> Ponies Und Jaegers
>  by zakueins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One, Or "We Need A Jaeger!"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another bright, sunny day in Ponyville.

The clouds were gone, Celestia had raised the sun, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were walking to school, with Apple Bloom dragging behind her a huge (for a little filly like her) cart full of apple tarts.

“Pinkie Pie wanted three baskets, but wrote down three bushels of apple tarts for a party last night,” Apple Bloom sighed.  “She did, at least, pay for all of them.  Applejack and I are trying to get rid of all these tarts before they go bad, so we’re taking them everywhere that anypony can eat them.”

Scootaloo already had eaten four.  “Hey,” she said, “I’m trying to lighten your load!  I’m trying help out a fellow CMC here!”

“Yea,” Sweetie Belle nodded, eating around her third tart.  “Hopefully, this will raise the spirits of everybody in school.  I mean, it seems like everypony is down over the last few weeks.”

All of them had noticed all the unfamiliar ponies, with clip boards and serious hats, that had been examining everything and asking all sorts of questions.  And, the teachers and the parents and even Rarity had been worried by some of the things the kids had brought home from school.  It didn’t affect them, after all.

Everybody got into class, and Cheerlee looked down.  She did enjoy the tarts, and had two before she realized she had to set a good example, and distribute them among the other students.  Then, she let the bombshell hit.

“Students, I have notes here for your parents or guardians.  And, some very bad news.  Because Ponyville Elementary and Junior High has not offered a viable Jaegery program for the last few years, the Equestrian School Board is ordering the school closed.  This, I am afraid, will be the last year until we can get a Jaegery program going for this school,” Cheerlee announced.  Her face was long and drawn, and looked very, very sad.  “We are making every effort to keep students and classes together, but we expect to have to send many of you to Baltimare schools, and we would like your parents help in getting everything settled.  I’m sorry for this…and, you have been a great class.  And, you still have homework due!  So, I need your parental notification forms and the history paper on Monday.”

The class was shocked.  Then, the babbling began, as ponies pushed up against Cheerlee to ask questions.  The whole of the Cutie Mark Crusaders found a corner in the back and started to talk.

“Wait a minute; we’ll have to go to school in Baltimare!?!”  Apple Bloom yelled in a whisper.  “That’s…a whole hour there and a whole hour back by train!”

“And, it’s a big school,” Sweetie Bell sighed theatrically.  “We’d get lost walking down the halls!”

Scootaloo had opened up her note and was…quivering.  Then…the tears started. 

“Scootaloo?  What’s wrong?”  Apple Bloom asked, looking worried.

“I’m…I’m not going to Baltimare,” Scootaloo replied, sobbing softly.  “They’re sending me to a school in Manehattan.  A boarding school.  They’re going to move me out of Ponyville!”

“WHAT?!?” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell both yelled.  “They can’t do that!”

“That’s what the transfer form says!”  Scootaloo yelled through her tears.  “After the end of the year, I move to the school and start immediately.  And, it’s a year-round school, none of our holidays match up!”

“This is awful!  The CMC will be broken up!” Apple Bloom started to wail.

“We’ll never get our cutie marks together!” Sweetie Bell started to wail, as well, and clutched onto Apple Bloom.

“I’ll miss all my friends and Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo cried, as well and clutched onto her friends.

Suddenly, Sweetie Bell was struck by an idea.  She stopped crying, blew her nose, and looked at her fellow Cuite Mark Crusaders, saying, “Wait a minute-if the school’s problem is that it doesn’t have a viable Jaegery program, maybe we should start one!  That way, we have a program and that means they won’t close the school down!”

Her fellow Crusaders stopped, blew their noses and thought.  “That’s a great idea!  I mean, what could possibly go wrong?” Apple Bloom asked.





And, somewhere far, far away from Equestria, Richard Hammond was disturbed in his sleep.  Somebody had spoken The Words, and in an unconscious sort of way, he knew that disaster was incoming.





“Yea!  We can get help from the adults, I mean most of them probably don’t want to have to send their kids on long train rides for school and such,” Scootaloo noted.

“So, we need to go and create a viable Jaegery program,” Sweetie Bell smiled.

“Awesome!”  Apple Boom said.  Then, she had a thought.  “What is Jaegery?”





We interrupt this discussion to talk about the program of Jaegery (aka “The Art of the Jaeger”,) and how it affects students in Equestrian Schools.  To speed things up, we’ll use a “question and answer” format for this purpose.

WHAT IS JAGERY?-Jaegery, or The Art of Jaeger, is the art of piloting and running Jaegers.  It is a recognized team sport and martial art, and maintaining a viable Jaegery program is vital for Equestrian schools.

WHAT ARE (OR IS) A JAEGER?-A Jaeger is a humanoid robot (aka “engine”), about fifty feet tall, that is piloted by a team of two to five ponies.  Connected via a neurological interface called “the Drift”, the ponies work together in a virtual command space called “the Manifold”.  Heavily armed, Jaegers form the main strategic weapon for Equestria and its people.  When engaging other hostile opponents-including dragons, other engines, and similar threats- the Jaeger is highly valued for its firepower and capability.

WHY DO SCHOOL KIDS NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PILOT A WALKING GIANT ROBOT NUCLEAR WEAPON?-Finding capable crews for Jaegers is a tricky thing.  And, the earlier you find them, the earlier you can train them, and the longer you can have them deployed in the field.  As well, older Jaegers-still useable but not in the front line-are passed along to school districts for training in both piloting and maintenance.  After the necessary modifications are made, older Jaegers, with their experienced Manifolds, are useful for young colts and fillies to learn how to use engines in combat.

ISN’T IT DANGEROUS TO LET KIDS PLAY WITH MOBILE ATOMIC WEAPONS?-All of your concerns are fully addressed here.  First of all, all Jaegers are modified to uphold the International Engine Competition Committee (IECC) rules.  Any direct fire weapons are altered to use simulation ammo or to fire a lower powered shot.  Indirect fire weapons are prohibited and use only simulated round in the training/exercise battle area.  Special computer and sensor systems are installed inside the Jaeger, and is designed to simulate weapon hits from the lower powered weapons used by the training Jaegers.  This simulates combat damage and engine destruction, without any harm to the pilots.

In addition, the crew cockpits are heavily reinforced and have special enchantments to ensure that the pilots are not harmed.  In extremis, the entire cockpit assembly is built around a Cassandra’s Tears system that can teleport the cockpit and its pilots out the moment before a critical blow that would harm or kill the crew.  (This system cannot be used on battlefields, due to magical interference effects.  IECC rules dictate that no system that can interfere with Cassandra’s Tears can be used on an official field.)

Power systems, as well, have been renovated.  All Jaegers use modern crystal-mana power systems that require extreme measures to explode or deflagrate, rather than the older plasma/crystal furnace system (jokingly called by the crews “the Suicide Ball”).  In fact, this is a major portion of the retrofitting process for Jaegers used for student training.  Manifolds with “difficult” or “dangerous” personalities are not used in student training.  And, all training is done under adult supervision.





Resolution made, the Cutie Mark Crusaders decided they need to talk to somepony about this.  Scootaloo’s suggestion of starting off with Rainbow Dash was immediately shot down, so they went to the next pony on the list that was the most viable to help them out.

They went immediately to the Golden Oaks Library, to talk to Princess Twilight Sparkle.

The question that kept getting asked around Ponyville was “was the Golden Oaks Library the library of Ponyville or the residency (and therefore palace) of Princess Twilight Sparkle”?  This was one of those sorts of questions that ponies could agonize over for days, because these things were not the same thing.  And, it seemed both rude and inappropriate to ask a Princess to check out your books and to pull down the latest copy of “Daring Do” from the reserve shelf.  Even though she got a great deal of pleasure in a well-read patron from Ponyville.

At least Twilight Sparkle had gotten the library organized according to the Library of Canterlot shelving system and was teaching some of the volunteers how to handle the catalog system.  For Twilight Sparkle, mis-shelving a book was a serious sin-not quite on par of eating your own children alive and raw, but somewhere above auto-erotic asphyxiation and below damaging books.

Right now, Twilight Sparkle was working on some sort of wing exercise with Rainbow Dash, using her new alicorn wings to push her up and down off the floor.  “Come on, Twinkle Toes!” Rainbow Dash cheered, wearing a whistle and cheering on Twilight Sparkle.  “You’ve got two more and you break your previous record!”

“Ninety-eight…,” Twilight Sparkle huffed, pushing herself up with her wings by the count.  “Ninety-nine…one hundred!”  She paused for a second, then did one more.  “One hundred and one!”

Rainbow Dash was happy, and danced around as Twilight Sparkle rolled onto her back and panted.  “A hundred and one wing-ups, Twilight!  Keep that up, and your endurance will be awesome and easily twenty percent cooler!”

“Yea, just…” Twilight Sparkle panted for a minute.  “I’m doing all the other exercises as well.  Just feels like I’m not making any progress.”

“Hey, you don’t want to strain yourself-the wings are new and you haven’t grown up with them,” Rainbow Dash replied.  She opened her wings up and started to hover.  “Got to build up the basics before you get to the advanced stuff.”

The CMC looked at each other, then Sweetie Bell made a quiet little cough.  “Um, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash looked over at the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their expressions were curious.  “Oh, hi, how are you doing?”

“We just heard that they’re going to close the school,” Apple Bloom said, doing her best “sad filly in the snow” impression.  “And, all because we don’t have a Jaegery program at the school.”

Twilight Sparkle listened, then nodded and looked guilty.  “I know.  I even went to Manehattan a couple of times to appeal the decision.  And, when that didn’t work, I did everything I could to keep classes and kids together as much as I could.  I’m sorry I couldn’t do more…”

“But, you can!” Scootaloo said, almost yelling (she didn’t yell-having Twilight Sparkle be very disappointed at you for yelling in a library, threatening to turn you into a chicken, and making chicken gumbo would moderate anypony’s volume).  “All we need to do is start a Jaegery program at the Ponyville school!  We do that, the school stays open!”

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash looked at each other.  “I thought about that too, but there’s one big problem,” Twilight Sparkle replied sadly, her ears and shoulders drooping.  “We don’t have Jaegers to set up for the class.  And, there’s a few little problem, as well.  We’d need to field a full octo of Jaegers-that’s eight Jaegers and about twenty-one students.  We’d need a trainer and some other ponies to help with maintenance.  And…since it’s our first year, the rules require that we be in the top three of our competition district to be considered a ‘viable program’.  I’ve been asking, but there isn’t a single training Jaeger to be found for months…and we’d have to field a viable team in the next ten weeks…”

“Um, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “I might be able to help with the first.”

Everypony looked at Rainbow Dash.  Twilight Sparkle twitched one of her ears.  “Really?”

Rainbow Dash looked very, very sheepish.  “Yea, really.  Think you can all meet me at the Old Gulch Mine, with flashlights in an hour or two?”

“Rainbow Dash…is this something that’s going to require me to call for legal assistance?  Again?” Twilight Sparkle asked, looking at Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow.

“No, no, it’s not going to be anything like the muffin swarm, I promise,” Rainbow Dash replied, looking very offended.  “Just…it’s easier to explain when you get there.”





An hour later, everypony was walking into the mine, with flashlights on their head.  Twilight Sparkle had brought a copy of Jane’s All The World’s Engines in her saddle bags, as Rainbow Dash lead them down.  “Back when I was younger, a bit older than Scootaloo, I got in a lot of trouble and part of my punishment was helping out in the Mayor’s office,” Rainbow Dash explained as they walked into the Old Gulch Mine.  “So, they put me on the totally not awesome job of having to go through the old records and shredding them.”

“You shredded records?!?”  Twilight Sparkle gasped, in the same tone as the locals in a British pub would have said “you killed a what?!?” to Saint George.

“They were all supposed to be backed up onto microfilm, and this was years ago!”  Rainbow Dash protested.  “Anyways, as I was going through them, I saw this record for Jaegers.  I came down here, and well…this.”

They had eventually walked and stood in front of a huge door.  The massive sheet of metal loomed over them, and even the pony-sized door built into it was easily taller than the two tallest ponies that they knew-Celestia and Luna.  “Never worked up the nerve to open the door up, I was worried that I’d get into even more trouble and it had alarms and such,” Rainbow Dash sighed.  “But, since you’re the Princess and all, it makes it all official and such.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed and shook her head.  “Okay, okay.  I’ll get the door open.  Everypony, stand back.”

Twilight Sparkle’s horn glowed and she could feel her magic getting “purchase” on the manual access handles.  With a solid “oof”, she could feel the stuck door start to give, as old mechanisms turned and the door finally released.  But, it didn’t open.  Twilight Sparkle was ready to give the door a good tug, but waited and thought.  “Wait a minute,” Twilight Sparkle said, extending her magic through the opened door.  “We need to wait until the light turns green over there,” using her horn to point at a panel near the door.

“Why is that?” Apple Bloom asked, looking curious.

