Equestria Rim

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

“Shy, hey, Shy, wake up! We’re being called!” Rainbow Dash smacked her butter colored partner on the flank before tearing away her blanket, almost completely ignoring the brilliant red lights flashing in the room, the only illumination.

In the background, Fluttershy noticed the distinct sound of the Jaeger intelligence calling them to their stations. She rolled out of bed, flaring her wings, “Oh, how nice. What time is it?”

Dash smiled as she backed into her flight suit, “Two in the morning!”

“Can’t the Kaiju wait a little longer? I’m still a little tired.”

Dash bit the zipper on her flight suit and pulled it up to her neck, “Shy, come on. It’s not like we get to fight a Kaiju every day,” she grabbed Fluttershy’s flight suit and pushed the still half-asleep Pegasus into the olive green suit, zipping it up, and barely noticing the whining of her bright yellow friend, “Move it! Move it!” She started pushing Fluttershy down the hall, stepping into her leather jacket as she reached the door, and throwing the second jacket over Fluttershy’s back, pressing the shy Pegasus’ wings down.

The two reached the staging room in record time, considering that Dash was basically carrying her still waking up partner on her back, “Marshall Luna, any idea what it is yet?”

One of the Marshall’s aides stepped up with a tablet held by her horn, “Preliminary readings show it to be at least a level 3. We’ll try to get more conclusive data as soon as possible,” the young Unicorn smiled, her brilliant red fur glistening in the lights.

“Thank you Red Alert,” Marshall Luna shooed the Unicorn back to the computers, then turned back to the two Pegasi, “Jaeger Storm-Breaker is ready for you. Please hurry.”

The two Pegasi nodded and saluted before galloping down the halls to the dressing room, where Dash unashamedly dropped her flight suit and jacket before spreading her wings as far as they would go. Fluttershy took slightly longer, not really comfortable with being undressed in front of so many other ponies yet, even with Dash’s influence. Unicorns and Earth Ponies alike started press-fitting armor plates around the two Pegasi, the protective gear necessary in the Jaegers. The last part, and the only part Dash hated about the whole process, was the Neural Tap, a long belt that ran from the base of her skull down to the top of her tail, and stuck thousands of tiny needles into her skin. She waited until the needles were done settling before she flinched hard enough to make the uninformed of the crew jump back.

Fluttershy took it better, having been spending more time wearing the suit, ostensibly for practice, though Dash suspected it was because the shy Pegasus preferred to have the armor to protect her from the world.

The two stepped into the control pod for Storm-Breaker, placing booted hooves into the control locks on the floor, then pressing their armored wings into the upper braces that controlled the three-hundred foot mechanical Pegasus’ wings. Dash winced as an Earth Pony pressed the connection cable into the Neural Tap at the base of her neck, right between her wings. Fluttersky instinctively did the same, and Dash smiled. They were in each-other’s minds enough that part of her was starting to rub off on the shy Pegasus.

From the headsets built into the helmets, both heard Red Alert speaking, “Attention crew, please clear the Jaeger. Initiating Neural Hoofshake.” Dash closed her eyes, focusing on Fluttershy alone, as the Unicorn magic in the computer dipped into her head, and into her partner’s. The two were quickly dumped into a mental duplicate of the immense Jaeger’s conn-pod, where they gently touched hooves. This world was their own. No-one else could see what happened here, which was probably a good thing, since the next thing Dash did was press Fluttershy to her side hard enough that their mental dopplegangers merged into a single creamy blue Pegasus with a pink mane and tail. Together they spoke, “Hoofshake Successful. Holding.”

Red Alert spoke again, “Dropping. Prepare for Jaeger synchronization.” The conn-pod, shaped like a giant Pegasus head, dropped into the neck of Storm-Breaker, locking into place quickly as Dash mentally cradled Fluttershy to keep her from screaming. It wasn’t like they were even going that fast either.

“Testing. Testing,” Dash and Shy kicked their wings out together, the wings of their Jaeger moving in synch, before pawing at the ground, the Jaeger again mimicking their movements. They started forward on a massive crawler platform that rolled out the front of the Shatterdome and into the ocean. It promised to be a dark night, without even Luna’s stars on display. The stars and moon seemed to have taken a break, ever since the first Kaiju arrived. Luna and Celestia both had been placed in charge of the now necessary militia, and the Jaeger program, as had Princess Cadenza, so the sun and moon rose and fell at whatever time the orbiting bodies felt was appropriate, day lengths differing by minutes to hours, rather than being precisely the same down to the second as they had been before.

“Jaeger Storm-Breaker active. Any more information on that Kaiju, Red?” Dash took charge almost immediately, keeping Fluttershy focused.

Red Alert replied quickly, with slight interruptions that sounded like he was slurping coffee between words, “Class…Three. Fish-type…Five million tons estimated. Nearing the coast…near Nome. Designated…Discord.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy spoke up.

“Do not engage if at all possible,” Luna’s voice rang over the radio.

Dash looked at the radar map, “What about this fishing vessel? It’s right in the path.”

“Protect the coast-line. Do not engage unless necessary. It will hurt to lose those ponies, but it will hurt more if we lose Nome,” Luna pointed out, “Do you confirm, Storm-Breaker.”

Dash looked pointedly at Fluttershy, their mental bond passing a full conversation back and forth in the time it took to blink, “Confirmed. We will not engage unless Discord attacks first. Storm-Breaker Dash Out.” The radio faded into silence as Dash looked back at the broad view-port, “My flank we’ll let those ponies perish.”

Fluttershy looked at her hooves, “Orders are orders Dashie. What if they take away our command of Storm-Breaker?”

“Ha!” The Jaeger started for the small boat, intending to intercept it before the Kaiju arrived. Their timing was not quite where it needed to be, and they were a few moments late. Fortunately, they were able to, with a bat of the large wings, send the boat inland at a pretty high rate. The Jaeger wrapped both fore-hooves around the Kaiju’s back and flapped, hard. Inside, Rainbow Dash was kicking her wings into high gear, pulsing them in a pattern that was echoed by Fluttershy as the powerful nuclear thrusters embedded in the metal wings powered up, hauling the soaking wet Jaeger and the Kaiju into the air. Sure it was less agile than a real Pegasus, but it was also much stronger.

Dash threw a left-hoof kick at its abdomen, only to receive a bite to the wing that made her scream. Had she been anyone else, having Kaiju teeth sunken through a wing that was hers as much as the feathered ones growing out of her back, wouldn’t have been nearly as agonizing. But then, most Pegasi walked if they didn’t need to fly. She flew if she didn’t need to walk.

Fluttershy echoed the scream, though much quieter, as was her normal. Now bleeding out fuel and hydraulic fluid, the two crashed into the ocean hard enough that the wing armature snapped off. Fluttershy stood taller now than her pained partner, “C’mon Dashie. It’s not your real wing. You’ll live. Now get your flank up!”

Dash spat into her flight helmet mask, saliva mixed with blood from her torn tongue splattering against the transparent visor, “Buck! Rip its Bucking head off!”

She drove forward, teeth gnashing as the two grabbed the Kaiju around its fishy neck. Fluttershy managed to get her side to pin the Kaiju’s tail to the sea-floor as both of them arched their backs, ripping the Kaiju’s body apart. Now slick with Kaiju Blue, the Jaeger could no longer hold onto the Kaiju, but they had it dead, they thought.

The two turned to start back towards shore when the not-quite dead Kaiju leapt from the boiling sea and ripped off Fluttershy’s side of the conn-pod. Rainbow Dash bit through her tongue, spitting the chunks of flesh into her now broken helmet as she experienced all at once, Fluttershy’s last thoughts, the Jaeger becoming entirely hers, and her nose starting to bleed as the neural load started to tear her brain apart.

She flapped both wings, roughly using the thrusters on the intact wing to push the dying Jaeger to shore where it was at least recoverable. It was five in the morning in the Crystal Kingdom, just a few miles north of Freezing my Flank off, and a few south of the top of the world. There was snow and ice everywhere, which was at least good for cooling her injuries, “Comms. Shatterdome, help. Storm-Breaker disabled. Crippled. Flutters is dead. Attempting to set down on land. Marshall, I don’t feel so good.”

Luna’s voice responded, gently, “Stay with me Rainbow. We’re sending a rescue team to your predicted landing site. Can you reach that?”

Dash looked at the holographic map, blood-splatter on what was left of her visor combined with the double-vision granted by blood-loss making it near impossible to read, “I can’t read the bucking map, Marshall. I’mma go straight until I find a nice snow-drift.”

“Rainbow Dash. Don’t you dare die on me. Remember who controls where you go! I’ll bring you right back so I can kill you myself if you even think about it.” Luna began to roll into her royal voice instinctively, shedding the role of Field Marshall in favor of that of Princess of the Night.

Dash took the advice to heart, biting down on the already ragged, torn tip of her tongue, tasting the thick blood. The pain of that, plus a not-so-friendly reminder of Fluttershy’s last thoughts, last feeling, kept her conscious long enough to crash the Jaeger face-first into a small mountain, heated shell melting into the ice and snow, and leaving the bleeding Dash to disconnect into a large puddle of cold water that shocked her fully awake. She stumbled out the shattered side of the Conn-pod and tore off her helmet, spitting blood into the pristine snow.

A few moments of coughing followed as she ripped off her wing harness and the armor on that side, rolling snow into her injuries, “Gah! Sweet Celestia! BUCK!”

The helicopters, piloted by skilled Unicorns and far-sighted Pegasi, cruised in overhead, and she reached for her emergency flare, only to find that she had somehow managed to not grab an emergency kit when she left the Jaeger.

Chapter 3

Twilight stared at the Kaiju brain chunk sitting in the lab. She had just been yelled at, both by her own team-mate in the research field, and by the commander of the entire program. Sure, she was a little odd about Kaiju, but they were fascinating. Sure everyone said it was unsafe to Drift with a Kaiju, but it was just a small part of one’s brain. That couldn’t possibly hurt her too badly, and it didn’t have a Kaiju on the other end either. She used her magic to levitate the helmet Pon onto her head, moving it into place around her horn before pressing the button.

It was cold, over there. And there was something that smelled rather horrible. She felt a pair of eyes staring at her, then another pair, which she realized was on the same face. She started to scream.

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Rarity froze abruptly in the hall when she heard a familiar scream. It was behind her, in the lab she had just vacated, leaving Twilight with the Kaiju brain chunk. She spun around and galloped back down the corridor as fast as she possibly could, ignoring the tearing sound of her new dress. She skidded around the corner and kicked off the wall, bursting through the door. She stopped as she saw what appeared to be Twilight, lying face-down in a pool of blood, wearing a Pon on her head, horn still glowing.

She hit the emergency release on the top of the headset and ripped it off Twilight’s head with her teeth, “Come on you stupid filly! Don’t you dare die on me!” She flipped the mare onto her back on the floor and slapped her with one hoof before grabbing Twilight’s head in her magic and lifting it off the floor, “Come on! I’ll kill you if you die from this!”

Twilight coughed and spat blood into the pool on the floor, “Ah. My head hurts a little bit.”

“You just Drifted with a Kaiju, you realize that you could have died!”

“Yeah. You kinda made me mad, and irrational, and…” Twilight stopped and grabbed a pen off the desk and started scribbling, using her hooves and horn together to draw on paper, and in the puddle of blood, all over the floor, what she had seen. “Come on! Help me out here Rare. Get a pen and help me!” She ripped up a gob of blood off the floor with her magic and splatted it against the wall and floor, “Connect the dots! Counterclockwise for three, the Clockwise two, then skew-ways for one and a half, and drill a hole through the wall between five, six and seven.”

