Neon Pony Evangelion

"And I said, 'oatmeal?! Are you crazy?!'" Twilight and Facet laughed at Pinkie's joke as they walked toward Sugarcube Corner after school.

"Pinkie have you thought about doing stand up?" Twilight asked as they reached Sugarcube Corner and went inside.

"Not really!" Pinkie chirped. "You two grab some seats and I'll grab us some sweets!" She hopped behind the counter and left Twilight alone with Facet, who pulled a chair out for her with a smile.

"Thank you, Facet," Twilight said, smiling back as she sat down.

"So how's the training at HQ?" Facet asked as he sat down across from her. "Things going well or are they a little rough?"

"It's going really well. If the simulator is anything to go by, I'm getting better and better as a pilot." She glanced to the side. "Hopefully I'll be better able to fight when the next Angel attacks."

"I'm sure you will," Facet said in a reassuring tone. "And hopefully you won't have to fight by yourself again. Dr. Glimmer tells me that Unit-00 is being taken out of suspension, and with Unit-01's success in combat, Unit-02 and its pilot are undergoing evaluation."

"Glad to hear it," Twilight said. "Will Fluttershy be able to pilot when Unit-00 is ready?"

"From what I can tell, she will be," Facet answered. "She's tougher than she looks. I'd say she was chosen as the first pilot for a reason."

Twilight was about to say something else when Pinkie returned with milkshakes and passed them around the table before sitting down. "Pinkie? How are you so cheerful despite how the world is? I mean, Applejack seems pretty affected by losing most of her family."

Pinkie looked down at her milkshake with a more somber smile. "Well... I'm actually adopted. Me and my twin sister Marble."

"Your parents died in the Second Impact?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie nodded. "My older sisters too. Limestone was with mom and dad, and Maud..." She sniffled as her mane became less poofy and more subdued in color. "Maud was at ground zero..."

"I'm so sorry I brought that up," Twilight said softly, looking at the table. It was well known that there had been no survivors at ground zero of the Second Impact.

"It's okay," Pinkie said as she smiled at Twilight. "The last time I saw Maud, we spent the whole day at a carnival, and before she left, she gave me a big hug and told me she loved me." Reaching into a pouch she was never without, Pinkie withdrew a small rock. "She left this with me too. Her pet rock. His name is Boulder, and I take good care of him, like Maud asked. He's all I have to remember her by."

Before more could be said, alarm klaxons started going off. "Attention. A state of emergency has been declared. Please proceed to the nearest evacuation point."

"That's your cue, Twilight," Facet said as they stood up.

"Right," Twilight said with a resolute look on her face.

From her seat in the command center, Celestia watched as the city transformed and assumed its fortress configuration, artillery batteries, machine guns, and missile silos taking position as a camera feed showed the approaching Angel. Where the Fourth had been largely humanoid, this one more resembled a crustacean. Bright red shell with eye spots on top, a pair of claw like arms forward of it, and a multitude of white, multijointed legs surrounding and providing protection for its core. She could only scowl as the gun batteries opened fire, their shots being blocked by the Angel's AT-Field.

"Waste of the taxpayers' money right there," Starlight said with a sigh.

"Guess these military types won't be satisfied until they fire all their bullets," Cadance replied with a scowl.

"Eva mobilization has been requested," Double Diamond reported as he hung up the phone next to his console.

"They don't get it, do they?" Cadance asked. "We'll mobilize whether they ask us to or not."

Facet glanced around the shelter he sat in, his gaze finally coming to rest on Applejack, who sat scowling next to a wall. Going over to her, he sat down. "Why are you so angry at Twilight? She had no idea your sister was where she was when she got hurt. So you can't blame her."

"She was pilotin' the thing, so sure Ah can," Applejack retorted.

"You don't seem to fully grasp the stakes of the conflict," Facet said before a shockwave shock the shelter. "Would you like to see what she's up against out there?"

"Huh?" Applejack looked at him in confusion.

"Eva pilots can go places civilians can't," Facet said. "Come with me. I'll show you what our fight is against, give you a little perspective."

Applejack thought about it for a few moments before nodding. "Alright. Show me what's goin' on out there."

Twilight winced at the G forces the launch pad put her under as she was rocketed to the surface. Unlike her fight with the Fourth Angel, this time she emerged from underground in an extension of a building that had opened facing away from the Angel, giving her the element of surprise. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes. "Deploy Field." The air in front of her shimmered as Unit-01's AT-Field materialized.

Grabbing the ready gatling gun, she quickly emerged from her cover and opened fire on the Angel, which had risen up onto the rear of its body, bullets impacting its AT-Field as spent casings flew, some crushing cars that they landed on.

Away from the fight, on a hill overlooking the action stood Facet and Applejack. "See what I mean, Applejack?" Facet asked. "The stakes are high in this fight."

"That sure is a weird lookin' thing she's fightin'," Applejack conceded as the Angel disappeared in the gun's blast cloud. Several seconds after Twilight stopped firing, a whip of light slashed out of the cloud and severed the barrels of her gun and the top half of the catapult. "She's already gettin' thrashed!"