“The entire room is a controlled atmosphere location-they took all the air out and pumped in nitrogen.  It prevents rust and such, but if we go in there now, we’ll suffocate because there’s no oxygen in there,” Twilight Sparkle replied and waited patiently.  The panel’s lights started to turn from red to yellow, and then finally all the lights on the panel turned green.  A series of solid “thuds” came from the door, and Twilight Sparkle pulled on the door again.  “Okay, it’s open.  If anybody feels light headed, can’t breathe, anything else…speak up immediately!  We’re going in now.”

The massive door opened outwards, and they went in, lights swinging around the room.  “Looks like an entry way to the main bay,” Twilight Sparkle said.  She did something with her horn and the glow from it flowed in one direction.  “If you’ll follow me, I think I can find the main power switch.”

It was the work of about ten minutes to climb up to the main power vault, as the CMC made jokes and told ghost stories about the darkness that surrounded them.  But, finally, they made it to the main power room, and Twilight Sparkle pulled down the instruction sheet near the main power breakers.

“Piece of cake,” she announced a few minutes later.  “Just have to throw these switches…”

She used her magic to throw a series of eight huge circuit breakers.  A low, thrumming hum came from the transformers.

“…turn these knobs…”

Two knobs were twisted towards each other.  The humming grew louder.

“And, pull this final lever!” she said, with a flourish, and a huge shower of sparks.

The humming stopped, leaving them all in silence.  Then, with a popping flicker, the lights in the power vault came on.  And, through the open door, they could see more lights coming on.

“Very cool!” Rainbow Dash smiled.  “Now, where do we find the Jaegers?”

“There’s a sign here,” Sweetie Bell said, looking up at the walls.  “Would it be the main bay?”

“That it would be,” Twilight Sparkle replied.  “So, let’s follow the blue line.”





That took a few minutes, and they finally came to another set of doors.  Twilight Sparkle opened them up, and the party of five were confronted by wonders.

At fifty feet tall, the Jaegers loomed over the ponies.  Their thermo-optical camouflage skin was set in “neutral”, revealing the dull white plastic color of their armor.  Wrapped up in massive translucent plastic bags, the bags hid the details of their form.  They were clearly older models, having more sharp angles and longer lines than modern Jaegers.  Their torsos were thin, almost overshadowed by the huge arms and legs.  Five of them appeared to be identical, two of them looked like they were longer in both arms and legs and much lighter.  And the eight was easily a whole head taller than the larger five.

None of them had weapons attached, but they clearly were fitted for combat use.  And, all eight of them were waiting, as ready as they were the moment they were installed here.

All five of the ponies looked up in awe and wonder.

“Wow…,” Scootaloo said.

“That’s cool!”  Rainbow Dash said.

“They’re…pretty,” Apple Bloom said, in awe.

“Oh, my…” Twilight Sparkle said, looking through the book.  “Oh, my.”

All the other ponies looked at Twilight Sparkle.  “What is it?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“I know what these are,” Twilight Sparkle replied, opening up the book.  “These are Fafnir Jaegers.  Easily fifty years old, but still considered some of the best Jaegers ever.  I think the five over there are Sigurd-models.  There are two Brynhildr-models, probably the scout pair for the octo.  And, there’s an Odin.  An Odin!  That’s not an octo command model, that’s a tribune command model!”

“But, this means we have a full octo!  Eight Jaegers!  So, what do we do now?”  Apple Bloom replied, looking at Twilight Sparkle.

“Well,” Twilight Sparkle said, scratching her head with the corner of the book.  “I know what we should do, but you won’t like it.”

“What?” all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders asked, looking at Twilight Sparkle curiously.

“Research!” Twilight Sparkle said with a smile.

Everypony groaned.
> Chapter Two, Or "Of Donkeys, Cookies, And Jaegers"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Early on in her academic career, Twilight Sparkle had been taught about the need for project management.  Princess Celestia said it the best, “it doesn’t matter if you’re planning a birthday party or world conquest, you need to make sure you have a plan.  And, a list of what you need to do, every step along the way.  And, alternatives when you need it.”

Or, as the scarred-up Royal Guardsman that was her PE instructor put it, “Plan!  Prior planning prevents piss poor performance!”  His favorite habit was to chase her around the track, shouting out all sorts of pithy little sayings and concepts, not even breathing hard, as Twilight Sparkle panted.  “Always have a plan!  And, be ready when your plans fail to come up with a new plan for when you need it!”

Another one of his pithy sayings got handed out during the time when Twilight Sparkle had to do hoof lifts because she was behind in her exercise program.  “Plans fail.  You cannot plan for everything.  What does the wise pony do?  She sets goals for herself, listens to the wind, stocks her ship, prepares her crew, trims her sails, and steers.”  

So, the moment they all got back to the library, Twilight Sparkle dragged out one of her infinite number of chalkboards and started to write on it, holding the chalk with her magic.  “Okay, first things first.  We need to have a full team, and that means…” she drew up a list and put on it the model names of each of the Jaegers that was in the base.  For the five Sigurnd and the two Brynhildr, she numbered them.  “We’ll need for each of the Brynhildr a crew of two ponies-a Princeps and a Moderati.  The Sigurnd need a crew of three-a Princeps and two Moderati.  And, for the Odin, we’ll need four ponies-a Princeps, two Moderati, and a Princepis Primus.  So, that means at least twenty-three ponies.”

“That’s easy,” Scootaloo said, “I think we got about sixty or so students in school this year.  Shouldn’t be hard to find nineteen ponies to pull this off.”

“Nineteen?”  Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, of course!” Apple Bloom replied, cheerfully.  “We thought it up, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders have to be a part of this!”

There was a soft, “oh no” groan from Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, but they pushed onwards.  “We’ll need to find somepony to help us train.  And, we have to get permission from ponies' parents to do this in the first place,” Twilight Sparkle said.  “Which is what we’ll do tomorrow.  I think I know one pony that can find out if we have somebody that can teach Jaegery in town.  Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo will start grabbing every magazine and book they can find on the teams in this district, so we can know who we’ll be going up against.”

“Hey, why do we have to do that?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking upset.

“You two are the most competitive ponies I know,” Twilight Sparkle said with a smile.  “There are nine teams that we’ll have to face, and you’ll want to know how to so thoroughly kick their flanks their grandmother’s cutie marks have bruises.  The rest of us...will make the most of our one particular resource in finding people.  And, we’ll do that, tomorrow!”

Twilight Sparkle promptly started to walk everybody out of the tree.  She was going to need a long night’s sleep for her meeting tomorrow.





The next day, the Cuite Mark Crusaders were at the front door the library when it opened.  Rainbow Dash made it there just as Twilight Sparkle was opening up the door.  “Lyra,” Twilight Sparkle said, talking to one of the volunteer ponies.  “I’ll be out for a bit.  Put up the flags if you need me.”

“Sure thing,” Lyra Heartstrings replied, and started to let the patrons in.  While Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were getting to work on the research, the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Twilight Sparkle headed down to Sugarcube Corner.  As they walked over, Twilight Sparkle touched one of the nearby foundation stones of a nearby building with her magic, a touch so light that only the most skilled of unicorns or alicorns would have been able to have seen her touch.  And, the result-the rock flashed (for her eyes alone) in a sequence of three green pulses and a single blue pulse.

Twilight Sparkle smiled inside her own mind.  Ever since she had first dealt with the Pinky Sense and the various issues that Pinkie Pie had, Twilight Sparkle had been looking for some kind of warning or at least hint when Pinkie Pie was going to do something like build a confetti cannon that could blot out the sun.  Once she became an alicorn, her understanding of the theoretical magic needed was converted into a practical result-and thus the “indicator” system she invented.

Hidden in the Cake’s house (with their blessing, and Twilight Sparkle reinforcing the floors after the last incident) was a wide variety of detectors that only tracked one thing-Pinkie Pie.  How long did she sleep, when did she last eat and what were the most common compounds around her.  The compounds were tracked on a time and quantity basis, and all of this was fed into a database Twilight Sparkle created, and the database relayed it’s findings to a number of “indicator” stones around town.  When she “brushed” the stone on her way to the Cake’s shop, it would flash in a four-indicator sequence of colors that indicated how Pinkie Pie was doing.

Three greens-she’d gotten enough sleep, eaten well, and was in good health.  Blue-working on a project that only might violate the laws of physics.

When they came around the corner, the new chimney in the Cake’s bakery was going at full blast.  For last few months, with a new Princess in town and all the parties and events and conferences and gatherings, the Cakes had been able to do land-office business.  So much so that they had to hire two more assistants and were able to put new ovens in.  Pinkie Pie had convinced them to let her (with the help of a reputable firm of contractor ponies) to expand the basement and move the old oven and baking equipment into the basement, where she could do cooking experiments without interfering with the work upstairs.  And, a door that lead directly from the back street to the basement.

At least she got the stains from the last attempt to make a Yorkshire Pudding (and may have only summoned a small Shoggoth) off the steps.  Twilight Sparkle pulled on the bell cord attached to the door and heard the bell ring.  “Come in!” Pinkie Pie yelled through the door, just loud enough over the sound of...something like the world’s biggest sheep being combed.

When she opened the door, Twilight Sparkle and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell were confronted by a basement kitchen full of...string.  In white, yellow, and a number of other colors, all woven in an intricate web of odd-colored items.  The whole kitchen smelled of cheese and existential despair.  “Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?” Twilight Sparkle asked carefully, an eyebrow and an ear raised.

Pinkie Pie came bouncing over, wearing an apron and covered with spots that looked like whey and bits of string.  She had a smile on her face and a bit of cheddar stuck behind her ear.  “Hi, Twilight!” she said cheerfully, looking around at the kitchen.  “I borrowed your book on quantum string theory last week, and I got to thinking about it, and if you can make those quantum thingies into strings, why not something tasty?  So, I’m trying to make string cheese!  Once I can get enough string cheese, I’ll start braiding the strings together to make a rope cheese, and that will be so delicious to try…”

“Oookay,” Twilight Sparkle said, stepping back carefully.  “Actually, I wanted to ask you something.  SInce you know just about every pony in Ponyville…”

“Silly Twilight Sparkle,” Pinkie Pie interrupted, patting Twilight Sparkle’s right hoof with her right hoof.  “I know every pony in Ponyville!  Well, except for the one that lives out in the corn field, I don’t think that pony likes me very much.”

“Well, as I was saying,” Twilight Sparkle struggled to get the conversation back on track.  “I was wondering if you knew anybody that is living in town that was a Jaeger pilot or trained people in being Jaeger pilots.  We need to find somebody that is, so we can start a Jaegery program at the Ponyville school.”

“Hm…,” Pinkie Pie replied, sitting down on her flank and tapping her head with her front left hoof.  Twilight Sparkle swore, but could never prove, that she thought she could hear a hard drive starting to spool up inside Pinkie Pie’s head.  A few seconds, then the fireflies of inspiration lit.  “I’ve got it!  I know the exact pony you want to talk to.  Better yet, I’ll introduce you!”

“No, no,” Twilight Sparkle said, “I’ll be good with a location…”

“It’s no trouble at all!  You’ll love him, and he’ll be so interested in Jaegery!”





Once upon a time, back during the time when Jaeger Princeps knew they had no other responsibility the next day beyond sobering up via pure oxygen, Cranky Doodle Dandy and one of his fellow Jaeger Princeps had somehow talked about retirement.  His friend had talked about the huge plot of land that he’d gotten in Aridzona and how he was going to love it.  “Why don’t you just go back home,” Cranky had asked, curious.

“Because, if I went back home to the family farm…which I ran away from as soon as I could because I was tired of seeing the southbound end of my Dad going north with the plow on his harness...I’d have to do something with it.  Plow.  Weed.  Plant crops.  Argue with the bank for a loan.  Fix the harvester.  I just want a whole bunch of land,” he said, waving around his mug of cider with increasingly messy arcs, “that I have to do flankall with.  I can just sit on my porch and look at all the terrain, and not have to do a thing about it.”

Which, in a nutshell, was why Cranky was in Ponyville.  It was quiet.  The school had so far been able to escape having a Jaegery program, so he didn’t have to hear kids trying to stomp around in Jaegers trying to learn Jaegery.  And, by the purest of coincidences, he had found Matilda.  And the two were definitely making up for lost time.

So, when Cranky heard that the school was going to close down because it didn’t have a Jaegery program, he was definitely of two minds.  A big shame for the kids, of course.  They didn’t deserve to get ground up in a bureaucratic machine determined to turn every foal into pony sausage.  But, if somepony was going to get pulled into trying to fix the missing issue of Ponyville’s missing Jaegery program, it was probably going to be one retired Cranky Doodle Dandy.

Which was why he wasn’t going to do anything.

Even if Pinkie Pie was able to get into the house via the mail slot.

Which she didn’t, of course.

She got in by the back door, when Matilda had let her, Twilight Sparkle, and two of the school kids in.

Cranky was not impressed by royalty.  He did like Twilight Sparkle, and thought that she was a damn good foal working her little flank off to be the best new princess she could be.  So, as long as Pinkie Pie didn’t say anything too stupid, he’d give her a chance to explain before he said no.

