My Little Lagaan

Ends and Beginnings

To anypony on the ground, the sky above would prove to be an entertaining sight. Above the birds, above the clouds, out of reach of even the strongest and most daring pegasi, an irregular cavalcade of lights danced through the heavens, countless specks of brightness glimmering in the afternoon sky, strong enough to be seen even through the sun’s still brilliant rays. Had they held still, it would have been impossible to distinguish them from stars, or simply slow-moving satellites, albeit impressively bright ones. Had they flown in a single direction, obeying the laws of gravity and momentum, they might have been mistaken as a cloud of shooting stars, bits of anonymous debris lighting the coming night as they burned to ash in the atmosphere. Again, they would be considered amazingly luminescent, but otherwise nothing special.

As it were, this armada of mysterious gleams chose neither of these options, opting instead to dash here and there, zig-zagging through the vast void of space, like a swarm of innumerable fireflies soaring across an open prairie. The lights in the heavens each followed their own impossible paths, some dashing against each other in furious explosions of flare and fire, others dipping and diving through seas of smaller glimmers, like a bullet-hell played on a celestial scale.

To whatever ponies were sitting on the surface, staring up at the incredible display that graced the slowly darkening sky, it must have seemed as though, short of divine intervention, the light show could not have possibly gotten more interesting. And as it turned out, they would have been right. It certainly took an act of God (Or more correctly, Goddess) for the moon to begin rising at a little past four in the afternoon.

Despite the sudden appearance, and the abnormal speed, of the heavenly orb, the specks of light that danced across the sky refused to slow down in the slightest, their prodigious maneuvers entirely unhindered by the latest addition to the cast. If anything, the tempo and frenzy that drove their movements only increased as the silver sphere continued its ascent, its surface now alight with hundreds of tiny glows.

What came next was a combination of horrifying and… Really just horrifying, actually.

The moon, instead of completing its typical route across the sky, decided to stop, and inscribed a ghastly, gigantic grin across its pale face. If the hideous smile, complimented by an enormous pair of soulless eyes, did not attract the attention of the myriad lights, then the sphere’s new choice of direction, towards the world below, most certainly did.

Considering the impressive distance that still separated the moon from the its larger neighbor, it would be somewhat obvious to note that to the hypothetical, earthbound audience would have a hard time discerning the events that took place miles overhead, as countless flashes of red, green, and orange lit the heavens. Still, it would have been hard for anypony to miss the vermillion gleam that suddenly burst into existence, a magnificent gleam that briefly matched even the sun’s brilliance. Likewise, it would have been impossible to miss the similarly hued eruption that scored the moon’s surface, its cinnabar hued flames tearing a massive crater into the celestial orb, obliterating any hint of the sadistic smile that had despoiled it.

While most certainly impressive, the blast failed to impede the moon’s descent in any observable fashion. An impressive display of pyrotechnics, but it did precious little to slow the celestial leviathan. Its fall unabated, the moon continued to draw nearer and nearer to the earth, every minute bringing it a bit closer to a devastating collision.

And then the moon, for lack of a better word, exploded.

And then, in short order, exploded again.

As though it were a gigantic eggshell, the silver sphere was rent into pieces, some infinitesimal specks, others still massive chunks of matter, their bulk spanning hundreds of miles. With a sound of thunder, the pieces were tossed into disarray, floating out from the epicenter of the blast. Instead, however, of being evenly dispersed, floating away in a circular pattern, most of the remains were thrown away from the world far below, guided by an invisible force. In fact, not counting a few tiny meteorites, only a sole fragment was actually being dragged towards the planet, smashing through hundreds of the dancing lights as it fell. Without distinction, the collision extinguished the bright glimmers, over half a thousand explosions momentarily covering its surface.

The massive piece of the moon, roughly an eighth of the heavenly sphere, cascaded downwards, its destroyed passengers reluctantly in tow. Meanwhile, a thousand miles away, the inhabitants of the world below could do nothing but gape, staring in a fearful silence as their doom rushed closer and closer.

