My Little Space Empire: Mechs are Magic

by Wheezyandbreezy

I Doubt He'd Mind If You Ate That

Rainbow sealed the airlock behind her and scrambled into her new mech, super nuke and all. She thought out loud to herself, "Huh, back in the day captain woulda just killed em all. Oh well, I guess all this military bullshit's made me soft." She cut her way out of the cargo hold and flew slowly down to the surface. The cowering crewmen passed out where they sat in relief at having survived the ordeal.

Rainbow surveyed the blackish ball of dirt rising up to meet her. The Changeling homeworld was a planet with sporadic volcanic activity that littered its surface with a thick coat of volcanic ash. The planet was considered a deathworld not even fit to terraform. The only reason the Changelings had survived is because they could change their coloring to avoid the planet's few predators. "Such a shithole they didn't even bother to give it a name." Rainbow grumbled to herself as she followed the tracking beacon to the surface.

Rainbow tensed as she saw the I.N.S. Cloudsdale sitting in a large canyon. She scanned the ship and saw its cargo bays were opened and Pinkies mech wasn't inside. Rainbow growled to herself, *
"Now where are y~" Suddenly Rainbow felt her suit lurch forward and several alarms went off at once. Rainbow saw red as she heard a voice calling out in a mocking tone to her.

"I'll take that thank you. What took you so long Dashie? Do you ha~" Pinkie was interrupted by Rainbow screaming at her as she charged wildly. Pinkie barely managed to dodge Rainbow's strike and a long glowing line went up her suit's arm. Rainbow's momentum carried her into the cliff wall before she could stop herself. Pinkie called out teasingly "Woah! Careful now! I need this." As she bounced the fusion bomb in her mech's large hand like a beach ball. Rainbow beat on the dashboard in frustration. She extricated herself from the canyon wall and leapt madly at Pinkie in a murderous charge. Pinkie held up the fusion bomb as a shield and Rainbow awkwardly juked away from the device, coming to a stop on the other side of the canyon wall.

When Rainbow managed to pull herself out of the wall she snapped her head around violently looking for her target. She consulted her radar and saw that Pinkie was flying away. "Nice try," Rainbow growled predatorily. She moved her boosters and she rocketed out of the canyon. She picked up the very edge of Pinkie's mech as it disappeared over the horizon. She charged screaming at the top of her lungs. Rainbow attempted another slash, but Pinkie dodged, in the way only Pinkie can, and Rainbow went zooming past her.

Rainbow punched a hole through her dashboard with her augmetic hand and once again turned to find her adversary. She saw Pinkie's giant pink mechanical hand waving at her before she fell backwards into another canyon. Rainbow's rampage had dragged on for too long and her murder boner was starting to droop. She ground her teeth and set her boosters sensitivity lower so she wouldn't miss.

Rainbow chased Pinkie into the canyon and stopped suddenly in shock. Her screens showed no activity inside the canyon, but her eyes saw an entire war fleet staring in horror back at her. There were massive sprawling compounds, and living quarters, as well as Hundreds of warships, fighters, and landing craft all undetectable by Imperial scanners, and every single one of their cannons pointing at the two of them. Rainbow went slack in her seat. "B-bu-but. . . We already checked this planet. . . Where did. . . How did. . . When did. . . "

Pinkie once again appeared on her comm screen. "Yup, sneaky little buggers aren't they?"

In the void the Imperial fleet was racing through the heavens at full speed, their engines all a hair's breadth from going critical. Twilight stood on the bridge, her single remaining eye glowing, her hand crushing the steel railing. The second she'd gotten the word that Rainbow had stolen the Manehattan, she'd ordered every operational vessel to launch literally right that second. Rarity did her best to find places for the ground crews, visiting Terran medics, and other non-crew to stay during the three day journey.

The fleet arrived in orbit around the Changeling homeworld in only sixty eight hours. Twilight had a deployment force prepped and ready to launch before they'd even dropped out of hyperspace. When they arrived they saw the Manehattan, Rarity could feel the home in its cargo hold and rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash. Twilight couldn't care any less about the Manehattan, or Rainbow Dash. She saw the I.N.S. Cloudsdale's transponder signal and launched every landing craft in the fleet towards the planet. She herself flew without ship, or mech towards the planet, a determined scowl on her face. Finally after weeks of misery and doubt she would know. She would find out what Pinkie was up to.

She stopped and hung in the air for a moment, surveying the Changeling's complexes. Twilight had been fooled, they'd been here the whole time and she had missed them! She ground her teeth and dove straight out of the sky. She landed heavily and the ground cratered beneath her. She looked and saw that the I.N.S. Cloudsdale wasn't so much landed in the canyon with the facility, as much as dropped haphazardly. It was on its side, it's landing gear pointing awkwardly to the side.

The landing parties swarmed into the facilities and had a determined battle against empty rooms and unlocked doors. Several unfinished meals sat steaming on their plates in cafeterias,
The further in they went the more they saw there wasn't a soul in the place. Team after team reported no activity. The entire facility, clone vats, technicians, and fleet, were just gone.