As gently as he could, of course, for the kids.

“So,” he said, going for pure grumble, “What can I do for you all today?”

“Weeeellll….,” Pinkie Pie said, in her most innocent tone of voice, before it shifted to “full speed ahead” on her tongue, “I remembered you had pictures of you standing in front of what looked like a Jaeger in a really neat uniform and I thought you might know somebody that might know how to teach Jaegery, because the kids need a Jaegery teacher and…”

Twilight Sparkle stuck a hoof in Pinkie Pie’s mouth, to quiet her for a minute.  “Well, what she said.  If you were a Jaeger pilot, I was wondering if you could help us find somebody to teach Jaegery for the Ponyville school.  We were able to find a full octo of Jaegers, and any suggestions you have might let us get the program started in the enough time so we can have a team ready.”

Cranky sighed.  “Wish I could help you,” he said, dropping his head down a little too much.  “But, I kind of got out of all that when I retired.  I can make some calls, but I’m not sure…”

“Cranky!” Matilda chided.  “I think they deserve at least some of your insights.  Cookie?”  Matilda held up a plate in her mouth with cookies on them.  All of Cranky’s guests took one and Pinkie Pie looked at it in joy.

“This is awesome!  Never had a snicker doodle like this before!”  Pinkie Pie dashed over to Matilda and mock-whispered to her conspiratorially, holding the cookie plate in her hoof, “What’s your secret?”

“Bit more vanilla than usual and I put the dough in the fridge until it gets solid.  Also, you should be very careful to not over-blend it,” Matilda replied and looked at Cranky.  “You’ve been complaining-by not complaining-how bored you are.”

“I’m not bored,” Cranky huffed.  “I’ve got golf, I’ve got bonsai, I’ve got a few other things I’m doing, including getting to know you…”

“And, you’re bored,” Matilda gently interrupted.  “I don’t mean that you’re not welcome to do those things, but I can feel how underutilized you feel.  And, you told me a few stories of when you were a Jaeger jockey.  I think you had some of the best fun of your life when you were doing that.  It’s a quiet day, you don’t have any real plans-worse case, it’s a good walk to where the Jaegers are being held, right?”

“That’s right,” Apple Bloom said, smiling.  “It’s down around Old Gulch Mine, a great walk and it looks very pretty out there.”

Cranky had earned his name fairly, but he wasn’t stupid.  Sometimes, you had to bow to the inevitable.  “Okay, let me get my hat.  But, I’m just going to look!  No promises!”

“No problem,” Twilight Sparkle replied, and carefully used her magic to drag Pinkie Pie out, still eating a hoof-full of the snickerdoodles.

Cranky took a deep breath and went for his hat.  Sooner done, sooner over with.





Cranky, years ago, was able to put his ego away and pull off the greatest of all tricks-admitting without brow beating that he was wrong.

Which wasn’t quite right.

The cranky urges that he had previously went fully away-and he was feeling like a little foal again when he came into the Jaeger bay.

“Fafnir Jaegers!” Cranky gasped.  Twilight Sparkle had roped in a few of her friends to help pull the plastic sheeting off the Jaegers.  “You were telling me that some silly pony put a full octo of Fafnir Jaegers in a hole in the ground for the last twenty years?!?!”

“Is that...bad?” Twilight Sparkle asked.  She was seriously wondering if Cranky was angry, disappointed, frustrated, or about to have a heart attack.

“Twilight, when I started out as a Moderati, I wanted to marry my Sigurnd.  They just had to retire the Fafnirs when I became a Principes.  Mind you, the Yamato Jaegers that replaced them were good-all of them could be fitted with flight packs, even the command Jaegers.  Controls were a bit smoother and they finally got the whole crystal mana plant integration done properly.  But, the Fafnirs...they were responsive and agile and if I had to choose between them, I’d have gone with a Fafnir over a Yamato any day of the week-and twice on Sundays,” Cranky replied, “They said that piloting a Fafnir is better than…,” then Cranky realized there were two little foals around, “...ah, better than belly rubs.  I always said that if was better than belly rubs, you’re clearly doing your belly rubs wrong.  But…”

Cranky looked around, caught Twilight Sparkle’s eyes, and said with a huge smile, “The only way this could be better is if you had my old Sigurnd.  Train the kids here on Jaegery in Fafnirs?  Twilight, you’d have to have the Princesses build a barrier in front of that door to stop me.  And, I’d still find a way in, even if I had to dig!  I’ll start pulling my old manuals out of storage, and tomorrow I’ll help with the paperwork for the IECC.”

“Yay!”  Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle said, dancing behind Twilight Sparkle.  “Cutie Mark Crusaders, first victory!”

“Thank you,” Twilight Sparkle said.  “If you can come by the library tomorrow, I’ll start getting the paperwork together.”

“Will do,” Cranky nodded.  He walked over to one of the Sigurnd Fafnirs and lovingly stroked it’s foot with his front right hoof.  “The lovely ladies here will get their chance to shine again.”





By the time they had gotten back to the library, Twilight Sparkle had seen no flags from Lyra, Pinkie Pie bounced off to work on a gouda thread, and it was about an hour until closing.  Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had done something nearly miraculous-they had actually done research.  Without being forced!  They had found a corner nook of the library and were writing up city and school names on a chalkboard, books and magazines on Jaegery scattered all around them.  “Wow…,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking at them.  “I don’t think I’ve seen a mess like this since that wild study session a few months ago when I was researching the Universal Theorem of Magic!  So, what did we find out?”

Rainbow Dash had the decency to look sheepish.  She remembered what happened with that study session, and if those books were ponies, the only difference between “studying” and “orgy” would have been a lack of whipped cream.  “Well, there are nine teams in our district.  If any of them really worries me, it’s the team from Saint Megana-they’ve been the undefeated team in the district and placed consistently second in the regionals for the last fifteen years.  And, they have some of the newest models of Jaegers-all Yamatos.  Those were just taken off front-line service fifteen years ago, and they’re still some of the most modern ones around.  And, they’re a really good team.  Ever hear of Callie Steelheart?”

Twilight Sparkle twitched her ears in confusion.  “Never heard of her.  Is she important in Jaegery circles?”

“Twilight, Callie Steelheart is to Jaegery what Ponyacci is to clowns or Starswirl is to magic,” Rainbow Dash sighed, looking for a photo.  “She’s the head of the Steelheart School of Jaegery, one of the most respected and the third oldest Jaegery schools in Equestria.  There’s been no less than four members of the Royal Guard Wings that are Steelheart students, and her daughters are team leaders in the Saint Megana Jaegery team.  So, they’ve had to have been trained by her to a high mirror shine.”

“Here,” Scootaloo said, pulling out a photo.  They all came around to look at the magazine article on Callie and her two daughters, Lisa and Michelle Steelheart.

“Wow…,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking at Callie.  “She looks, well...severe.”  All of the ponies looked at her.  “I mean, she looks like she’s really dedicated and so do her daughters.  So, we just have to place with them?  I mean, hold third place against them?”

“Yea.  If I had to make a guess, we can do that,” Rainbow Dash shrugged her wings.  “The other teams in the district are good, but they’ve got older model Jaegers.  Of the teams, the only ones that worry me is the Saint Megana and the Hearth’s Fire team out of Fillydelphia.  Heart’s Fire has been holding their own with Saint Megana, and very nearly won first place last year.  They use Yaga Jaegers, so I think we might be more mobile.”

Sweetie Belle had laid out the magazine and was putting her hoofs around the photo of Michelle Sweetheart.  “Hey, Apple Blossom, do you think she looks familiar?”

“What do you mean,” Apple Blossom asked.

“We had a couple new students in school this year.  And, if you change the mane and the tail a bit and make her a year older, don’t you think that Michelle Bluebottle looks like Michelle Steelheart?”  Sweetie Belle asked.

“Yea, but why would she be here in our school?” Apple Blossom asked.

“Wait a minute…,” Rainbow Dash pulled out a magazine from one of the piles.  “According to this, there was some sort of issue with the district finals.  Saint Megana and Hearth’s Fire were going up against each other, and there was an incident.  Some ponies nearly got killed over it, and afterwards...Hearth’s Fire wanted to have a rematch?”  Rainbow Dash scratched her head curiously.  “I wonder what happened.”

“Well, we can always ask her on Monday.  Got your notes written down?”  Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Sure,” Rainbow Dash replied, pulling out a notebook.  “Been around you long enough to realize I need one of these with me, always.”

“Good!  Because now, we have to clean up, and I think Spike is making lasagna for dinner tonight,” Twilight Sparkle smiled and started to pick up the various books with her magic.  “And, I asked him to make enough to share.”
> Chapter Three, Or "Breaking And Entering For Mental Sanity"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle lived by rules.  One could almost say that her mental work space was built around the idea that there was, ultimately at the bottom of all things, a rule for something.  That she didn’t know what the rules were for a thing merely meant one thing-research.

It hit after dinner, after sharing a very delicious lasagna with her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  The tradition of helping Spike clean up dinner was still strong, and she washed and put away all the dishes.  She had finished cleaning up the last little bits of lint that had escaped everypony else in the library, and was about to head for bed when a single, stunning thought made her freeze half-way up the stairs to her room.

Who’s Jaegers were those?

Simple in it’s form, yet so elegantly disturbing, like a logical sledgehammer to the psychic kneecap.  Twilight Sparkle was about to commit to school students-and worse, the Cutie Mark Crusaders-several billion bits of Equestrian military hardware.  Most of it was old military hardware, to be sure, but it was still armed.  And dangerous.

And, without clear ownership.  Which could result in her and her friends getting fined, arrested, thrown in jail, or even perhaps sent to Magical Pre-School.  This was something that did not have a rule attached to it.  So, she needed to do the thing that would allow her to find out what that rule was.

Research.

In theory, Princess Twilight Sparkle could have woken up Mayor Mare and asked her to open up the archives.  But, it was nearly midnight, and Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t have asked anypony awake to deal with her attack of nerves.  So, she just teleported herself into the archives, and set up a few small spell lights.  With a small, well-lit work space, she unrolled the scroll she needed.

After one horrifying incident in the Royal Canterlotian Library (where she barely escaped from an upset orangutang librarian), she had worked out a spell that would let her find anything in any library.  The only issue was time and effort-it was not something that was fast, but it was complete.  So, she checked the scroll’s spell bindings, added ink to her quill, and wrote on the search parameters section of the scroll.  Finished, she cleaned and put away her ink and quill, and concentrated her magic on the scroll.

As her horn lit up, little...specks started to appear on the floor.  A few second later, the specks resolved themselves to become tiny, softly glowing, hoof-sized versions of Twilight Sparkle.  After studying the effect of the Mirror Pool and it’s ability to duplicate things, she had come up with a limited version of the same effect and a way of setting rules for the duplicates.  When she had shown the spell to Princess Celestia, she was amazed and somewhat shocked.  And very impressed.

Before she became an alicorn, she could only summon a dozen of the little duplicates she called “sprites”.  Afterwards, if she really concentrated, she could call up to a hundred.  But, she didn’t need that many here, so she only created thirty.

Now, the final command words.  

“You know your mission.  You have thirty minutes,” and she wound the stopwatch that Princess Cadence gaver her after her ascension.  She smiled as she looked at the inscription inside of it, “for the ladybug who always needs time”, and then said, “Go.”

Her sprites lept into action, passing harmlessly through shelves, bookcases, and file cabinets.  They were purely things of magic, and would find anything within the confines of the archives that was set according to her parameters, and when they had explored the entire area they would return.  Every twist and turn of their movements were perfectly recorded and as part of their return parameters, it would allow Twilight Sparkle to know perfectly where any written document that had the words on them was.

Lately, she was experimenting with logical parameters.  IF/NOT, AND/OR, IF/THEN, a whole range of logical calculations and computational systems.  One of the things that magic had fallen far behind in was the ability to handle parameter issues.  A simple computer or iFruit could be programmed to respond to logical problems that a spell could not.  She had a great paper on this subject and hoped to present it to the Royal Equestrian Magical Society soon, because she thought there was a great deal of potential in combining magical techniques and computer processing ability to amplify both and…

“Um, um!” a whole chorus of squeaky little Twilight Sparkle voices said, breaking her out of her inner monologue.

Twilight Sparkle looked down and saw that her sprites had returned.  When she had set up the search, she had set the time frame for the words “Jaeger” in three blocks-fifteen years or less, sixteen to thirty years, and thirty-one years and more.  The only ones that had the “happy” expression of finding something was the ones that were fifteen years or less.  The rest had a “sad” expression-lying on the floor, hooves over their heads-of not finding anything.  And, from the expression of the “happy” sprites, all the references were less than two years old.

“Pony flank,” Twilight Sparkle cursed.  “Thank you, everypony,” she said, and gave out the virtual sugar cubes that was the “end of run” for the sprites.  As the sprites dissolved into the background magic field, she looked around the room and sighed.  There was one more place she could check.





