Neo-Equestria Evangelion

Neo-Equestria Evangelion

Chapter Three:

'Angel with(out) a sense of mercy.'

"She's gone, Applejack. She's not coming back, I can't be happy anymore... but I can still help."

The ground rumbled beneath the pounding of a behemoth's hooves, buildings shook on their foundations, the night was pierced by a bestial roar of fury. Eva was awakened. The purple armored construct charged towards the very creature that had just run it though, its remaining eye shone bright red like a beacon in the night.

The Evangelion launched itself off of the ground, folded backwards onto itself in an unsettling caricature of an acrobat, joints moved and twisted in ways never intended, and landed hooves first on the avian monster. The pavement split under the force of the impact, the monster was driven backwards and down, into the broken street.

The Evangelion let forth a cry of pure enraged agony that pierced to the bone. The monster reached its arms up to defend itself as the mechapony pounded at it with its forehooves, the metal shod extremities pistoned into the red orb in the center of the avian horror's chest, cracks formed as the creature screamed.

Evangelion's primal rage would not be denied, no quarter given, the rain of hoofstrikes continued without remorse. The skull-masked horror seemed to sense there would be no reprieve, no chance of victory, even when the initial skirmish had ended so favorably.

It made the only decision it could, given the circumstances, the tables had turned, the battle could not be won. But, that did not mean it had to be lost; as the cracks spread through the creatures core, the leathery skin pulled in all at once, and the creatures form shifted, it wrapped around and encased the head and upper torso of the Evangelion, one last final scream into the night, one last refusal to submit to a greater strength: the creature detonated.

The flash turned the night into day, blinded the cameras feeding the HERD control room. The shockwave followed, trees were ripped from the ground, cars, motorcycles, and buses were tossed about like leaves in a storm, windows were shattered, houses were ripped from their foundations.

Slowly, one by one, the cameras came back up, the control room was silent. The high resolution displays cleared, and slowly the cameras went into focus, the picture cleared. Unit-01, the purple Evangelion, piloted by a meek young mare named Whisper, was standing passively in the center of the destruction, gazing towards the bridge crew as if it was actually staring at them, and not just a trick of the camera angle.

"What... have we created?" Vinyl whispered softly to herself as she stared slack-jawed at the fruits of her labor, her engine of destruction.

"Life signs... are positive, the pilot is alive." Sweetie Belle announced as her monitors lit back up with telemetry from the unit. "A-10 connections offline... plug monitors eight through nineteen are down... She's unconscious" the unicorn finished finally.

"Alright, looks like we live to see tomorrow. All teams, work on recovering the pilot, keep me updated." Rainbow Dash ordered before turning away from the massive overhead displays, away from the technicians logging data and writing up damage reports.

Away from the travesty she'd been forced to be a part of. "But that's the price of survival isn't it, our souls" she muttered under her breath as she walked into the lift. She leaned against the wall when the doors closed, her eyes closed in thought as the stress of the day caught up with her.

"Damn it Twi... why did you have to leave..."

~~

Whisper's eyes opened with a sharp intake of breath, the world slowly drifted into focus. She was mentally and physically exhausted and without a reason easily within her grasp. Her eyes drifted into focus on the off-white ceiling tiles.

"Unfamiliar ceiling, again..." she said softly as she remembered waking up each morning in a bed not her own, a room in a building not her home, as she made her journey to New Canterlot. Her body felt sore, but nothing she couldn't deal with, nothing she should have been in a hospital for, and yet that's where she found herself.

She sighed and sat up in the bed and pushed the sheets down off of her. The room was small, efficient, modern. 'I wasn't really expecting any of this...' she thought with a quiet humorless laugh. Leaving her home, her parents, being expected to fight a war. She was just a filly, if only just; that time in a mare's life when she's between childhood and adulthood, a time for making friends, growing as a pony...

"But here I am." she said softly, her eyes staring down at her forehooves. Memories of the battle swam through her mind, foggy, fuzzy, but there. 'Was all of that by my hooves?' she thought as she rolled her hoof back and forth on her fetlock.

She heard the door latch click open and turned her head hurriedly to the side, the pegasus from before was standing there, smile on her face that seemed hollow, her lying lips betrayed by eyes of sadness. "I remember last time I was in a hospital. Years ago, crashed while flying, broke a wing. One of my best friends gave me a new appreciation for the written word that week." She said as her face shifted, the smile less dishonest as she remembered.

"Mom told me that story... I think." Whisper said, her unease slipping as she breathed in the filtered hospital air, "It... seemed like she was happier then."

"I think we all were. Let's get you out of bed huh?" the technicolor pegasus said, changing the subject as she stepped closer, "I've got a car waiting, I want to show you something important."

~~

The car tires crunched the gravel as Rainbow Dash turned the car off the mountain road onto the berm. Beyond was the guardrail and the cliff, after which was New Canterlot in all her splendor. Late afternoon sun reflected off of glass and steel and stone.

"I wanted to show you this. I could stand here and give you some speech or something, but... I think just seeing it will mean a lot more to you." Dash explained as she opened the gull-wing door of the blue car. The gentle wind rustled her hair as she climbed out, and for a moment she let herself remember better days.

The younger pegasus climbed out of the other side of the car after managing to work the door latch, her own unfamiliarity with the machines slowing her egress. She trotted over to the cyan mare and stood next to her, both overlooking the city bathed in the warm glow of sunset.

"I wanted to show you what you're fighting for" Dash said simply and gestured her forehoof towards the city, "because you were brave enough to make that first step, it's still standing, and all the ponies in it can keep going."

"I... I'm not brave... I was scared, so scared... but I couldn't let that other pony go, she was hurt... so I had to." Whisper deflected the praise, feeling undeserving of it. 'Who am I to be called brave... just a scared little-'

Dash chuckled lightly under her breath, for once her mirth wasn't a lie, "Courage isn't being without fear, it's pushing forward for something that matters in spite of your fear. I think you are very brave, Whisper. Just like somepony else I used to know."

Whisper turned her head over and up to look at Dash, her questioning eyes open wide, "Who?"

Dash turned and smiled a genuine smile and put a hoof on the smaller orange pegasus's shoulder, "I think you might have met her; butter yellow coat, pink mane, my age, goes by the name Fluttershy."

Whisper blinked and then blushed, turning her head down "I.. I think I might know who you're talking about," she said as she giggled quietly despite herself. 'So she thinks I'm like mom...'

Dash rubbed her hoof in the adolescent's mane and turned back to the car, still grinning as she thought happily on better times, "Come on then, let's get you home."

"Home?"

"My place."