of amusement, silently impressed that Lightning Dust knew the correct answer. Only a handful of ponies could’ve known that, Spitfire probably didn’t even know.

“See, I told you I’m good.” Lightning Dust continued.”Now I got a question for you, how many stallions have you slept with?”

“Excuse me?” Misty asked lowly, sure she’d misheard the audacious question.

“You heard me. As for why I care, I like to keep scores. Numbers. Thiiinngs.” She said, dragging the word out like it was dough. “Let’s me know how much better I am than everypony else.” Lightning Dust explained with a quiet hiccup.

“Is that why you started with me then? Cause I’d wager that everypony else in here would beat you hooves down in that field.” Misty sneered mockingly.

Lightning Dust looked like she’d been slapped. Her face twisted into one of annoyance before her inebriated brain processed exactly what Misty had said and chuckled slowly. “So I am beating you then.” She guessed, a goofy smile spreading across her face.

Misty’s face fell. “Not talking about it.”

Lightning Dust leaned closer, the smell of some kind of liquor washing over Misty’s face. She had a mischievous spark in her eye. “Let me guess, less than ten.”

Misty glared at her silently.

Lightning Dust closed an eye slightly. “Five?”

Misty remained silent, her lips pursed into a thin line.

Lightning Dust let out a quiet chortle. “One?” She giggled.

“Shut up.” Misty growled, averting her eyes from the barely composed pegasus..

Lightning Dust get out a hooting laugh, almost toppling backwards off her stool. “None?” she cackled.

“I said, shut up!”

“You’ve never been with a stallion?!” Lightning Dust cackled, tipping over backwards and knocking over another nearby patron. “Hey, my friend here is still a virgin, want to help her out?” She asked through another fit of giggles.

The stallion gave her a confused look before trotting off as quickly as he could.

Lightning Dust seemed to gather a fragment of her composure. “No way, I mean, no way! You were a Wonderbolt, prime eye-candy. What did you do with all your spare time?”

“Practised.” Misty snarled back venomously..

“Bullshit.” Lightning Dust barked, working her way upright again with the determination of a turtle trying to reach water.

“Go away.” Misty ordered gruffly, forcing herself to not give the mare a kick while she was still down.

“Tell you what, I help you get laid tonight and I’ll leave you alone.” Lightning Dust said, poking Misty’s chest accusingly.

Misty swatted her away. “That makes no sense.”

“Course it does, you just need to be drunk to get it.” She slurred. “Barkeep!”

The barman appeared from behind the counter like he had been shot out of a cannon, a bemused look on his face.

“You sir, what’s the strongest, nicest, most expensive drink on offer? My friend needs to get drunk.”

“No I don’t.” Misy stated indignantly.

“Yes you do.” Lightning Dust fired back nonchalantly, slipping a hoof over Misty;’s shoulder.

“I swear by the crown of Celestia, I will turn you into a placemat if you do not take your hoof off my back and release me from your inebriated, impulsive clutches.”

Lightning Dust looked from her to the bartender. “See what I mean?” She said casually. “We go way back, she wouldn’t placemat me, don’t worry.” She added to reassure the pony, although still having the sense to take her hoof off of Misty.

The barman looked between the two mares for a moment before returning to Lightning Dust’s question like nothing had happened. “Well, I’ve probably got some spirits stacked back here but I’ll tell you what, I made this new drink I call a Kaiju Slurpee, you girls interested?”

“It doesn’t actually have Kaiju in it does it?” Lightning Dust asked curiously..

“No, of course not!” The stallion laughed, “But it does glow a bright blue.”

“Pretty.” Lightning Dust uttered. “I’ll take two.”

“I’ll pass.” Misty muttered, edging as far away from Lightning Dust as she could manage.

“Aw quit being such a wimp. We’re here to celebrate, not sulk in the corner. where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Dead, in a ditch. Covered in kerosene. On fire.” Misty muttered sourly as a pair of small shot glasses skidded across the counter towards them. Each had a half-measure of a blue, luminescent liquid in it.

“Just the one?” Lightning Dust insisted, waving a glass at her tantalisingly.

Misty let out an exasperated breath, Lightning Dust had a sort of endearing, stubborn attitude that she found infuriatingly difficult to not appreciate. “Why do you drink?”

Lightning Dust considered the question for a moment. “ I drink to forget.”

Misty scowled at her silently, her gaze eventually falling on the glass Lightning Dust poked towards her. She took it cautiously, the last time she’d had alcohol was when Spitfire had given her a small measure of her foul liquor in celebration of her own command. Misty had hated it then and she suspected she would hate it now.

“Well, I guess I can drink to forget you.” She muttered scathingly.

“I’ll drink to that.” Lightning Dust chuckled, clinking her glass against Misty’s cheerfully and downing the shot in one go. She pondered the taste for a moment before slamming the glass back down against the counter. “That’s not actually half bad. Bar dude! Another round for me and my buddy here please.”

Misty cringed, this was going to be a long night.

***

Lightning Streak placed his drained mug back on the bench softly, a loud smack of wood against wood next to him loudly announcing that Wave Chill had also finished his first drink. The stallion eagerly grabbed another, starting on his second mug at a slightly unreasonable pace. Lightning Streak looked at him with a tinge of concern in his eyes but held off, Wave Chill knew his limits. Hopefully. Lightning Streak didn’t want to have to mother when he invariably did something stupid.

