Neon Pony Evangelion

Twilight sighed as she pulled out her tablet and brought up her email, looking at the message she'd received from Princess Celestia for at least the 50th time. Even if she couldn't send messages, she could review her inbox while waiting for her ride.

My dear student, Twilight,

There is only so far that your studies can take you over video conversations one on one. So I've arranged for you to come to Canterlot to attend my school directly. I'm sure you'll blossom even more in this environment, and I have another request for you during your time in Canterlot: please try to make some friends.

Sincerely yours, Princess Celestia

Twilight rolled her eyes at the friends thing. "Please. I don't need friends to succeed in life." She looked up when the wind suddenly picked up, putting her tablet away. "What's going on?" Her answer came in the form of a fleet of VTOL fighters coming into view retreating from something. Twilight shifted her footing as she felt impact tremors from the footsteps of something massive.

Said massive thing soon came into view, the fighters surrounding it. The creature was as tall as a skyscraper, largely green, had its face: a skull like plate with a beak like extension pointing straight down and a pair of eye holes, on the middle of its chest, with no neck or skull. The shoulders were bulky and massive, and its arms were long enough to reach past its knees. Most curious of all was the red object embedded in its chest between bony protrusions that looked like ribs.

Twilight's eyes widened at the sight of this creature before ducking as missiles flew at it and detonated before hitting it, knocking it back somewhat. A glowing spear like object shot out of the smoke and severed an engine from one of the fighters, which fell and landed mere meters from Twilight, who was knocked onto her rear by the tremor. She heard a sound like a sort of hum before the creature, having made a massive jump, came down and landed in front of her, a foot crushing the fighter it had just downed as Twilight screamed.

A blue car came to a halt in front of Twilight, its tires screeching as it did. Looking at it, she saw the passenger side window roll down to show the driver: a mare with a horn, wings, sunglasses, and a smile on her face.

"Hi there, Twilight. It's been a while," she greeted. "Sorry I'm late."

Twilight scrambled to her feet and pulled the door open to get in the car. "Drive! Drive! Drive!" she screamed as she slammed her door. She jostled a bit as she buckled up from the car starting to move again, peeling out right before the creature's foot came down on the spot the car had been on.

More missiles were launched at the creature as they sped away from it, detonating before hitting as before. Bombers dropped their payloads onto it from above, and as Twilight looked back at the fight, she saw the missiles impact against a multicolored octagonal barrier that surrounded the creature before detonating.

Only when they were safely away from the fighting did Twilight calm down, taking several deep breaths. "We made it..." She then looked at the driver. "Good to see you too, Cadance. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Twilight," Cadance replied with a smile.

"Now then..." Twilight began. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING?!"

Cadance winced at Twilight's volume as she swerved a bit in surprise. "Well... That thing was a life form called an Angel. Next to nothing is known of their origins, and even less of their motives. But we do know that they want to destroy ponykind."

"Those missiles and bombs weren't hurting it," Twilight noted. "I saw barriers form around it."

"They're called AT-Fields," Cadance said. "It's a barrier that every Angel can project. It makes conventional weapons useless for anything but slowing it down."

"So how are you going to stop it?" Twilight asked, a worried look crossing her face before a giant explosion went off over a foothill that sent up a mushroom cloud. Screaming, Twilight's horn glowed and she threw up a barrier around the car right before the shockwave of the explosion hit them and passed over the barrier.

"Shock absorber and inertial dampening. You've gotten a lot better, Twilight," Cadance complimented as the shockwave passed. Only then did Twilight drop her barrier while breathing heavily. "That was the blast of a balefire bomb," she explained as she pulled into a lift, which sealed behind them and started moving downward. "By the way. Aunty sent you an ID card, right?"

"Yeah," Twilight said with a nod as she pulled out the card she'd been sent.

"That's good," Cadance said as she passed a booklet over to Twilight.

Twilight took the booklet in hand and stared at the words on the cover. "Welcome to NERV? Isn't that the organization that Princess Celestia runs? I'm going to be working with them somehow?"

"You'll see soon enough," Cadance said as they exited the lift shaft and came into the open air of the space below Canterlot.

Twilight looked out the window in awe. "Wow. The real Geofront." Her gaze fell to a pyramid at the bottom of the cavern, the corner of which was in a lake in an inverted pyramid. "And that's NERV headquarters?"

