An unofficial AU to 'The Bridge' by Tarbtano.
Or, how a bunch of mostly badass normal humans used to fighting Godzilla and his ilk end up fighting Daybreaker at her worst. Most, if not all ideas, concepts, and characterizations, except where noted, are property of their respective owners.
Major Hopkins is not having a good day. Kaiju are attacking San Francisco, he's got civilians he needs to evacuate, and he's suddenly found himself and one hundred and fifteen other human souls sucked through a portal to Equestria, along with six of the most powerful kaiju on the planet.
But this isn't the Equestria that Faust envisioned. This is a world ruled by Empress Daybreaker, a mare who will do anything to ensure she remains in power over Equestria.
Time to bring on the night.
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Edit 1/9/2018: Now mentioned on ‘The Bridge’ TVTropes page!
Hm.... Didn't expect to find this.
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Is that a good or a bad thing? Just curious, because while awesome to be hearing from the guy who inspired me to write this, still terrified to know what the verdict is on this.
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Not bad, though I do feel it needs a bit of tweaking. As a minor note, the bat monsters are referred to as "gyaos", singular and plural. Sorry, monster names bug me. I also feel we need a bit of a pause to explain what's going on as you're doing both a crossover and an AU at the same time. So a bit of exposition in regards to how this Equestria differs from the canon and how the kaiju world differs could do some good in getting everything squared up. :)
At least Hopkins watches the show. Pretty cool alternate universe.
What's with Comet Shine calling Twilight "Mystic Sparkle"?
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Basically, Twilight has a ‘rank’ of sorts within this regime. Since her talent is magic, it made sense to me that she’d have a relatively high rank at a young age, her title of Mystic being it. Magos’, Arch-mages, and obviously Daybreaker all outrank her.
Also, using XCOM 2 Psi Operative ranks seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Cool.
As always, Pentecost owns.
Daybreaker is crazy, but also awesome. Wait, if the sun never sets, shouldn't it be really hot?
Magic A is Magic A. Plus, Daybreaker has had a thousand or so years of practice, so, the first few decades were, admittedly, a bit warmer than normal, everything is more or less fine now. Days are more similar to summers in Alaska where you have a twilight period for nights.
So just wandering, what's the update rate in terms of days, or weeks?
yep, ya got me hooked m8
Interesting that you added a prologue.
Hey man, so I know that you've decided to do some major rewrites and reworking on this story. I, and hopefully others, understand that this process will and has been taking awhile. Well I just wanna support you and this story here as much as I can because I've been really enjoying it so far and personally see a goldmine of potential here, so I just wanna say keep moving forward and keep doing what you can here.
Either way though, take it easy man. Although I'd like you to stay determined and keep going, I don't want it to come at your expense. I find your health far more important than your story. So take breaks where you need them and try not to stress too much.
You have yourself a good day and a good night.
-TheUnfitComedian, aka JonBovi
Holy shit! That was an amazing first reworked chapter. We get our first serious look at our main human cast as well as an idea of some of the major characters in this fic, Hopkins and Mannot especially it seems. I think it'll definitely be intriguing to see just what the long term affects of Hopkins' Event Horizon esque mind flay will have on Hyper Gyaos, or Irys as she'll be named down the line.
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Wow, I seriously didn’t know what a nanometer was back then. Shows what I knew about non visible light
yay! Glad to finally see this new chapter posted! I enjoyed the original Pale Horsemen butt he re-write is coming along beautifully, and glad to see some happy connections to Serving His Empress as well!
Holy cow this chapter’s great! The more personal story with Gabe has some great moments of tension and some cute moments with Chibi. Junior is also great in this chapter, being a massively snarky bastard that I can’t help but love. Finally, the worldbuilding for both this version of Equestria and for Earth in general provide some great insight into both worlds. I must say, if I hadn’t favorited the story already, I would do so now.
I will say this about the latest chapter: It was damn worth the wait, friend.
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Thanks for the comment! Which bit of world building caught your interest anyway, out of curiosity?