He stole a glance at Big Macintosh, surprised to see the stallion seemed to be giving Wave Chill the same concerned look.

“I worry him sometimes.” Lightning Streak noted.

“Ah can see that.” Big Mac replied quietly.

“Well, not that much really, usually my worries are spent on keeping my sister in check.” Lightning Streak joked.

Big Mac snorted quietly. “Sounds painful.”

“She’s not usually too bad, usually. She just gets these moods occasionally where she likes to explode at the slightest provocation.”

“Ah’m amazed at how different you two are. It’s like you were raised by different parents.”

“Well, considering our family… I can’t say I’m surprised that she turned out a little odd.”

Big Mac considered his words carefully. “You had bad parents?”

“On the contrary actually, they just never did things quite as you’d expect.”

“Like?”

“Well, for starters, they had her in the first place.” Lightning Streak said.

Big Mac looked at him blankly, a look of confusion etched across his face.

Lightning Streak made an apologetic motion.“Right, sorry. I’ll explain it quickly for you... okay, almost all pegasi follow one of two distinct schools of thought. The first, is the more traditional way and that’s to have a big family. Like, really big. Soarin’s family is a pretty good example of that, he’s got a ton of aunts and uncles and even a few siblings but their are many which are larger”

“Not unlike mah family.” Big Mac said.”There’s always somepony around to lend a hoof if times are tough.”

“Yeah, I suppose. But pegasi families tend to big because, well, we’re a pretty active lot. Even the slowest of pegasi are usually still more active than your average earth pony. For some of us, when we get cooped up there’s usually only a few releases that consistently work…” Lightning Streak finished with an awkward movement of his hoof.

“Oh.” Big Mac said simply.

“Yeah... consequently, your more sedate pegasi have smaller families. and by smaller, I mean like, one foal. There’s very rare to find much in between in any major cloud city. It’s either rellies for days or just a small, tight-knit family group. Of course there’s a whole bunch of other things that contribute to family sizes such as bloodlines, wealth and prestige but let’s not get into that. Just understand that my parents didn’t follow that convention.”

“Your parents had two foals.” Big Mac summarised.

“Yeah, I mean it’s not like it’s anything bad… just unusual, I guess. I think it’s appropriate then that my family was a bit weird…”

“How so?”

“My dad would say the strangest, most stupid but somehow believable shit. I’m sure at one point he had Misty convinced that at night, Princess Celestia actually lowered the sun down on top of the west coast where it stayed until the next day.”

“Wow.” Big Mac muttered in astonishment.

“She was all of four, can’t blame her. Dad was a great bullshit artist. And mum, jeez, mum was the most determined, kindest but also goofiest pegasus I’ve ever known. There wasn’t anything that was too much for her. She’d pull some pretty wicked pranks on us when we were kids.” Lightning Streak chuckled softly before his face became flat again. “Then of course they died and my sister turned into the egocentric arse we all know and love. Call it a coping mechanism, she loved them to bits.” A ghost of a smile cross his lips and he shook his head. “Enough about me though, what about your family? You still work on the farm with your folks”

Big Mac blinked silently. “They ain’t there anymore.” He said softly.

“Shit, sorry.” Lightning Streak apologised. “Touchy topic, parents…”

“Eeyup.” Big Mac said, looking away awkwardly.

Lightning Streak dropped the topic like it were a pan of flaming hot coals. “Well, how about another drink then? They always say the second one goes down better…”

***

“You see, this is supposed to be easy.” Lightning Dust giggled, watching as her companion hesitated, her cup halfway to her lips. “The third one is always-.”

“Yes, significantly.” Misty slurred, slamming the whole drink down in one motion. She contemplated the taste as the liquid ran down her throat, it was a fiery yet sweet taste that reminded her somewhat of the time she’d eaten a Flaming Dunebug when she was little. Thankfully though, the drink wasn’t squirming the whole way down.

She grimaced, maybe taking the first drink Lightning Dust had bought her out of desperation hadn’t been such a good idea. It had been remarkably easy for the bright pegasus to convince her that a second and then a third round was an even better idea after that.

Now Misty wasn’t so sure.

“Whoa…” She uttered, shaking her head vigorously as the drink settled in her stomach. “I feel something… tingly.”

“That’s buzz. Buzz is good, buzz is life.” Lightning Dust interrupted, chomping noisily on a couple of peanuts. “You should have more.”

Misty shuddered all over. Her brain felt a little fuzzy, almost as if it had been blurred out around the edges, and she was suddenly struggling to find the right words to say. “Dizzy…” she moaned.

“Wow, you really can’t hold your liquor.” Lightning Dust chuckled without concern. “We should do this more often, I bet you’d be a funny drunk.”

Misty stared at her hoof like it had grown a pair of tentacles out of it. She was feeling curious, foolish even, a particularly unusual sensation for the usually stoic mare. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was the constant egging on from Lightning Dust, either way, she was feeling incredibly, impossibly, inexplicably impetuous.

“Sure…” Misty Fly giggled foolishly.

“I’ve never heard you laugh before.” Lightning Dust observed. “You have a nice laugh.”

Misty flushed red at the unexpected compliment, feeling her mouth twitch upwards reflexively. “Th-Thanks.”

“No worries.” Lightning Dust smiled as Misty seemed to stumble over herself, even without moving. “You don’t drink much do you?”

