Three months later
Rainbow Dash looked over the edge of the catwalk she was standing on, then back at her partner and Drift-mate Scootaloo. It had been just a few days over three months since the Kaiju had been stopped, at great cost. The doctors had expected that neither Pegasus would be able to fly again, Dash because she gave up some of her wing bone to help Scootaloo's tattered wings heal, and Scootaloo because of the sheer damage present.
Standing twenty feet below them, still wearing padded boots, Twilight Sparkle watched closely, readying a feather-fall spell to hit them with if they couldn't fly. Beside her, Rarity Carousel sat across a large adolescent dragon named Spike, watching excitedly. The three Apple siblings stood behind the two Pegasi, encouraging them to make the leap of faith.
Even the princesses were there, watching from the command center above. Dash bit her lip, then sprinted at the edge and leapt into the air, flapping hard. Her wings were stiff from disuse, but she had made sure to stretch them before the test, just to make sure they would still be flexible enough. The air compressed under her outstretched wings, and she soared in a wide circle, climbing with gentle flaps until she was hovering ten feet out from the edge of the catwalk.
"C'mon Scoots. I'll catch you if you fall."
The bright orange Pegasus sprinted at the edge and launched. For a few tense moments, Dash thought she would actually have to follow through on the promise to catch her. Not to mention the whole Pinkie Pie Promise thing. She had no desire to try and stop Scootaloo from having cake in her eye. The orange feathered wings caught and Scootaloo curved into the air, wings flapping softly but still keeping her aloft.
Everypony cheered as the two settled in for a gentle landing on the deck an instant before Princess-Marshall Luna materialized from the shadows under the catwalk, "Congratulations, I knew you two could do it. Now, I know you heard that the Jaeger program was not being cancelled anymore, merely reassigned and re-named," her horn glowed a deep purple and the massive canvas sheet hanging between the small flight area and the hangar at large fell to the ground in a pile of crumpled fabric. Standing behind it were Jaegers. Not full-sized Jaegers, but they each stood at least fifty feet tall, "Welcome to the Peace-Keepers, Rangers."
Dash immediately identified her New Jaeger, her impeccable eyesight picking out her name painted across the armored collar. Across from her name sat another, a familiar name, one she hadn't heard from the princesses since the first Kaiju killed her flier squad. Loyal Overwatch. Beside it stood another with Scootaloo's name on it. Sonic Deuce.
The two shot towards their Jaegers happily, tailed by three Earth ponies and the two Unicorns. Two of the Jaegers had been built to mimic and amplify the natural traits of the Unicorns, Novel Presdigitation and Diamond Paladin. Three more were built to mimic the Apple family, Zap Apple, Oaken Shield, and Honest Truth. The ponies all charged into their Jaegers, scrambling up the ladders and through hatches into the conn-pods. Dash, being the fastest of them, reached hers first.
"Princess, why's there only one Pon in here?"
"One Pilot, one Pon," the smooth Russian accent pushed through the radio and Dash smiled, "Soarin, Spitfire. I was wondering when the two of you would show up," she looked out the side window, realizing how much smaller these conn-pods were. Sure enough, there stood two Jaegers with the Russian camouflage scheme.
"Meet Sky-Cracker and Northern Winter," Spitfire spoke slowly, "The Princesses called us back here, told us they suspected another attack was imminent, and that they had replaced the Jaegers."
Dash snapped back to the front viewport, "Princess Luna?"
"She speaks the truth, Ranger Dash. Scans detected another breach. It was suspected that it was into the same universe. However, this time we have the advantage. Between myself, my sister, our niece, and a couple of my old friends and enemies, we were able to reverse the flow of the portal. It is however, only one way. I am afraid we will probably never see each-other again."
Dash heard a gasp from at least two other Jaegers. This was a suicide mission, of sorts. Dash waited for the murmured concern to fade away before voicing her own, "Marshall, This is a suicide mission, am I correct?"
Luna nodded, and Dash continued, "So I assume we'll be sent with enough supplies to last however long the mission will last."
"Indeed. You will be joined by one other Jaeger before you go, one Pinkamina Pie, piloting Cheerful Penitence."
Rarity gasped, "Whatever inspired that name?"
The sight of the other Jaeger stomping in from another part of the hangar answered her question. The pink party-pony had a Jaeger that looked almost more like a buffalo than a pony, but still the brightest pink she had ever seen.
Pinkie didn't speak, but joined the lineup of the other nine Jaegers, making a total of ten. Luna smiled, "Now then, Rangers. The breach awaits. We can only hold it open for several more hours, so you must deploy at once. Good luck, and may our parents guide you."
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Ten Jaegers arrived at the portal all at once, the pilots looking into the gap torn in the ocean floor. The timer all ten bore read less than five minutes, but all ten hesitated anyway. "Who's going first?" Dash queried the group, while trying not to show that she was as scared of never coming back as they were. Seconds ticked down before Pinkie finally leapt into the breach with a squealed "GERONIMOOO!"
Dash followed, nose-diving in, Scootaloo hot on her tail. Twilight dove in, tailed by Rarity, who sobbed out a depressed sounding, "Goodbye Spike!" A few more seconds passed, then Applejack followed. Her big brother leapt through with a calm "A-hup." The clock continued to count down, and the portal became distressingly shaky looking. Not having contact with the surface, they had no way of knowing how accurate the timer was. Applebloom dove in anyway with thirty seconds on the clock. The portal reacted by collapsing and flinging the two Russians away in opposite directions.
Both Jaegers returned to the surface, flapping heavy metal wings to take to the sky again, "Princesses, Units One through Seven and Ten passed. Mission objective Alpha achieved."