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Mainly the interactions between Chibi and Gabe, talking and comparing their respective worlds. While I know quite a bit about your weapons and tech from discord (Hi, it’s me, Supersonic btw), the way you explained it was done in such a way that new readers can get a nice bit of info in a casual way that doesn’t feel like an exposition dump
Chibi reacting with Gabe, now that's something I never expected beyond some parodies. Still, always cute to see the banter there. Done a pretty good job introducing characters gradually over time and good to see that keeping up here to avoid overload :)
MY SIDES! I'mma use this if you don't mind XD
Starting a full reread of the Pale Horseman and (since I know you like detailed reviews Drift) I'll be posting a detailed review each chapter. Speaking of which, this prologue does a great job at establishing the events that occur in the rest of the story, from the establishment of the Daybreakerified Equestria to the absolutely wonderful sequence with Hopkins and the rest of the Horsemen on the Hovercraft and the interaction between Pentecost and Gordon (my favorite character from Final Wars). You also have a way of keeping me engaged that not many other stories can, it could be either the way you describe things or how your dialogue is both faithful to the characters from the original works and also unique enough that it can be defined as your own snappy and engaging dialogue. I haven't read the rest of the story in a while so I'm not sure where X comes in, but I have a feeling that's going to come into play very soon. As for the changes to the story from The Bridge, I personally think the change from pre-season 5 to right before season 1 actually bring up some intriguing possibilities for how the story can progress, especially when Luna/NM returns from the moon. Overall, I'm excited to keep reading and I hope to see more of the Pale Horsemen, the Riders of Death and Kickers of Ass.
First proper chapter and holy cow was this a ride! The dialogue is as snappy as ever and each description does well to communicate the absolute dread fighting in such a hazardous environment would entail. Hopkins is once again shown to be an absolutely badass leader that still has a heart of gold that's rare to see in military focused stories like this from my experience. There's also a very nice flow to each scene, both with fight scenes and calmer moments, that makes visualizing each moment rather easy. Not only that, but the balancing between the pure badassery of Hopkins and Monnot and the sheer horror of having so many Gyaos and two of The Mutations' leaders fighting in the middle of a once grand (I mean, it's San Francisco so it isn't really that grand) metropolis. I can practically feel the same energy given off by the HALO Jump scene from Godzilla 2014 while watching this and it's chilling. However, there are a couple of faults, though they're really just down to my personal preference. The main flaw for me is the overabundance of cursing, with "fucks" being spewed about as often as Maser shots throughout the chapter. There's also the question of how Zilla and Raiga will fit into coming chapters and, if they weren't caught in the blast of the DT, how they managed to escape while the Bridge 6 and the Horsemen didn't. However, I can understand why the cursing would be so prevalent and can also understand if Raiga and Zilla don't appear later since there are already quite a few characters in this story. There also seems to be a coloring error when the DT first fires up where more text than usual is red. Overall, a very solid chapter and I can't wait to see how the Pale Horsemen deal with the hellscape that is Daybreaker's Equestria, and how odd it will be to actually be able to talk with the very Kaiju they fought.
Second chapter and there's a lot to go over, along with me still very much cringing at the comment I made about the original chapter's NM rating for the laser rifles. Anyways, this was an absolute blast and managed to get three stories all molded into one in a way that's engaging for each one. The Monnot story is great since it really does give off feelings of nightmarish isolation. While I personally would do less with the cursing Monnot is supposed to basically be you but as a GDF Soldier so I can't exactly critique someone just writing themselves in a way that's realistic. As for the Goji storyline, it was an intense and wild scene to witness, especially the witty dialogue of a kaiju that spent the first year or two with Hopkins of all people. I especially loved how this fight shows off both Junior's and Daybreaker's fighting styles and how, through adaptation and grit, Junior was able to give the sun butt a run for her bits. Finally, there's the pony stories throughout this chapter and I must say that it's almost perfect. While Mayor Mare's identity was kept a bit too mysterious and the description from last chapter needed some work, it's nice to see her and other ponies still very recognizable as who they are in the show, just adapted to this empire. Twilight is still book horse with a heart of gold, Neighsay's still a racist asshole no one likes, and even Daybreaker still has qualities from Celestia that show that deep down she's still everyone's favorite cake eating sun pony, just now a bit more insane and villainous than usual. Finally, the way Hopkins was reintroduced in this chapter was stunning, if not slightly confusing. The execution was stellar, with a coordinated ambush and even artillery strikes being present with this mission. However, that's where the confusion comes in, not with the plan itself, but in the equipment used. From previous chapters, we did see that there were ASP's and Strykers that were caught in the TD blast; however unless some of those ASP's had Rockets or SSM's that weren't previously mentioned or some of the Strykers were M1134s, it would seem improbable to have such weapons. That also brings up the point of having standard ballistic weapons for the standard infantrymen, since it seemed from Monnot's experiences that GDF soldiers had laser rifles. Now, it is very probable that the Pale Horsemen used standard guns for their non ASP infantry instead of laser weapons and I missed something, but that's just me. Finally, I loved the energy Blade Hopkins pulled out, but I do think it should've been set up earlier since it kinda made me think he was piloting an ASP the whole time for a second. Aside from those nitpicks, I love this chapter and I can only imagine what Twilight, Hopkins, Monnot, and Junior and his friends will have to go through next.