“No, I don’t go out much. I don’t enjoy it.”

“Well you seem to be enjoying yourself right now.”

“Yeah.” Misty mumbled quietly. “This is nice… gee, do you reckon I could like this more often?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not.” Lightning Dust laughed. “We’ll go out another time.”

Misty felt a warm sensation spread through her chest. She had rarely ever met somepony who was so accepting of her. She giggled again for no discernible reason, her vision blurring as her head bobbed up and down. “Hey, am I supposed to feel f-faint?”

“Yeah that’s normal.” Lightning Dust said, offering her two cups, one with another Kaiju Slurpee and the other filled with cool water. “Here, drink this, you’ll feel better…”

***

At the opposite end of the bar, Big Macintosh, Wave Chill and Lightning Streak were taking a quick break from the drinking contest Wave Chill had so valiantly suggested. The young pegasus had, despite his cocky, self-assured attitude, had been the first one to call a halt to the drinking and catch a break. Wave Chill’s dark eyes were lazy and unfocused, staring groggily into the wall a few metres opposite him. His entire chest heaved occasionally as he hiccuped silently. Lightning Streak wanted to feel sorry for him, but it was hard when the upstart had jumped into the contest with such a cocksure attitude.

Big Macintosh on the other hand, despite the small tower of mugs that he’d downed, hardly looked any worse off. He seemed to talk a little more but he otherwise showed no outward sign of any discomfort. Lightning Streak glared at him with admiration, the earth pony would be real competition.

“Ready to get going again Wave Chill?” He asked, slapping the pegasus on the back heartily.

“Just… uh… just give me a minute.” Wave Chill groaned, his wings twitching as he breathed in and out.

“Hey.” Big Mac muttered, dragging Lightning Streak’s attention away from the crippled stallion and pointing down towards the other end of the bar with a hoof.

]While it took Lightning Streak a moment to find what he was pointing out and it took him a minute longer to properly comprehend it.

“Misty’s drinking?” He asked, flabbergasted and horrified at the same time.

“With that new mare, no less.” Big Mac added.

“I think I need a minute here.” Lightning Streak said, sure he was misinterpreting the scene somehow. He continued to stare, his eyes as wide as saucers as the two mares talked cheerfully.

“Take all the time ya need.” Big Mac muttered, looking at the clearly intoxicated pegasus through the crowd with a mixture of fascination and dread. .

“Are you ogling my sister?” Lightning Streak asked indignantly.

“Nope!” Big Mac burst out defensively, tearing his gaze off the Ranger and looking at something that wasn’t likely to get him in trouble. He muttered something under his breath about a ten metre pole but Lightning Streak choose to ignore it.

Lightning Streak watched for a moment longer, finding a smile spread across his face as Misty spun on her stool, an adorable, almost comically wide grin on her face.

At least she seemed to be enjoying herself.

“She’s a hooffull.” He muttered.

Big Mac gave him a sympathetic look. “Sounds like my sister.”

“One of the perks of being a big brother.” Lightning Streak agreed. “Y’know, our sisters aren’t really all that different.”

Big Mac raised an eyebrow with amusement. “Ah think you’ve been drinking too much.”

“Okay, discounting the fact that Misty’s ego could dwarf the Eastern Ocean and her generally antisocial behaviour…”

“They both get riled up over things they shouldn’t.” Big Mac agreed.

“They’re both dedicated to their profession, whether that be farming or aerial performance and combat.” Lightning Streak continued.

The earth pony nodded. “Stubborn.”

“Occasionally prideful.”

“Occasionally?” Big Mac snorted.

“Okay, Applejack might have that one over Misty.” Lightning Streak admitted with an infectious laugh. “But they’re not really that different, right?”

“Ah’m not going to agree with you on that one.” Big Macintosh said firmly.

“Literally no fun allowed.” Lightning Streak complained, slightly pissedly.

“ I swear if you two keep this constant yammering up you’re going to give me a second headache.” Wave Chill complained through the counter.

“I believe that’s what they call a migraine.” Lightning Streak jeered. “You hear that Mac? We give out migraines. Never thought you would be such a chatty catty.”

“Just shut up and drink something.” Wave Chill complained.

“Waiting on you sweetheart.” Lightning Streak teased. “Unless you want to just give up now?”

“Never.” Wave Chill growled, giving Lightning Streak a determined growl that his eyes didn’t seem to really support.

“Well, drink up then.” Lightning Streak goaded him.

Lightning Streak was sure he heard the other Ranger mutter some choice words about his parents, a dog and what they probably did together but couldn’t help but smile as Wave Chill grabbed another mug of drink.

It seemed the contest was back on.

***

“What do I mean I’m too drink to have a drunk?” Misty exclaimed hotly.

“I think you just answered your own question.” Lightning Dust cackled, pulling Misty away before she could do something stupid.

“I’m not drunk. I don’t drink.” Misty growled. “Ffff- ething moron.”

“You’re drunker than a glass of water.” Lightning Dust assured her, leading her to a vacant corner lounge and plopping her down gently.

“Drunk… I’ve never been drunk before.” Misty pondered, resting her back up against the longue and draping her hind legs over the edge. “Hey, you’re good at this what do you do when you’re drunk?”

“Make poor life choices...” Lightning Dust remarked under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Find a cutie and see where things go.” Lightning Dust corrected herself.

