A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Killbles is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Pacific Rim crossover fanfic.
The Mark II Jaeger Midsummer Night is testing a prototype device when it misfires during a battle with a Category 3 Kaiju, throwing it and its pilots, the brothers Michael and Shane O'Connell, into a strange new world mainly inhabited by sapient equines...
In terms of the timeline, Midsummer Night and its crew are sent to Equestria shortly after the destruction of Gipsy Danger, and at a point in time in the middle of season four of My Little Pony (Twilight is a Princess, but still lives in the tree).
Due to chapter 8 being a major Wham Episode, with major effects on subsequent chapters that are nearly impossible to discuss without giving that particular twist away, all content for chapter 9 and beyond will be moved to their own section.
Dormant; last updated March 2018
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Chapter 1
- Continuity Nod: The first chapter establishes that Gipsy Danger was taken down not long before, which was shown in the first Jaeger fight in the movie.
- Hero Killer: Switchback is this to Romeo Blue.
Chapter 2
TBA
Chapter 3
- Foreshadowing:
- Michael asks that if Twilight is third in her class in atomic physics, why the first two aren't there, since Midsummer Night's reactor is the most important and powerful version of the technology on the planet. Twilight brushes it off and says that they're occupied. It's a hint that Equestria is scavenging the remains of Brawler Yukon.
Chapter 4
TBA
Chapter 5
TBA
Chapter 6
TBA
Chapter 7
- Prophetic Names: In chapter 7, the random name generator assigns the newly-arrived Kaiju the name, Rasputin. It turns out to be ridiculously tough, even for Kaiju.
- Ramming Always Works: In chapter 7 Spitfire crashes her zeppelin into Rasputin, finally fatally wounding it.
Chapter 8
- An Arm and a Leg: In chapter 8, we learn Spitfire lost a leg and wing crashing her zeppelin into Rasputin.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Misty Fly thinks she's better than anyone else. It doesn't help that she's an ex-Wonderbolt, which means her body can indeed cash the cheques her ego is writing.
- Berserk Button:
- Lightning Dust is getting her character slighted. Even if it is justified.
- Rainbow Dash is being called a bastard.
- Big Damn Heroes: Switchback is tearing Manehattan a new one in the first chapter. Then suddenly, Midsummer Night comes out of the ocean...
- Continuity Nod: In chapter 8 Soarin gives Spitfire who is also in hospital, just like Rainbow back then, a Daring Do book.
- '... what looked like a poster which advertised a seminar being run by a creature he could only describe as a minotaur that could’ve been Rambo’s personal trainer.'
- Foreshadowing:
- Pinkie proclaims that she'd love to pilot a Jaeger. Guess who finds herself in the cockpit once Equestria starts its own program?
- Godzilla Threshold: In chapter 8 with Midsummer Night rendered inoperable after the fight with Rasputin, the previously reluctant brothers decide that they should share Jaeger schematics with the Equestrians.
- Greeting Gesture Confusion: Michael offers a handshake to Twilight Sparkle, who just stares at his hand, confused, until he awkwardly puts it down.
- Guns Are Worthless:
- Just the same as any other conventional weapons against Kaiju. The Equestrian airship Lucky Seven fires a full barrage of rockets at the second Kaiju to try and kill it, and at worst they annoyed it. At best they gave its skin a nice matte finish.
- Slightly averted in the battle between the Equestrian Navy and Rasputin, as the heaviest guns do pierce its skin (where it's not protected by armor). It doesn't do much other than give Rasputin a few wounds that it shrugs off, but it does show that some conventional weapons can, in theory, hurt Kaiju.
- Absolutely averted when it comes to the railguns on Midsummer Night. The Jaeger was designed around using said guns, and are capable of killing a Kaiju in one hit, as Switchback showed.