Rarity just stared for a minute. Blood was, in her opinion, a terrible thing to be smearing around like that, and using it as a connect-the-dots puzzle was frustrating, and probably not sanitary, “Twilight! Calm down. I’m going to get Celestia and Spike. Maybe they can help you.” Rarity made sure to take the Pon with her when she left the room, making sure Twilight wouldn’t re-connect as she ran up to find Celestia and Spike.

“Marshall Celestia! Spike! Marshall Celestia! Spike!”

“Yes, dear?” Celestia stopped the galloping Unicorn by lifting her into the air, “What is it?”

“Twilight! Drifted!” Rarity gasped for air. Running was hard work, “With! A! KAIJU!”

Celestia dropped Rarity on the floor and started towards the lab where Twilight was working, leaving Spike, a long, almost Kaiju-like dragon to drag Rarity up onto his back and follow. Had she not known him since he was a baby, Rarity would have panicked at being scooped up like that and carried off.

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Celestia stopped at the entrance to the lab, seeing Twilight, covered in what appeared to be her own blood, with spears and spatters all over the lab, interconnected by bits of purple mane and string, as well as wire and pen lines. None of it made sense though, “TWILIGHT! What is all this?”

“Oh, just a map. I figured I’d better draw it up before…”she seemed to realize what she was doing just then and leapt up on top of a table, “Gah! Bad place! Bad Place! Stay back! Don’t look at it!”

“I can pick up the sun, dear. I think I can stand a little extra-dimensional mapping.” The princess floated into the room, using her magic so as not to disturb the numerous papers making parts of the image. It was only when she got up above the table, right beside Twilight, that she realized what she was looking at, “Twilight, please take this card. Go find Trixie Gee. Get another Kaiju brain. Do Not Drift with it alone!”

Twilight leapt off the table and sprinted out of the room, grabbing Rarity, “I’m covered in blood, right?”

“Yes, Twilight. Very unbecoming.”

“I need new clothes. I brought like, four outfits total, and I’ve gone through three already. The other one is my pajamas. I can’t go out in public in my pajamas.”

“You can’t go out in public in general Twilight. Come to my room,” Rarity redirected her frantic friend into a room filled with fabrics in all sorts of colors, “Now, I don’t know who this Trixie is, but I think you should probably be dressed nicely for the meeting.” Fabrics started floating around the room, held in a blue haze, even as sponges and water sloshed out of the bathroom and started scrubbing Twilight down. Rarity tore up the blood-splattered clothing as she worked, disposing of it in the hazardous waste bin she kept for emergencies.

In minutes, she had thrown together a decent blue skirt and a fresh purple blouse under a dark blue vest, “Alright, now we can go.”

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The two Unicorns didn’t really fit in, despite a fairly large portion of the population here being Unicorns or Earth Ponies, probably because of the thick glasses on Twilight’s face, and the way Rarity held herself, still as ladylike as she could manage. They found the building, down in the Bone-Slums, beneath the ribcage of an earlier Kaiju, one Twilight half-recognized as being Sombra.

The two stepped into the front part of the building, where a pair of teenage stallions stood behind the counter, one with what appeared to be a snail on his orange flank, and the other with what looked like hair clippings on his blue flank. The orange one stepped up to them first, “Welcome ladies. Are you here to purchase some Kaiju bone-powder? Make the Stallion in your life the best he can be.”

Rarity smiled, somewhat wryly, and spoke, “We’re here to see Trixie Gee. And my Stallion, he’s a Dragon.”

Twilight shuddered, not particularly interested in the dynamics of that one, and knowing exactly who Rarity was talking about. Fortunately, the teenager moved quickly and opened up a hidden door, letting the two of them into a massive mansion hidden behind the shop, with bits of Kaiju all over the place, Kaiju that she recognized. “How! It that a Skin louse? How do you keep them alive for so long?”

Behind her, a loud, boisterous voice spoke out, “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! I can do anything!” The bright blue unicorn in golden horseshoes clopped down to their sides, “Although, really, a little ammonia does the trick. Trixie Gee at your service.”

“Twilight, uh, Twilight Sparkle. This is my partner Rarity.”

“Oh how sweet. So what brings you here, to my shop?”

Rarity gasped at the implication, even as Twilight obliviously continued talking, “We’re here to get a Kaiju brain. Preferably still alive.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get through that cranium plate? A hundred Earth Ponies with chainsaws couldn’t do it in a month, and the brain’ll rot by then.”

“You and I both know that all Kaiju have two brains. The second, less armored one, is the one I’m needing.”

“Well then, I suppose…” Trixie stopped and flicked out a small knife that she pressed into Twilight’s nose, “You drifted with one, didn’t you?”

Rarity nodded, though it was clear she was trying desperately not to.

“Well, horse-apples. I can’t actually help you then. Get out of my shop. Never come back,” she looked at Rarity, and winked, “You can come back whenever you get tired of that nerd, or she gets eaten.”

Rarity shuddered at the idea, “I have a colt-friend.”

“Coulda fooled me,” Trixie ushered the two out the door and closed it.

Chapter 4

Rainbow looked at Luna as she ordered the other three Jaegers out the doors to cover the miracle-mile, the last possible chance to stop a Kaiju before it hit Japan. The Russian Jaeger Alpha Canterlot stood at the front of the line, according to the plan, piloted by two Pegasus Ponies, whose names Dash hadn’t paid attention for. Just behind and to the left, the Neighponese Jaeger Everfree Crimson stood just behind it, piloted by the brother-sister Cake twins, a Pegasus and a Unicorn. It was the only Jaeger to have both wings and a horn, which according to schematics, held a chain-sword. In her opinion it was rather ugly, but the twin’s supervisor, Pinkamina Pie, had assured Dash that the bright pink camouflage with what looked like melted party streamers was in-fact camouflage. She must have been colorblind.

Furthest back stood Mother-Bucker, piloted by the brother-sister team of Applejack and Big Mackintosh. At least theirs was painted in a reasonable camouflage scheme, greens and browns and blacks. And with Storm-Breaker standing back in the Shatterdome, she and Scootaloo were trying to work through the issue with the Drift. They had drifted twice since that night, in the lab, using the head-mounted Pons, with Dash teaching Scootaloo how to control her memories, to keep them back, and at the same time suppressing her own.

As part of that, they had built a mental meeting place, rather than the conn-pod as Dash and Fluttershy had used, they instead met on a bridge, over a swirling pot of memories. The two grew closer, and, despite Fluttershy’s memories surfacing at inopportune moments, managed to form a solid bond. One that would last in the Jaeger, without triggering another collapse.

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“Alright, we’ve got a Class Three, working together with a Class Four. Three’s your standard Gorilla. Four’s a bit of a mystery,” Red Alert scowled at the console, alongside Hong Kong’s controller, Radiant Acorn. There was almost nothing they could figure out about the second Kaiju. The main problem was that there was two. First time, ever, that there had been a double event. And with Twilight and Rarity out in the city, trying to get ahold of another Kaiju brain, for some secret project of Celestia’s, that meant they could not, under any circumstance, allow the Kaiju past.

“So, what we need to do out here,” the Russian stallion, Soarin’ Skyburner, spoke briefly, “Is stop these two Kaiju.” Not too hard, since one was always enough for a one-on-one, “Spitfire, honey, would you mind pre-loading the shock-hooves? I think we’ll need them.”

“Pound, We’re gonna need some airtime. Gotta plant the Chainsaw in the right place,” Pumpkin cake focused on her magic, using it to control the wing waldos, “And Flap!”

The twins flapped together, the massive Jaeger going airborne as the first Kaiju arrived. The sea-serpent one, the Class Four grabbed for Everfree Crimson, tearing into it, even as the Cake twins drove the Chain-horn into its arm. They threw it at Alpha Canterlot, where Soarin and Spitfire caught it and drove it head-first into the water. It got an arm around Alpha’s head, pressing the stylized cranium against its back. “Bite me,” Spitfire spat at the Kaiju, who proceeded to do just that, burying its teeth in the head, through the massive tank of napalm where the Conn-pod should have been, “Light it up!”

Soarin’ smacked his wing against the ignition switch, setting off the entire tank all at once. The Kaiju leapt back, howling. The gorilla-like Kaiju leapt up and ripped the flaming head off with a single sweep.

Everfree Crimson darted over, using its magic enhanced speed to drive the chain-horn into the Kaiju’s back. Horn stuck, it was, unfortunately, unable to avoid having the other Kaiju come up and drive its tail through the back of the Conn-pod, ripping Pound out first. Now lacking the capacity to hold the great Jaeger in the air without something flapping the wings, Pumpkin started to fall. The neck snapped, and the gorilla Kaiju snapped the horn off with a sweep across its back. It grabbed the head of Everfree Crimson and smashed it.

Pinkamina screamed as she watched the feed from Alpha Canterlot, the brilliant red splotch in the middle of the crushed metal. Those two had been under her care since their parents had died in Cabo back at the beginning.

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Dash turned away from the screens and started back out of the room when she heard a crackle. Everything went dark, and she closed her eyes, remembering the feeling of an EMP from the first time Storm-Breaker had overloaded and EMPed the helicopter escort. It burned, but it wouldn’t stop the analog computers in Storm-Breaker, with their immense vacuum tubes and wires that were more tolerant of the fluctuations in current load. “Scootaloo, C’mon. We’ve got to save them. They’re all dead in the water.”

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Soarin’ dug his hooves into the control boots, wings forcing themselves up against the waldos, even as his partner held hers down, “Soarin’, we can handle this. It doesn’t know where our Conn-pod is. It can’t hurt us, and we’ll re-boot in a minute.” The ape-like arm that punched through the glass and just barely missed Spitfire’s nose made the prior Wonderbolt snap. The analog backup system, which was somewhat less effective than the digital primary, was still up, and it was enough for him to headbutt the Kaiju before taking to the air and howling gleefully as he turned the afterburners on the Kaiju’s back. Beside him, Spitfire was lying on the deck, her wings having slipped their harnesses. Probably the reason his vision was turning red rather rapidly. He landed and dropped the wings to the Jaeger’s side, “Spitfire, honey, can you hear me?”

The yellow Pegasus looked up at her husband through a shattered face-mask, “Yeah. I’ve got glass in my muzzle though. Hurts.”

“I’ve got you. Can you at least stand up and help me get to shore? There’ll be a medical team waiting for us,” he left out the ‘I hope’.

The serpent Kaiju wrapped around Alpha Canterlot’s waist and started crushing it in, compressing the reactor, and the back of the Conn-pod. The weight of the Kaiju began to crumple the Jaeger’s spine, pressing it down. Just from the feedback, the two pilots were practically collapsing, and Soarin had pried his wings loose of the harness just in time, as the feedback system snapped away when the wing servos were torqued by the Kaiju’s tail.

“Come on honey, The mains’ll be back in a few more seconds, and we can stomp this Kaiju,” Spitfire was struggling, even Soarin’ was struggling, but he tried not to show it, locking his legs in place to keep the Jaeger upright, even as everything he knew, and the screaming of his back muscles told him to stop. He finally gave in when the Kaiju broke one of the rear legs. The feedback dropped Spitfire and him to their knees, and with them, the Jaeger dropped. Water gushed into the conn-pod through the broken glass, and Soarin’ tore himself free of his harness. There was no ejection pod, and with a broken leg, even he was limping.

He grabbed Spitfire off the deck and freed her from the boot locks, lifting her head to the air pocket at the top of the Jaeger’s Conn-pod. He was still using the integral air supply, running through a hose attached to the back of his helmet, even as the air bubble grew smaller.