“Really? That’s it?” Misty asked.

“I’ve never really been that creative.” Lightning Dust admitted. “Why, you got a better idea?”

“Shit, how do I think again?” Misty asked.

“Oh boy…” Lightning Dust muttered under her breath.

Misty frowned. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Lightning Dust shrugged. “You’re a clever mare, I’m sure you can figure things out.”

“B-but how do I talk to them?”

“Back up a few centimetres-, wait, no.” Lightning Dust flushed. “Just say things, they’ll know who you are. You don’t need to say much, just say something to get ‘em interested.”

Misty seemed to have missed her fumble. “Do you really think this will work?” She asked.

“What?”

“The whole thing you were yapping on about before. I mean, being with somepony.” She asked seriously. “Will it work?”

Lightning Dust blinked slowly. “Define work.” She asked.

“Do you think it’ll make me nicer?” Misty asked, a look of almost genuine concern on her face. She’d never cared about what others had thought about her but now, the fact that she was having what could qualify as a social outing with another pony that wasn’t her brother, her pride was really stinging.

Lightning Dust let out an explosive snort of amusement. “No way, this is the stupidest thing you’ve done in your life.”

Misty cocked her head to the side. “What?”

“I said, this is the best idea you’ve had in your life.” Lightning Dust said through a barely suppressed grin. “Now go get ‘em tiger!”

***

An hour and several drinks later, Lightning Streak had something stumble across him which he would have much rather not. He had been poking a bit of fun at Wave chill as the stallion sat face down against the counter, his snout squished up like a wrinkled mandarin against the polished wood. The younger stallion had bitten off a little more than he could chew, downing drinks like a contestant at a pie eating contest before quickly slamming into the proverbial wall and sliding down it like a cream cake.

It suddenly occurred to Lightning Streak that he was also rather hungry.

Big Macintosh had excused himself for some reason Lightning Streak had missed and was quite absent when a very drunk mare dropped in between Lightning Streak and Wave Chill. She barely gave the half passed out stallion a sidewards glance before turning to Lightning Streak.

“Hey there cutie, hows ‘bout you ‘n me find somepony with a Mistletoe cutie mark, if you know what I mean.” She proposed with an overt wink.

It took him a moment to recognise the mare, an unamused expression crossing his face. “I’m your brother.” Lightning Streak replied flatly.

The mare looked like she’d hit with a brick across the face. “Whoopsie.” Misty replied drunkenly, jumping out of the seat like a fire had flared up on it and disappearing before Lightning Streak could stop her.

“Did that really just happen?” Wave Chill asked with a laugh, clearly having enough cognitive function to comprehend the short but humiliating conversation.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Lightning Streak answered, terror written across his face. Lightning Dust had somehow gotten Misty drunk, he could think of almost no fate worse. “Where’d she go?”

“Talking with Maccie.” Wave Chill said with a quiet giggle, pointing out a clearly terrified Big Mac through the crowd. Misty had a hoof draped around his neck and a sultry look on her face, her words were thankfully drowned out by the general murmur in the bar though.

“Oh boy…” Lightning Streak grumbled, moving to intervene before things got really out of hand. He was barely halfway towards Big Mac though when another burly earth pony blocked his view. by the time he’d forced his way past, Misty was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, Big Mac, where’d she go?” Lightning Streak asked, giving the stallion a nudge.

Big Macintosh ignored him, his eyes shrunken to pinpricks and his tussled mane almost seemed to be standing on edge. He looked like a lynx which had just found itself in the sights of a griffon hunter.

“Oi, Mac. You alright?”

Big Macintosh finally seemed to notice him but his jaw seemed almost frozen in place.

He finally managed to regain motor control after what seemed like an incomprehensibly long internal struggle. “Ah need another drink.”

***

Nearly an hour had passed since Lightning Dust had sent her companion on her merry way before it finally caught up with her. She was halfway through a glass of cool, soothing water when Lightning Streak practically jumped on her.

“Did you get Misty drunk?” He asked accusingly, glaring daggers at the mare.

“I may have.” Lightning Dust answered in a remarkably flat tone. She fluttered her eyes at him innocently. “Why?” She asked as sweetly as she could manage.Lightning Dust relished the slightly uncomfortable look the stallion have her.

“Because she just came up to me and Big Mac and asked if he wanted to uhh…” He flushed slightly. “You know…”

“Whoops.” Lightning Dust answered dryly, staring off into the distance with an amused look plastered over her features. She smiled to herself as if remembering an old joke before looking back at the irate stallion.

Lightning Streak let out a frustrated sigh. “Don’t you have even a shred of decency? The poor mare can hardly walk straight!”

Lightning Dust let out an impressed sound. “Wow. She only had three drinks.”

:Lightning Streak blinked slowly. “Really?,Wow, what a lightweight…”

“I know right?” Lightning Dust answered drunkenly, taking the opportunity to not too subtly check the stallion out while he was next to her. “Where is she now?”

“That’s the worst part, I have no idea.” Lightning Streak fumed, glaring furiously at the other pegasus. Whether he was irritated at her overt look or his sister’s disappearance though, Lightning Dust couldn’t tell.

“I’m hardly responsible for what she does… in fact I don't’ think I’m hardly responsible right now.” She paused suggestively, her eyes seemingly losing focus before snapping back clearly. “Hey, speaking of responsibility, don’t you have a drinking contest to get back to?”

