Armored core: Equis

Telos's perspective

About one minute after passing Celestia, I had decided to cut power to the Over Booster system, to avoid undue panic from my arrival. Despite this, I had reached the castle in short order.As I landed in what appeared to be the courtyard of the castle, several ponies had to scatter to avoid being crushed by the feet of my AC. I took the time to note that most ponies were, in fact, shorter than me, and that Celestia and two other ponies were the only ones that turned out to be of a similar height compared to me. While noting this, I also noticed that most ponies did not have both wings and a horn, rather, they had one or the other. There were some, however, who had neither, and these ones seemed to have a far more defined musculature than the rest. As I began to ponder on this, a bright yellow flash nearly blinded me, as I had set my AC's cameras to active observation mode, which made everything stand out more. Once I recovered from this, I immediately activated the laser blade attached to the left arm of my AC. A bright blue beam was emitted from the tip of the laser housing, ending at about 5 meters away from the device. It gained the attention of almost everyone in the courtyard at once, though no one came near, due to the heat it radiated being similar to that of a forest fire. Once I realized that it was just Celestia, I shut down the blade posthaste, so as to cause no further problems. Activating the external speakers on my AC, I said,"Apologies for any discomfort that may have caused Princess, but when you've been a Raven for as long as I have, it becomes a bit of an instinctive reaction to activate that when you're startled."

"What was that?" Celestia asked, "The heat coming off of it was nigh unbearable."

Chuckling, I merely respond, "I would rather not disclose information regarding my AC's equipment with so many members of the general populace here"

Celestia nodded, " Fair enough, Would you mind exiting your AC so that you can enter the castle, and we may speak of our current circumstance?"

After a few moments of deliberation, I agreed and set my AC to standby, but instead of kneeling this time, I just pop the hatch and let the ladder descend about to the knees of my AC before climbing down, and jumping the remaining distance to the ground. As I stood up from the impact, I felt dozens of eyes on me, making me feel somewhat self conscious, as I was still wearing my skintight pilot suit. For once, I felt extremely embarrassed. Thank the gods for my helmet's visor being reflective, because I felt my face flush once more as I noticed several males checking me out. In keeping with a Raven's stoicism however, I merely turned to Celestia, snapped off a quick salute, and followed her as she left for the castle interior after remotely closing the cockpit of my AC to prevent anything getting inside.

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Celestia's perspective

As we left the courtyard, Telos visibly relaxed, her stiff posture becoming more natural. Not soon after leaving the courtyard, we came to the throne room. It was guarded by 2 members of the Royal Guard, who, after confirming that Telos was indeed with me, allowed her entrance. As we entered, my sister, Luna, stiffened at the sight of Telos, who , strangely, did not take off her helmet for some reason.

"Tia, who hast thou brought into the throne room?" Luna asked almost immediately, narrowing her eyes.

Before I could answer, Telos took off her helmet and spoke up, "I am afraid that, due to my profession, I cannot tell you my actual name. Instead, as I have told Celestia here, it would be a better idea to address me by my call-sign, Telos"

Somewhat shocked at her boldness, Luna replied,  "Very well Telos. During times of peace, we would have continued to pry as to what thy true name is, but these are trying times, as you might have noticed."

"Yeah, about that, I REALLY need to get back to my own world and purge any data the Internecine may have gathered from my battle with it's latest pulverizer. Any suggestions on how?" Telos asked.

"Internecine? Pulverizer?" Luna and I echoed, completely lost as to what she was talking about.

"Crap, I really AM in a different dimension or timeline... Its a long story, could I get a chair?" she asked.

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Telos's perspective

"Now," I said, " Before we really get into this, may I ask what your name is?"