The lunar fragment broiled as it descended, its torn and desecrated surface set aflame by the atmosphere it tore through. Rocks melted and dust vaporized as they were scorched by unheard of temperatures, a bloody, crimson aura engulfing the incredible missile as it fell towards the earth far, far below. Exposed to air for the first time in countless ages, the stone behemoth crumbled as it plummeted, vast chunks of stellar dirt and debris peeling off its edges, each swiftly reduced to ash, then oblivion, by the scorching air that enveloped them. From far away, the harbinger of destruction might have appeared to be surrounded by innumerable meteors or shooting stars, specks of light that briefly glimmered in the night sky only to fade into nothingness a few moments later.

A thunderous shockwave tore through the air, sounding for all the world like some angelic horn heralding death and decay, as the projectile finally breached the troposphere, its descent unabated by the immense air resistance. The scarlet corona increased in size and brightness, scalding the billion billion tons of rock and debris as it fell, its crust seared black as the heat continued to rise.

External Temperature Exceeding Safety Levels. Shields Failing.

“Oh come on!” The orange-coated mare’s shout rose above the frantic beeping that accompanied the warning. Violet eyes glowered at the flashing panel, as though daring it to continue to display the flashing, scarlet words. “Not now, not now, not now!”

Safe inside a steel cockpit, the winged mare forced her hooves even harder against the pedals, willing the controls to push further than they possibly could. Despite the awkward seating that the devices required, she performed the task with limbs guided by years of familiarity, her forehooves grappling with the pedals at her chest, her hind ones with those connected to the floor.

All around her, opaque panes assaulted her with images and strings of text detailing her craft’s status, as often as not accompanied by some attention-grabbing noise. The cacophony of bleeps, sirens, and whistles was beginning to wear on the mare’s fraying nerves, as she tried to focus her attention on the monitor in the chamber’s center. Larger than the other screens, this pane spanned roughly half the cockpit’s circumference, occupying the mare’s full field of vision and stretching from the floor to the ceiling. Although parts of it were obscured by several of the smaller panels, flashing their pictures or words with as much urgency as they could muster, it was still easy to see the rock-filled view the giant screen detailed, the gray scenery tinged by scarlet waves of heat.

In addition to the cratered and blackening lunar surface that filled the display, a pair of metallic appendages, shaped to roughly approximate hooves, were grinding their way into the dust and stone, their cyan and red coloring slowly being obscured by burns and scorch marks. Cracks spider-webbed out from the giant pair of hooves as they shoved another few inches into the stone, their splintering snaps drowned out by the roar of rushing air.

Outside of the mare’s protected cockpit, the steel beast she piloted was suffering. “Standing” on the fragment’s bottom, the giant metal equine was being shoved closer and closer to the asteroid, its head and tail also dragged towards the burning surface by the awesome might of the roaring wind. Scrapes and scratches covered the mechanical creature from head to hoof, parts of its armor missing entirely, a few exposed and torn wires spitting violet sparks. Two stubs of metal, each about a foot in length and adjacent to its front legs, jutted from the mech’s back, their tips crushed and crumpled. The damage extended to the machine’s twin faces as well, a second pair of eyes and another mouth marking the front of the steel pony’s torso, as well as those on its head.

Like the planetoid it stood upon, the robot had developed its own cherry-red aureole, the crimson glow nearly obscuring the orange, red, and sky-blue colored plating beneath it, and the flickering emerald glow that lit both sets of eyes. Barely able to stand upright, the mecha struggled against the forces attempting to pin it to the ground. Unable to even lift its head, the machine was ground a couple more inches into the lunar rubble, its hooves slowly sinking into the solid rock as the planetoid continued to fall.

As though reminding the steel equine of its inevitable fate, hundreds of other pony-shaped machines littered the fragment’s scorched surface, some torn in half, others crushed flat, and still more mostly whole, with only limbs or heads missing; a few of these even managed to occasionally emit a cloud of multicolored sparks. Lifeless stone eyes blankly stared at the barely standing creature, its futile struggle reflected over and over in the thousands of empty orbs.