Alright, Chapter 3 and we're now introduced to not only the CMC, Des, and Xen, but even Mr. Theodore Wylder. As always, the GDF brass are all distinct and incredibly fun to read about, with the "jerkass with a heart of gold" Gordon and stoic Pentecost having to deal with the fallout of the loss of Junior and the defenders along with Hopkins and the gang. As for Mr. Wylder himself, he does do a good job at portraying the potential utter distress at losing someone he considers a brother, but also some of the greatest kaiju in the world. Meanwhile, back in Equestria, Twilight meets up with AJ and Pinkie, which leads to a very nice conversation. While Pinkie was, admittedly, a little annoying at first, she luckily calmed down enough to where we can see some honestly wholesome interaction with Twilight, with AJ also serving as a very nice down to earth third party and mediator between the two conflicting personalities. Speaking of conflicting personalities, Julian and Hopkins' interaction was also fun as always, with Hopkins' quips shining through despite the dour circumstances the Pale Horsemen are in. One quick thing is that this story also introduced me to Elerium and my utter bewilderment of using Elerium in a cigarette. I guess Hopkins is just badass enough to take it. Finally, we're introduced to Xen and Destroyah, who both have an amazing chemistry here that I can't help but adore. Destroyah's sarcastic "fight everything" attitude contrasts so well with Xen's more pragmatic thinking while still having enough of a kind heart to admire the CMC's little quips and protect them. One other thing I'm still hoping for is finding where Zilla and Raiga fit into the equation or if Raiga's going to go on a "Sound Of Thunder" style escapade. Either way, I'm excited to see what comes next as the rest of the Kaiju make their own appearances and Monnot enters the Equestrian Capital.
Alright, final chapter as of the posting of this comment, and I must say it's the best one. The interactions between Raishin's family and Monnot, along with Shining and Goji's are absolutely fantastic, with both being full of quips and expressions that show the shifting power dynamics between each character. My favorite is still the interactions between Monnot and the kids, showing off the lore of both worlds in a way that doesn't seem like a pure info dump and instead comes off as a moment of learning for both sides. Also, the interactions between Shining and his subordinates once again show off that there's still some good in the Empire, even if it's being shunted to the side by the violent bureaucrats and politicians in control, especially assholes like the Adjudicator and the Governor Shine. As for the two main characters, both Monnot and Junior really shine in this chapter, both having epic comebacks, lines, and moments abound and yet aren't portrayed as mary sues in any fashion, with Gabe messing up often and even Junior accidentally revealing that others like him had arrived to Equestria. It shows off the strengths and weaknesses of both while making us love them even more. Speaking of lovable, Raishin's little group, and the mare who will become Chibi Moon, are absolutely adorable and makes me really wanna see how Junior and Chibi meet up here. In fact, I'd be very interested to see where every other Kaiju is and how they'll all meet up and learn to survive in this brave new world and how two brothers can finally mend their long-broken friendship. However, only time will tell if such chapters arrive. If they do, then I promise you I will keep giving you the detailed and constructive reviews that you deserve as a great writer to the best of my ability until my ticket is punched or this story is completed.
"This is no joke, Uncle Yuri"
- Supersonic