This was the end, he knew. Their Jaeger was finished. Storm-Breaker was not going to be ready in time, and even with the reboot, there was no chance Mother-Bucker was going to be any help, being disabled, more-so, he knew, because it had no way to force a reboot. He tore off his helmet, letting the air flow out into the small pocket they had left, as he wrapped his wife in his arms, “Goodbye, dear. Kick their bucking flanks for me!” He kissed her and shoved the helmet over her head, holding it down until he was certain she wasn’t going to pull it off, before he let go and slipped away into the cold water.

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Every Jaeger had a back-up system, but it was clunky at best, and it was all Applejack and Big Macintosh had left. They used their immense strength to pull on cables through lever systems that allowed them to move the gargantuan Jaeger slowly towards shore, backwards. Very slowly, and it was hard on both of them. More so on Big Macintosh, since he had to both pull as hard as he could, and not move more than his shorter sister. The digital systems compensated for that, but the manual control couldn’t, and if he moved too far, he could seriously injure her.

He kept both eyes on the Kaiju circling around, knowing that Applejack was so focused on controlling the Jaeger that she couldn’t take the time to look up. It was why he stopped abruptly, dropping fully to the floor, and ignoring the painful sounding crack as Applejack’s jaw hit the deck. The Kaiju flew over-head and he growled at it, “Jack, disconnect. I’ve got this!”

“’shure bro. I’mma taka nap,” she unhooked from the control harness and rolled over into a corner, hooking her fore-hooves through the rungs to hold herself in place.

Now no longer assisted by his sister’s strength, but no longer burdened by her size, he stood, powerful muscles rippling as he hauled back with as much force as he could, and stomped the Kaiju in the face. His reaction time wasn’t stellar, and he was taking more than he was dishing, but it was enough to hold the Kaiju off.

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Storm-Breaker dropped into the ocean Fore-hooves first as it drove them into the Kaiju’s neck, disabling and removing it from the fight. Dash hollered out over the external speakers, “Mother-Bucker, this is Storm-Breaker, Call-back!”

Applejack bit the megaphone and hollered into it, “’Bout time you got here! Could certainly use a hand.”

The weak, lung powered voice barely made it to Rainbow Dash’s ears, even with Storm-Breaker’s enhanced audio, “Call-back confirmed. Both of you alive in there?”

“Yeah. Watch your back!” Storm-Breaker spun around, driving a sharpened wing tip into the Kaiju’s side. It lunged and wrapped its tail around the right fore-leg, on Scootaloo’s side.

“Vent coolant!” Dash hollered, even as Scootaloo moved to do just that. The vents flared, blasting coolant into the Kaiju’s tail, freezing it and the sea spray over it, “Twenty minutes. We have twenty minutes to end this!” She didn’t mention what would happen in twenty minutes, she didn’t have to. Just the thought of it was enough for Scootaloo to see her and Fluttershy sweating as components overheated and shorted out.

The Kaiju flung them at the ape-like one, still not quite dead, though sporting deep burns like those from Alpha Canterlot’s thrusters. “Well, this is just great!” Dash growled, bringing her wing to bear, and grabbing. The bony wings were mimicked by powerful hydraulics that forced the end of the wing to wrap around the Kaiju’s brain, where there was a glowing blue orb, still outputting the familiar, and greatly disliked, EMP signal. She wrenched it back, disliking the feel of the pull on her wing-root, and she knew Scootaloo could feel it too, even as the Kaiju dropped.

“Can you help Alpha Canterlot?” Dash hollered to the radio, watching as the digital circuits came to life again. It was almost nightmarish the way Alpha Canterlot stood up again, water pouring out through a hole in the chest, where the Conn-pod was split wide open. Its spine was nearly broken, and it was limping heavily, like one of its legs wasn’t working, but Mother-Bucker was moving towards it at a decent clip, though clearly still on backup power, being non-nuclear.

Dash braced as she was interrupted by the serpentine Kaiju flinging Storm-Breaker over a bridge, into a shipping yard. It tumbled across the storage boxes, bouncing to its hooves and skidding another few hundred feet before it stopped.

Chapter 5

Dash glanced over at the filly who had been sharing her head for nearly half an hour straight. She was beginning to grow tired. Dash could tell. The filly was not the most athletic pony she had ever met, but even the great Rainbow Dash had her limits, and this fight was reaching them. She used both wings to grab a pair of piles of crates, trusting that Scootaloo, despite her exhaustion, was still doing what she did.

They smashed the boxes into the Kaiju’s head until the boxes were no longer useable, only to get thrown again, this time into the water. Dash came up with a cargo ship in her wing and prepared to switch it to the Jaeger’s fore-hooves, activating a gripper system that acted like the magic that adhered things to Pony hooves. Together, the two ponies stood in the awkward stance, hefting the ship like a bat before the Kaiju arrived. They swung as one, then hit it with a backswing, and a third blow to the head.

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Twilight looked up at the ceiling of the shelter her and Rarity had been funneled into, “We’re not deep enough Rare. This isn’t a shelter. It’s a buffet!”

Ponies started panicking around the two, even as it dawned on Twilight why the Kaiju was digging for this shelter when there was obviously at least two Jaegers fighting it. It shouldn’t still be attacking. “It’s after me Rare. Get back. Get that Kaiju brain and get it to Celestia!”

Everyone formed a wide circle around her, watching fearfully as the roof broke open and the creature’s disgustingly long glowing tongue drooped down into the chamber, flopping around like it was looking for something, “Whelp. That’s it. Princess, I’ve failed you.” The tongue touched her, and she shuddered, only to feel it quickly whipping away and retreating. The thunderous hoof-steps she heard explained the whole thing. A Jaeger.

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Applejack pulled on her emergency breathing system, for evacuation under-water, and dove from the top of Mother-Bucker’s muzzle, right onto the crushed back of Alpha Canterlot. She made her way to the hatch and yanked it open, head still a little off from the blow of the wall, and the deck when Big Macintosh had dropped so fast. Still, she was able to get into the Conn-pod easily, and noticed a yellow Pegasus, wearing the harness, nose dripping blood into the helmet she was wearing. Lying on the deck beside her, tucked under one of the Pegasus’ wings, was a blue Pegasus with a black mane.

Applejack, knew both that the structure was too weak to stay up much longer, and that if the mare disconnected, Alpha would fall into the ocean again. She grabbed the stallion, tying him to her back before looking the mare in the eyes, “Come on. After disconnect, it’ll be, oh, thirty seconds before we hit the water again. Before then, we need to be up topside, where my brother can pick us up.”

Spitfire unhooked herself and followed the newcomer up the ladder and onto the top of Alpha Canterlot, where she saw a sight she never expected to see, the top of Mother-Bucker’s Conn-pod, hatch open. It was at that point she realized her rescuer was wearing a piloting suit, “Wait, who’s driving your Jaeger?”

“My brother. Big Macintosh Apple.”

The two mares jumped onto the Conn-pod and stepped away as the heavily damaged Jaeger dropped into the ocean. As the two slipped down the ladder, Spitfire noticed that almost everything was still dark, “Why is it so dark in here? You’ve got power, right?”

“Backup batteries,” Big Mackintosh grunted, “’nough to run the radio. Call for help. Already did.”

“But, you’re moving? By yourself?”

Applejack set Soarin’ down on the deck and pulled Spitfire over to show her inside the control legs, where cable harnesses sat alongside the main joysticks, “Raw power, through wires. We’re diesel, not radioactive nuts like you and Storm-Breaker.”

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Dash encouraged Scootaloo to try something new when they got the Kaiju in their grip after dragging it away from a public shelter. Scoots thought about it for a moment, then reached a hoof into the creature’s mouth and grabbed the tongue like they had the ship-bat. This time though, she had no intention of letting go, and she ripped back on its tongue, tearing the writhing muscle clean out.

Scootaloo hollered at it, making noise without words, even as Dash punched it square in the face with a rocket-propelled hoof. The Kaiju seemed to take offense to that, and grabbed the Jaeger, digging claws into its abdomen and lifting the machine into the air. Dash clenched her wing in, “Scoots, wing in! Get it out of the slipstream!”

Scootaloo obliged, closing the wing in as tight as she dared, “C’mon, C’mon. How’re we gonna get out of this one Dashie?”

Rainbow flinched as the familiar nickname hit her hard. Somehow Scootaloo had gotten Fluttershy’s memories. “Ok, I think we’ve let him pull us high enough. SWORD!” The right foreleg opened slightly, slinging out a chain of blade segments that went stiff at a jerk from Dash, “Die! You! Stupid! Kaiju!”

She swung the blade, tearing the Kaiju’s wing off cleanly. Both started falling, and Scootaloo went to open her wing, only to find that the harness was stopping her. Dash was quite a bit stronger than her she’d noticed, and wasn’t letting her open her wing for some reason. “Hold on Scoots. If you open your wing too early, it’ll cook. The control surfaces need to be cooled down first.”

“Won’t we be going too fast by then?”

“Naw. I’ve gone faster without rocket assist, so no worries there.” Dash kept pressing the fear in her mind down. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust herself. It was that her wing wouldn’t extend fully, and if Scootaloo’s did, the pull would shatter her wing like balsa wood, oh how she wished she hadn’t given up on the physical therapy to get it back to full functioning. “Wait for my signal.”

The heat roaring outside the Jaeger faded, and she braced herself, “Alright, so here’s what we’ll do. Wings straight out, then straight back. That’ll fire the thrusters. Hold like that until I say.”

“Ok. You sure?”

“NOW!” Both Pegasi snapped their wings out, Dash wincing as the tendons she hadn’t used in five years were torn from their fixtures. Her fifteen foot wingspan crossed most of the Con-Pod, feathers brushing the tips of Scootaloo’s wing as they snapped back together. The pain was immense, but they were slowing down. As they slowed, she watched the sky, using her internal altimeter to judge when it was time. Five hundred feet above the city, she hollered, “Retract!”

Her wing was pushed back into place on Scootaloo’s side, even as her other wing clamped tight to her side. Hooves down, they crashed into the asphalt, shattering it, and throwing up a dust cloud, “That’s how it’s done. Sonic Braking for the beginner.” In her mind, separated from Scootaloo, her shoulder was screaming.

Scootaloo started trembling on her hooves, looking just about ready to pass out, “Relax kiddo. Helicopters are inbound to pick us up, then you can sleep.” She smiled as the filly started loudly, and as off key as she could possibly be, singing some thrash metal song. Dash listened for a moment, letting Scootaloo follow the rabbit into a pleasant memory, before joining in, singing the lyrics horrifically off key, and knowing instinctively that they were, but so what.

They were disconnected and dropped out of the memory together when the helicopters connected, “Need a lift, Jaeger?”

“Yes ma’am. Get us home. Li’l Scoots here’s about to fall asleep on her feet.”

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Twilight stared at the corpse of the Kaiju, stunned that she was so close, yet all her equipment was back at base. She could see the Jaegers being carried off. Only, one of those two wasn’t even supposed to have been there, and there was supposed to be three.

“Rare?”

“Yes Twilight?”

“Do you still have your phone? I’m afraid the EMP killed mine.”

“Ah, yes, of course,” Rarity reached into her saddle-bag and produced a small oil lantern glimmering with celestial magic, “Can’t be without a reliable, and stylish, communication device, can I?”

Twilight sighed, used to the antics, as she scribbled instructions on her blouse and handed it to Rarity, who lit the lantern and shoved the fabric bundle into it before handing over her shawl, “Cover up dear. Ponies might stare.”

Twilight took the offered shawl and pulled it on, smiling at Rarity as she secured the shawl over herself. As they moved closer to the Kaiju corpse, she noticed that Trixie Gee had already arrived, and she walked up to her, “Alright, so I still need that brain.”

“Oh, so you survived then? Lucky mare. Well, I guess I owe you one Kaiju hindbrain then. My boys are already in there, working on it.”