A long hour later, Twilight Sparkle returned back home to the library.  She had searched through the microfilm archives in the city basement, and still didn’t find a single reference to Jaegers that could explain why somepony had built a base in the middle of the Old Gulch Mine for them.  Which made no sense.  Somepony had to have worked on putting the base there.  Putting the Jaegers there.  And, putting that file in the archives that Rainbow Dash had seen.  There was some reason why it was there.

Not that long ago-barely even a year ago-this inability to figure out what was going on would have driven Twilight Sparkle to distraction and a sleepless night.  But, for this, she had a rule.  First thing she did, after putting away all of her equipment and gear, was to get out a sheet of parchment and a directory of contact information for the Royal Equestrian Military.  She had copies of all the Jaeger’s serial numbers and official specification numbers, and she started to write a letter.

TO: ROYAL EQUESTRIAN ARMED FORCES ARCHIVES
FROM: PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

RE: ARCHIVAL DATA

Enclosed is a list of serial numbers and specification numbers for eight Fafnir-type Jaegers.  As soon as possible, please send to me by courier or dragon post the disposition and transport records for all eight of the Jaegers listed.

In addition, please send me copies of the document tracking sheets for the disposition and transport records of the previously mentioned Jaegers as soon as possible.

Thank you.

A second letter was drafted for the Royal Equestrian Jaeger Corps, virtually identical to the first.  Once she had finished that, she sealed, rolled, and bound the two scrolls and added yellow ribbons-one step above “normal” priority-to the wax seals she used to secure the scrolls closed.  Then, she addressed them and put them in the “out” box for Spike to handle the next morning.  Cleaning everything up, Twilight Sparkle began to slowly count backwards from a hundred, walking with calm steps towards her bed.

By the time she had hit twenty, she was in bed, pulling her sheets over her with her magic, and consigning all of her worries and cares to a small spot that was “don’t open until the sun comes up”.  Reaching ten allowed her to close her eyes and think to herself it’ll be a new day tomorrow, I can start figuring it out then.  And, finally, by the time she hit two...she forgot one.

One of the few disadvantages of this technique was that Twilight Sparkle tended to snore in her sleep when she used it.  Loudly.





The next morning, Twilight Sparkle woke up fairly late (by her standards).  It was only nine am when she came down the stairs, where Spike was cooking breakfast.  “So, what’s on the agenda for today and, ahhhhh!” Twilight Sparkle jumped back a step when she saw the bags under Spike’s eyes had suitcases, trunks, and at least one or two steamer cases.  

“Twilight, was there something on your mind you couldn’t stop thinking about last night?” Spike groaned, as he carefully worked the frying pan.  “The last time you snored that loudly, you were trying to figure out how to turn all the orange trees in Applejack’s orchards back into apple trees before she decided she was going to resurrect some kind of pagan pony sacrifice.  With you as the sacrifice!”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight Sparkle said, sitting down at the table as Spike laid out breakfast.  “Just, last night it hit me that I don’t know who really owns those Jaegers.  And, if I just take them, I’ll get in trouble because they’re not mine to use and such.”

“Well, if that’s the case,” Spike said, pulling his own breakfast out, and waiting carefully for Twilight Sparkle to not have anything in her mouth when he dropped this particular bombshell.  “The truth is that I travelled back in time, stole the Jaegers, hid them, and arranged a whole huge mass of causality events with the help of Doctor Whooves so that Rainbow Dash would find the records and tell you,” he confessed, in an absolutely deadpan voice.

Twilight Sparkle looked at Spike, eyebrow raised, then started to laugh.  “Spike, that is almost believable,” she giggled, took a deep breath, then got back to work on breakfast.  “Since it’s Sunday, the library is closed, I probably won’t need to send any scrolls until Monday, and I should be able to handle lunch on my own, take the whole day off.  In fact, if you don’t get out of here and find a nice place for a nap,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eye, “I’ll teleport you until you find a spot to rest.”

“Thanks,” Spike smiled, and started to put the dishes in the sink.  “Should be around the lake if you need me.”

“I’ll finish cleaning up,” Twilight Sparkle said.  “I can use the mental health break.”





Once all the dishes were cleaned up and put away, Twilight Sparkle loaded up her saddle bags and headed over to the Jaeger hanger.

Cranky ran into her as she was walking over.  “I got all the paperwork organized and my manuals out of storage,” he said, moving around his saddle bags.  “There’s an ‘official’ training manual and there’s the IECC recommended one. Of the two, I’m going with the official one. The IECC is a bit tight on some things that they should be looser on.”

“Such as?”

“IECC rules are based around competitive Jaegery.  What we’re doing against other teams in our district.  I learned Jagery as a combat pilot-so, more focused aggression, more wanting to go for the enemy jugular,” Cranky shrugged.  “Oh, I’ve already got a training program worked out.  We’ll be IECC legal, but I want to get the foals learning to go hard for their enemies.  And, to properly be able to use their hate.”

This stopped Twilight Sparkle in her tracks.  “How can you ‘properly’ use hate?” she asked.

Cranky thought about that, scratched behind his ear with his hoof, and said, “Hate is like a wheatstone-a little bit of it, properly applied, can sharpen the edge of your abilities.  Ever compete with anypony that you just really wanted to kick their flank in?  Really worked hard so you could win?”

“Yea,” Twilight Sparkle nodded.  “I did.  And, I can see what you mean.  And, ‘improperly’ used hate?”

“Ever see a poorly sharpened blade?  One where the edges were all wrong, or honed down to nothing?  That’s what hate, improperly used, can do,” Cranky replied.  “I want our little fillies to be the sharpest-and best sharpened-razors out there.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Twilight Sparkle replied.

“Every tool kit should have a good, sharp knife.  You might need it one day.  And,” Cranky said, looking Twilight Sparkle in the eyes, “if you cut yourself on it because you’re careless or don’t have a sheath for it, it’s your fault.”

“Yea,” Twilight Sparkle said, feeling a bit sheepish.  “On that, I might just need a good knife to solve a problem I just realized.”





By the time they had made it down to the hanger, Cranky was amazed. “No records at all?  Like this place just appeared one day in the middle of the mine?”

“I checked the archives, twice.  The mine was closed down twenty years ago-not economical for the return on gems.  It reverted back to public lands, and well...that’s about it other than the occasional note about putting a new ‘No Trespassing’ sign on the entrances,” Twilight Sparkle said, mildly frustrated.  “So, I’m following it up on the other end.  I’ve asked the Royal Equestrian Armed Forces Archives and the Jaeger Corps for records, they should be able to send us the disposition records of the Jaegers.”

“Makes sense,” Cranky replied, feeling slightly confused.  “But, I mean...eight Jaegers.  And, somewhat newer ones, too.  And, a full bay of ordinance.”  Twilight Sparkle looked at him curiously.  “These are live Jaegers-they haven’t been de-militarized.  Their weapon mounts are intact, they have all their hardware, even the ‘classified’ equipment, and we have a fully stocked bay of live weapons.  Right down the hall from the simulation weapons.”

“Are they safe?” Twilight Sparkle asked.  “I mean, after fifteen or so years…”

“First thing we checked,” Cranky said, looking around as there were a few ponies doing maintenance and check ups on the Jaegers.  “All of the ordinance was stored in time-suppression fields and in an inert atmosphere, so there’s been no decay or instability.  And, all the explosive stuff is in proper storage bunkers-heavy blast doors that swing into the bunker, reinforced and enchanted bunker walls, detonation vents leading up to the middle of the mountain, where it’ll bother no pony if something goes wrong.  And, before you ask, Jaegers being used for Jaegery aren’t de-militarized.  But, they usually keep the live ordnance very separate.”

“How separate?”  Twilight Sparkle looked at Cranky, eyebrow and ear raised.

“Usually on the military base near the school,” he replied.  Twilight Sparkle watched as what looked like a familiar set of reddish colt legs were sticking out of one of Jaegers.  “I’m amazed-you have a lot of retired military ponies here.  Mind you, I’m the only Jaeger jockey, but I think you’ve got every other branch represented.  Hey,” Cranky yelled up to Sigurd that had the familiar set of legs sticking out of it.  “Big Mac!  Think you can come down here for a sec?”

From the interior of the Sigurd, a grease-stained and goggled Big Macintosh pulled out the wrench he was using with his front hooves and looked around for a ladder.  He came down the series of three ladders by using them like a fire pole, his hooves braking against the sides.  “Howdy, Cranky, Twilight,” he said, rummaging around his work pouch for a rag to wipe his hooves off with.  “Been looking around the insides of the Jaegers for you.”

“You never told me you worked on Jaegers,” Twilight Sparkle looked at Big Macintosh in suprise.  “Or that you were in the army.”

“Two terms, before our parents died,” Big Macintosh looked at her, sheepishly.  “And, I wasn’t a Jaeger nanny, I was a cannon cocker.”  To Twilight Sparkle’s confused look, he thought about it and explained, “Was in the artillery.  Had to learn how to fix every part of our cannon, and that meant the engine as well.  They retrofitted ‘em Jaegers with proper new crystal mana drives.  Like everything else, ‘cept the software, it’s fifteen years old but in great shape.  The software is current, last update was five days ago.   Like somebody’s still writing updates for the old ladies.”

“Well, they are, in a way,” Cranky grunted.  “They have to be refitting the old Jaegers used in Jaegery with new systems so they can stay current.  And, uphold new safety regulations and such.”

“Cranky, these are the same boxes that came into this mine fifteen years ago.  And, somepony’s still writing software for ‘em,” Big Macintosh shook his head.  “Don’t know enough ‘bout that Internet stuff to figure out where it’s coming from, but it’s still current.”

Twilight Sparkle looked up at the Jaeger and back down at her friends.  “Did you find anything that might say why these Jaegers were put here?  I can’t find any records that they were put here in City Hall.”

“Had the same thought, Twilight,” Big Macintosh said.  “All of us went a’looking and we can’t find anything that has a name or a date or anything on it that would indicate who put the base here.  It’s like somepony sanitized the entire facility so completely that they even got rid of the records for Equestria Army Form Number One!”

“Huh?” Twilight Sparkle asked curiously, eyebrow raised.

“‘Equestrian Army Form Number One’ is what soldiers call toliet paper,” Cranky sighed.  “And, trust me, if there isn’t any records of the toilet paper being delivered, they had to have gotten everything.”

“So, we have a base full of Jaegers that are Jaegery-configured, but no record at all who made or put the base here,” Twilight Sparkle face-hoofed herself and made a soft sound between a groan and a sigh.  “Well, I did send for copies of the deployment records for the Jaegers with the Royal Equestrian Armed Forces Archives, and maybe they’ll be able to give us some idea.  Until then…”

Twilight Sparkle made a turn around the room, and a soft huff.  “Until then,” she repeated, “I’m going to put my official ‘Princess of Equestria’ hoof down and claim eminent domain.  So long as nothing is damaged or the value of it is altered before we can get the records, the people of Ponyville and the Ponyville School can use the Jaegers.  Just don’t blow anything up, please!  Ponyville can’t afford to replace a busted Jaeger.”

Twilight Sparkle looked around the bay a bit more.  “So, we got eight Jaegers and enough actual ordinance for, what, thirty days of combat?  What else do we have here?”

“Checked myself,” Cranky replied, walking her over to a quieter part of the Jaeger bay.  “There’s a Drive suit fitting room, a full simulation array that we can plug the Jaeger’s Manifolds in, and training facilities.  A complete range of simulation weapons, from close combat to ranged kinetic and directed energy to missile launchers.  We’re restricted to the ten-mile limit for weapon ranges, but we’ve got every sort of ordinance that can handle combat up to ten miles.  Including simulation external missile packages of five hundred and seven hundred fifty kilo warhead types.  Full counter-measure packages as well, but no deployable simulation ordinance-no mines, no gun jacks, no caltrops.  But, since Jaegery is all about Jaeger versus Jaeger combat, we’re fine without all of those but the mines.  There’s a few neat tricks you can do with mines, especially anti-Jaeger ones.”  Cranky sighed.  “Oh, well.  Of course, if it was easy, they wouldn’t need us, would they?”

“No, they wouldn’t.”  Twilight Sparkle smiled and started to walk down the hallway to the base offices.  “So, what’s your plan so far?”

“Get the flanking paperwork filled out first, and get it mailed off before the end of the day.  Once we do that, we can start doing recruiting at the Ponyville school.  Rough guess, we’ll need about half the class to volunteer so we can pare it down to the number of jockeys we need…,” Cranky replied, following in Twilight Sparkle’s footsteps.

“Jockeys?”  Twilight Sparkle interrupted, with a raised eyebrow and ear.  “I’m still getting use to all this jargon you keep throwing around.”

