Evanstallion: Neon Friendship

by Short-tale

Episode 6 : Rocks and Confetti

“Oh geez! Oh geez! Oh geez,” shouted Pinkie as she rushed out of the control room. She ran breathlessly through the hallway, cursing all the cake she ate that morning. She quickly found the infirmary. Fluttershy rolled by on a stretcher as Pinkie arrived. “Fluttershy are you alright? Fluttershy!”

“She’s going to be fine, Captain Pie,” explained the fluffy-haired doctor. “She’s unconscious from the shock.”

“Oh no! it’s all my fault,” sobbed Pinkie. Sadness gave way to anger. “That big meanie angel. Who does it think it is? It’s going to find out it messed with the wrong pony.”

Pinkie angrily marched back up to the control room where Twilight monitored the angel’s advance.

“Is she ok?,” asked Twilight with genuine concern.

“Doctor Fluffy-head says she’ll be fine.”

“You mean Doctor Horse.”

“What’s the target been doing?” demanded Captain Pinkie.

“The angel is hovering right above us and dropped a drill. It’s drilling through the layers of armor protecting headquarters,” Twilight answered.

“We should give it balloons,” declared Pinkie with a stern expression.

“I don’t think that plan will work. The angels don’t seem to react to balloons like we do, Pinkie,” sighed Twilight.

“Not happy party fun balloons,” corrected Pinkie as she slammed her hoof to the ground. “Distracty type balloons.”

***

“Launch the next one,” Pinkie grumpily shouted.

The local pegasi were summoned to use their wind magic to inflate a giant balloon of the Evanstallionin front of the angel. Milliseconds later, the large balloon was struck with the super heated laser. The Evanstallion balloon tore violently and began sailing through the air with the sound of a loud raspberry trailing it.

“The angel hasn’t slowed its drilling this whole time,” explained an exasperated Twilight. “Every time we put up anything too close it destroys it. At this rate it will drill down to CAKE central in a few hours. I don’t think your distracty balloons are that distracty, but we were able to use them to find the angel’s attack range. It seems to only attack the balloons in a mile radius.”

“That gives me a new idea,” Pinkie stated proudly placing her hoof to her chest.

“It does?”

“A cannon.”

“A cannon?”

“Yeah I had the fabrication department build a Eva sized party cannon to help celebrate Unit-00’s reactivation trial but Meaniel had to ruin it. So we just help cheer it up with the canon, which we can place out of its range and bam we have our first angel friend.”

“Meaniel?,” Twilight echoed in confusion, then remembered whom she was talking to. “I’m not sure that’s it’s going to work. I already told you, angels are magical constructs. It doesn’t feel happy or sad or at all. It’s just a thing.”

“If it was just a thing it wouldn’t be so mean, Twilight.” Pinkie turned to the Commander, who was busy stacking playing cards in a square on his desk.”Permission to proceed with mission Wonderbluss, Commander Discord.”

“What?” exclaimed Discord as he placed the next card,”I wasn’t paying attention. You can do whatever you like, Captain.”

“Ok, take it away Maud,” Pinkie shouted.

Unit-00 walked over to the cannon set up in the containment area and picked it up. The Eva turned and marched away with the cannon draped over its shoulder.

“Now we just need Fluttershy to wake up!” Pinkie said excitedly.

“She needs to wake up soon,” worried Twilight. “That drill isn’t slowing down.”

“But Captain Pinkie just where are we going to find enough confetti to fill that cannon?” asked Lyra now very curious.

“From all of Equestria, silly,” explained Pinkie.”And it’s already filled.”

***

Fluttershy woke up in the hospital bed. She sighed as she recognized the same ceiling as last time. It was becoming a familiar sight. The sound of a page slowly turning next to her nearly drove Fluttershy through that ceiling. She looked to her right and found Maud sitting there reading a book.

Maud glanced at the startled pegasus and slowly closed the book. She took a deep breath and began to speak.

“Hello,” she said as she held up cue cards in front of her. “My name is Maud. I’m here to brief you on the upcoming mission. Pilots Fluttershy and Maud are to enter Unit-01 and 0 respectively and prepare for a welcome party for the new angel. I am to wear a party hat while you shower it with a confetti cannon. That is all.”

“I’m not sure I can do it, Maud. That angel is really scary.”

“Ok. I’ll do it myself then.”

“What? I couldn’t ask you to do that,”Fluttershy exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. Maud’s expression remained the same. The yellow pegasus thought of how much the Commander and Mud Briar had worried over Maud during the first activation test. She didn't want them to go through that again. She sighed relentingly. ”I’ll do it.”

“OK, but you might want to put on these clothes first,” Maud stated flatly.

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as she looked down to find her own light yellow body staring back at her only partially covered by the sheet. A small “eep” escaped her as she ducked back under the blanket in embarrassment.

****

Fluttershy and her Eva trotted toward the meeting point that Maud told her about. She cocked her head as she noticed signs around the landscape showing a confetti shortage. Then a vehicle drove by with a speaker on the top of it. It announced,” due to the extreme nature of the party at hoof, there will be a massive confetti shortage for the foreseeable future. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Fluttershy brought her Eva to the preassigned spot and sat it down next to Unit-00. She saw Maud sitting by herself looking so lonely that Fluttershy felt compelled to talk to her. She ejected her entry plug and flew towards the small grey mare. The fluid slid easily off of her suit.