“Hey, boss? This Kaiju’s makin’ a funny noise.”

“Snips, I told you, before. It’s just the CO2 trapping the nitrogen in the Kaiju’s blood, so you don’t get corroded or anything.”

“No, Boss, I think it’s something else, I think he might be a she,” Snails responded.

Trixie growled, “Really, and what gave you that idea?”

The Kaiju baby that rocketed out of the split in the side may have been the clue. Twilight shoved Rarity aside and ran the other way as fast as her legs could carry her, “It’s alive!”

The Kaiju infant finally stopped as it ran out of umbilical cord and started choking. Trixie joined Twilight a few moments later and drove her knife into the nasal crest, “Knew it. They can’t survive more than a minute outside the womb, not this young. Tartarus, it’s not even fully developed, look at this nasal crest. It’s still a single piece. She yanked her knife back and wiped it on a rag, “There’s your brain.” The infant lurched forward, engulfing Trixie head-first before dropping dead again.

“Gross,” Rarity walked up behind Twilight, “Maybe we should stake it to the ground first. There’s some rebar over here.”

The two worked on using their powers to bend the rebar into giant staples that they planted through the Kaiju’s face into the ground, so that even when it did lurch again, the sheer weight of the concrete slab kept it down.

The helicopter arrived with the portable laboratory, with a note from the Princess stuck to the outside of the shipping container, “Twilight, while I appreciate receiving word that you were alright, charcoal on silk is not an appropriate medium, as magic fire makes it smell quite similar to dragon farts.”

“Ohh, right. Forgot about that. Rare, why didn’t you stop me?”

“I was getting the lantern out, and it didn’t feel right to waste your first letter, now let’s get this gear set up and finish the princess’ mission, whatever it was she wanted that brain for.”

Twilight opened the box and started setting up the equipment, placing an oversized version of the Pon over the Kaiju’s scalp and securing it with more rebar, against the protests it made. “Alright, now help me get hooked up. I’m going to Drift with it.”

Rarity scowled, “Oh no. You almost died. It’s too much, even for you Twilight. There’s no way…” Twilight’s face fell, and she tensed for a fight “…I’d let you do this alone. Give me that!”

Chapter 6

Luna looked at Big Macintosh, back splinted like crazy, and sitting on a wheeled table, with all four legs bandaged heavily. He was half-delirious with painkillers too. No way could he pilot the repaired Mother-Bucker, and Soarin’ was out of commission too, being treated for oxygen starvation, so having him and Spitfire take the Apple’s place was out of the question. Only one pony could possibly drift with Applejack now. She grumbled at the idea of taking one of the best mechanics Australia had given them, and putting her in a Jaeger with an almost guaranteed death sentence, and her throat felt like sandpaper when she pressed the radio button, “Applebloom Apple, please report to the command room at your earliest convenience.

Standing alongside the injured pilots, Rainbow and Scootaloo leaned against each-other, the younger nearly asleep on her feet, despite the half-hour nap she’d had on the flight back. Rainbow had squished a cloud that she had found in the hangar down between Scootaloo’s head and her side as a pillow, and seemed just as red-eyed as Red Alert, who was drinking his seventh cup of coffee that hour, and hadn’t slept since the breach had started pulsing a week ago. The former Wonderbolt still had that infectious smile on her face, “So, boss-lady, what do we do next?”

“You go sleep. I have a new pilot to brief, and a new Drift to establish. You have three days of R&R while we repair the Jaegers, after which, you will be going out to complete this mission for us, to save all of Equestria.”

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“Twilight, before we do this, I want you to know a few things, even though I know we’ll be sharing thoughts in a moment or two,” Rarity sat on the concrete and rubble, not even seeming to notice the rips in her dress, “Since the moment I first started this job, I’ve had nothing on my mind but revenge, getting back at those Kaiju for killing my little sister, before she even had her Cutie mark. I am afraid my heart is stained with that, and it might affect you. Just,” she breathed deeply, coughing in the damp air, “I don’t hate you Twilight, no matter what you see, remember that.

Twilight smiled back, “I know. I’m in the same boat, I don’t hate you for taking my little brother for yourself.”

“Huh?”

“Spike, my little brother, the dragon?”

“He’s your brother?” Rarity stared at Twilight, then her face turned bright red, “Oh man! All those things I told him! And…”

“Remember, I don’t hate you Rare. And I doubt I will afterwards. On the other hand, keep THOSE memories to yourself. I really don’t want to see them. Ever.”

“Ah, good. I wouldn’t want to share them anyway. So unladylike.”

Twilight shuddered and reached for the control button, “Ready to share everything, except what I told you not to?”

“No! Remember telling people not to think about the pink elephant, then they say they’re thinking about your brother…”

“Dammit Rarity, Think about Scuba, or Kaiju, or giant fluffy bunny rabbits!”

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Applebloom reached the control room and paused at the entrance, taking a moment to wipe the grease off her hooves, on her already fluid-stained coveralls, before walking in the door and freezing abruptly. Right in front of her, glistening and shiny, stood the princesses. She hit her knees.

“Applebloom, we assure you, we are not mad at you. In fact, we are quite the opposite. We need you to help Applejack, your sister.”

Applebloom looked at the princesses, still not quite comprehending. Not until they moved apart and she saw Big Mackintosh sitting on a rolling bed, all bandaged up. Next to him stood Applejack, who waved, “Hey li’l filly. How’re you doing?”

Applebloom ran up and hugged her sister, “I saw what happened out there! I’m so glad you survived!”

“Me too. Do you know why you were called up here now?”

“Yup, I’m gonna help you pilot the Jaeger, since Big Macintosh can’t. Right?”

“AhYup.” Big Macintosh put in his two bits, “Don’t you scratch her,” he teased, becoming, for one more moment, the father figure in the filly’s life. He had been since before the first attack, when both of their parents had been killed in some fighting in the militia.

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“Rarity, do you have any more fuel for that lantern?”

“Why?”

“What if we have to get a message to the princesses?”

“Well, I suppose we could borrow Trixie’s car. Not like she’s using it,” Rarity pointed at the not-yet dead infant Kaiju, “We should probably do this fast, before it actually dies.”

Twilight pushed the button, and once again felt sick to her stomach. Beside her, she heard Rarity dry-heaving onto the ground, and she tried to focus, diving in with Rarity by her side, commenting on everything, until they spotted something in the Kaiju Infant’s mind that really wasn’t good.

“Rare?”

“Yeah Twi?”

“That’s gonna ruin the plan.”

“It is.”

“Horseapples.”

“Language dear. Watch your bucking language. It’s unbefitting a lady.”

Twilight reached up and pressed the release button, dropping on her rump beside Rarity, who almost immediately dry-heaved over her shoulder. Twilight returned the favor, blood from her nose dripping onto the no-longer pristine pink blouse. She didn’t even notice that Rarity’s own nose was dripping onto the shawl until the fashonista started coughing, “Blood! There’s blood on my clothes! Oh! They’re ruined!”

Twilight reached a hoof up and started patting her partner’s head, “It’s alright. It’s alright. We’ll just drive back to the Dome, then go tell the princess. Then we can get changed. Let’s lock up the equipment first.” The two hurried to pack everything up before climbing into Trixie’s car and passing out in the back seat.

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Applebloom took to the Drift about as well as was expected. For two days, the two Apples worked endlessly, operating on adrenaline and coffee until Dash got tired of watching it over and over. The flier walked into the training Conn-pod and reached into her coat, pulling out the little stuffed bunny.

“Applebloom, this is Angel Bunny. He is the only rabbit you should be chasing,” she deftly tied the bunny to the console in front of the filly, “Again!”

Applejack stared at the bunny as the Neural Hoofshake was started up again, and this time, it worked. Admittedly, all she could see was that stupid bunny, but it was progress. Unfortunately, tomorrow was the mission, when the fissure would either open, or lock closed forever.

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Twilight scowled at the traffic again. There was no way even Trixie’s car could get through the pile of destruction, “You’re absolutely sure we can’t use gasoline to light that stupid lantern?”

“Yes, for the millionth time! It only runs on celestial oil! I’m tired, I’m hungry, I haven’t been able to sleep for two days, and I’m covered in my own blood.” Both of them had been suffering nosebleeds since the Drift, and being unable to contact anyone, what with the entire city being a dead zone for anything over fifty feet, they couldn’t get help to pick them up.

“We’re walking then. Come on Rare. Let’s go,” Twilight levitated the white Unicorn out of the car and started down the road, pulling her companion along, “The Shatterdome’s this way, and we should be able to get there today if you would just put your feet on the ground and walk!”

Rarity opened her bloodshot eyes and stared at Twilight, “How far is it?”

“Oh, mile, maybe three. Then we tell Celestia what we saw, and you can go take a nice hot bath.”

Rarity started galloping, using her magic to push ponies out of the way as Twilight followed. Before too long though, with maybe a mile left to go, Rarity slowed to a trot, “I can’t do this. Even for a hot bath, it’s too much work. Go on without me!” Rarity was back in drama mode. Twilight scowled at her and pressed her horn to Rarity’s as she looked into the puffy red eyes.

“Rarity. If you don’t get off your rump right now and finish this walk with me, I’ll never let you see Spike again.”

Rarity flinched like she’d been hit, but she was up and running again, galloping faster than Twilight had ever suspected the white Unicorn of being able to gallop. Twilight followed, realizing that whatever button she’d pressed, it was for emergency use only. She charged after Rarity, marveling at how the normally clean-freak fashonista was splashing through the mud and muck like it was nothing, staining her coat.

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Two Jaeger teams lined up in the hangar, Dash and Scootaloo, and Applejack and Applebloom, the two older ponies nodding to each-other in respect for what they had seen each-other do, both in the now, and in the news. The younger two had embraced as soon as they saw each-other.

“Oh, Applebloom! I thought I’d never get to speak to you again after Japan was attacked.”

“I thought you were dead, like…” the Apple filly looked at her pen-pal, the one who had survived, realizing that she probably would have been with Sweetie Belle, if her crippling fear of flying hadn’t stopped her. Even now, she didn’t particularly want to be flying out in the Jaeger, but she knew that if he could, Big Macintosh would be in her place.

The two Conn-pods were set facing each-other, due to the tight space in the dome, and both crews could see each-other clearly through the glass. Scootaloo’s eyes focused on the white rabbit Apple-Bloom was tying to the floor in front of her, “Rainbow, isn’t that Fluttershy’s bunny?”

Dash nodded, “She needed a focus. Her sister couldn’t hold her in the Drift like I could you. Flutters was the same way, kept that stupid thing in the Conn-pod for five Kaiju attacks before she could finally leave it at home.”

Scootaloo nodded, and locked her hooves into place, matching Dash’s movements as a new voice came over the radio, one she hadn’t heard before.

“Heyyyy! Storm-Breaker, this’ DJ Scratch here, fillin’ in for Red Alert. Poor boy’s gone’n crashed. Tol’ im he shoulda’ had Minos insteada’ Coffee. Anyways, on with the Neural Hoofshake.”

The two rangers were confused just enough that they slid right into each-others minds before they even realized what was happening. “Scratch? Vinyl Scratch?”

“Yeah, so you’re holdin’ out at a big One double Oh. Let’s drop this thing!” The Conn-pods dropped one after the other, streaking into the Jaegers, where they locked into place quickly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, being the senior pilots, ran through the preliminary tests as the helicopters lugged them out over the ocean, “Now remember ladies, Mutha-Bucka gets to drop the bomb. Stormy’s for cover only. Got that?”

Dash gritted her teeth, “Yes DJ. We’ve got it. Marshall Luna kinda drilled it into us. For three days!”

“K. Well, we’ll be waitin’. We’ll lose contact soon as you go underwater.”