  "We are known as Princess Luna, but seeing as you are most likely not of this world, you may refer to us as Luna." Luna said

"Well Luna, where I come from," I began, only to have the doors behind me burst open, with yet another pony in possession of wings and a horn rushing in, only to stop when she saw the barrel of a gun pointed at her. As opposed to Luna and Celestia, who were both considerably more well endowed than myself, this pony was about the same height as me, with similar figure, but more pronounced hips and a lavender coat along with breasts that seemed to be in the C-D cup area, as opposed to Celestia's G cup bosom, and Luna's D-E cup bust. I must admit, I was feeling a bit flat around those two, which is a big deal, because most female ravens were generally possessed of an athletic figure with very small breasts, unlike myself. But I couldn't let myself get sidetracked, so I addressed Celestia " Princess, who is this pony, and why didn't the guards stop her?"

Sighing, Celestia said to me," Telos, please lower that weapon, this is Twilight sparkle, my former student, and fellow princess of Equestria."

Upon hearing those words, I holstered my handgun and immediately apologized to her. "Well, it's blatantly obvious to me that you are the one who the large machine in the courtyard belongs to," Twilight said.

"Indeed, I am a Raven, and that 'Large machine' is my AC unit, so If you were planning on dismantling it to find out how it works, I would advise that you don't, it is how I fight, and how I get around. It also has a large amount of dangerous equipment, as your former mentor Celestia can attest to, She has seen only two pieces of its equipment in use, and the most recent one was very uncomfortable for her."

"Uncomfortable?" Twilight said, obviously confused.

Sighing, I sat back down in the chair that Luna gave me to sit in, and resigned myself to a LONG explanation of my AC's equipment. "Yes, uncomfortable. The recent piece of equipment she saw in use was the laser blade attached to the left arm of my AC. I'm not going to go into specifics on how it works, but when active, it creates a blade made of laser energy, which generates so much heat that when it comes in contact with almost anything, it melts it at such a high rate that it appears to cut through it."

Celestia and Luna shift slightly in their seats, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that my AC is equipped with such advanced weapons. "Now," I said, " As for the rest of the equipment, it is equipped with a rocket launcher in the right shoulder joint, behind a circular panel. This is generally a last resort weapon, as the Fire Control System, or FCS, cannot lock onto a target with it, requiring precise manual aim. As for the weapon that is held in its right hand, it is what is known as a Laser Rifle, and there are many different models of laser rifle back where I am from, they fire concentrated beams of laser energy similar to that from the laser blade at a range, however, this one is among the most powerful. It is a bit of an oddity, as most pieces of equipment where I am from have a model number. This one is known simply as the Karasawa, and it fires an extremely powerful blast of laser energy that creates a cloud of charged particles upon impact, generally obscuring vision for a short period."

At the name Karasawa, Twilight spoke up,"Karasawa? That sounds like a neighponese word."

"Well, on my world, that is a Japanese word, though I cannot remember what it means," I said. Continuing on with my description of the equipment, I noticed Luna and Celestia becoming more and more uncomfortable, while Twilight was becoming more and more interested. "Anyway, on the left hip joint, there is a small holster, where I keep something called a plasma rifle. This is an exceedingly powerful weapon, surpassing even the Karasawa in damage output per shot. It fires bolts of superheated gas, that on contact, rapidly expand due to being released from an electromagnetic field that encased them during flight. It is often described to be similar to an explosion, and has a similar effect, aside from often melting whatever it hits instantly. In the left shoulder joint, there is a small storage chamber where I hide a small weapon known as a pulse rifle. As it's name suggests, it simply fires small pulses of energy, that, while weaker than plasma bolts or laser beams, are still significantly more powerful than bullets."  At this, Celestia gasps, albeit quietly enough that Twilight didn't hear her.