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Dash tumbled head over hooves as her Jaeger was spat out of the breach right onto a rough rocky surface. Completely underwater, of course. She recovered quickly, rolling to meet the rock hooves first, and using her wings to create a still area where Scootaloo was able to land. The heavier Pinkie already sat in a ready position on the rock.
Behind her, she could feel the ripples as the two inexperienced Unicorns collided with the surface, off balance and wobbly. The three Apples landed with resounding thumps, and she smiled. She waited for the sound of the other two hitting, but after almost a minute, nothing appeared. "Soarin? Spitfire?"
"They didn't get through, sugarcube. One objective complete, and we've already lost two Jaegers."
"I know. We can't keep losing Jaegers like that. Something's gotta change. But first, we need to figure out where we are."
An eerie face with too many eyes and not enough muzzle floated up in front of her Jaeger, and Dash instinctively smacked it. Fortunately, from the look of the Kaiju it fell off, that was the appropriate response. Unfortunately, the Kaiju out-massed all ten Jaegers, probably even combined. "Remind me how the Princesses thought smaller Jaegers were better?"
Pinkie suddenly let out a laugh that sounded like a combination of comedic and absolutely insane, followed by the very familiar roaring of sub-surface missiles tearing through the water. She hit the deck, metal wing pressing Scootaloo down with her as the Kaiju was introduced to the armament of the Cheerful Penitence.
"DROP IT!" Dash hollered, taking command again, and directing the Jaegers to gang up on the Kaiju, smearing it across the underwater island. Moments after the Kaiju fell, Twilight peered over the edge, where the body had fallen.
"Hey, Mares, I think we might have a problem on our hooves. Gravity inverts itself. Also, I don't see any water on the other side," She stepped over the edge and kicked out her hooves as she found herself standing on a dry slab of rock, "Come on, I found something."
The others followed, rolling around the edge and coming to rest on the dry, flat expanse, one that stretched far further than the other side of the rock had. On top of that, it tingled the same way the breach had. "Another breach dear?"
"I believe so. We may be in yet another world. What do we do now?" Twilight stared at the expanse of land, broken only by the pool of water they had stepped out of, one that seemed impossibly small for the size of the Jaegers coming through it.
She didn't really get a chance to get an answer, as a massive machine, as tall as the original Jaegers, but bipedal, like a young dragon, stomped up to them. It was six times their height, but Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate. She leapt into the air and flew up to the thing's face, hooves crossed. Her Jaeger emulated the movement, hooves crossed angrily, Plasma cannons already starting to form out of the shifting plates.
The monstrous machine dropped to one knee and placed both stubby claws behind it, concealing all of its weapons. The universal peace gesture that Twilight recognized from history books detailed the years before the Princesses took the throne. "Rainbow Dash, Stand down."
Dash dropped her hooves to her side and the Plasma cannons retracted, "Fiiiineee…" Her voice indicated that there was nothing fine about it, but she did anyway.
From the machine, a voice burst the silent air, "You aren't Kaiju. What are you?"
Twilight recoiled in shock as the thing spoke perfect Equestrian, with a bit of Manehattan lilt to it even. No race she knew of would have such an unstable looking design though, save one, one that the history books told her had disappeared nearly fifty millennia ago, five millennia before Celestia's mother took the throne. Hyoomanes.
"Are you Hyoomane?"
"Human, yes?" The machine responded, "At least inside the Jaeger We're human."
"How many of you are in there?" Dash was starting to get curious about this creature that Twilight seemed to know about, but she had never heard of.
"Only two. Myself, and my Drift-partner, Zeus Cassidy. My name is Tobias Judd. What's yours?"
"Rainbow Dash, Best flier in Equestria."
The machine nodded, and Dash swore she could see the brilliant white suits of the pilots through the mirrored glass, "Alright. I assume that your machine is in your own image?"
"Is yours?"
"Yes."
"Alright then. Zeus, could you check the oxy-system. I think I might be hallucinating," a pause, "Well then, I suppose we ought to check this out. Miss, do not panic, we are going to shut down and step out of our Jaeger. We would appreciate if you would extend the same courtesy."
Dash dropped to the ground and followed Twilight's moves, shutting down the reactor and disconnecting her harness, carefully setting it up for rapid re-fitting. She crawled out the hatch and flapped her way up to the shoulder as Twilight grabbed all the non-fliers in a teleport ring and hauled them up to the top of the flat-headed machine. Dash still beat them to the top, though Scootaloo didn't. The Hyoomanes stood twice the ponies three foot height, and Dash found herself instinctively hovering to look them in the eye.
The taller of the two knelt and looked into Twilight's eyes, "I can't believe I'm looking at a real live Technicolor talking pony!"
"I can't believe I'm talking to a living specimen of a fifty millennia extinct species."
"Well, that's good. Let's share our disbelief. Would you like some crackers?"
Twilight held out a hoof and took the offered bits of dried bread. They were crunchy, like they were stale, but tasted fresh, "Why do they feel stale, but taste good?"
"It's the way they're cooked. Dried completely. It makes them a bit harder to chew, but they keep a lot longer. We also keep Beef Jerky. It's like the same thing but made out of cow. Uh, you can't eat that, can you?"
"Nope. But some of the Griffons I know ate something similar. They called it salted deer-steak. I don't think it was actually deer though. That would be bad, since they're a sapient species."
"I see. So, what species where you come from are sapient?"
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AN::I think I'm going to leave it here. Anyone who wants to continue the story is welcome to use my characters and Jaegers in their stories, as long as they give credit to me for the Jaegers. I could care less about the human characters.