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Twilight reached the lower door mere moments behind Rarity, who was already knocking and howling at the door, “Let us in! We’ve got important information for the princesses!”

Inside, a lowly guard shrugged, “Send them a message. If you’ve really got privilege to speak to them direct, you should have a torch.”

Twilight scowled, trying to remember if she had enough charge left for a one-way teleportation. As it was, Rarity’s horn was starting to dim, and the mane that was otherwise always perfect was hanging to the ground, dragging in the mud. Between the two Unicorns, Twilight had the feeling they might get lucky with a single spell.

“Rare, stop. I’ve got an idea,” the purple mare’s horn started to glow softly, “Hit me with everything you’ve got.”

Rarity turned and stared for a moment at her friend before blasting her with all the energy she could manage, using the laser spell all Unicorns had been forced to learn after the first attack. It struck Twilight’s horn with a crackle, and the purple Unicorn vanished in a puff of magical energy.

On the other side of the door, Twilight appeared and glowered at the guard, a young colt in gold armor, her mane standing on end with smoke coming off the burnt tips. She knew that on the outside, there was scorched bits of both mane and tail, and if the ache in her hooves was right, bits of those as well as both front horseshoes. “Sweet Celestia that hurt! Open the bucking door and let my friend in.”

Rarity staggered in the door, eyes clamped shut, and mane sparking from the discharge of the spell, “Twi, I smell burning mane,” she coughed, “Are you alright?”

Twilight looked down at her forehooves, where the teleportation sphere had been just a little too small. There was a reason it wasn’t often used by anything larger than a young filly, or colt. Her hooves were leaving bloody splotches on the deck as the two hurried down the hall, leaving the guard to puzzle over what had just happened.

Chapter 7

Rainbow and Applejack took the lead, guiding their younger Drift partners along as they trotted towards the edge of the crevice, bright head-lights barely reaching fifty feet ahead of them. As they reached the edge of the gap, Rainbow spoke to the surface for the last time, “We are at the edge. Releasing radio antennae. Farewell, for now.”

She was just about to nose the button that would shear off the floating antennae when a loud voice, not a royal, but near enough in volume, broke onto the line, “WAIT! DON’T CUT THAT COMM!”

Dash froze, nose less than an inch from the button, “What?”

A calmer voice she recognized, Rarity the scientist, was next on the line, “The nuke won’t go through alone. They’ve got some sort of genetic passcode on the breach. You need to send it through with a Kaiju.”

“What?”

“We Drifted with the baby Kaiju. Trust us!” Dash heard Scootaloo shudder as the sound of someone heaving all over the console reached their ears. Good enough proof for her.

“Ok. Guess cooking them to ash is out then, y’hear that Apples?”

Applejack keyed the short-range radio, “Affirmative Storm-Breaker. We’ll just skin the little bastard.”

Dash swore she could hear a filly complaining about Applejacks language, in concert with Rarity’s whining about how unladylike that sort of language was, right before the radio was filled with the static sound of another pony heaving her guts out on the floor and microphone.

“Well, that’s just nasty. Surface out. Good luck Dudettes.”

Dash pressed the button, “Come along now Mother-Bucker. We’ve got a Kaiju to skin.”

“After you Dash,” Applejack commed back before leaping from the ledge, tailed closely by Storm-Breaker as they sank to the bottom. At the bottom, there was just barely enough light to see by, and they had to switch to the sonar system, which overlaid the main visor with a sonic echo map of what was around. Tracking was confirmed by the map directly lying over whatever became actually visible.

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Twilight wrapped her still bleeding forehoof over Rarity’s back, guiding the mare out the door, even as the two of them were intercepted by a medical team and ferried away, still dry-heaving and bleeding a trail along the metal decking. “Hey Rare?”

“Yeah Twi?”

“Remind me not to use last-ditch emergency spells unless I can avoid walking entirely afterwards.”

“Yeah. Remind me to never share your mind with a Kaiju again.” Rarity rolled onto her side and retched at the floor again, “My head feels like it’s gonna explode.”

“Probably hemorrhaging. Mine is too. That’s why the nosebleeds,” Twilight pulled the blood-soaked blouse up off her chest and blew her nose into it, watching in sick amusement as it dripped onto her matted fur, “I bet we die from this.”

“If we do,” Rarity looked at the medic pushing her stretcher, “Let Luna know to send us to a happy place.”

The medic grunted and shook his horned head, “You’re not gonna die on me! I haven’t lost a patient yet who was still breathing when we entered the operating room,” his horn started glowing brightly, “Looks like you two ladies overdid the magic a bit. As your immediate physician, I would advise not casting again at all, not even levitation, for at least a month. Maybe two.”

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Storm-Breaker touched down first, outweighing Mother-Bucker by a full three thousand tons, and started forward towards the breach, “Alright now where’re the Kaiju. The breach is open.”

“Do you think they learned of the plan? I know the Drift is two-way,” Scootaloo peered at the sonar map over the front of the console. There was definitely the breach. It was glowing bright orange, and looked somewhat imposing, but there were no Kaiju in the area according to sonar, “How are we supposed to get into the breach if there isn’t a Kaiju to ride the nuke back.”

Dash smiled, “I think I’ve got an idea. Mother-Bucker, you still have some of those missiles?”

“Yeah, but they won’t ignite this far under, why?”

“Fork one over here,” Dash smiled as the missile popped out, neutrally buoyant at this depth, and was batted towards her by a well-aimed giant hoof. The Pegasus Jaeger snatched the missile out of the air and trotted up to the edge, leaping deftly into the void, wings extended.

“Let’s ring their doorbell. See who answers.”

She shoved the tail of the missile behind one of the wing thrusters, starting it up in a roar of boiling water before dropping it nose down. Storm-Breaker landed on the other side as the thousand pound warhead hit the barrier with a crack. The force barely created a blip in the water, but it seemed to have woken something up.

The Kaiju that lunged out of the breach only had a moment to see the two Jaegers on opposite sides of the gap before Dash’s plan started to go wrong. The steel anchor-line wasn’t as firmly attached as it was supposed to be, and it wrapped around the dinosaur-like Kaiju, tearing Storm-Breaker off the ground. Dash rolled, letting Scootaloo stretch her wings, even though it hurt on the one that was still supposed to be bandaged. Had she actually told the pickup crew about the torn tendons, they probably would have prevented her from going along.

The thrusters roared underwater, pulling the Kaiju, even as the Kaiju flopped like a fish on a line, pulling the other way, neither giving an inch to the other. The Kaiju started towards Mother-Bucker, who was already getting in position, “Alright Stormy, gimme some fish-fillets.”

“Kaiju fastball in three!” Dash leaned towards the cable release handle, grabbing it with the hook on the bottom of her helmet, “Two, One!” The cable released, and the Kaiju shot right into the upraised blades, reciprocating blades chopping it smoothly into three pieces as the Jaeger did a handstand over it.

Dash brought the Storm-Breaker back down for a landing, “Alright then, Grab and drag, let’s get this nuke set off.”

Two more Kaiju tore out of the breach, one charging at each Jaeger. Mother-Bucker pivoted and launched a kick that Dash physically felt from six hundred feet away, and she was certain the no-longer moving Kaiju had a broken skull, based on the brains leaking out into the water.

“Why didn’t you do that before?”

“Couldn’t. Big Macintosh’s too tall. The feedback woulda’ broken my legs.”

“What about Applebloom?”

“Little stretched out, but I’ll be fine. Nothing a warm spa can’t fix.”

“Good,” Scootaloo pointed at the breach, even as the other Kaiju drove its teeth into Dash’s side wing. Both pilots winced at the feedback, and Dash gritted her teeth, grinding them against each-other as the wing was torn roughly off. Not a sound from either Pegasus. It would hurt too much to acknowledge it, so they didn’t. Dash rolled towards the torn wing, planting a plasma cannon hoof in the Kaiju’s belly and blasting away.

The Kaiju roared in pain, whipping at Storm-Breaker. The tail collided, jarring the Conn-pod and splintering the outer layer of the main port. Salt spray started dancing through the cracks, and Dash grumbled, “Mother-Bucker, get that nuke moving!”

The Earth Pony Jaeger stomped forward, getting a Kaiju to the hind-leg for its trouble. Applebloom screamed as the leg was torn off, and Scootaloo almost lost the drift to it, “Come on Dashie! We’ve gotta get this nuke in the breach.”

The similarity to what Fluttershy would have said made Dash think twice, unsure whether it was Scootaloo, or a memory. Deciding it didn’t matter, she started forward, the Kaiju beginning to make its move. She drove the plasma cannon into a piece of Kaiju on the ground and stomped towards the breach, and the damaged, and immobile Jaeger.

“Alright Applejack, I’ll drop it. Eject.”

“I can’t. The catch isn’t working. I think it broke my side of the Pod with that hit.”

“Buck. Wait, is Applebloom’s side working?”

“Yeah. Ok, you can handle this?”

Dash smirked and with Scootaloo, slammed the other fore-hoof into the Kaiju’s face, “I’ve got the football. Hike Hike!”

Applejack made a final move, flinging the nuke across the Kaiju’s back at Dash, even as she disconnected from the system. She grabbed Applebloom and hit the release catch on her side. The small pod burst out of the top of the Jaeger’s head and rocketed towards the surface, barely escaping the Kaiju’s claws.

Dash turned to Scootaloo, “Close your eyes kid,” the warheads still in Mother-Bucker went up as the trigger mechanisms timed out in storage, nopony there to pull the triggers. It was blindingly bright, and distracted the Kaiju long enough for the two Pegasi to jump on its back and drag it towards the pit, carrying the nuke, “Alright Eat THIS!” She forced the nuke down the Kaiju’s throat and pushed the thing into the breach, only for it to start climbing out faster than the timer could tick down. It clawed across Scootaloo’s side, tearing a gash into the wing surface, and setting off alarms, including one Dash hoped not to see. The Eject failure. Something had jammed, and water was leaking through the lid of the ejector pod. If Scootaloo was in there when it fired, she’d drown before she hit the surface. And the Kaiju was still not going into the breach.

“Kid, I need you to trust me. Take your hooves out of the controls, and get ready to jump on my back when I say.”

“Ok.”

The larger Pegasus braced for the impact of having the entire neural load dumped on her. She lunged forward, the last move still linked, as she shouted at Scootaloo.

The smaller orange Pegasus dropped out of the link and started squirming out of the harness, not bothering to take it off, even if that meant ripping out a hoof-full of feathers. She wouldn’t be flying again anytime soon.

Dash closed her eyes as the Kaiju met with the sheer weight of the Jaeger, the full impact feeding back into her already over-stressed mind. She could feel blood pooling in her mask, around her muzzle, as the overload severed quite a few neurons and forced her heart-rate up to keep up with the increased oxygen demand.

“Kid,” she spat into the helmet, “Pull that big red lever, the one I told you never to touch.”

Scootaloo obliged, yanking down on it with all the strength in her little body before leaping back to Dash’s side. Dash wrapped her wing around her partner as the two were lifted off the deck and pressed into a pod that was just barely too small for both of them. Dash squirmed into a better position, getting Scootaloo mashed against her belly and chest, orange hind-legs tucked between her own blue ones, and two pairs of wings intertwining on their sides. Two helmets shared the top space, ear to ear, where the two ponies could hear each-other breathing as they rocketed to the surface.

Rainbow counted down the seconds on the timer she had hit, preparing herself, and knowing that the bomb would trigger, and optimally, enhance, the explosion of the reactors going supercritical. At Zero, she wrapped her fore-legs around Scootaloo, squeezing the filly against her, and away from the pressure shell as the shockwave hit. The pod was flipped and tossed like a leaf in a hurricane, and she was almost glad neither of them had been able to eat before they left. Her eyes stayed closed, sticky blood drying into her muzzle fur and over her eyes, “Scoots, I don’t know if you can hear me still. If you can, just nod. I’ll feel it.”