"Yup," Cadance confirmed as Twilight began speed reading the booklet she'd been given. "The key in the effort to rebuild our world, and ensure Ponykind's place in it."

Celestia sat at her desk as she watched the view screen flicker, ignoring the cheers of the fools who thought a single balefire bomb could kill an Angel. She sighed as the display came back up, revealing the Angel to be only wounded, not dead. Much of its flesh had melted away, but it was slowly regenerating. Her eyes narrowed as the Angel's faceplate was pushed upward to reveal a second one without a beak. "Luna. Have Starlight prepare Unit-01 for deployment."

Before her sister could answer, a holographic screen came up revealing a unicorn in a labcoat and suit dress with a purple mane streaked with blue. "Princess Celestia. I just got word from Cadance. She's arrived with the Third Child. As we speak, Unit-01 is being prepared for deployment."

"Good. We have some time before the Fourth Angel starts moving again," Celestia said with a smile. "I'll be down shortly."

"Understood," Starlight said before cutting the connection.

Twilight looked around as she followed Cadance off the elevator onto a dock next to a lake of liquid that looked like blood. An inflated speedboat carried them across to another dock that led up to another door. To the door's right was what looked like a locking mechanism holding what appeared to be an arm in place.

They were met at the door by Starlight. "You're a little late, Cadance." She looked at Twilight. "And you must be our princess' prize pupil. Starlight Glimmer. Head of Project E technology division, section 1."

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Glimmer," Twilight greeted with a smile.

Starlight smiled back. "Follow me. I'd like to show you something." Leading the pair inside, the door shut behind them, plunging them into total darkness. This only lasted for a few seconds before lights came on and illuminated a head armored in purple plating with green trim, a long horn extending from the front of the helmet.

Twilight's eyes widened. "What the... What is this thing?!"

"The most advanced weapon system ever developed by ponies," Starlight said with a proud smirk. "The Synthetic Equinoid Evangelion. This is Unit-01."

"And you will be the pilot, Twilight," Celestia's voice echoed from above, in a monitoring room above the Eva. She looked at Twilight with a smile, her white dress gently hugging her graceful form. "It's nice to finally meet you in person, my faithful student," she said. "Only you have the ability to pilot Unit-01."

"But... I don't have the training!" Twilight protested, looking at Unit-01 with some apprehension.

"We have enough time to give you a crash course before you go into battle with the Angel," Celestia said. "Nopony else can do this."

Twilight looked down, remembering what Cadance told her about the desire of the Angels to destroy ponykind. From what Celestia was saying, she was the only one that could pilot the only thing capable of killing them. Clenching her fist, she looked up at Celestia and nodded. "I'll do it."

Twilight shivered from the cold of the docking bay as she pulled on the plug suit she'd been provided: a purple with blue trim thing that, once the air was decompressed out of it, snugly fit her like a second skin. Made her understand why she had to strip naked before putting it on. She then slipped the headband provided to her on, the band hidden by her mane and the studs poking above it. Stepping out from behind the changing screen, she nodded to Starlight and Cadance.

"Alright. Remember, Twilight. Each Angel has a body part called the core," Starlight said as Unit-01 was lifted from the lake of what Twilight now knew to be LCL. "It's a large red sphere. That is the Angel's only weak spot. Only by destroying it can the Angel be killed."

"Got it," Twilight said before climbing into the entry plug and shutting the hatch before settling into the cockpit, further familiarizing herself with the controls as the plug was loaded into Unit-01. Once in place, the plug was flooded with LCL. It was rather disorienting at first, but Twilight quickly got used to the sensation of liquid based respiration. She blinked as the screen around her lit up in a multitude of colors before fading into a display of her surroundings.

The umbilical bridge was detached and retracted from the Eva as the arm restraints were released and pulled away, while the back was plugged with an umbilical cable to provide power to Unit-01. Twilight took to maintaining a slow breathing pattern as a lift transported Unit-01 to a magnetic catapult, a number of security gates being opened to provide a path. She felt a tremor from the surface as the Angel attacked the city in earnest, seeking to penetrate the Geofront.

Cadance stood in the command center with Starlight, Celestia, Luna, and the support team. Turning to Celestia, she looked up at her. "Last chance to abort."

"No," Celestia said with a shake of her head. "We have to kill that Angel or ponykind is doomed. Twilight? Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Twilight answered. "Let's do it."