“What we call ourselves, the ponies that pilot Jaegers,” Cranky replied.  “We ride them into battle, so of course we’re jockeys.  The kids you brought with you yesterday, the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’, right?”  Twilight Sparkle nodded.  “Already got them going through testing.  My bet?  They’re damned near a Drift-compatible team, and that’s one slot on one Jaeger that I can fill.  Rough guess, the little pegasus is going to be your Princeps, she’s got a real ‘go for the jugular’ attitude.  I’m probably going to stick them in one of the Sigurds, maybe even the Odin if we can find a good Princeps Primus to ride with them.  And, that, my dear princess, is going to be where we will probably fall down.”

“Oh?”

“We need a really flanking good Princeps Primus to make it into the top three.  Those don’t grow on trees.  Usually, we get them by years of training and work, and lots of luck.  Without one, well...a Jaeger is a Jaeger, just one weapon walking on the battlefield. But, with a good Princeps Primus, an octo is like the horn of Faustia, smashing any opponent that gets in their way,” Cranky smiled.  “So, I’m really hoping that the foals are right and that Michelle Bluebottle is actually Michelle Steelheart, and we can get her to be our Princeps Primus.  Else I’m just going to have to hope we find a good little foal that can fight really well and is a team player.”

“Oh.”  Twilight Sparkle looked at her hooves.  Then, took a deep breath.  “So, first thing on our check list.  We get that paperwork filled out.  How hard can it be?”





Three hours later, Twilight Sparkle was ready to send a letter to Princess Celestia.  If only to find out if she could exile ponies to the Moon.  And, if she couldn’t, where could she send them?  Taurus?  Mars?  Pluto?  The surface of the Sun?  The deepest trench in the ocean?  New Jockey?

Because, after wading through the paperwork to get the team officially set up for IECC regulations, she was ready to exile as many ponies as she could.  If for just the number of trees they had cut down to create all of this paperwork.

“I’ve seen magical exams that were less complicated than this,” Twilight Sparkle groaned, “Nightmare Moon’s horn, I’ve written magical exams that were less complicated than this.  We have to fill out a ‘claim for deployment’ form, in triplicate, and get the forms notarized!  I think one of the ponies you’ve got helping is a notary, can we find him?”

“Only if you can figure out what this flanking form is asking for.  And, you have to fill out these tiny boxes in pen,” Cranky huffed, looking at the paperwork.

Twilight Sparkle looked at the paperwork, and groaned angrily.  “This is going to drive me to drink!  And, if I didn’t know how to drink already, I’d learn how, just because!”





Five long hours later, Twilight Sparkle trudged home, feeling like she had been beaten all over by bureaucratic baseball bats.  After a few hours, consulting with one of the local lawyer pegasus and not setting ponies on fire, they had managed to finish filling out the forms, get them wrapped up properly, and she had stuck it in her saddle bag to be mailed off tomorrow.  Fortunately, she had sent a message ahead to Spike that she’d be late for dinner, and wanted just a sandwich or such when she got back.

So, she was genuinely surprised when she was ambushed by a wild Rarity on the way home.

“Ma douce amie, you are a mess!” Rarity shook her head, carefully holding up Twilight Sparkle off the ground with her magic and sorting through her saddlebags for her tools.  “Mane’s a mess, your aimable hoofs are covered in grease and ink, the press would tut tut seeing you, ma princesse."

“Um, Rarity,” Twilight Sparkle said, not really resisting because she was so tired and just wanted to go home.  “I’m fine, really-I’ll take a shower tomorrow and that’ll cover most of it…”

“Oh, no, no, chère dame,” Rarity smiled.  “It’s not trouble at all.  Now, let me…” she pulled out a brush and started to work it through Twilight Sparkle’s hair.  “Sweetie Belle got home a few hours ago.  She’s really happy with the idea that maybe she won’t have to go to Baltimare for school.  Which would make me happy too, as it would be such a long ride for such a young filly.  Mind you, the idea that she would be learning to do Jaegery is a bit scary, but she’s a smart little filly.”

It took Twilight Sparkle a bit to get through her mentally fatigued mind what was going on.  “Rarity, I’m glad she gets to stay as well.  And, thank you.”

“No, no, thank you, ma douce amie,” Rarity smiled as she worked the brush through Twilight Sparkle’s hair.  “I was hoping to catch you before you made it home, so I could get whatever permission forms you needed to let Sweetie Belle participate.  Better to get it done now, rather than later, eh?”

Twilight Sparkle groaned, but remained still.  She knew Rarity hated it when people messed up her work.  “I have the forms back at the library.  If you’ll follow me and…”

“Perfect!” Rarity smiled, and held up a mirror.  “See, you look better already.”

In the few minutes of conversations, Rarity had managed to fix the worst of Twilight Sparkle’s hair damage and clean her hooves off.  Not a huge transformation, but she looked a lot better, and felt better, as well.  “Rarity, you’re a saint.  And a speed demon.”

“Once you’ve had to deal with insipide and insolent models getting ready for the runway,” Rarity smiled.  “Helping out a friend is very easy.  Shall we walk home?”

“Of course,” Twilight Sparkle smiled.  “And, thank you.”

“And, thank you, ma princesse.  You have taken a great load off my shoulders.”
> Chapter Four, or "Rope Bondage Is (Mostly) Wrong To Use Against Fillies"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweetie Belle woke up on Monday morning, tired and enthusiastic.  Tired was easy, she had spent most of Sunday with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom in Jagery testing.  A lot of it, it seemed, involved sitting very still while ponies strapped wires onto your body and asked you silly questions and to do silly things.  Which didn’t sound very tiring, unless you were doing it for about ten straight hours, with only breaks to pee and eat.  Then, it got very tiring.

Well, at least the adults seemed happy.  It sounded like the Cutie Mark Crusaders would be a team-“high Drift compatibility” was one of the things said a lot around them.  And, from what she had read, that was a good thing.  So, there was her enthusiasm.

Shower, brush out the hair, brush the teeth...and, look for Rarity.

Almost always, Rarity was up before Sweetie Belle, making breakfast and wanting to talk with her before she left.  If she wasn’t up now-and her coat and scarf were on the coat rack-she was at home somewhere.  Rarity’s bed hadn’t been slept in, and that really left only one place.  So, carefully, Sweetie Belle went into Rarity’s Inspiration Room.

After the last time that Sweetie Belle had...helped, her and Rarity had worked out a way to keep them both sane.  First thing was the “Worst!  Possible!  Thing!” trashcan that served several purposes, not the least was something for Sweetie Belle to toss when things in it started to smell bad.  Second, the agreement that certain things that were left out-pins, scissors, anything else sharp-could be put away as long as they went in their proper places.  Third, and most important, if Rarity was dead asleep having worked on some project in the middle of the night, there was a proper and suitable way of waking her up while she was in the Inspiration Room.

So, first thing that Sweetie Belle did was to check on Rarity-whom had clearly fallen asleep in the middle of a project, her head resting on a pillow made by a thick sheath of satin fabric.  She was muttering in her sleep, “Usagi-chan, don’t worry, Rei isn’t one of those hetrosexuals that you hear about…,” which clearly meant that she was in the middle of an interesting dream.

Of course, one of the other rules was that unless Rarity was sick or had previously left notice, she was to wake up with Sweetie Belle and see her off to school.  So, Sweetie Belle left for the kitchen to set up the proper and suitable way of waking Rarity up.

Which was pouring a glass of ice water down Rarity’s back.

She woke up sputtering, “Béni Saints!” and snapped fully over, falling onto her back.  “Sweetie Belle, dear, what…”

“You were asleep on your work table,” Sweetie Belle said, carefully putting the glass down.  “And, stressed out-you’re tossing French in again.”

Even Rarity had to smile at that.  Early on in her fashion career, Rarity started to pepper her Manehattan vocabulary with French words.  And, since she didn’t want to get caught being unable to speak French if somebody tried to “quiz” her on it, she did one of those “Learning French While You Sleep” programs.  Which worked with one side effect-if she was tired enough, stressed out enough, or both, she’d start to pepper her sentences with French terms and phrases.  “Oh, dear,” Rarity said, thinking.  “Monday, right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded.  “Good,” Rarity yawned.  “Didn’t miss getting you out the door to school.  I saw Twilight Sparkle last night, and…,” she rummaged around her papers with her magic until she found the filled out permission form.  “Got your permission for you, so you can do Jaegery.  Signed and everything.”

Sweetie Bell smiled and hugged Rarity.  “Thank you.”  She put the form in her saddle bag, and watched as Rarity walked into the kitchen.  “Are you going to make breakfast?”

“Sure I am,” Rarity smiled.  “I promised I would.”



Soon enough, Sweetie Belle was on her way to the Ponyville school.  She had gotten Rarity to promise to get a nap in during the day (Monday was always a slow day at the boutique), and was heading off to school when she ran into Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.  “Rarity got my permission slip early!” Sweetie Belle giggled in glee.  “We’ll get yours today and we’ll go talk to Michelle Bluebottle.”

“Yea!”  Apple Blossom smiled.  Even Scootaloo was happy.  Of the three during training, Scootaloo seemed to take it as a real challenge and worked hard to get the best possible score during training.  “So, what happens next?”

“Well…,” Scootaloo said.  “Did you finish the history paper that was due today?”

Apple Blossom and Sweetie Belle stopped in their tracks.

“Oh, no,” Apple Blossom said, in shock.  “I forgot!”

“Me too!” Sweetie Bell said, shaking her head.  “What…”

“Well,” Scootaloo said, fishing through her saddle bags.  “I do happen to have your reports here.  You just need to sign them and turn them in…”

“You wrote our reports?” Apple Blossom asked, curiously.

“Typed them, actually,” Scootaloo replied.  “Blame it on having a chance to get access to a computer this weekend.”  She smiled.  “I knew you’d forget.”

“You,” Apple Blossom said, taking the paper, “are a life saver.”

“And,” Sweetie Belle smiled, “it looks like the spelling is even accurate.”

“Hey!”



The announcement was at 2:30 pm, when Cheerlee looked around the class and said, “Kids, I have some news.  Princess Twilight Sparkle has an announcement to make, which might mean we won’t have to close the Ponyville school.”  She stuck her head through the door, and said, “Princess, if you would come in, please.”

Twilight Sparkle came in, and found her “speaking in public, without lecturing” setting.  “Hi there.  It turns out that Ponyville does have Jaegers, so we’re going to be putting together a Jaegery program and putting the team up against the other teams in our district this year.  Since we’ve only got a short period of time to get a team together, it’ll be a lot of hard training and work.

“And,” she said, looking around the room.  “You won’t be allowed to slip on your classes for it!  I’ll be helping out with the training, and be assured you won’t miss any assignments.  Now, I have copies of the parental consent forms and everything you need to know about Jaegery.  I’ll also be here to answer questions as well.”

As the students started to gather around Twilight Sparkle, to answer questions and get forms, one little blank-flanked filly started to shy off into a corner.  This little Earth pony had a short, well-kept mane of black and dark brown fur, and she was clearly trying to figure out a way that would get her to the door without anybody asking her if she wanted to be in Jaegery.  Her body was quivering slightly...in absolute terror.

So, it spoke well of her that when the Cutie Mark Crusaders lept out and said, “Hello!”...there wasn’t a big brown stain on the floor.

“Um, hello,” the little filly replied, carefully.

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo said.  “I’m Scootaloo, and this is Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.  We’re helping Twilight Sparkle put together the Jaegery program.”

“That’s...great,” the little filly said softly.  Maybe if she was really quiet and small, they would go away…

“You’re Michelle Bluebottle, right?”  Sweetie Belle asked.  “Your aunt moved into town a few months ago and she sells Rarity the really high quality dyes?  Rarity loves them, says they’re some of the best dyes she has ever used.”

“Yes…,” Michelle Bluebottle said, trying to make herself even smaller.  Perhaps she could squeeze herself even smaller and out of existence…

“Well, while we were doing research, we’d found a magazine on Jaegery that had a photo last year that looked an awful lot like you, but was named Michelle Steelheart,” Apple Bloom asked.  “So, we wanted to ask…”

It took her a second to realize that she was talking to thin air, as Michelle had clearly managed to leap at the nearest window, open it up, and start running away at top speed, in less than a second.  “Dang,” Apple Blossom said, in sheer amazement.  “Girl must be part unicorn, I think she teleported part of the way out of here.”

“After her!”  Scootaloo yelled.



Michelle...Bluebottle, that was her name now, it had to be her name now, was running hard.  The tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she could barely see out of her eyes.  The emotional blender inside of her was so full of contradictions she could barely make out what she should be feeling.  The first emotion was anger.  Anger because she had escaped.  For nearly eight months, she had made a new life, away from her mother, away from Jaegery, away from what happened in that battlefield barely a year ago.  But, her mother would never let her go.  Michelle had convinced her aunt to come to Ponyville.  It didn’t have a Jaegery program.  There was a market for what her aunt made.  And, for a few months...she was happy.

And her mother had found her.  Had put the authorities on notice that Ponyville didn’t have a Jaegery program.  And, she had read her transfer notice-it was to Saint Megana.  She hadn’t escaped.  It was either go back to where she would be her again...or admit her mother was right.

And that hurt more than any injury she could imagine.