Twilight stood staring at the Cloudsdale on its side. She could hear the thoughts of every single infantryman and tech within the invasion fleet. The consensus was that the Changeling fleet had left within the hour, the atmospheric radiation alone proved a massive fleet had just departed recently. Applejack stomped slowly up to Twilight in her mech suit. It hurt her heart to see the once proud Viceroy demigod look so defeated. She scrambled down out of her mech suit and put a large hand on Twilight's shoulder. "Twah. . . I'm so s~"

Applejack snatched her hand off of Twilight's shoulder as it seemed to become red hot. Twilight's aura grew in intensity and Applejack had to begin backing away from her friend. She felt like she was standing next to a roaring bonfire and the heat kept rising. Applejack held a hand to her face to shield it's from the blazing heat. She saw Twilight turn her face to look at her and there was a steady stream of blood running down from her wound. Applejack thought Twilight's teeth would break in her head she was clenching them so tightly.

She darted back to her mech and Twilight raised a hand towards the I.N.S. Cloudsdale. It evaporated in a blinding flash of light and psychic fury. Applejack snapped for Rarity to recall all forces on the ground double quick, Twilight was throwing a tantrum and she wasn't sure if she'd stop for innocent bystander or not. The infantrymen and techs scrambled haphazardly away from the raging demigod as she burned away building after building. Applejack had to hit her thrusters at full throttle just to escape the inferno.

Twilight screamed in blind rage and she destroyed everything in sight, her blasts burned straight through buildings and for several yards into the volcanic soil. She slowly, meticulously destroyed everything inside the canyon. The woman she loved had betrayed her, she'd been incapacitated in Terra's most dire moment, her best knight had stolen her token of retribution, and now she had no leads. She floated above the burning crater like an avenging god staring into the roiling abyss. It wasn't enough. She needed more. She needed to punish those who had caused her so much misery.

Her cast her mind about and she saw one of the few Changeling hive cities in the planet, and she ground her teeth. These people, these sorry creatures that had helped and fostered her enemies, the monsters that had attacked her. She flew towards them, her fury scorching the ground beneath her as she flew.

Applejack saw her fly away and decided to follow her. "Rares! What in tarnation is she doin now?" Applejack barked into the comm.

Rarity held her hands up to her mouth. "After Rainbow had stolen the bomb I thought we could've avoided this."

"What?" Applejack called out in annoyance at the nonanswer.

Rarity appeared in a window on Applejack's screen. "She's going to exterminatus the planet manually Applejack! God forgive us." She wailed as she cut the call.

Applejack ground her teeth. "Alright. Ah've had enough." She set her boosters to full and raced Twilight towards the hive city. Twilight stopped and prepared to strike. Applejack closed the distance as fast as her boosters could carry her. She loosed a blinding wave of psychic fury straight into Applejack's armored chest. The mech went flying backwards straight through towers and created a long trough in the ground as she came to a stop.

Twilight's eye stopped glowing as she saw what she'd done and flew as fast as she could to the glowing mech. She tore the canopy straight off and saw a groaning Applejack still alive inside. "Ah gotta stop jumpin in front a shit."

Twilight's relief at her friend being alright faded and get rage that she'd interfered flared. She grabbed Applejack by the throat and lifted her high into the air, her sword in her other hand. Her voice was enhanced by psychic emanation "Don't interfere Applejack. These people have to pay."

Applejack weakly lifted herself enough to croak out, "They didn't do nothin and y'all know it."

Twilight ground her teeth then shouted, "YOU SAW THE FACILITIES APPLEJACK! THEY'VE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS! THEY HAD TO HAVE KNOWN!" She dropped Applejack heavily to the black soil.

Applejack winced, "And what would they a done Twilight? They can't fight space farin creatures. They ain't got no weapons that'll do any good." She weakly got onto her shaking feet. "Them cloners were usin mahnd control on their soldiers, that means they ain't exactly signin up fer this shit." She pointed at the hive city. "Go on and look! See if they knew for fuck's sake."

Twilight stood silent for a long while. She could see the thoughts of the Changelings if she'd wanted to. The brood queen of the Changelings hadn't known anything when they'd investigated six months previously. She idly turned her will towards the hive city and saw that no, no one there had in fact actually known about the cloner's operations on their planet. Her shoulders drooped and her aura fell. "Ah know y'all are mad Twah, hell I'm mad too, but killin folk ain't gonna bring her back!"

Twilight's shoulders began to shake and she fell to her knees sobbing. Applejack stepped slowly towards her and knelt beside her friend. Twilight grabbed her in a tight embrace and wept bitterly against her shoulder. "I'm sorry Applejack. . . I'm so sorry. . ." She kept blubbering through her sobs. Applejack held her tight. She'd deny it if you asked her, but a tear crept from her eye too. Twilight joined Applejack in her mech and they slowly made their way back to the Damocles.

Twilight flew slowly out of the cockpit and walked solemnly to the bridge. She silently walked to the railing she'd crushed and stared at a map of the stars. Rarity and S.P.I.K.E. watched her in silent expectation. She spoke in a voice devoid of emotion. "Recall the fleet, we make for Fillydelphia. That's their most likely target."