Scootaloo nodded, pressing her helmet to Dash’s armored shoulder, “In a few moments, we’ll be surfacing. That means we’ll be leaving the water at about a hundred miles an hour. We’ll be airborne for a few seconds before we hit again, and it won’t feel good. Just don’t let go, and you’ll be fine.”

The pod surfaced, arcing through the air, and Rainbow squeezed her partner, cutting off the scream pre-emptively as they landed upside down, and stayed like that. The pod was designed to surface upright, but from the flip, the center of its mass wasn’t enough to flip it over the pontoon barrels. Dash found herself staring at the dark ocean below, hooves pressed against the ‘top’ of the pod to hold her weight up off the filly. “You alright Scoots?”

The small Pegasus whispered, “I’m scared Dashie. What if my feathers don’t grow back?”

Chapter 8

The small Pegasus whispered, “I’m scared Dashie. What if my feathers don’t grow back?”

Instinctively, the older Pegasus snapped her eyes open, blinking out the blood crusting the edges, “WHAT!” Her wingtips were already lightly brushing over the smaller Pegasus’ wings, feeling where the feathers had been ripped out, bent, or torn apart. Fortunately, most of them were just for mass. They’d grow back in a few months with normal preening. The bones she grazed though, where the more dexterous maneuvering feathers were, those concerned her. Those, and the way Scootaloo winced when she touched them. One time, only one time, had she had that much damage to her wings. Even five years before when she had lost Fluttershy… She instinctively bit back the memory, even though there was no Jaeger, and no Rabbit to chase. She had remembered back then to take the wing harness off properly, even as stunned as she was. But Scootaloo had never had the chance to ingrain that into her muscle memory, and had been in too much of a hurry anyway. Her own wings started to ache in the metal harnesses that had been snapped off with explosive bolts, since removing them took time, and it had been assumed that ejection meant the Jaeger was a loss anyway.

“You’ll be fine. Doctor Patches will get those fixed right up. You’ll be flying again in no time flat,” the lies flowed out of Rainbow’s blue lips amidst internal jolts as she realized that, quite possibly, this filly would be ground-bound permanently. Wing-bones didn’t heal fast, and Pegasi who had their wings stripped to the bone rarely lived long enough to heal up. The strain was too much for them. Not being able to fly. At least Dash could hover with her wing, and still bend it properly, if slow and limited.

She looked at the salt-water below her, on the other side of the only way out, “Now, Scoots, I’m going to ask you very calmly not to scream.”

“Why?”

“Salt-water. We’re gonna have to swim out from under the pod.”

“Rainbow, I can’t swim,” Scootaloo twisted her neck, tilting her head back far enough to see the water below them, “And I know there’s not enough air in here for me to stay.”

Dash scowled and as gently as she could manage, encased the smaller Pegasus in her wings, still trapped in their metal cages, “Fine. Don’t you dare let go.” She punched at the hatch release, watching as the water-pressure, meager as it was at the surface, held the lid against the explosive bolts. Oh well. She bit her tongue and lunged into the ocean, ignoring the sounds coming from inside her wings as she rolled and climbed on the exposed bottom of the pod and unrolled her sopping wet wings.

“You alright Scoots?”

“F-f-f-BUCK!” The filly had been able to get a good look at her wings, as well as really having the chance to feel what salt-water in open wounds felt like, and she was trembling now, muttering to herself words that Dash knew would have made her parents, and probably anyone else’s, go get soap for them to chew on. She ignored that and sat with her forehooves around Scootaloo’s shoulders, shuffling carefully out of the harness now that she had room to.

“Scoots, It’ll be alright,” she looked over at the other pod, where Applejack was sitting beside her sister, helmets off, watching the sun piercing through the clouds. Overhead helicopters were launching Pegasi and the gargantuan zeppelins that had been used for long-range transport, as they never had to land, were setting up, preparing to take tired Pegasi back for a quick rest and a meal.

A helicopter dropped down to the two pods, and Dash spotted someone very familiar, a dark yellow Russian Pegasus, who was already wearing a tether harness, not that she needed it, but it helped get the cable to the Earth ponies that did, and to the two crippled Pegasi on the other pod. “On behalf of the Equestrian Planetary Defense League, it is my honor to invite you aboard this humble helicopter. Watch your step. It’s not nearly as stable as a cloud, but the Apples won’t fall through.”

Dash smiled at her friend, somewhat hopeful that the mare and her stallion would be able to re-start the international Pegasus flight team, the Wonderbolts, now that they no longer were needed to drive Jaegers. “Hey Spit. Mind helping the Filly first. Careful though, she kinda jerked out of her harness wrong.”

Spitfire stared at the wings, tattered, shredded to the bone, and covered in drying salt-water and blood, “I can’t get a harness around her wings. Give me a second,” the former Wonderbolt passed the second harness she had brought down over to Dash, and unhooked herself, carefully wrapping her hooves around Scootaloo’s back, below her wing roots, “Alright Scootaloo, grab my neck, and hang on tight.”

As soon as the filly had a firm grip, Spitfire leapt, without flapping, as if she needed to, right into the helicopter. Being a stunt pony had gifted the yellow-orange Pegasus with formidable leg strength. Being a speed-flier, Dash had shucked leg exercise up until her accident, preferring to use her powerful wings to get everywhere. Now, with the pain of her jerked tendon faded, she shrugged into the harness, just to be safe, and flapped, hard enough that the pain came back. Not enough to stop her from flapping again though. Her wingspan, nearly twenty feet from tip to tip, just barely missed the spinning rotors on the second stroke, but that was enough to get her into the aircraft, where she dropped to the deck and grabbed for one of the chunks of ice in the cooler some thoughtful blue-haired unicorn had thought to include. She knew it was Scratch’s cooler because it was made out of an old record player, and it was filled with the kind of cider she would normally never let a filly anywhere near. But whatever, they had just saved the entire world. Scoots could have one. She would get one for herself after her wing stopped hurting.

JaegerJaegerJaeger

“Mares and Gentlestallions, the Breach has been sealed, STOP THAT CLOCK!” Luna ignored Celestia’s pointed glare. This was a momentous occasion, and so what if she indulged in the Royal Canterlot Voice for it. Besides, of course, the fifty or so big herd of mares and stallions piled around the big blue button, each straining, but all unable to reach it because of the pile-up, “Sorry. You go ahead sister.”

Celestia barely resisted slapping her hoof to her face, even as she flicked her wingtip against Luna’s nose and strode past the mass, pressing the button gently. The clock stopped, and like a spell had broken, the herd dispersed, their task completed. Knowing that it was over, Luna was ready to go take a long nap, like fifty years or so. The moon was probably still peaceful even now. Of course, a blue-haired Unicorn DJ had very different plans. And she seemed to be helped by a blindingly pink Earth pony with what looked like cotton candy for hair. Where had they even gotten decorations like that, and spread across the entire Shatterdome in the time it took her to blink. What magic was this?

“ATTENTION HONG KONG! THIS’S YOUR DJ, VINYL SCRATCH, HERE TO SAY THE BREACH IS CLOSED. IT’S PARTY TIME PONIES!” The sounds that thumped out of speakers both Luna and Celestia had sworn weren’t there seconds before, made the princesses skeletons shudder, and from the looks of several of the mechanics down on the floor, dodging randomly bouncing tools, a lot more than that up close. Still, it was unmistakable what tune it was, an epic fantasy operatic, by a long dead playwright, Trotkoffsky or something like that, specifically the part with the cannons. She remembered that. Celestia had thought setting loose a flock of pigeons at her coronation was a good idea. Luna had made sure the cannons were pointed somewhere well away from the palace, like that big open field that now housed Ponyville proper. The two plans interfered wonderfully, pigeons falling to the beat of the music. It had been hysterical.

The memory made her crack up, and she was almost forced to share with Celestia, who joined her, rolling on the ground in an undignified manner, whinnying and kicking at nothing in particular as they broke down completely.

JaegerJaegerJaeger

The pilots of the two Jaegers arrived, all four collectively drunk, and quite successfully, considering how much it took to actually get Pegasi drunk in the first place, what with half their mass being in their wings. And the Apples were known for drinking ponies twice, or three times their size, under the table. Dash admitted that Applejack had definitely won the drinking contest, even if Applebloom had just barely lost to Scootaloo. Probably because of her shredded wings. Pain had a tendency to dull drunkenness, from Dash’s recollection.

The four trotted into the hallway, and, with the exception of Scootaloo, who was being rushed to the medical area for a combination of the blood-loss and probable alcohol poisoning, were mobbed. It took Rainbow Dash almost fifteen minutes to extricate herself from the mass and get into the hallway, where she could make a break for the medical bay. Halfway there, she realized she didn’t want Scootaloo there alone. Something about one of Fluttershy’s memories coming up again. She snapped her wings back and darted down the hall, hooves only gracing the floor and walls where she felt it was necessary.

That meant there were maybe five blatant hoof-prints on corner walls where she had rounded faster than her still sore wing and drunken lack of coordination had made her hit at top speed. She screeched to a stop, hooves alternating to bleed off speed at first, then her armored chest, then her bare chin as the alcohol caught up to her hooves and she tumbled up against the door. A white-coated nurse opened the door, “Oh my. Are you alright?”

Dash wheezed out a breath of barely diluted alcohol-breath, “Yeah. Fine. How’s Scoots?”

JaegerJeagerJaeger

At the site of the last Kaiju kill that would ever be made, several ponies worked feverishly to carve the thing up into useable segments. They had coated the monstrosity in ammonia, and were working their hardest to keep it as basic as possible, sending other ponies to the store for bleach and household cleaners to keep the Kaiju from melting. Thanks to the mess with the Jaeger program, and with the two Kaiju, this one had been left to a team who had, unfortunately, died when the infant had burst out of the dead Kaiju.

One stopped as part of the infant, currently lounging in a garbage-truck full of fertilizer and Kaiju dung, the only big enough mound of ammonia they could find in the area, started to move. A knife, held in a thin blue magical field sheared a line across the side and a sky blue Unicorn wearing a Kaiju-blood soaked hat squeezed out, looking at her fore-hooves angrily, “WHERE IS MY CELESTIA-DAMNED HORSESHOE!”

Chapter 9

“She’ll be fine Ranger,” the medic spoke quietly enough that only the two of them could hear him, then leaned in and whispered into Dash’s ear, “I don’t know if she’ll ever fly again though. A couple bone fragments are missing, and none of the unicorns here have the ability to repair that kind of damage. Except the Princesses and Twilight Sparkle, who is on strict No-Magic bed-rest until she recovers from her recent ordeal. And the princesses are so busy trying to get Equestria back to normal. They can’t have the time necessary to repair your partner’s wings.”

Dash scowled, “Which bones? I need to know.”

The medic pulled her over to an X-ray lying flat on a desk, out of sight of Scootaloo, “See right here. These are the bones that hold the tendons for the flight-feathers. This is where they are chipped away and broken. There is nothing we could do. At best, we could put ceramic filler to get the bones to look right, but the tendons won’t fix to them properly, and will never heal in the right place.” Dash frowned at him, daring him to give another option. “The only other way would be to find a Pegasus willing to donate a few of her own bone-fragments, carefully cut off, to act as a new fixture for the tendons. It would likely cripple the donor though, with a small chance of even working.”

Dash growled at the medic and snapped her wings out, the massive span filling the room intimidatingly, “Fine. Do it.”