"The fight begins in earnest," Facet remarked as he watched the battle with a serene smile.

Twilight dodged the Angel's attacks with some difficulty as she made her way to the spare rifle that had been sent up. Grabbing it, she took a few shots at the Angel. "I'm neutralizing its AT-Field, right?!" She dodged another whip, but gasped when she saw a countdown pop up at five minutes and start counting down.

"Umbilical cable severed!" Double Diamond reported.

"Unit-01 has switched to auxiliary power!" Sugarbelle reported.

Before Twilight could take another shot at the Angel, one of its whips wrapped around Unit-01's ankle and hurled the Eva through the air, the rifle falling from its hand as she fell toward a distant hill. She groaning as she recovered from the impact. Seeing the Angel coming, she was about to move to attack when she saw a pair of people between the fingers of Unit-01's left hand, having narrowly avoided being crushed. A quick magnification revealed Facet and Applejack. "Dammit!"

Turning her sight back to the Angel, Unit-01's hands shot up and caught its whips, holding them in place. She whimpered as the pain shot through her hands, which trembled as they gripped her controls. Ignoring Cadance's calls for a sitrep, she extended the entry plug from Unit-01 and opened the secondary access hatch, a ladder lowering quickly. "Facet! Applejack! Get in! Now!"

"Time to go," Facet said with a cheerful smile as he led Applejack to the ladder and scaled it with her close behind. Once they jumped into the entry plug, Twilight closed the hatch.

"There's water in here?!" Applejack asked as they were plunged into darkness.

"Ah fresh LCL," Facet sighed as the display, flickering from the damage Unit-01 was taking.

Once her friends were secure, Twilight threw the Angel back and stood up, Unit-01's hand armor melted from holding the whips for so long. Before, Twilight had been moving on adrenaline from being scared. Now? Now she was seething in silent rage. In the background, Cadance was telling her to retreat, but Twilight ignored it and drew her progressive knife.

"Twilight I gave you an order!" Cadance snapped. "Retreat!"

Twilight cut off the two way radio and charged at the Angel with a scream of rage as Unit-01's time limit dropped below a minute. Too little time to worm past the Angel's guard, so she bit the bullet and charged head on. As she predicted, the Angel speared Unit-01 on its whips. Biting her lip as she fought through the pain, she closed the distance and plunged her blade into the Angel's core, both hands pushing her right control stick forward as far as it would go to push the blade deeper. Glancing at the clock, she saw ten seconds left. Growling, she screamed as she threw Unit-01's right knee up and impacted the pommel of her knife, driving it completely into the core, Unit-01's knee guard snapping off as the core split in two, causing the Angel to disintegrate just as unit-01 shut down and fell to the ground, the Angel's blood raining down on it.

"Unit-01 has shut down," Sugarbelle reported.

"Target has disintegrated," Double Diamond added.

Despite the victory, Cadance was seething silently, glaring at Twilight's brazen disobedience. "That only worked because she was lucky."

Twilight sat on a bench in the locker room, fresh from a shower and nursing a can of coffee while Cadance stood over her with her arms crossed, looking very angry with her for the first time in Twilight's memory.

"Twilight, why did you disobey my order?" Cadance asked in a measured tone.

"Because I had to protect my friends," Twilight answered.

"Even so, I'm your superior officer in these battles and I expect you to follow my orders."

"It doesn't matter now!" Twilight snapped as she shot to her feet. "That thing almost killed my friends using my Eva. I had to make it pay. I had to make sure it could never hurt my friends!"

Cadance took a step back from the suddenly angry girl before hugging her. "I'm just glad you're alive and well. But please. In future, listen to my orders. Okay?"

"I will," Twilight answered softly as she hugged back.

Twilight entered her classroom to the sight of Applejack waiting by her desk, flanked by Rarity, Pinkie, and Facet. "Hi, Applejack. Pinkie. Rarity. Facet."

"Listen, Twilight," Applejack began as she stepped closer to Twilight, the rest of the class's eyes on them. "I've had some time think and, well... Ah want ya to hit me as hard as ya can."

Twilight gasped along with everypony else. "W-What?!"

"Just do it already!" Applejack said. "Ah ain't gonna feel right until ya do."

"She means it, darling," Rarity said as she looked at Applejack a bit distastefully.

Twilight hesitated for a moment before balling up her fist. "Well. If you insist," she muttered as she cocked her fist and slugged Applejack in the jaw with a surprising amount of strength, sending her stumbling back a step.

Applejack took a second to recover from the blow, and when she stood up, there was a decent sized bruise forming on her cheek. "Okay. We're even. Sorry Ah decked ya last week."

Twilight smiled and extended her hand to her. "Water under the bridge, Applejack."

Applejack smiled back and shook Twilight's hand. "It's AJ to Ma friends."

Twilight nodded. "Sure thing, AJ."