The next emotion was sadness.  She loved being in Jaegery.  She hated to give it up.  But, to be in it meant that mother would show up at some point.  That she would have to be involved in what happened last year.  She had made the right decision, everybody had said so...except mother.  Michelle had lost so much, and the pain from the psychic scar tissue she created and had ripped off was unbearable.

The next emotion was frustration.  She had cut her mane and tail.  She liked her mane.  Michelle was very proud of it.  She changed how she combed her fur, how she wore her bags, how she talked.  And, she gave it up to blend in better.  To hide.  To…

Mostly, to get hit in the side by Apple Blossom, whom knocked Michelle off her hooves and the two of them tumbled for a minute until Apple Bloom had managed to pin Michelle down.  “Stop running!” Apple Bloom yelled at Michelle.

“No!” Michelle screamed back, trying to force Apple Blossom off her.  But, Apple Bloom was quite a bit bigger and heavier due to her work on the farm.  Her frame had a lot of solid muscle on it.

“Michelle, if you will calm down, I will get off of you.  You were about to run into the Evergreen Forest!  There are things there that eat ponies that don’t look around,” Apple Bloom said, remembering what Big Macintosh had said about scared ponies-calm and cool and collected when you talk to them.

“So?” Michelle yelled through her tears.  “What do you care about that or me?”

“I don’t want to see you hurt,” Apple Bloom said, still pinning down the struggling Michelle Bluebottle.  “Nopony deserves what happens to them if something in the forest gets them.”

“So?” Michelle was screaming now, her voice hoarse through the strain on her vocal cords.  “I’ll just run...run somewhere else!”

Apple Bloom sighed.  This wasn’t going to end well.  But...she couldn’t let the little filly get hurt.  “Scootaloo,” she said, looking over at her friend.

“Yea?”

“Get a rope.”



“Let me get this straight,” Twilight Sparkle said, after the Cutie Mark Crusaders had brought the bound up Michelle Bluebottle back to the school.

“First, you ask her if she’s really Michelle Steelheart, then she runs out of the school.  After that, you chase her, knock her to the ground, and then tie her up to bring her back here.  The only thing that might keep all three of you from getting into serious trouble is that she was running towards the Evergreen Forest, and I could make it sound like you were trying to keep her from being harmed,” Twilight Sparkle facehoofed for a second and glared at the three Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Please, please don’t do this again.  Okay?”

“Sure, Twilight…,” Scootaloo said, nodding.  “And, thank you.”

“Okay...now,” Twilight Sparkle walked over and realized that Michelle was very completely tied up and gagged.  And, in a way that was so very well done that she could have been like that for hours without any harm.  “Apple Bloom, where did you learn how to do this?”

“Sort of how we tie up hogs on the farm,” Apple Bloom said.  She started to look worried.  “Just made sense to do it this way.  Is there a problem?”

“Other that a possible future career as a dominatrix,” Twilight Sparkle muttered under her breath so softly only she could hear.  She faced Michelle and said, “I’m going to take the gag off.  You do understand that you were about to run into somewhere that was very dangerous, right?”

Michelle nodded.  “And, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were trying to help.  Right?”

Michelle nodded again.  “Okay…,” Twilight Sparkle took the gag off and took the ropes off as well.  “How are you doing?”

Michelle didn’t answer, got to her hooves, and shook her head.  “I’m...okay.  Not happy, but okay.  And...I’m not going to be in Jaegery.”

“But…,” Sootaloo started to quiver.   “You’re Michelle Steelheart, I started to read up on you, you were one of the youngest Princepis Primus on record.  You were the reason why Saint Megana had such a great record the last three years and…”

“SHUT UP!!!” Michelle screamed.  “I’m not Michelle Steelheart anymore.  I’m not...her anymore.  Just, please…”

Everypony waited for a second.  Then, Michelle sat on her flanks and started to cry.  “I...gave it all up after last year.  My mother...she…,” Michelle sniffed.  “She didn’t understand why I did it.  When I tried to explain...please.  I don’t want to be in Jaegery again.  I’m...sorry...if the school is closed because of it, but I can’t.”

“Michelle,” Twilight Sparkle asked, calmly, “please.  What happened last year?  If you want to leave…,” Twilight Sparkle’s horn flared slightly, opening the door to the school room.  “You can leave.  None of us will stop you.  If you want to tell us, we’ll listen.”

Michelle looked at Twilight Sparkle-expression hopeful and warm.  The Cuite Mark Crusaders, brimming with enthusiasm.

Then, she walked towards the door.  Walked part of the way through when, of all people...her sister’s words ran through her head.

I won’t let fear dictate who I am.

Those words made her stop as if she had run into a stone wall.  Even her sister had left her...but, those words, they mattered so much to her.  Michelle Steelheart had never let fear dictate who she was.

And, Michelle Bluebottle couldn’t let fear dictate who she was, either.

“I won’t let fear dictate who I am,” Michelle muttered under her breath.  Then, she turned around.

“I won’t promise anything,” she said to Twilight Sparkle.  “And, please, for now, don’t ask me why I’m not back at Saint Megana.  Or why I’m out of Jaegery.  Please.  But...I will try.  If you will let me.”

“Michelle,” Twilight Sparkle said gently.  “That is all I ask.  Nothing more.  When you get your permission form signed, we’ll start Jaegery training this weekend.”

From the back, the Cuite Mark Crusaders let out the breath that they had been holding-and stopped turning slightly blue.  Then, with a wheezing pant, said, “Cuite Mark Crusaders, yay!”



Twilight Sparkle had agreed to walk Michelle home.  The Cuite Mark Crusaders were more than willing to do so, but Twilight made the claim she had something to do on the way there.  That, and she genuinely expected that the CMC would drive her nuts and she’d refuse to go into Jaegery again.  And, Twilight Sparkle knew was the rule was for this situation.

She kept the conversation light with Michelle.  Schoolwork, what her aunt did, and how long she had been in Ponyville.  Michelle answered her questions, mostly in simple “yes” or “no” answers, but the answers got longer as they walked along.  Eventually, Michelle asked Twilight Sparkle about being an alicorn.  About the spell she had discovered that lead her this far.  And, a few questions about Princess Celestia-Michelle clearly had a young foal crush on Celestia.

And, Michelle clearly needed some distracting.  Twilight Sparkle deliberately kept her course so that they swung a little bit wide of the school and back into town to her house.  By the time they made it to the little house on the corner, Michelle was enthusiastically asking about the last time Twilight Sparkle had tea with Princess Celestia in Canterlot.  She was in the middle of a question when she saw her house.  “Oh, wow…,” Michelle said, a little embarrassed that she finally noticed she had gotten home.  “Thank you.  And, thank you for answering all my silly questions.”

Twilight Sparkle tried on one of Princess Celestia’s “I’m glad you were asking” smiles, and it clearly worked for Michelle.  “They aren’t silly questions, they’re your questions, and you wanted to know more.  And, I’m always willing to help.”

Michelle blushed so hard it almost looked like she was bruising her fur.  “Still...thank you,” Michelle replied, and walked to the door.  “When will training start for Jagery?”

“We’ll have our first training session on Saturday-once you get your permission form in,” Twilight Sparkle nodded.  “And, thank you.”

“Um…,” Michelle said, thinking hard.  “Thank you.  I...I’m sorry I did what I did back there.”

Twilight Sparkle blushed slightly.  “You’re welcome.  I hope to talk with you again soon.”

Michelle closed the door, and Twilight Sparkle smiled.  As she walked home, she felt oddly confident.  This Monday was turning out a lot better than Friday, when she didn’t have any hopes of helping the fillies of Ponyville.  The road ahead was rough, to be certain-but Twilight Sparkle had gotten her friends through worse.

She walked home, a bit of a spring in her step and a happy expansion of her wings.



Michelle stood inside her door, mildly shocked.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle...likes me,” Michelle whispered, shocked.

Then… “Princess Twilight Sparkle wants me to go back into Jaegery,” she said, a bit louder.

A second later...then, “Sweet Faustia, Celestia, and Luna, I’m going back into JAEGERY!” she all but screamed into the air.  If she was back in Jaegery, that mean...she would run into her sister.  And her mother.

She remembered her breathing exercises.  Getting yourself calm and in the right mental state for linking into the Drift was something that took calm-and if you could fake it for long enough, you could make it.  And, so, she made it.

She was going to have to face it all again.

She wasn’t going to let fear dictate who she was.

So, that meant she had to win.

A deep breath.  A stomp of her front left hoof.

And, she went upstairs to bed.  It was going to be a long week.

And an even longer school year this year.

> Chapter Five, or "Pony Psychological Problems"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five long days.

For Michelle Bluebottle, five long days from Monday to Saturday passed by with the oddness of nightmare.  School days were skipped moments between somehow realizing that she had had breakfast and now all of a sudden the school bell was ringing.  Nights...when she could sleep, her dreams were full of the looming figures of her mother and sister, flaying her apart with words and how she had failed them.  Otherwise...it was silence.  And the ringing of her own thoughts-and her own fears inside her mind.

Thursday night, Michelle had dragged open her cloak drawer and found the bottle there.  After what happened last year, her aunt had taken her to a doctor and he had prescribed medication.  “It’s not a sleeping pill,” the doctor said.  “Giving that to young fillies is only when we’re really desperate for them to get any sleep.  It’s more of a super anxiety reliever, allowing the patient to relax enough so that they can sleep normally.  Natural sleep for this kind of situation, especially a full night’s sleep, is one of things she needs the most-lack of it will make her anxiety and other issues worse.”

And, Michelle had checked when nopony was looking-that even if she swallowed the whole bottle of medication, the worse that might happen was she’d be asleep for a day or two.

A couple of nights...that was a hard temptation to give up.

The bottle of thirty pills was down to about twelve.  Michelle sighed, got a glass of water and swallowed the pill.  And...it helped.

And it kept helping until Saturday.





Saturday morning, Michelle pulled on her saddle bags and found in a box in the back of her closet.  Inside that box was her old school uniform and the last recording of her trace data from Saint Megera.  She walked out of the house, locked the door (her aunt was away this weekend at a trade show-Michelle was happy, her career had seriously taken off in the last few weeks), and was heading down to Old Gulch Mine.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had met her about half-way there.  They were...enthusiastic.  The pegasus foal, Scootaloo, was going on like an engine at full power.  She drowned out her friends, whom would have drowned out any other pony under normal circumstances.

Did I ever enjoy the idea of being in Jaegery as much as they do? Michelle asked herself.  I did...when I wasn’t around Mother.

Suddenly, fierce elation clutched at her heart.  Even if I have to face her again...I want to be back.  I want the feel of a Jaeger under me, I want the sound, the thunder...the dreams.  Dearest Celestia, let me have my dreams back!

Scootaloo came up to Michelle with a huge smile.  “Hey!  I’m glad you’re here!”

“Me too,” Michelle replied.  And, she realized, she was glad to be here.  Even if her fear was twisting her guts around like a homicidal taffy pull machine.

The Earth pony that tied her up, Apple Bloom, came beside her, “I’m sorry about Monday.  Applejack was very unhappy when she learned what I did.  I’m still gonna be doing chores for weeks ‘cause of it.  And, it was wrong, I’m sorry.”

Michelle nodded.  “It was wrong,” Michelle said, carefully.  “But, I was so angry and scared...it might have been the right thing to do.”  She gave Apple Bloom a good nudge with her cheek.  “Thank you.”

Sweetie Belle, the unicorn foal, nodded.  “Come on, we’ve got a whole day ahead of us!”

Michelle nodded.  “It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been fitted with a Drive suit.  It’s going to be a very long day.”

“How long?” Scootaloo asked.

“Hope you didn’t have any early dinner plans,” Michelle replied.





When they arrived at the base, they were already cycling the first few kids through the initial testing process.  Cranky came up to the four and looked at them.  “Good morning.  We’ll have to get you all fitted into Drive suits and do a Manifold test today.  Lucky for us, we got the data on three of you last weekend, which leaves Michelle…”

“Got my last copy of my biometric trace data here,” Michelle replied, pulling out a chip from her saddle bag with her mouth.  “Should help speed up testing,” she muttered around it.

“Probably should,” he replied.  He took the chip and plugged it into a computer.  “Yea, it will,” he said with a smile.  “We’ll be able to put you all through baseline testing, no worries.  If you’ll follow me, we’ll get you fitted with Drive suits.”

Following Cranky up two flights of stairs, there was a large room with a number of circular depressions in the floor.  “Take off everything, and I mean everything,” Cranky said, tugging at Apple Blossom’s bows with his hooves.  “Once you’ve done that, stand on the scanner platforms over there and we’ll get you all scanned for the suits.”

As the four of them walked over, Scootaloo was curious.  “Mind if we ask questions?”

“Sure,” Cranky replied.  “Just stand as still as you can while you’re on the platforms.  Talking is fine, but don’t toss your head around too much.”

“So,” Scootaloo asked, fitting her hooves into the holes in the platform, “Why do Jaegers look like minotaurs and not ponies?  I mean, we’re using our brains to control them, why not control ponies?”