“Shut up!” Shouting out, the mare slammed a hoof against a nearby button. Immediately the discordant symphony of bleeps, whirrs, and whines quieted, their accompanying panels and displays switching off as well. Blank and translucent, the screens that dotted the walls of the cockpit began to retract, slipping into hidden grooves and alcoves, until only the main display remained. Left alone, with only the view of the lunar surface and the roar of air rushing past, the mare took a slow, ragged breath, before gently depressing another button.

A single panel emerged from its slot, the white silhouette of a microphone emblazoned upon its black background, with a trio of gray bars emitting from both sides of the pale shape. Struggling to keep her voice steady, the pegaus began to speak, the panel’s bars shifting to white and back to gray as her volume fluctuated.

“Can anypony hear me? Hate to admit it, but I think I’m kind of stuck here. Some backup would be pretty handy right about now.”

Pausing, the orange-furred pony waited for a response, as another panel, marked by a white speaker symbol, rose into place. As the bars on the new panel rose and fell, the mare was assaulted by wave upon wave of static, garbled white-noise echoing around the tiny space.

“Applebloom? Sweetie Bell? Applejack, Rarity?”

A brief pause.

“Pinkie?”

Silent for a moment, the pilot allowed the static to echo around the chamber, before slamming a hoof against the wall, shouting out at the top of her lungs: “NO! Don’t do this to me, not you guys too! Don’t you dare leave me; not now, not like this!”

Her voice trembling from the violent outburst, the pony finally lapsed into silence. Purple eyes gently falling shut, the winged mare allowed the hissing white-noise to wash over her, attempting to discern any words or coherent signals from the chaotic sound. There was none to be found.

“Hey, it’s no problem, right?” A labored laugh forced its way through the mare’s lips, as she slowly lowered her gaze, staring at the nothingness between her hooves. “Just the end of the world; that’s all it is. Nothing we didn’t see coming.” With one last effort, the pegasus combatted the unyielding controls, hoping against hope that this time would be more productive than any of the others. The only result was the protesting groan of metal, as her vessel once more failed to escape from the forces that imprisoned it.

“But geeze, all alone at the end of it? Got to admit, that part I did not see coming.” The mare’s hooves were barely moving as her voice trembled, the orange limbs lifelessly resting against the jostling pedals. “Didn’t think we’d get trashed that badly either. Heheh, we really got caught off guard that time, didn’t we guys?” Her quavering chuckles quickly faded away, the cockpit now silent but for her gentle breaths.

Outside the cockpit, the mecha slowly slumped forward. Whatever strength that had kept the machine standing finally failed, its knees slamming into the lunar surface with crushing certainty. Burn and scorch marks continued to creep their way across the robot, marring its legs, back, neck, and head, turning the prismatic metal black as soot. The two pairs of eyes that marked the equine mech, already flickering and waning, died completely, emerald dots fading into lifeless chunks of rock.

It was a ruined machine that lay on the fragment’s surface, joining its brethren in eternal sleep. Covered in ever-worsening battle wounds and irreparable damage, half buried in otherworldly rock and rubble, it was plain that the craft was beyond hope.

Its pilot fared no better. Her hopeless eyes were unseeing, taking no notice of the warnings that lit her displays. Her ears were dropping forward, barely reacting to the now familiar whine of the static, no longer seeking a friendly word or acknowledging signal. Her legs listlessly fell away from the controls, limply bouncing against the cold metal seat.

Sniffling, the pegasus extracted her wings from their tight confines, awkwardly wrapping the feathered limbs around her trembling form. Burying her muzzle in their soft plumage, the pony’s whispered apology was barely audible, yet the pain and sorrow it contained were still apparent. “Sorry guys… I think that’s it for me.”

THUD

With a dull boom, the stone and debris that had engulfed the mech’s legs was blown away. A massive shockwave slammed into the mechanical beast, ripping away hundreds of tons of rock, dust, and shattered metal with its insane force. All around the metallic equine, millennia-old formations and craters were reduced to nothingness, while the ruined remains of the steel army were tossed away like tissue paper upon a breeze. Yet, even as the bizarre blast continued to wreak destruction upon the fragment’s surface, the machine and its pilot remained absolutely unharmed, as though they stood in the eye of some ruthless hurricane.