The lite pegasus landed a few feet away and slowly walked to the first filly. Fluttershy suddenly realized that she had no idea what to say. Maud stared at the moon.

“Nice um moon tonight,” Fluttershy slowly began. “I was told as a foal that the mare in the moon was a princess lost to us. She looks down while we sleep and protects us.”

“The moon is a rock,” Maud said dully.

“Oh, is it? I guess that’s nice too.”

“I really like rocks. They’re easy for me to relate to. Sometimes I wonder if rocks are the only thing I have. They are grey and smooth and don’t judge you if you’re different.”

“But they can’t give hugs or encouragement,” Fluttershy protested.

“They are always there for me. I find that encouraging. I generally don’t hug.”

Fluttershy strained her nervous brain to think of something to say. All the other normal questions a pony could say started to drop away were replaced with one.

“So umm why do you pilot your Eva?” Fluttershy began.

“Because Discord asked me to.”

“That’s all?” gasped Fluttershy.

“Yes.”

“But aren’t you scared that the angels could kill you?”

“Yes.”

“Then how are you able to pilot knowing that?” Fluttershy was hoping Maud’s trick would help her own nerves.

“Can’t flying kill you?”

“Yes, if you don’t pay attention or get hurt you could fall and die,” Fluttershy admitted, confused by the sudden change in topic.

“Then how do you fly knowing that.”

Fluttershy was struck silent. She considered the new information.

“It is time. We must go. Talking to you was.. nice. I hope we return from our mission,” Maud concluded. She abruptly turned and walked to her Eva.

Fluttershy tried to respond but Maud slowly walked away. She stared after her in confusion. How could Maud take piloting an Eva so lightly? How could she believe rocks were all she had? Fluttershy shook the confused thoughts away and walked towards her own Eva. The control room’s comments sounded over her speaker array.

***

“All systems go for operation Wonderbluss,” affirmed Bon Bon.

“Wonderbluss, it’s so funny,”giggled Lyra.

“Focus Lyra,” demanded Bon Bon.

“ Wonderbluss, start,” shouted Pinkie in a cascade of chocolate-covered nuts. The command center stared in amazement. “I had to sacrifice our confetti as well. It was for the cause.”

The Evas stood up on their hill. Fluttershy grabbed the cannon firing cord and wrapped it around the Eva’s hoof. She aimed the cannon with the help of Twilight’s targeting spells. The cannon swiveled toward the position.

“Angle the cannon up a few more degrees,” suggested Maud.

“Why? asked the third filly. “Twilight’s targeting magic is telling me that this is the best angle.”

“The angel is a giant diamond. Its fracture point is five degrees higher than where you’re aiming.” Uni-00 lifted the party cannon a few inches up. “I can tell from here. It’s a rock based decision.”

***

“Oh no! The angel is doing that powering up thing!” Lyra gasped.

“That’s not possible,” insisted Twilight. “We’re out of the mile radius.”

“It’s not going to get us this time!” declared Pinkie.”Get ready Maud.”

Meaniel fired its particle beam and lit the darkened sky with a brilliant blue blaze.

“Now!” shouted Pinkie.

Unit-00 quickly grabbed a nearby boulder and hoisted it in front of the particle beam. The rock shook violently with the impact and began to melt over Unit-00’s front hooves.

“Be careful, Maud,” cautioned Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy! Fire now!” shouted Pinkie with an unusual smile across her face.

Fluttershy ripped the cord with the Eva’s hoof and the cannon exploded. Confetti and smoke filled the air. The confetti cut right through Meaniel’s AT field and into the crystalline body. The large floating rock shattered inward and began to fall from the sky. It crashed into the nearest building and exploded in a million shards.

“Was that supposed to happen?”asked Fluttershy. She watched in awe as the shards glittered brightly in the moonlight. It reminded her of the millions of sparkles she used to watch on her favorite pond. “I think you’re right, Maud. The moon might be made of rocks.”

Unit-00’s steaming form collapsed. Fluttershy could see the head had partially melted from the rock runoff. The hooves had melted and fused fully extended.

“Maud!”shouted Fluttershy. She quickly ejected the entry plug and flew to the crippled Eva . She found the entry plug half-extended from the Eva’s neck. She pounded on the manual release and saw the valve’s extended arms from Twilight’s story. The superheated hatch burned her hooves as she tried to open it. She nearly backed away but remembered Discord persistence and forced the hatch open. It popped open filling the air with vaporized fluid. She stuck head in to find Maud sitting comfortably in the chair and sighed in relief.

“You could have told me you were ok,” Fluttershy reprimanded.

“You didn’t ask if I was ok, you just screamed my name,” Maud informed.

Fluttershy looked confused then shook her head. Her eyes became very wide as if she looked directly into Maud’s soul. Maud suddenly felt uncomfortable and shifted slightly in her chair.

“Don’t say that,” Fluttershy scolded. “Don’t say “if we make it back” before we start our mission. It sounds scary. And don’t throw yourself in harm's way. You are more important than that. And don’t say all you have is rocks. There is more to life than rocks.”

Maud stared at her in confusion. Suddenly Mud Briar’s face flashed before her. “I guess you're right,” she admitted as she quietly smiled.

***

Pinkie stared at the wrecked form of Meaniel on the screen. “That’ll teach you to mess with my friends, Meaniel,” she declared quietly. Then pronged happily away.