“Least of my problems…” He muttered, pulling an unamused expression and sauntered off, presumably, to find either his drinking companions or his sister, the two stallions seemed to have somehow simply vanished from the bar despite one of them being the size of a cart. Maybe the prospect of Misty trying to hit on ponies in the bar had scared the two of them out of their minds.

Lightning Dust lifted her glass back to her lips, a mischievous smile creeping across her face. “I am so going to regret this tomorrow.”

***

The end of the night for Big Macintosh was nothing quite like he had expected.

Lightning Streak was still absent, presumably hunting through the city from end to end in the vain hope of finding his sister. Big Mac admired his dedication though in his opinion, Misty Fly was better off missing.

A faint groan caught his attention, Wave Chill was starting to stir. Starting being the key word, the stallion’s face looked like it had been painfully glued to the top of the counter and what noises he were making were barely distinguishable from unintelligible gibberish.

Although it held no measure of importance to him, Big Mac guessed he had won the drinking contest by default. Funny, considering he’d hardly drunk anything over the night, content to sit and listen to Lightning Streak or Wave Chill babble on about something or other in a boasting manner that seemed prevalent amongst pegasi.

He watched Wave Chill silently for a few minutes, no doubt somepony smarter than him could describe the odd sort of pleasure he felt at seeing the pony’s discomfort. His silent thoughts were interrupted when a familiar hoof tapped him on the shoulder He turned slowly not at all surprised to find his sister with another pony draped over her back, Twilight Sparkle, Big Mac realised slowly. Applejack looked incredibly tired, her eyes rimmed by small bags and a slightly dazed look. She still looked rather happy though, which was some relief to the stallion.

“We’re gonna get going, Ah think Twilight here has had a bit too much of the drink.” Applejack said through a yawn, checking her friend was hoisted over her back securely.

“I don’t want to go home mum… we only got to the library three hours ago.” Twilight complained groggily.

Applejack shot the mare an unimpressed look, a slight hint of concern breaking through the irritation in her eyes.

Big Mac nodded, letting his sister cart off her friend with the enthusiasm of a mother putting her disobedient child to bed.

“Count on Twilight to get herself smashed on her first real night out.”

Big Mac looked again, his eyes falling on the form of Applejack’s other friend, Rainbow Dash. She shared the same look as Applejack, tired but content. Her prismatic mane caught the slowly dying light in a rather spectacular fashion, a beautiful spectrum of bold colours and dark lines reminding Big Mac of a piece of art he had seen on display in Ponyville a long time ago.

“Heh.” He chuckled softly, tearing his eyes away from the interesting sight

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fell on Wave Chill, an amused grin creeping over her face. Big Mac couldn’t help but mirror the action, leaving both ponies grinning like idiots.

“Jeez, since when does your face move?” Rainbow bantered playfully.

“Rainbow…” Applejack growled irritably a few metres away.

“Yeah, yeah on my way.” Rainbow muttered, stomping away from Big Mac with an annoyed flick of her tail.

Big Mac made an amused sound in the back of his throat, draining the last dregs of his drink and looking back at Wave Chill. As amusing at would have been, he could not leave the stallion at the bar all night. He sorted their tab, pulling a few stray bits he saved for special occasions out from his yoke and hauled Wave Chill onto his back. While some might have trouble hefting another pony, Wave Chill felt like little more than a twig to Big Mac.

‘Let’s get you home.’

***

It took almost another hour before Lightning Dust had started to sober up enough to notice that Misty still was nowhere to be found. While she was fairly comfortable leaving the mare to her own devices and letting fate take its course, the more reasonable part of her mind made her abandon the bar and look for her new friend. She stumbled around the bar at first to little avail before widening her search, stepping outside and rooting around a few nearby streets. It took her another fifteen minutes before she almost literally tripped over the pegasus in question.

“Hey! Watch where you sleep y-!” She snapped before noticing the bundle of fur, feathers and hair in the gutter she’d trodden on was, in fact, her new friend. “Misty, what the heck are you doing out here?”

Misty mumbled something unintelligible, her chest rising and falling shakily. Lightning Dust’s heart jumped into her throat, if Misty had gotten herself into trouble it would’ve been all her fault. She scooped the other pegasus up, worrying over her like a mother hen. Se forestalled the motion, backing away slightly as Misty pushed hit her away.

“You alright?” Lightning Dust asked, taking a small step closer. Misty seemed unhurt but if the quick look she’d got at her face was any indication she had been crying.

“No.” Misty muttered, curling up tighter and looking away from the other pegasus.

“Nopony touched…” Lightning Dust started, Misty cutting her off with a sharp shake of her head.

Lightning Dust breathed a quiet sigh of relief, at least she could absolve herself of some guilt. The other pegasus shied away as Lightning Dust reached out comfortingly. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Misty glared at her silently.

Lightning Dust stared down at her sympathetically and sighed deeply. “Look, I’m not normally one for, well, giving a shit, but you know what? I’m half-drunk so why not?” She plopped her rump down on the curb next to Misty and stared out at city. Over the tops of houses and apartments she could make out the top of the shatterdome, a hundred blinking lights across it making it look like a small city in its own right. She sat there for several minutes in silence, waiting for Misty to say something. Lightning Dust frowned, she had been waiting so long she could feel the more active part of mind starting to throttle itself out of boredom.