“Morphic body perception,” Michelle replied, getting her hooves into the holes.  “At least, that’s what they told me.  When they first built Jaegers for the Kaiju Wars, they first started out with pony-shaped Jaegers.  Problem was that the fidelity of the Drift simulation was so high that ponies were stroking out when the Jaeger took damage, thinking that they had actually gotten their legs ripped off.”

“That’s the big one,” Cranky nodded, tapping at controls in front of him.  “Also, the body form we use has better agility and flexibility than a pony form, especially since it’s metal and we can’t use magic-not really-from inside.  So, we’ve got to choose a form that gives us advantages-and the form we use does.”

“And, I thought you needed two ponies working together to control a Jaeger,” Sweetie Belle asked, getting herself settled into her slot.  “At least, that’s what the movie did.”

“You saw Equestrian Rim, right?” Cranky asked in reply, then sighed as Sweetie Belle nodded.  “Don’t move your head so much, Sweetie.  Yea, that movie was the last few weeks of the first Kaiju War, and the early Jaegers needed that kind of teamwork to pull off.  These days, we have the Manifold to serve as the simulation body for the Princepis to work with, and the Moderati run everything else-sensors, support weapons, keeping the powerplant and such working.”

“Wow.”  Scootaloo said.  “So…”

“Hold still…,” Cranky said.  There was a soft pop sound and a bright flash of light.  “Okay, now, we get to see the magic happen.”

“Oh?” Sweetie Belle said, staying perfectly still and through her teeth.

“Oh, you can move now,” Cranky said, smiling.  “The fabricators are building you Drive Suits right now, and in about an hour, we’ll get you in a Jaeger.”

Michelle took a deep breath.  She really, really needed to fake calm right now.





“Ooof!” Scootaloo grunted.  “These things are tight!”

Drive Suits were the connection between a Jaeger and the pilots.  And, the term “skin tight” for a pony covered in fur was something that was...interesting.  Cranky was using a power tightener to ratchet shut the chest piece for Scootaloo, and grunted as she adjusted herself.

“Can you breathe?” Cranky asked, working on the next set of ratchets.

“Yes…,” Scootaloo gasped softly.

“Then, it fits right.  If you aren’t feeling tight, or you can’t breathe, we’ve got it adjusted wrong in either direction,” Cranky finished with the second set of ratchet points and nodded.  “How are your wings?”

“Good,” Scootaloo nodded, and moved the portion of the suit that had her small wings inside of them.

“Always the worst part of fitting a Drive Suit,” Cranky muttered.  “You get a pegasus in one, and it’s like figuring out how not to have it pinch your goolies when nopony is looking.”  He tapped a panel on the suit’s back.  “Got a good sensor read.  Helmet on,” and he helped Scootaloo into the helmet.  “Seal check…,” and checked all the seals in the suit.  “Good.  How is everypony else getting fitted?”

“All done,” Michelle said, shrugging in her suit a bit.  “Twilight Sparkle helped us get settled in and we did a full check.”

Cranky checked the other three ponies suits and nodded.  “Good fitting.  Now, off we go to the main bay, and we’ll get you plugged into the Odin.”

They walked out of the bay, and watched as other students were being tested.  The CMC were enthusiastic in their suits, Michelle was remembering her breathing exercises-ten count through her mouth, hold for ten, ten count out through her nose.  Reverse it every third breath.  Bring down the heartbeat, the rest of the fear and the adrenaline spikes from her being scared shitless would follow.

Thank Luna Drive Suits had collection pans for if she was truly scared shitless.

They had peeled off the protective sheathing used by whomever stored the Jaegers here.  Like all of the Fafner Jaeger line, the body was built up of angular boxes, ending in a much larger box for the torso, and leading outwards to the limbs.  The head looked like a pregnant manta ray, the arms bulbous under their armor, and the flight pack was clearly still attached.  “I’ve been in Yamato Jaegers,” Michelle said, looking at the Odin’s pearl-white skin.  “I always heard that the Fafners were twitchy.”

“You got to watch your control inputs,” Cranky replied.  “I’ve jockeyed both, and I always found the Yamatos to be very unforgiving unless you think three steps ahead.  And, I swear to Celestia, the Fafner Manifolds are much more fond of their jockeys than the Yamato ones.  Elevator up,” he warned as the elevator took them up to the cockpit level.  As they watched, the head of the Odin moved up and forward with the rest of the torso armor plate, revealing the Jaeger’s cockpit.

“Okay, load order is simple-Scootaloo first, then Apple Bloom, then Sweetie Belle, and Michelle is in last,” Cranky said, as two other ponies helped Scootaloo into the cockpit.  They began to plug in the connectors to ports on the Drive Suit’s spine, saying mildly arcane things like “A10 nerve connection is clean” and “intercostal nerve connection is complete”.  Finally, they latched on the seatbelts and tightened them.  “Hoof pads good?” one of them asked.

“Yea,” Scootaloo replied, “they’re in the right place.”

They proceeded to get Sweetie Belle in, and she grunted as the connections went in.  Next was Apple Blossom, whom got settled into her seat and hoofpads, and smiled.  “I’m in good,” Apple Bloom replied.  Finally in was Michelle, in the Princepis Primus seat.  There was a small electric tingle from the suits and they waited.  

“Everypony’s in,” Cranky said.  “We’re doing a simple Manifold test, very shallow-no deeper than the first glissando.  Stay calm, keep your minds focused-remember the exercises we did last weekend, and don’t chase the rabbit.”

“The rabbit?” Scootaloo asked, as the cockpit closed up.

“RABIT-Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers,” Michelle said, “When you link in the Drift...you become a part of the system.  You have to remember to stay here, stay in the moment...stay in the now.”  Here, she whispered.  “Stay away from the bad memories.”

The cockpit sealed shut with the soft hiss of hydraulics.  The lights dimmed, then came back on as the cockpit projectors went from off-line to active, revealing a full view of the world outside of the Jaeger.  “Wow…,” Scootaloo said, looking around.  “It’s like...we’re huge….”

“That’s kind of the point,” Cranky said over the radio.  “You’re tall and ready to fight tall enemies, like kaiju, other engines, and any pony crazy enough to go up against a Jaeger without one backing them up.  And, Michelle is right-stay in the moment.  Don’t get lost in your memories.  We’ll be firing up the Manifold in five minutes.”

Cranky came up to the control room, where they had gotten every pony that could run a console to sit and be the team to put the first Jaeger through it’s paces.  Standing next to the main console was Twilight Sparkle.  “I thought I’d watch,” she said, stepping aside as Cranky came up to the console.  “I’m curious, I mean, I’ve seen the Royal Guard get ready, but…”

“Yea, it’s worth watching,” Cranky said with a smile, then hit a control with his hoof.  “How’s the board?”

“Green board,” one of the ponies replied.  He tapped his control panel and looked.  “Vitals are in the zone, I’ve got good synchronization, and we’re ready to trigger the Drift.”

“Okay, kids, how are you doing up there?”  Cranky asked, switching the intercom on.

“We’re ready!” Scootaloo said, enthusiastically.  “Let’s do this!”

Cranky looked at Twilight Sparkle, shrugged, then smiled.  “Well, we heard her.”  He turned to the team in the bay.  “Emerald,” he said, looking at one particularly bright green pony, “bring them into the Drift.”

“Yes, sir,” Emerald Bay replied, hitting controls with his hooves.  “Drift open in three...two..one...go!”

Inside the Odin, the four ponies felt a lurch, as it seemed like for an instant they were falling...into themselves.  The next sensation was...warmth as they could feel and know that their other team members were there.  Wow… Sweetie Belle thought.  This is weird, but I think I can like it.

Me too, Scootaloo thought, then realized, did you just hear me…

We all did, Michelle thought.  Her thoughts were happy...but, with this slight undertone of something metallic and hateful and... something else.  When you’re in the Drift, it’s easy to hear when you’re thinking about somepony else.  Apple Bloom, how are you doing?

A feeling of wonder, unadultered and unmarred by anything else, flowed through the Drift.  I have t’say, this is pretty flanking awesome!  If she could, Apple Bloom would have turned cartwheels.  The enthusiasm was infectious, and Michelle felt it like a warm, snuggly blanket.

Smiling in her mind, Michelle triggered the intercom.  “Looks like we’re solid in the Drift.  How’s our synchronization?  I suspect we’re running at eighty percent or so.”

“Try ninety-two,” Cranky replied.  “You fillies are naturals, I got to give you that.  We’re about ready to hook you up to the simulation body and open the Manifold.  Remember, no deeper than the first glissando.”

“Understood,” Michelle replided.  Then, she thought at Scootaloo, it’ll be another lurch when they open the Manifold.  Ride it-you’ll connect up to the simulation body and it’ll just be a shallow connection, it should feel like you’re wearing a really heavy overcoat.

And the rest of us? Apple Blossom asked.

Same thing.  Stay here, stay in the now and ride the lurch.  Focus on what’s here and now and in front of you, Michelle thought, and remembered to control her breathing.  Stay in this moment, she whispered in her thoughts, and none other.

“Simulation body is green, we’ve got a clean Manifold connection there,” Emerald Bay said over the intercom.  “Five seconds...four...three...two...one, and the Manifold is yours.”

Scootaloo reached out in her mind to the Manifold, felt it, could feel it...then, was slammed from behind and inside by white.

And the Cold.





Twilight Sparkle’s head lurched toward the main screen when the screaming started.  “What is going on?” she asked, scared.

Cranky hit three controls in an instant, cutting the intercom connection to stop the screaming, bringing up a diagnostic, and looking at Emerald Bay. “What’s going on?” he yelled.

“Really massive flanking lighting up of their brains, the Manifold is going nuts!  They’re already dropped past the second glissando, and they’re diving fast and hard,” Emerald Bay yelled back, “Somepony is chasing the rabbit!  It’s a flanking huge RABIT and it’s dragging the rest of them under.”

“We’ve got to pull them out!” Twilight Sparkle yelled, her horn flaring as she started to reach out with her magic to find the emergency disconnect.

“We pull them out now, we get four vegetables!” Cranky yelled back.  “They’re dropping like a stone and if we pull them out now, we get four lobotomized fillies, if we’re lucky.  Emerald, try to get that descent under control!  If they pass the tenth glissando, we’re flanked!”  He looked at the console, and pulled another diagnostic up.  “Who’s chasing the RABIT?”

“It’s Michelle!  She’s chasing it and chasing it hard,” Emerald replied, hitting controls on his panel.  “I’m using the medical overrides to inject trezapaine, but that’s only going to slow them down.”

“Keep on it,” Cranky said, and touched a control on his panel.  “Michelle, this is Cranky Dootle Dandy.  It’s a memory...it is the past, and it needs to stay in the past.  You need to come back to us.  Come back to the now, Michelle.”





Cold.

Scootaloo felt cold.  She could feel the Drive Suit around her, and she still felt cold.  It was the sort of cold that chewed into a pony’s soul, and she knew it all too well.

Too many days, it was where she lived.  She opened her eyes, and there was a wall of snow in front of her face plate.  Pulling herself up onto her hooves, she looked around.  It was quiet.  It was white.  And, it was the Cold.  “Anypony here?” she yelled, hoping to hear…

“Scootaloo!”  Apple Bloom, still in her Drive Suit as well, ran up and ran into her, hugging her tight.  “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Scootaloo replied, “did you see…,” as a third body ran into Scootloo and hugged the both of them.

“Where are we?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking around.  “What happened?”

“I don’t know, but we might be…,” Scootaloo started to reply, but then a booming voice roared across the landscape.

“YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE STEELHEART SCHOOL!” the voice roared.  They all turned to look, to see two massive ponies, the size of mountains, standing in front of one little filly.  A year younger, her mane longer, wearing a battered but well-kept Drive Suit, with the helmet off...and the spitting image of Michelle.

Behind the little filly was Michelle, in her Drive Suit.  And curled up so tightly in a ball that she had to be hurting herself to do so.





“Descent rate is high, but it’s slowing down.  It’s not going to level off until well past the tenth glissando,” Emerald said, looking at his panel.

Cranky looked at his panel, and sighed.  Then, he lifted the cover off of three switches, flipping two of them upward.  “Tell me if they pass the ninth glissando,” Cranky said.  He looked at Twilight Sparkle.  “If they go much further...I’ll explosively disconnect the Manifold.  It might be the only chance we’ll get any of them back with a half-intact brain.”

Then, he went back to the intercom.  “Michelle, we’re here.  It’s over now.  We need you here, back to the here and now.”





Scootaloo looked in awed horror at the two giants.  The only thing he could tell was...they loomed over the young pony there.  And, they were flaying her soul with their words.

“YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY!  VICTORY IS THE ONLY THING YOU SHOULD HAVE STRIVEN FOR!” the taller of the two said, their voice booming across the Cold.  “THEY WOULD HAVE SURVIVED!”

“Mother,” the little filly tried to said, tried to speak up, but the giant’s words reverberated across the Cold.  “Their reactor was overloading!  The Cassandra’s Tears wasn’t going to get them out!  Should I have let them die?!?”