Within moments, the maelstrom that air that roared across the planetoid tore away the mist of dust and debris that surrounded the mecha, allowing the mare a view of her new surroundings.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Free from its stony prison, her craft was kneeling in the middle of an enormous crater, easily a mile across, if not more. About a hundred yards from the depression’s exact center, the pegasus and her machine were perched on a gently sloping hill, one that curved perfectly around the crater’s interior. The surface that they stood upon was perfectly smooth, free of even the smallest holes or marks, as though the ground had been polished to perfection over hundreds of years.

What really drew the mare’s attention, however, was the silhouette that proudly stood in the hollow’s middle, right at the point of impact.

Its burnt and damaged armor screeching out in protest, the robot struggled to its hooves, its pilot suddenly gripping the pedals with a fanatical strength. Though the forces that had once pinned the machine to the ground had not diminished in the slightest, it took but a few seconds for the damaged mech to traverse the distance separating it from the massive, perfectly upright spear in the crater’s epicenter, the weapon’s ornate blade firmly stuck into the ground.

A slight glimmer returned to the machine’s eyes as its pilot gaped at the lance, awe filling her eyes. The conical head carved from some violently purple crystal that spiraled to a needle-sharp tip, half buried in the lunar surface. The elongated shaft, twice as long as her own mech, that tapered to a perfect pointed zenith. The polychromatic gem in the pole’s center, the one decoration that marked the armament, its color always shifting, never holding still as it cycled through every shade and hue of the rainbow.

“That… there’s no way that’s possible.” The mare’s voice was tinged by doubt and shock, as her gentle whispers fell from her lips. “I saw you… You died.”

A brief moment of silence filled the cockpit, before being replaced by an uproar of laughter. “What am I talking about,” the pegasus managed to choke out, tears of joy and sorrow staining her vision, “if anypony was going to find a way to lecture me after death, it’d be you. And I used to think Rainbow Dash was hardheaded…

“Alright, what’s the lesson this time,” she continued, her voice tinged with traces of mirth and bitterness. “What’s this week’s friendship report? Don’t ever let myself get that down? Never give up hope, even when things seem hopeless?”

In response, the lance merely stood there, unwavering despite the forces that sought to snap it in half. “Well?” The mare choked out, her laughter already fading away, “What’s the answer? What was so important that you couldn’t stay around to tell me yourself, huh?”

As the mare slumped forward, the tears that ran down her cheeks no longer held any hint of cheer. “Why’d you have to leave me too?”

Thump

The dull sound filled the pony’s ears, gently reverberating throughout her entire body.

Thump

Then again. And again.

Thump

Silently, the mare lifted a hoof, pressing it against her chest, once more closing her eyes. Inhaling and exhaling, the purple-maned pony felt the unending beating of her heart, felt the strength that pulsed through her body with every passing second. “No, that’s wrong… You’re still here, aren’t you? All of you are.”

A moment slipped by, as the mare held perfectly still. Then, a small smile drifting across her lips, she spoke once more, her voice no longer burdened by despair. “Alright, alright, I gotcha. Stop feeling sorry for myself, right?”

A small panel in the center of the cockpit, its circular display void and empty, began to gently glow as the pilot once more gripped the controls, a thin line spiraling from its rim into its exact center. As the mare began to push against the pedals, a number of small green bars began to blink into existence. Beginning in the middle of the panel, they followed the path the line laid out for them, each slightly larger than the last.

The panel continued to fill with light as the mare’s hooves grappled with the pedals, its round surface now more than halfway lit. Simultaneously, the mechanical equine rose to its full height, its gargantuan hooves digging into the ground, its head upright and staring at the lance’s gem. The black, burnt crust that marred its body began to crack and crumble away, fading into dust as the brilliant colors beneath were unveiled. The metal plates that had been so scratched and damaged, or even missing, suddenly began to glow for a moment; as the light faded away, it revealed whole, unharmed armor. Finally, two pairs of eyes, carved from emerald stones, burned with a mighty light, as the large mouth set in the machine’s chest began to open and close, mirroring the words spoken by its pilot.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it. This time, for real. Thanks for the help.”

Jokingly, the mare lifted her hoof from her chest, casually saluting the giant lance. Then, with a widening smile on her face, she bent forward, eagerly grasping the controls, pushing the pedals forward bit by bit.