“Go away.” Misty mumbled into the gutter.

“You’re a right arsehole.” Lightning Dust suggested helpfully.

“I said go away.” Misty repeated, talking into the stonework like it was a pillow.

“Fight me.” Lightning Dust jeered.

“Feth off.” Misty growled.

Lightning Dust didn’t budge. “You’re the biggest arsehole I’ve ever met and until you talk to me, you’re the biggest arsehole in history.”

Misty seemed to consider this for a moment before finally pulling her face out of the sidewalk and staring at Lightning Dust, a mix of anger, self- and sadness in her bright blue eyes. t. Her face was wet with tears and her eyes were red and puffy, the usual self-confident attitude nowhere to be found.

“I am an arsehole.” Misty sniffled, picking herself up off the pavement with as much decency as she could manage. “And normally that fact wouldn’t bother me, but right now it’s the most important thing in my life. Everypony hates me, even my brother hates me.”

“Your brother loves you.” Lightning Dust said encouragingly. “I don’t know him that well but I know he’d never leave you out to dry.”

Misty let out a choked cough. “He threatened to leave me, why would he do that? Why would any family ever do that?”

“My family never came looking for me when I dropped off the grid. They abandoned me, well, I actually abandoned them but...” Lightning Dust said, trying not to let her voice sound hurt. “I’ve never heard from them since though.. Which is fine right? Families do that don’t they? Happened to you, happened to me.” She said quickly, looking away so Misty couldn’t see her face.

“My family died.” Misty stated bluntly. “He’s all I have left.”

Lightning Dust felt a surge of embarrassment and guilt. “Shit. Sorry.”

Misty sank back to the pavement, looking into the pavers like she could see her reflection in them. “I’m a horrible pony.”

Lightning Dust crouched down next to her. “Yes, you were. But you see that now, you’re trying to change aren't you? That’s something you should be really proud of, not everypony can do that.”

Misty sniffled quietly.

“You have your downfalls, but we all do. Nopony is perfect. Well, I reckon I’m pretty close…” Lightning Dust said, her mouth curving up into a thin grin.

Misty’s face adopted a fleeting smile. “Yeah, maybe.” She agreed hesitantly. The pegasus twitched slightly and slowly, almost fearfully, laid her head on Lightning Dusts’ shoulder. It seemed like a foreign action for her and even with her mind clouded, Lightning Dust could tell it was probably the first time she had made an affectionate action towards another pony, perhaps barring her brother, in a long time. Misty shifted uncomfortably, almost making to withdraw from the contact but Lightning Dust wrapped a wing around her, pulling her into a gentle hug.

“Is this what having a friend is like?” Misty asked.

“Can be.” Lightning Dust said softly.

Misty let out a long breath, almost like a quiet pur. “I like it.” She said finally. “I never thought I’d like having a friend.”

“I’ve never wanted to have friends. I’ve always told myself I didn’t need them, that they’d just weigh me down. But now, I don’t know how I’ve been able to do it all alone.” She shuddered uncomfortably. “The silence isn’t so much of a comfort now.”

Lightning Dust nodded silently. She had started to feel something similar since she had started drifting with Rainbow Dash.

“But we can be friends can’t we?” Misty asked, her voice almost sounding hopeful.

“Okay, you are really drunk.” Lightning Dust said with a soft chuckle. “But for what it matters, I like you Misty.You’re tough, you’re good at what you do and you’re not an idiot. They’re things I like in a pony. So yeah, friends.”

“You mean it?”

“Heck no, I’m drunk. I don’t even know what I’m really saying right now..” Lightning Dust snapped playfully, giving Misty a subtle wink.

Misty let out a sad laugh, a faint smile appearing over her face. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Lightning Dust said kicking one of the pavers absently. She rifled Misty’s mane playfully, taking delight in the way the pegasus immediately complained in her usual tone. “Just don’t tell anypony.”

Comments

[Krysnha]

Intresting chapter, good,

[DeltaOsprey]

Drunk ponies are best ponies.

[Coranth]

You missed a center tag somewhere.

[vren55]

Good chapter, but please fix the formatting!

[Unit 26-Fe]

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ THE MORAL OF THE STORY☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

F**k it, lets get shit faced.

[lilflamewars]

Behold the great cornerstone of stories. Character development.
There's a handful of grammatical slips and a few bits of surplus punctuation there though. Could do with an edit to clean those up. Also while the switch to centred text for the bar scene is amusing in it's reflection of the story's events, it'd be easier to read with normal formatting.

[CV12Hornet]

Yeah, your formatting gets borked about halfway through.

Also, yay, character development for Misty Fly! Frankly, she was getting just a tad intolerable.

[CommandoDude]

“Well, technically we could.” Twilight piped up. “As you said, we have the Jaeger’s reactors. They could be programmed to run wild in a manner like you mentioned.”

Is Twilight really as dumb as Hollywood writers?

No. No you couldn't. You'd get a big pile of slag. Nuclear reactors cannot explode. Even nuclear bombs need to explode in a very unique way to trigger a nuclear reaction.

This is one of the biggest pet peeves I have with movies.

[Black Hoof]

Great chapter again! Some ponies will be quite surprised to see the two new friends.

[Scarheart]

Lots of typos and formatting errors.