“THEY WOULD HAVE ESCAPED!  REGARDLESS!  YOU ARE A DAUGHTER OF THE STEELHEART SCHOOL!  THERE CAN BE NO WEAKNESS!” the titan boomed over the little filly.

“Mother,” the filly was begging now, you could see the tracks of tears still clinging to her face, “please...understand...please…”

“ANY DAUGTHER OF MINE WOULD UNDERSTAND THIS!  IF YOU DO NOT, THEN CLEARLY YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER,” the Titan roared...and turned.  The other, silent Titan...turned and walked away, as well.

“Mother...please…,” the little filly begged, as Michelle twiched behind her, saying “Please, please, take me back, please, please…”

Scootaloo was already at a full run and slid beside Michelle, trying to get her helmet in between Michelle’s body and helmet.  “Michelle!” she screamed through her helmet, “it’s a memory!  You’re in the past, you need to come back to the present!”

“Michelle!” Sweetie Belle was yelling as well.  “We’re in the Drift!  You’re having a RABIT!  It’s over now!”

“Please…,” Michelle whispered...and then, there was a feeling as if something great and luminous came through the Cold...and pulled them upwards.





“Eight glissando reached...it’s leveling off…,” Emerald said in wonder.  “They’re starting to come back up.”

You could hear a pin drop in the control room.

“At their current rate of ascent, they should be back up around the first glissando in a few minutes,” Emerald continued.

“I need medical teams to the bay,” Cranky said.  “And, when they’re cleared, I want to see them all in the main briefing room.  Miss Sparkle, I’d like you to be there, as well.”

“I think I need to be there,” Twilight Sparkle replied.  “I want to know what’s going on, as well.”





Scootaloo had felt like this a few times, when she was with Rainbow Dash, flying at full speed.  There was a sense that the world, for those few moments, made perfectly good sense.  Celestia and Luna were in the Heavens, and all was right with the world.  Her eyes opened, and she was not in the Cold anymore.  She could feel the Manifold behind her like the wings of an angel, lifting her up ever higher.  She twisted in her harness to look at Michelle...whom was still in her harness.

But, somehow, she knew that Michelle was just asleep, trauma and shock dragging her under.  She was slapping the quick-disconnect points, and climbed over to Michelle, still connected to the Manifold.  She looked at the indicator panels and realized that her feelings were right.  “Scootaloo,” Cranky said over the intercom, “I need you to get back in your chair.  We’ll be opening you up in a minute and getting you all out of there.”

“I’ll wait here,” Scootaloo replied.  “I’m not leaving her until we get her out.”

There was a long, loud sigh, and Cranky grunted, “Well, you’ve got the nerve of a good Jaeger Principes, kid.  We’ll be pulling you out shortly.”

Scootaloo got her head under Michelle’s chin, and held it there.  She could feel Apple Blossom and Sweetie Belle as well, coming around to help.

And, they waited.





Cranky had made this clear to Twilight Sparkle-it was one of those now or never situations.  They had to deal with whatever happened with Michelle last year and get it out in the open.  Or, they could kick her out of the program.

Or, they could risk her killing her crew every time they plugged her into the Drift.

So, once the medics had cleared her, they brought Michelle into the office that Cranky had claimed, and he looked at her.  “Let’s make this perfectly clear, I’m willing to cut you a lot of slack right now.  But, that slack only goes so far.  And, we’ve hit that limit.

“You had a RABIT event.  It was bad enough that by the time we could slow it down, you were at the seventh glissando.”  Michelle began to shiver.  She knew how bad that was.  I thought...I could handle it, she thought.

Cranky continued.  “Now, I’m more than willing to give you time to heal, but when you have something like what happened...it’s time to come clean, kid.  Because, you can either do that, or you’re out.  That simple.”

Michelle stood there, her body shivering.  She wanted to cry so badly, but couldn’t.  She knew there was a second pony in the room, but she couldn’t see who it was through her unshed tears.  I won’t let fear dictate who I am, she thought.  But, is this fear...or terror?

And, if I run away from this now...will I be running my whole life? Michelle could see the image of herself in horror.  If she ran now, she would never stop-not even in her own mind.

“It was the district finals-Saint Megera versus Hearth’s Fire.  I was right front hoof, in a Susano Jaeger, and we had just ambushed two of Hearth’s Fire’s Kiev Jaegers and scored catastrophic kills,” Michelle said in a flat monotone.  She didn’t even realize that she was talking for the first few moments…  “We were about to move to our next attack position when something made me look at one of the Kievs again.  And, I knew exactly what was going on-they were having a catastrophic core failure.  Last I heard, nopony had figured out why, or how, just...a huge flare of mana like a burning building.  The flare was going to prevent the Cassandra’s Tears system from working, and their ejection system was jammed.  I knew, right then and there, what was going on.  

“Before I knew what I was doing, I was taking command of the Jaeger.  Had jettisoned all of my weapons and gear, pulled out the vibroknives and overrode the safety settings so they were actually functional on an opposing Jaeger.  I carved their cockpit out of the Jaeger...and got them outside of the minimum blast distance in time, barely.  But...the Jaegery sensors recorded the explosion and ruled that my Jaeger had suffered a catastrophic kill.  So, we were there, sitting dead, while Saint Megera barely won against Hearth’s Fire.

“After that...the doctor released me,” Michelle continued.  There were tears now, flowing down her face.  “My mother and sister were there, waiting for me...my mother was upset, so very, very upset… She told me that I should have just let them die, as winning and the honor of the Steelheart Jaegery School was on the line every time a Steelheart was in a Jaeger.  My sister...my sister, didn’t say a word.  Didn’t say a thing.  I tried to convince her, I tried!  My mother…,” and here, she began to sob.

“My mother said, that if I wasn’t dedicated to winning, that I wasn’t dedicated to victory, whatever the cost, then I clearly wasn’t her daughter.  They...just left me there...I got a ride home, the people at school gave me taxi money.  When I got home...my stuff was in a box at the door.  Mom wouldn’t let me in...she told me that if I admitted that I was wrong for what I did, I could come back in,” Michelle said, tears streaming down her face.  “But, I wasn’t wrong!  They were going to die, and if I didn’t have them, there wasn’t time for anypony else to save them!

“I kept yelling that at Mom...and, at some point, I just stopped…,” Michelle’s voice was very small and quiet here.  “And, my aunt Eliza came and said that somepony had called her work and told her that I had been kicked out of the house by my mom and that I needed help.  She tried to talk to Mom as well, but they had never gotten along, I never knew why...and, Aunt Eliza came and brought me to Ponyville to live with her.  She said, ‘until your mother comes to her senses,’ but it’s been nearly a year and I haven’t heard anything from her and I know that Aunt Eliza has tried to talk to her as well, and…”

Michelle stopped, and dried her eyes.  Cranky hoofed her a kleenex and she blew her nose.  “I know...or, at least, I suspect...Mom told somepony that Ponyville didn’t have a Jaegery program.  I got my transfer request for schools, and I’d be going to Saint Megera if the Ponyville school closed.  And...I’ve already been hearing rumors from the few ponies I know that are still there that I’m a huge screwup that nearly cost Saint Megera the championship...if I go back, I’ll be a target.  Or, I will have to admit that Mom was right.  But, she wasn’t!  Was she?”

Cranky was silent through all of this.  Then, he looked at Michelle, sighed, and face-hoofed.  “No, kid, you were right.  Jaegery for kids is a sport-and, you did the right thing.  Shit hits the fan, you clean up the mess, and you were in the right.  I’ve heard rumors that your Mom was a bit...high strung, but this is just nuts.  No wonder you had a RABIT.”

Cranky considered his hooves, and looked at Michelle.  “I’m not pulling you off the team.  Yet.  But, your remaining here is conditional upon getting help.  Twilight Sparkle, do you know of any good psychiatric help in town?”

“I can ask,” Twilight Sparkle replied, trying not to cry and hug Michelle.  “Michelle, if I had known...I’d have gotten you help.  And sooner.”

“I was...I was so embarrassed,” Michelle said in a small voice.  “What, what if it was my fault?”

“It wasn’t,” Twilight Sparkle replied.  She gave up, and hugged Michelle.  “You’re a good foal, as far as I can see.  And, we’ll get you the help you need.”

Cranky sighed.  Let Twilight Sparkle hug Michelle.  If he did it, it might be a problem later on.  “We’ll review this in a week,” Cranky said.  “And, we’ll try another Drift then, as well.  And, you have something else to do, Michelle.”

“What?” Michelle looked at Cranky, her tears still coming down her face.

“Talk to them,” he replied, pointing with his hoof to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, standing in the doorway.

“Michelle,” Scootaloo said, “we heard, most of it...and, we were in the Drift with you.  We were there, in the Cold, with you.”

Michelle looked at them, and started to cry again, “I’m sorry...you, shouldn’t have had to have your life put in danger because of me.”

All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran and started to hug Michelle.  “Hey, you’re our teammate-getting you out of trouble is part of the job!” Apple Bloom said.

“Next time, let’s find someplace warmer,” Sweetie Belle said, hugging Michelle tight.

“Tahiti,” Scootaloo agreed, “much warmer place to have that kind of argument.”

Michelle just cried in their fur, and held them all close.  She needed the contact, the close feeling between her and them.





Twilight Sparkle had brought them all back to their homes afterwards, and walked Michelle home herself.  She stood in her doorway, and sighed.  Michelle...you could feel so very sorry for her.  She wasn’t giving up, but somepony had done a huge number on her head, and all Twilight Sparkle really wanted to do was go and use her wings to fly up to Manehattan.  Find Callie Steelheart in the shortest time possible.  And, do something truly unthinkable to her.

Instead, she took a long, deep breath, and walked to the library’s office.  Spike had left a note that he was out grocery shopping, and she looked through the pile of backlogged scrolls in the “IN” basket.  Every once in a while, she seriously thought about just getting a computer and a network connection, if only to save on parchment costs.  But, she loved the scrape of pen on parchment, the smell of a new pot of ink being opened up, and Spike could get a message to anypony without interruption or interception.

And, she would never do anything to Spike that would make him think for an instant that she didn’t appreciate him.

One of the scrolls near the top had a Royal Equestrian Armed Forces seal on it, and Twilight Sparkle opened it up.  Maybe it’ll be good news, she thought, and spread the scroll out on her desk with her magic.

TO: PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE
FROM: ROYAL EQUESTRIAN ARMED FORCES ARCHIVES
RE: ARCHIVAL DATA

Our apologies for not responding sooner.  We have spent the last week searching through the archives for the files you have requested.  In this search, we have discovered that all of the Fafnir-type Jaegers you have mentioned are not, I repeat, not logged or filed in our system at any point.

We have contacted Shirodyne Heavy Industries, whom manufactured all Fafner-type Jaegers with the 31 designation number, and their records confirm that they manufactured all eight Jaegers in 961 ANM, and they were delivered to Bader Jaeger Field in Northern Trottingham.  We have no further records of the status or disposition of the Jaegers past this point.  Shirodyne Heavy Industries does not have records of the disposition of the Jaegers after delivery.  The officer receiving the Jaegers, Lieutenant Commander Harry Brightlight, is listed as deceased as of 998 ANM.  To the best of our knowledge, the eight Jaegers mentioned are still at Baeder Jaeger Field according to all records that we have at our disposal.

We will continue to look through our archives for any record of these Jaegers, and we will contact you at the first opportunity if we discover anything.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Major Jerry Can
REAF Archives

Twilight Sparkle looked at the letter three times, and made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a grunt.  How do you lose eight Jaegers...unless...they were supposed to be lost? 

It was at this, that Twilight Sparkle truly did sigh, and whispered a small incantation, her horn flaring.

From mid-air, a small key appeared.  She used it to unlock a drawer in the desk, and pulled out a small black book.  Thinking about what she wanted to write, she then wrote a short note, then worked through the small black book.  The contents of that small black book was a one-time key pad, with the only two copies existing being with Twilight Sparkle and in another office-in a secure, magic-proof room with a two-key lock system.  If anypony but Twilight Sparkle tried to open up the book she was working from, it would explode into flames.  Once she finished, she addressed the scroll to a small office in Canterlot that was the main point of contact for the Equestrian Foreign Research Department.

The EFRD was Equestria’s intelligence agency, and they were quiet, secretive, and very efficent.  Having eight Jaegers be spirited away like this did seem to match their MO very well indeed.

Quietly considering things, she cleaned up after her writing, burned to ashes the original letter, and cleaned up the ashes to be disposed of in the toilet.  While the toilet was flushing, she kept thinking.  What if I stumbled into an official operation, Twilight Sparkle thought.  And, if I did, what was the operation?

She sighed, and considered.  What was left to do about this, wasn’t much.  So, she could either indulge in fantasies of turning Cally Steelheart into a newt, or she could get work done.

Twilight Sparkle pulled the next scroll out of the IN box, and spread it out.

Time to get to work.