Cadance nodded. "Alright! Launch Unit-01!" The catapult launched the Eva up through the tunnel, Twilight grimacing at the g forces being applied to her even through the LCL as the lift stopped at the surface in the middle of an empty street, the Angel turning a corner as the final restraints were released. "Evangelion Unit-01, move out!"

Twilight took a deep breath as she clenched her fist, Unit-01 doing the same. "Remember, Twilight. The Eva may have hand controls, but its movements are largely controlled by your thoughts. The entry plug slot is analogous to a circuit breaker. Once the plug is in place, the circuit connects and the Eva's body will respond to your nerve impulses as though it were your own body. So treat it as an extension of yourself." Starlight's words echoed in Twilight's mind as she pressed a sequence of buttons on her left control stick, opening Unit-01's left shoulder pylon to deploy a sheathed knife. Unit-01 reached up with its right hand and grabbed the hilt, drawing the blade, which began vibrating at high frequencies along the cutting edge.

Taking a step forward, Twilight took another breath to steel herself before charging at the Angel with a battle cry, lunging at it with her knife. Unfortunately, she found to her detriment that the Angel only looked unintelligent. Time and again, Twilight attempted to get past its guard to stab its core while also keeping the Angel from striking her in turn. But the Angel had an answer for every lunge, parry, and riposte. A more experienced fighter would truthfully have no trouble with this opponent, but Twilight had never seen combat. And though she was able to pilot the Eva without having it fall flat on its face, she had no training in actual combat.

Finally, the Angel managed to seize Unit-01's face in its left hand before grabbing the Eva's left forearm, its muscles expanding before it started pulling.

Twilight gripped her left forearm as she felt the pain of her arm being pulled, before the air was rent by a sickening crunch as Unit-01's arm was broken. Twilight screamed as the pain washed through her system and made it impossible for her to retaliate. The Angel then began ramming Unit-01's head with the spear in its arm, Twilight gripping her head around the point of impact as the pain kept her down. Finally, the armor gave way and Unit-01 was launched into a building. As the spear was retracted, it slumped over, blood spraying from the entry and exit wounds as Twilight blacked out.

"Abort mission!" Cadance yelled. "Get Twilight out of there! Eject the plug!"

"It's no good! We're completely cut off from Unit-01!" Sugarbelle reported even as she desperately tried to get the signal through to the downed Eva.

"Twilight," Celestia muttered, beside herself with worry and fear.

"Unit-01 has reactivated!" Double Diamond reported in surprise.

"It what?!" Sugarbelle asked. "That shouldn't be possible!"

They all watched as Unit-01 got up and pried its jaws open to reveal red teeth before letting out a loud howl.

"It's gone berserk," Starlight muttered.

Unit-01 knelt down and leaped through the air to land on the Angel, which after a brief struggle, knocked the Eva loose. Landing in a crouch, Unit-01 turned and charged at the Angel, which stood up in time to deploy its AT-Field, which Unit-01 slammed against and punched repeatedly before lifting its broken arm, the flesh underneath spreading to cover the forearm before vanishing back under it to reveal the damage healed.

Both hands working again, Unit-01 gripped the Angel's AT-Field and started corroding it with its own, quickly tearing right through. As it roared, the Angel unleashed a blast of purple energy that extended past Unit-01 and formed into a cross shape. Undamaged by the blast, Unit-01 grabbed both of the Angel's arms in one hand and twisted, breaking the arms before kicking the Angel into a building. Without a moment's rest given, Unit-01 charged again and tackled the Angel, pinning it before punching the core a couple of times.

Seeing that its punches weren't working, Unit-01 ripped out one of the rib like protrusions and began smashing it against the core, doing visible damage. After six strikes, the Angel moved again and wrapped itself around the Eva, the core dissolving into blood like fluid before the Angel exploded, the explosion forming a cross that extended into the sky.

"Where's the Eva?" Cadance asked weakly before the view came back up, showing Unit-01 standing with minimal damage.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Celestia smiled. "Expedite recovery of Unit-01."

"Yes, ma'am," Starlight responded.

Twilight groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. "I'm... alive? And still in Unit-01. What happened? Where's the Angel?" She looked to her right and saw the hole in Unit-01's helmet where the Angel had pierced it. It was an empty space, right before an eye grew into the space and stared at the reflection. Twilight stared blankly for several seconds before it truly registered what she had just witnessed, and she needed to react calmly, professionally, and rationally.

She screamed her loudest yet.