This chapter reminds me why getting drunk is for idiots. Been there. Regret every damn night I got shitfaced simply because I made my own life miserable.

Good chapter!

[Arcane Howitzer]

A griffic Jaeger brings all sorts of interesting new possibilities. I eagerly await whatever comes of it.

Also, Drunk Misty is Best Misty, but Sad Misty is somehow less desirable than Bitchy Misty. Ponies shouldn't be sad, not even her.

And now for the moment you've all been dreading, the error compilation!

papers though, were enatly stacked

what’s the plan rhen?”

thanks to a large cent buried in the ceiling.

That's the biggest penny I ever did see!

As they trotted past the entrance to the area, :Lightning Streak noticed

.Big Mac just blinked silently again.

Maudintosh confirmed There's a period at the start of that sentence.

the bar’s surprisingly large interior was was usually filled

Tonight though was not one of those nights though

Twilight carried on without noticing. “With effects such as loss of basic motor skills, lack of cognitive and decision making skills, serious liver and brain damage, I don’t see why anypony would want to drink from a physiological viewpoint.
Lightning Dust opened her mouth to counter but Twilight continued as if she hadn’t seen anything.
Still, I must accept that

Missing closing and opening quotation marks.

shooting a flare off after Lightning Dust.

No fireworks in the bar!

paperwork for at the shatterdome

slipping a hoof over Misty;’s shoulder.

;P

:Lightning Streak blinked slowly. “Really?,Wow, what a lightweight…”

Again with the ":Lightning" thing! also, extraneous comma

a mix of anger, self- and sadness in her bright blue eyes. t.

Also, they must've been really drunk, because most of the chapter is center-aligned.

[Killbles]

5737344
5735524
5735524
5735331
5735249

Good fucking damn it. I swear to shit this site adds the stupidest shit formatting tags in the worst of places.

Should be fixed now.

Moral of the Story: Read the chapter out of editing mode before submitting it.

[vren55]

5737664 LOL.

[Grankuwaga]

A few errors I found:

“You must happy be your Jaeger worked.”

^ need to switch these

, :Lightning Streak noticed Big Macintosh sitting in a far corner,

^another :Lighting

Still, I must accept that from a psychological standpoint drinking does alleviate many social obstacles that may pop up, and is in itself, a relatively tame social tool when used in moderation. That has nothing to say for the benefits that a small amount of alcohol can have for your heart ...”

^ forgot the 1st "

]While it took Lightning Streak a moment to find what he was pointing out and it took him a minute longer to properly comprehend it.

============
Thanks for the awesome chapter

[ibeachu]

Y-you actually posted one... YAY!!

[kotor511]

14th, March, 2015, a new chapter was released!

It... IT LIVES!

[Cyber V]

It's back! Loved the chapter as it reminds me to never drink as I don't know what will happen if I did.

[LtCWest]

Oh yeah, I remember my first time getting shitfaced. Just tunred 19 and was in the military. Best night ever!

[Hurgusburgus]

i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/459/759/f0d.gif

[ninjaguy77]

I expected a gay orgy. Slightly dissapointed

[MrAskAPirate]

“Shit, how do I think again?”

I had a friend back in highschool who said this exact phrase the first time he tried weed... the look on his face was priceless and I have never laughed as hard as I did that day,

[thelostfather]

That was sweet.

[Enderborn brony]

More giant robots! WOOHOO!
*jumps off a cliff into a lake at the bottom*

[DesertRose]

Ehhh
Become kinda disinterested in this story as time has gone forward.

[DarkEven]

5737664
Nope! Some are still there.

what’s the plan rhen

]While it took Lightning Streak

That's just the two I could spot and you'r also missing a double quote on one of twilight dialogue!

[Ikujekon]

I don't know about you but at opportune moments during the battle scenes of the fanfic the part of the Pacific Rim theme that they started off from during the heroic parts of the Movie keeps playing in my head.

from 1m 35 secs onward.

[RC]

6023632 the name is misguided isint it?

[Hyper Matter]

Please... don't defrost Misty too much.

[SilentMech]

5735637 Yes, blame Hollywood for the biggest nuclear reaction that could be easily weaponized. Not the screw ups of the Russians with one of their early reactors. Chernobyl is still to radioactive for human habitation. Meanwhile, Nagasaki and Hiroshima are now monuments at the scale of a large town, and a small city respectively. So, yeah, they could do that. It would be pants on head retardedly difficult to get it down there without it turning into a pressurized nuke with a tendency to crack if a jellyfish brushes it, but they could do it.

[SilentMech]

Three days of sleep, videos, other stories, and food, and I am caught up. Woo! Now to wait for the next chapter or the second Pacific Rim movie to come out. Either or, still going to enjoy it. Actually, that reminds me, what are they going to do with the Jaegers once the breach is sealed? Just leave them to rust and gather dust, or break them down for materials for new advancements? Or turn the shatterdomes into museums with all the jaegers on display?

[CommandoDude]

6190799

Nuclear reactors cannot cause nuclear explosions. PERIOD. It is not physically possible. Nuclear reactors cannot be weaponized.

Chernobyl is habitable. But contains unknown areas of improperly disposed radioactive material that is still dangerous, which is why it continues to be off limits, this is because the building did not have a containment dome when a steam explosion jettisoned parts of the reactor into the environment, which was improperly cleaned up during the chaos of the crisis.