With a smirk, I continue to describe the back mounted weaponry on my AC, "On the left back weapon mount is a Kisaragi manufactured Micro Missile launcher called the Karura. Despite each missile being small, and obviously not being able to carry a large warhead, It can fire a large amount of them, nine to be exact. Now, as opposed to the rocket launcher, the FCS can lock on with these, and they will seek out whatever I have locked on to. As for the right back weapon mount, it carries a weapon who's name is a bit of a misnomer. It is known as a grenade cannon, and yet functions much more like a battleship grade artillery cannon, as there is no arc to the projectile. This is EASILY the most dangerous piece of equipment on my AC. If fired while moving, the recoil is enough to knock my AC off balance, so I must crouch and brace my AC before I fire it. The projectile it fires will often look like a large fireball, but when it connects with any surface, there is an explosion whose size makes the AC that fired it look small, so this is generally reserved for when something HAS to go down FAST. Seeing as there are a lot of ponies around here though, I'm going to have to engage the safety on it, so as to not fire it and cause a serious amount of collateral damage. Even the empty casing is enough to crush several ponies, it is so large. Now on to a bit of equipment that is NOT normal for an AC to have, Princess Celestia has seen it before. It is a Scottish Claymore sword, sheathed between the missile launcher and the grenade cannon. The obvious thing with this one, is that it is only slightly shorter than my AC is tall, and is composed of a mixture of Titanium for the body of the blade, and a diamond edge to allow it to cut through tough metals with ease."

At this, Celestia leaned towards Luna and whispered " This Scottish claymore reminds me quite a bit of your personal sword. Her AC was holding it when it landed near the base of the mountain Canterlot is built upon, and at that point, it was covered in a black liquid,"

I straighten up and address Celestia " That black liquid was oil, I had just cut a pulverizer in half before a dimensional anomaly sent me here."

Blushing, Celestia looked at me and said," Oh, you heard me didn't you? I was not meaning to be rude, but merely wished to convey to my sister that your AC's claymore reminded me greatly of her personal sword, though on a much larger scale,"

"Oh really?" I asked, "Luna, would you mind showing me this sword some time?"

Luna merely shrugged and said " Why wait?" before standing and reaching behind her throne, pulling out a very large sword whose shape I instantly recognized, even in the sheath.

"Yeah, that's a claymore alright, I'd recognize that blade shape anywhere." I said, nodding.

Celestia spoke up as Luna put the blade away, "What was it that you used to get to the castle so quickly? I know it wasn't a teleportation spell, as you didn't disappear. "

I scratched the back of my head as I responded, "Well, that would be the special feature of the core of my AC. I'll get to the build of my AC shortly, Twilight,"I said, noticing her about to ask a question. She merely nodded and kept quiet."There are several features that an AC's core unit can have, among them are EO, or exceed orbit pods, weapon storage, so that you can equip more than one piece of equipment in the AC's shoulder panels, and what my AC has, which is OB, or Overed Boost. All ACs have boosters that they can activate at any time to increase speed, or enable flight. Several variants exist, from low output, but high sustainability, to exceedingly high output, but next to no sustainability, and everything in between. The boosters on my AC are closer to the high output side, but have decent sustainability. Overed Boost is something completely different. Only ACs with Cores that have the OB feature can do this, because with OB, instead of something that can be used to enable flight, this merely propels ACs forward at a tremendous velocity. OB cores always have one to four panels  on the back, and when OB is initiated, these panels open up, revealing very large, powerful thrusters that need a short time to charge before they can activate. On certain cores, these can cause ACs to break the sound barrier, and move faster than the sound they create. The core I use however, sacrifices enormous amounts of thrust for a decent amount of armor."

While Celestia's expression is dumbstruck, Twilight delves a bit further into things "If what you say is true, and all of these weapons on your AC that would appear to use energy, then you would need some way of creating an immense amount of power, am I correct?"

As I chuckled to myself, Luna looked at me in confusion. "You are quite the sharp one Miss Sparkle, I can see why Celestia took you in as her personal student. Yes, you are correct, my AC does have a way to generate an immense amount of power, it has what is known as a pulse generator within the core. This device rapidly pulses nuclear fusion reactions to create energy for thrusters, energy weaponry , and generally the whole AC, but as you might imagine, it creates a large amount of heat, which is why radiators are an ESSENTIAL piece of equipment for any AC. Radiators, through a convoluted process which I have long since given up trying to understand, keep the generator cool enough that it does not overheat, and damage the AC." Standing up from my chair, I walk to the window, only to see my AC sitting pretty in the courtyard, with 5 ponies around it.