“I’ll be off then. Looks like there’s something I need to take care of.”

With one final burst, the circular display filled entirely, its entire surface lit by the layers of jade bars that spiraled around it. A mighty roar burst from the mare as she pushed the pedals to the limits of their reach, her craft bending and buckling as she did. Ignoring the vast forces fighting against it, the robotic beast reared up onto its hind legs, its forehooves stretching high overhead. Laughing wildly, the mare shouted as loud as she could, her eyes gleaming with strength and renewed determination.

“Blitz! Lagann! We’ve made it this far, haven’t we? So let’s take it a little bit further!”

Metal hooves glowed green for an instant, as their form shifted and changed, growing wider and lengthening, until a pair of gleaming cones sat atop the robot’s outstretched limbs. As quickly as it had come, the glow dispersed, revealing the grooves that spiraled around the edges of the twin, pony-sized drills.

”Now, COME ON!”

As she cried out, the mare shoved her forelegs forward, each pushing a pedal along the indented grooves in the cockpit wall. In response, the mecha swung its legs down with all its strength, thrusting its new appendages into the rock with a mighty crack.

The machine began pushing against the very ground it stood upon, as the twin stubs of metal along its back began to glow with a golden light. Without warning, the steel stumps exploded outwards, a pair of metallic wings sprouting from thin air, summoned out of the nothingness. Spreading wide, the freshly created limbs extended a series of feather-like plates, their color flawlessly alternating between bright blue, light russet, and violent crimson.

Despite this flagrant breach of reality, gravity seemed to continue on as though nothing had happened, dragging the massive lunar chunk ever downwards, the ruined city below drawing dangerously close. However, all this seemed to do was encourage the mare.

“You can bury me underground, turn my friends against me, burn my home, and twist my memories. But if you think I’m going to let any of it slow me down, THEN YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!”

From underneath the mechanical wings, a large pair of engines burst forth, once more ignoring a few basic laws of physics. Simultaneously, the robot kicked up with its hind legs, as though it were doing a hoofstand.

”I don’t care what you put in my way, I don’t give a damn about anything you could possibly throw at me!”

Massive gouts of flames began to pour from the two new machines, forming an emerald contrail that engulfed the mech in its brilliant glow. The engines roared out as the metallic equine pushed with all its might against the titanic asteroid, an unstoppable force colliding against an immovable object.

”Even if my strength alone isn’t enough, then I’ll just trust my friends to pull me the rest of the way!”

Despite the sheer, overwhelming bulk of the moon’s fragment, the impossible was happening, the hundred quintillion tons of rock and rubble slowing its inexorable descent little by little. As the sole mecha continued to push, against all odds, the massive projectile finally came to a stop, the once-celestial body floating a mere mile above the scarred and ravaged world below.

“Because that’s what being a Crusader means. Because that’s what our Friendship means!”

Somehow sensing that it wasn’t yet enough, the machine’s engines kicked into overdrive, their green conflagrations swelling even larger. The lunar fragment, its descent inexplicably halted by this lone machine, rose into the air by a single inch. Then another. Then another.

”JUST WHO THE HELL…”

Within moments, the gigantic meteor was rising at an incredible rate, its miraculous ascent meeting, if not surpassing, the incredible speed of its fall. Screaming through the ever-thinning air, the piece of the moon once more developed a burning aura as it rose, not of scarlet or crimson, but a brilliant jade. The robot’s propelling fire had spread across the entire surface, setting the ruined landscape alight with its shining strength.

Breaking through the atmosphere with a thunderous explosion, the planetoid shifted, its absurd bulk rotating as its lone carrier shifted its grip. Now with a single hoof digging into the surface, the mechanical equine allowed what little air remained to drag against the missile, slowly forcing the fragment to trail behind it, the sudden redistribution of weight doing nothing to hamper its flight.

As she dragged her impossible burden along, the pegasus glared at the sea of lights that stretched out before her, filling the heavens with their innumerable ranks. As the distance between them shrunk faster and faster, the winged mare roared out one last time, her craft projecting her cry far and wide.

”DO YOU THINK I AM!”