In short, get fact checked. You clearly are talking out of your ass.

[SilentMech]

6190832 I haven't actually done deep research into nuclear disasters, however, how would a steam dome have prevented a documented phenomenon called the Giants foot, a radioactively glowing piece of metal that was visibly fissionable at the time of the event, and is still giving off a small amount of radioactivity now? The record of it glowing was made by a simple camera that was shortly fried by the heat, but a few frames survived the incident.

[CommandoDude]

6190860

All radioactive material at the Chernobyl NPP site are contained within a concrete sarcophagus. While the radioactive material within is still highly lethal, it is not a danger to anyone, being that it is sealed inside.

[SilentMech]

6190880 So, you don't know about pile of seemingly mobile bubbling radioactive slag pile, or the fact that from what little I do know, it hasn't been moved since it stopped emitting lethal levels of energy. Fair enough.

[Silentwoodfire]

I've never drunk before, and at this rate, I don't want to either.

At least the contest had a winner, even if they wont admit to it.

[golden spectrum]

iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/spike%20contemplates%20his%20dire%20predicament.gif
I CAUGHT UP WITH THE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[golden spectrum]

Oh by the way this story is amazing.

[Nightshade Dawn]

5735450

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ THE MORAL OF THE STORY☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

Lets get so shit faced drunk that Mac could get a slight Buzz and get Misty into the gutter.

HOORAY FOR ALCOHOL

[GameHunter]

I'm really loving the story, and hats off to the artist. The pictures are very well done

[gamer4COD]

6190832 Of course, you're probably the only asshole who knows about nuclear anything on this site.

[CommandoDude]

6512824

Sorry for knowing my shit and not being an idiot? Sorry that Hollywood consistently shows it knows crap?

Not sorry for not being an asshole, which is what you seem to be.

[gamer4COD]

6512835 That's why its Hollywood, their job is to make up stuff.

[ibeachu]

Dis story is dead, isn't it?
No updates for about a year now...
"Say something I'm giving up on you..."

[Unit_ZER0]

Gotta post it here:

[Killbles]

6555356
I LITERALLY just uploaded the finished chapter here so I can do a shoddy job of proofreading it before pushing it out. Probably tomorrow when it's not 3 in the morning.

HA! JOKE IS ON YOU! NOT DEAD YET!

*cries internally at six month release cycle*

[Liquid_Pride]

shooting a flare off after Lightning Dust

as funny as pyro-jack is in my mind i do believe this was supposed to be glare...

[Big Brain Boi]

7102242
All I could think of in this moment was Applejack turning around and furiously shooting Lightning Dust with a flare gun.

And then all I could think of was a picture of Applejack's face, but zoomed in almost all the way.

[the other sans]

were enatly stacked up as far away from

Neatly.

Okay, what’s the plan rhen

Then.

returning to the problem at hand..
“Good.” Michael nodded. “Now-.”
fixing the plant and talking..
“You’d be enraptured…” .
.Big Mac just blinked silently again
“You-.”
she’s just like me only-.
Twilight asked uncertainly..
“For starters-.”
Yes I had that stage where I needed a nice bi-."
Misty snarled back venomously..
Lightning Dust asked curiously..
“The third one is always-.”
the crowd with a mixture of fascination and dread. .
I don’t even know what I’m really saying right now..

Extra fullstop.

It’s energy capacity is also enormous

Its.

There were no windows but the air was cool and fresh thanks to a large cent buried in the ceiling

Vent.

an almost impressive achievement in the case of the later

Latter.

embroidered on her uniform’s shoulder .
“ I swear if you two keep this constant yammering up

Extra spacing here.

‘Oh boy… He thought
only telling one of them to Piss off!’

Forgot your apsotrophe.

“Uhh, no I’m down on sub-.

Extra fullstop and forgot your closing quotation mark.

As they trotted past the entrance to the area, :Lightning Streak noticed Big Macintosh
:Lightning Streak blinked slowly

Extra Colon.

Still, I must accept that from a psychological standpoint

Forgot your opening quotation mark.

Hey, you two just wrecked Jaeger so you’re getting a promotion so you don't wreck another

Just wrecked a Jaeger.

was too polite to do so.He finished off his
Lightning Dust continued.”Now I got a question for you
as sweetly as she could manage.Lightning Dust relished the
I like you Misty.You’re tough

Forgot your spacing.

grabbing his own mug He gave Big Mac a friendly look

Forgot your fullstop.

slipping a hoof over Misty;’s shoulder

Extra semicolon.

and even a few siblings but their are many which are larger

There.

your more sedate pegasi have smaller families. and by smaller, I mean like, one foal
a bit of fun at Wave chill as the stallion
pony blocked his view. by the time he’d forced

Forgot to capitalise.

There’s very rare to find much in between in any major cloud city

They're.

]While it took Lightning Streak a moment

Extra square bracket.

Back up a few centimetres-, wait, no

Extra comma.

in fact I don't’ think I’m hardly

Extra apostrophe.

Se forestalled the motion

She.

Misty seemed to consider this for a moment before finally pulling her face out of the sidewalk and staring at Lightning Dust, a mix of anger, self- and sadness in her bright blue eyes. t. Her face was wet with tears and her eyes were red and puffy, the usual self-confident attitude nowhere to be found.

Your sentence here is broken midway.