JAEGERJAEGERJAEGER

Twilight pushed herself up in her bed, carefully avoiding putting pressure on her hooves, while also making an effort to not use her magic to just move her body like a rag-doll. She couldn’t imagine how hard it would be before she was living it. And beside her, stuck in another bed, Rarity held a pair of knitting needles in her hooves, frowning as she tried to knit a scarf without magic. “Twi! How does this go again? I always just pushed the yarn into the right shape before. I never had to use my hooves!”

“I’m not sure. I think I’ve got a book ov…” she winced as the instinctive telekinesis spell lightly touched the base of her horn and her vision went white. As she recovered, she realized that she was surrounded by nurses.

Her medic grumbled, “Told you not to use magic. Told you it would hurt you.”

Twilight looked at him through teary eyes, “S..s..sorry. Instinct.”

JAEGERJAEGERJAEGER

Applejack looked at her brother, lying on his belly on a couch at the cafeteria table. He was recovering from straining himself, but he was still worn out. He hadn’t said a word about it though, about the pain she knew he must be going through, every time he moved. He didn’t even wince, but she could see the pain in his big eyes. Applebloom didn’t, and for that she was thankful. Their little sister was, fortunately, too busy trying to get into the medical wing to see how Scootaloo was doing to concern herself with anything else.

Discovering that her friend was still alive was a shock to the little filly, and the not knowing now was tearing her apart as she pressed her face and fore-hooves against the doors to the medical wing, trying to see through the snowed glass.

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Spitfire nudged her partner gently as the two of them reached the end of the long runway of the Shatterdome. It had been nearly fourteen years since they had been able to fly without an escort ready to drag them back to the Jaegers at a moment’s notice. Now, they were back in their Flight Blues, the uniforms still crisp, though not as well fitting on the now slightly thinner Pegasi. They looked into each-other’s eyes and darted forward, embracing the wind with their wings and rocketing into the air.

Soarin was the first to open the saddle-bags he was wearing, pulling out a pair of smoke grenades that he yanked the pins out of. He tucked the tubes into his boots and darted off, trailing thick grey smoke in the air. Spitfire joined him a moment later, her yellow tracking flares leaving a pair of brilliant streaks of yellow pigment in the sky, suspended by the white smoke. Together, they performed, once more, in the way of the Wonderbolts, twirling and spinning, painting a picture in grey and yellow on a canvas of blue skies.

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Trixie stared at the golden boot that was crushed by what looked like a tire track. A tire track pointed right at where she had parked. Where was her car? She panicked and followed the tire tracks, Kaiju-blue splatters indicating where the tire had gone after running through the puddle of leaking goo. It deteriorated quickly, but she was able to follow it. She found it, lying in pieces, like it had been looted. Not a good sign. “SNIPS! SNAILS!”

The two proceeded to fail to arrive, and with a sigh, Trixie remembered that the two miscreants had been inside the Kaiju when it had given birth. They were most likely dead. She stomped over to the car, still holding her boot in her magic, crushed flat. She dropped the shoe into the gutted passenger seat and slumped into the driver’s seat, tail sliding through the hole in the back. “Hope it’s still got gas. Maybe Johns’ll be able to fix it.” The car turned over with a low rumble, and she stared at the nearly empty tank. Somehow it had burned through half a tank in the span of three miles. “BUCK!”

JAEGERJAEGERJAEGER

The two princesses stood on a tall podium in the castle garden, looking down at the assorted press and onlookers. Celestia was the first to break the awkward silence that had sat there from the moment she had raised the sun that morning. “My little ponies, I have wonderful news. The Kaiju threat has been driven back, and its attacks have ceased entirely, thanks to the sacrifice of a large number of Rangers. The two Pegasi who triggered the collapse are in Intensive care at this very moment, recovering from the damage done to them by the final battle. They are expected to make a full recovery!” The words were sour on her tongue. She knew she was outright lying. Neither was expected to recover fully, and would probably never fly again. And there was no way to get from Canterlot back to Hong Kong in the time it would take for the bones to naturally heal. Too many press conferences and political meetings. That was why she had given up the position as supreme ruler of Equestria, instead allowing democracy to take over. Of course, she was still an immortal Alicorn, who raised the sun every morning, and lowered it every night.

“The Jaeger program was expensive, both in Bits and Lives. None know this better than my sister, Luna. However, the disbanding of the Jaeger program brings with it a new program, designed to prepare us for any more of these incursions from any other worlds we are not yet aware of. My Peace-keepers, the Elements of Harmony.”

A cheer rose through the crowd. Some had suspected that the Jaeger program was finished. Some even suspected Celestia to have her own plans afterwards. Some knew her history, and fully expected something like this to happen. None knew exactly what it was, but they knew it would use Jaeger technology.

JAEGERJAEGERJAEGER

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, taking in the stale smell of the hospital pillow she was lying face down on. She figured that was where she’d wake up, since she had allowed, and almost ordered, several orderlies to use whatever parts of her wings were necessary to save Scootaloo’s ability to fly. She could feel the large canvas hammocks holding her wings steady, and bandages wrapped around the parts of her wings they had opened up. “Mornin’” a soft voice called from in front of Dash. Crimson eyes met blue as she looked into Scootaloo’s eyes. There were less hammocks suspending the orange pegasus’ wings, the span being much shorter, but the bandages were more numerous, and more tightly packed.

“Hey Scoots. They tell you when you’ll get to fly again?”

“Not yet. The Doc said maybe never though. And what happened to you? Doc wouldn’t tell me. Just called you a stubborn b…”

“Rehehealley…” Dash cut off Scootaloo and flicked one of the feathers near the end of her wing, where they hadn’t cut anything, “’Cause he told me he’d tell you exactly what he did to save your wings. How he gave you bone grafts from my wings. How it was so stupid of me to risk my wings for you…” she broke down, tears dripping onto the floor, “I don’t even know if it’ll work. But I thought it was worth the risk to see you fly, even if I can’t.”

“Hey, Dashie. Cheer up. We’ll fly again. Together. Pinkie Pie Promise.”

Dash chuckled, some of her stress evaporating, “Sure. Pinkie Pie Promise,” she raised a hoof and pressed it to her closed eyelid as Scootaloo did the same. Less than an instant after her hoof touched her face, she saw a brilliant flash that left spots in her eyes.

“I heard someone making a Pinkie Pie Promise, so I just had to get a picture, to make sure you keep the promise, you know.” She grinned, and Dash realized there was a bit of frosting around the candy-pink colored pony’s eye, “So you don’t have to stick a cupcake in your eye, ‘Cause that hurts.”

Dash stared at the hyperactive pony for a moment before slapping the emergency call button on her bed. Pinkie was still there when the orderlies arrived to see what was wrong, “She needs psychiatric help. Now. And probably clean up that cupcake mess in her eye before it gets infected.”

Dash spouted the orders instinctively, years of flight training preparing her for taking command in an emergency, and exhaustive knowledge of what sort of damage each type of pony was most likely to suffer, as well as how to cure it. Especially mental issues. Those had been drilled into her skull until she was certain her teacher had a few, and she could pick them out like a searchlight if she was called upon for it.

JAEGERJAEGERJAEGER

Twilight looked down at the floor. It wasn’t that it was far away or anything. Not even that it was cold, after all, her hooves were wrapped in a good hoof-span of gauze and padding. It was that she wasn’t sure she could take the pain of putting pressure on her hooves, and the hard nails hadn’t quite healed up yet, where they had been sheared to the quick by the bubble. She was just about to give up when a purple and green dragon walked into the room, carrying a bundle of flowers and several books.

“Hey Twi, hey Rarity. I brought you some snacks and a few books to keep you entertained while your magic recharges.” The dragon barely noticed that Twilight was trying desperately to not touch her padded hooves to anything, even the books she so wanted to grab. ‘For your own good’ the doctor had said when he secured a magic lock around her horn, and Rarity’s, preventing them from casting at all. Period.

Rarity looked up from the knitting she was still working on, “Spike! So glad you got here. Do you think you could help me get Twilight out of bed. She’s been in there for two whole days. That’s not healthy for a mare her age.”

“My age?” Twilight seemed to anger slightly. Sure she was two whole years younger than Rarity, but that was no excuse for age cracks. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to use her hooves.

Spike rolled his eyes, “Twilight, come on. I saw the X-rays. As long as you step on the back of your fore-hooves and the front of your rear-hooves, you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Rarity pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue, “You’ll be fine!”

Rarity was glad Spike had showed up when he did. She had been just about to have to resort to physical force to dislodge Twilight from her bed. Now, words seemed to do the trick. Twilight lunged out of the bed, tackling Rarity to the ground, then jumping back as she realized what she had done. A few moments of horror, and Rarity opened her eyes, smirking. She had been cushioned by a probably less-than-soft dragon tail, but it had worked. “Hi Miss Sparkle. You’re on your hooves again. Wonderful,” the medic assistant Aorta had stepped into the room to check on them, “That means we can start on your physical therapy.

Chapter 2

Five years later

“For five years, ponies from all walks of life have been working tirelessly on building the coastal defense wall, a fully Kaiju-proof barrier that will render the Jaeger program obsolete. Today is the last day, and we will be forever safe from the Kaiju,” the reporter, a greyish mare with bright red mane and a pen crossed over a scroll on her flank, looked over her shoulder at the view of the towering wall, “Today is also the ceremony for the formal deactivation of the last Australian Jaeger, umm…Can I even say its name on broadcast TV? No, I’m pretty sure I can’t.” She seemed a little stunned, being unable to utter the name of the Jaeger, only to shout its name a moment later when a Kaiju punched through the coastal wall like it was made of tissue paper, “Mother-Bucker!”

The so-named Jaeger stomped down the streets of Sydney Australia, and leapt into the air, firing explosive bolts that snapped out a pair of long, blade-like hoof attachments that it drove into Kaiju’s neck. Inside, the sibling team of Applejack and Big Macintosh roared as one, spinning around to give the Kaiju a skull-crushing kick, fueled by the raw power of two of the most powerful members of the Apple Family, who had been a military line for nearly six generations now. They were known, outside their Jaeger, for being able to kick down trees going on a century of life without breaking a sweat, and pulling buildings off their foundations to make blockades. Now, they re-emphasized that strength as their Jaeger ripped the roof off the Opera house and slammed it around the Kaiju’s neck before hauling back and driving the monster head-first into the bay, hard enough that it collapsed the rest of the Opera house, even as it shattered the Kaiju’s neck and stopped it abruptly.

JaegerJaegerJaeger

Rainbow Dash strutted across an I-beam, making sure to keep the safety tether between her and the structure of the part of the wall she was working on. She still loved heights, and being above the clouds, but ever since the incident with Storm-Breaker, when she lost Fluttershy, she had been unable to actually fly. Hover maybe, but her left wing had been pushed through physical therapy for nearly a year before she gave up on it. The scars from the harness pulling her wing back too hard were still there, boxy and fur-less. She mostly kept them hidden under her bomber jacket, the only thing she had kept after the accident, with Fluttershy’s favorite stuffed animal, a rabbit she called Angel Bunny, stuffed into the inside pocket, along with Storm-Breaker’s crew-patch.

She grumbled as she reached the elevator and piled in with the Earth-Ponies and Unicorns that couldn’t fly to the top, because, like them, she was stuck near the ground. She rushed to her locker and tucked the welding pack into it before slipping her saddlebags on and starting for the truck she called home now. She was nearly there when a familiar voice stopped her dead in her tracks, “Rainbow Dash. I know you saw the attack on Sydney.”

“Ah, Marshall, What brings you out here?” She intentionally avoided the question, not wanting to let her former commander know how much it had hurt to see that nothing they did could stop these monsters.

Luna shook her head, “I came to get you. Storm-Breaker has been repaired, and needs a pilot.”

Dash stuck out her bad wing as much as she was able to, “I can’t. Remember. My Drift Partner is dead. Gone. I’m alone.”

“Dash, listen, we have several possible replacements that we believe could be Drift compatible with you. We need you.”

“Can’t you just use two of them?”

“Rainbow Dash, do you understand what the magic in the Jaeger does, exactly?”

“Yeah. It makes it possible for two ponies to share a single mind, a single body, and each-other’s deaths. Why didn’t that spell get outlawed?”

“It does far more than that. I know it. Every time you saw an attack, a Kaiju on the news, do you know what Storm-Breaker did? She threw punches, powered down, even disconnected entirely from any sort of power source, she moved. She mimicked your fighting style, your instincts.”

“So why can’t you send her out alone then?”

“Because without a true mind, a Jaeger is a clumsy monster, no better than a Kaiju on a rampage. And without the mind that made it, the other options cannot pilot her. We’ve tried. Do not speak anymore. We have a helicopter arriving in five minutes to take us to the Hong Kong Shatterdome to reacquaint you with Storm-Breaker, and with your new co-pilot.”

Dash shook her head, annoyed that she wasn’t being given a choice. She couldn’t even fly anymore. How was she supposed to pilot a Jaeger with wings? “I need to think about it.”

“Alright, you can think on the flight back.

JaegerJaegerJaeger

The helicopter touched down in a rain-storm. Of course. Ever since the Kaiju, weather ponies had been too busy to reign in the Everfree forest, and it was beginning to overthrow the entire world, starting with the weather. She splashed out of the helicopter and stormed towards the open entrance to the dome. Luna stopped beside a young filly, couldn’t have been more than fifteen. And still without a Cutie mark, though the young Pegasus hid her rump beneath a full-length monotone skirt, rather than having it embroidered on the skirt. Dash had her lightning bolt Cutie-Mark embroidered into the back of her bomber jacket, full-back, with a smaller patch of Fluttershy’s butterfly Cutie-mark stitched into the left breast of the jacket, near her heart.

“Rainbow Dash, please come meet Scootaloo. She’s one of our scientists, the one who found all the possible drift-partners for you.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Scoots,” Dash smiled for the first time in five years. She didn’t want to be the one to disillusion a filly about how harsh the world of Jaeger pilots really was, but she could tell how much the girl wanted to be a part of that world.

The three stepped into a large elevator with what appeared to be large jars of Kaiju brains. Dash almost went to punch through one, stopping herself at the last moment as a purple Unicorn stepped in wearing a black skirt and a white long-sleeved blouse. A second Unicorn, this one white, and wearing an outfit that probably cost as much as the helicopter they had flown in on, galloped out of the rain and pressed against the side of the lift opposite the brains.

“Are these what I think they are?” Dash asked as the lift started moving down.

The purple unicorn nodded, “They’re Kaiju brains in ammonia. Keeps them alive, so I can study them,” the mare started to turn back to the brains, “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Twilight Sparkle, everyone calls me Twi. I’m the lead researcher into Kaiju behavior, and one of their biggest fans!” She slid up both sleeves, revealing a mess of ink and shaved fur that showed several different Kaiju.

Dash peered at one, “Is that Discord?”

“My favorite. I wish I’d been able to study its brain. Oh, it would be my dream to get close enough to a live one to study it directly.”

Dash pressed the researcher against the nearest brain, harshly growling out, “No. You don’t. Discord nearly killed me. And I wasn’t trying to study it. I was trying to KILL it.”

“Well maybe if you weren’t resorting immediately to violence, like try to talk to it!”

“You brain damaged Unicorn! I Oughta!”

“STOP! Both of you. This is very unbecoming of mares. And in front of a filly,” the white unicorn pointed her nose up in the air, “You two should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Dash spun around, “Oh yeah, and who’re you to make me?”

The white Pegasus waved her horn in the air, “Rarity. Fashion designer before the Kaiju came. I lost my little sister to them. She was visiting a pen-pal in Japan. That was when I joined the research teams, hoping my noble bearing and upbringing could inspire them to focus on the good of the world, give them something to look forward to.”

“Really?”

“Also, my ability to locate gems, such as those used in the manufacture of Jaeger computer modules, has come in quite hoofy.”

Dash sat on the floor, “Well then, I suppose I should thank you. Can you make this nut stop?”

“I’ve been trying for years. She’s a lost cause,” Rarity sighed dramatically.

Twilight grumbled and slid her sleeves back down, “Honestly Rarity. You act like I’m an Otaku without a care in the world.”

“Because you are.”

“Should I stop them?” Dash looked at Luna for advice.

Luna shrugged, “Let them fight. It’s the only way for them to de-stress at this point.”

The elevator hit bottom, and the ponies scurried off it, Dash and Scootaloo following Marshall Luna towards the cafeteria.

JaegerJaegerJaeger

After an exhausting tour of the facility, and a short, nightmare filled night, Rainbow stared hesitantly at the choice Drift Partners. She was supposed to fight them all one-on-one to determine who was most in synch with her pre-Drift. Tartarus, more than three quarters weren’t even Pegasi.

It took two hours for her to determine that the Pegasi were not up to her standards, as even without flying she had smeared them into the mat in less than six moves. The Earth ponies, even worse matches. One or two Unicorns had stood a chance, and one actually got her on the floor with a poorly thought out blow to her damaged wing. She responded by breaking the Unicorn’s foreleg almost in half and grabbing him in a chokehold until Luna stopped her.

After the last one, she looked up at Scootaloo and Luna, who were observing. Scootaloo was taking notes on a tablet again, and Dash asked why.

“Well, that’s the last one. We’re counting hits to see who is the closest synchronized with you. I will make my decision, and we will…”

“What about her?”

“Huh?”

“Scootaloo. She wants to be a Jaeger pilot, right?” Scootaloo nodded, and Dash continued, “Let her try. It’ll probably be her last chance to be a Jaeger Pilot.”

“Absolutely not,” Luna spoke calmly, not wanting to call down her sister’s wrath for using the Royal Voice on something so small.

Dash smirked, lips widening, “How ‘bout this. I duel her, or I don’t pilot Storm-Breaker. Deal?”

Luna looked like she was about to break, but she grabbed the tablet in her magic and floated it away from the filly, “Very well.”

Scootaloo rounded the mat, opposite Rainbow Dash, and the two moved in an almost perfectly choreographed match, every block, every strike, neither one leaving the ground for more than a moment, and neither giving an inch. Fifteen minutes later, the crowd had grown, and even Celestia was there. Ten minutes after Celestia arrived, she spoke, “STAND DOWN! YOU HAVE PROVEN YOUR POINT TO MY SISTER!”

The two Pegasi stopped, panting as they collapsed to the mat. Dash rolled over, “What was the score, Marshall Luna?”

Luna looked at the tablet, where she had been marking every blow that had connected properly, “Hmm. This is quite vexing. Zero hits from Rainbow Dash,” Dash stared at her. She was certain at least some of those blows had been enough to break the filly’s defense, but then Luna continued, “Zero hits from Scootaloo. It is an exact tie.”

Dash and Scootaloo raised their hooves in the air a few hoof-spans, muttering a paired “Yay.”

JaegerJaegerJaeger

Rainbow stared at the now armored Scootaloo. She looked almost exactly like Fluttershy had the first time they had suited up, only with more red in her color, “Lookin’ good Scoots.” It hurt, remembering that day. She forced the memories down, trying to resist the urge to run over there and scoop the filly up in a bear-hug.

The two stepped into the Jaeger, and she stepped, very intentionally, over to the side that Fluttershy had previously occupied, hoping the different perspective would stop the flashes of memories from interfering. “I’ll have this side, ok?” Scootaloo nodded. It became quickly obvious that the filly was about to go into her first Drift, and Rainbow Dash leaned over, whispering into the filly’s ear, “Let the memories go. Don’t focus on them. Focus on me. Don’t lose yourself in the Drift.”

Scootaloo nodded as the two finished being hooked into the conn-pod, “Neural Hoofshake initiated.” Dash smiled. Red Alert was still in charge of something. She immediately tamped the memory, focusing on Scootaloo’s face.

She found herself on the bridge, this time approaching from Fluttershy’s side, and saw Scootaloo, as bare as she was, standing on the bridge, eyes flashing everywhere but Dash’s face. Just like Fluttershy had been the first time. In wonder. She slipped, and saw her own face from Fluttershy’s eyes, saw the Kaiju teeth closing around herself, saw herself get torn away. Everything flashed, and she realized what Scootaloo had seen as Tokyo formed around the bridge, and the bridge disappeared.

Scootaloo was gone, and Dash stood in an alley, wearing her flight suit, “Oh, HORSEAPPLES. Scoots! Scoots! Luna, can you hear me? Break the connection! Dammit! Break the connection!” She watched the filly, even younger in the memory, running around the corner of the alley. It hurt her to see that, to see the filly stumbling on a missing horseshoe. Why wasn’t she flying? Dash tried to keep an eye on the memory, even as she checked the filly hiding behind the dumpster. A massive crab-like Kaiju stomped past the alley, and she heard whimpering.

“Scoots, can you hear me? Oh, please answer. I can’t get ahold of Luna.”

The filly started speaking, though not to Dash, more to herself, “Oh, Sweetie Belle. Why! Why did you come to Japan! I told you it wasn’t safe here!” She held a hat in her teeth, one with a unicorn-horn hole in the brim. That seemed familiar. Her attention jumped back to the Kaiju as a Jaeger, one she recognized as Diamond Drake, punched it in the face. Back to Scootaloo and the hat she held, Dash looked at the brim, taking note of the white fur and purple mane strands stuck to the brim. Possibly the only problem any pony found with wearing a hat was that there was, without fail, fur stuck in the brim, mane strands getting stuck with them. The color pattern looked familiar.

Dash felt another memory surfacing, but forced it back, ignoring the white Unicorn mare, who on second glance seemed actually mad at Scootaloo. “Oh. LUNA! GET YOUR FLANK IN HERE!”

The link broke and Dash threw herself over the crying filly, tackling her away from the control harness, and pinning her by her wings, “It’s a memory Scoots. Focus on my face. My face!” With one hoof she knocked off her helmet, and the filly’s helmet in a single sweep, her own memories of her first drift resurfacing as she buried the filly’s face in her armored chest. It was only after the adrenaline had stopped that she realized that the Conn-pod was tilted sharply, at the angle that it only would be if it was trying to stand on a forward plasma cannon. Which meant they were still on the Jaeger. She hadn’t even remembered linking to Storm-Breaker, but she could feel it.

“Scootaloo, if you ever do that again, I will personally wipe your memories myself. I won’t even give Luna the chance,” she started to weep into the orange filly’s mane, “Dammit Scoots. I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to see that.” She would have never taken the filly into her mindscape if she had known what would happen. Luna was already rushing into the pod, using her powerful wings to fly over, and her magic to pry the hatch open from the outside.

“What happened! The Drift was going great, you were at 100%, then all of a sudden Storm-Breaker raised a plasma cannon at the control room. That was when I heard you shouting in my mind. I broke the connection as fast as I was able to.”

“I slipped. Got caught up in the last Drift, and it pulled me away. Without me to hold her steady, she slipped and fell, hard.”

Luna looked at two Pegasi who had arrived shortly after her, “Take Scootaloo to the medical bay and get her checked out. I will bring Rainbow Dash.”

As soon as the Pegasi were out of hearing range, the Alicorn princess of the night grabbed Dash in her magic and lifted her so they were eye to eye, “What did you see?”

Dash broke the magic’s grip and pressed her hooves to the princess’ mouth, “Everything. I know what she means to you. I know what you promised her. I know Everything. I need the strongest alcoholic beverage you have. Now.”

“No. You’re on duty Rainbow.”