- Humanity Is Advanced: in terms of materials sciences, weapons, energy production, and neuroscience (basically, everything that is part of Jaeger technology), mankind is well in advance of anything Ponykind has to offer. The energy projections for Midsummer Night's nuclear reactor are initially laughed off by pony scientists as "Fanciful." This starts to change once the ponies gain access to the wreckage of Brawler Yukon and start reverse-engineering the technology... but not as much as one would think, as their science isn't advanced enough to create some of the more well-known Jaeger weapons, like energy weapons or plasma casters.
- In-Series Nickname: Michael calls Luna "Moon-butt".
- Literary Allusion Title: An obvious one.
- Required Secondary Powers: Equestria's technology level isn't high enough to put the principles behind energy weapons into practice. It took Twilight three months of studying just to get an extremely basic understanding of a Jaeger control system.
- Shout-Out:
- The ponies have a coffee-like drink called recaf.
- There's a senator named Hammerlock.
- One of the Jaegers is named Castle Bravo.
- In chapter 17 the Jaeger diagnostic ends with "All systems nominal."
- Bile is based on Hedorah.
- The ponies are developing a double-barrelled tank named Grizzly.
- "Sometimes I think you worry too much princess, sometimes I think you just need to let it go. Quite a popular phrase I hear."
- Strong as They Need to Be: Discussed in chapter 8 when Michael wonders how Celestia can move the sun but can't defeat a single Kaiju. Pinkie can't give an answer.
- Take That!: "The AI canted boredly, oblivious to the peril the Jaeger was in. It reminded Wave Chill of a technical support ‘expert’ mindlessly droning to try turning it off then back on again."
- Tranquil Fury: Michael's reaction in chapter 8 to learning the ponies found the wreckage of Brawler Yukon and have been suppressing the news for three months.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 8 has a battle against Rasputin, which shrugs off everything until Lucky Seven kamikazes the creature, killing it. In the process of fighting the Kaiju, the Dimension-hopping device is completely destroyed, meaning that there's no way home for Michael and Shane that they know of. Midsummer Night is also so badly damaged that under normal circumstances, the thing would be scrapped, leading Michael and Shane to decide to share Jaeger technology with the Ponies so that they can fight back. Then Luna reveals that they have the remains of the very first Jaeger, Brawler Yukon, and have been studying it in secret for the last three months.
- Wham Line:Snow Blind: What are you?
Brawler Yukon AI: ...Brawler Yukon. Mark 1 Jaeger prototype.
Chapter 9 onward
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Big Mac tries to get Applejack to join the Jaeger program, she says that Sweet Apple Acres is their life. How could he walk away from that on a whim? His response is: "Didn't you?"
- Bizarre Alien Biology: In chapter 16, a griffon has altitude sickness from going down to fifty meters above sea level from his usual of four, five kilometers.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: In chapter 13 Celestia says that due to her age she sees the world differently from mortals.
- Boring, but Practical: Twilight points out that composite materials, or titanium, would be much stronger than the solid iron shells that Michael and Shane suggest for Jaeger hulls. They fire back that coating vital components, like the cockpit or reactors, in said materials would be fine, but for this trope they should use iron. They've seen that more advanced materials might be stronger, but they tend to shatter and increase repair times, while iron can be reforged or just beaten back into shape with little difficulty.
- Both Sides Have a Point: When Twilight and Lightning Dust have their verbal face-off, Twilight accuses her of nearly killing her friends. Lightning Dust fires back that Twilight was operating a civilian aircraft in restricted airspace, and wasn't supposed to be there.
- Break the Haughty:
- Invoked in chapter 10 when Soarin' and Wave Chill are subjected to a simulated battle against an infamous Pint-Sized Powerhouse Hero Killer kaiju.
- Downplayed in chapter 17. Misty Fly isn't exactly humbled per se by the fight against Bile, but she is noticeably more serious afterwards.
- Call-Back: In chapter 17 Lightning Dust shows up as a fellow trainee. In chapter 19 her Chasing the RABIT moment takes her back to the events of that episode.
- Call-Forward: In the interlude chapter, it is mentioned that Aleksis and Sasha aren't bothered by Cherno Alpha lacking a head-mounted Conn-pod and if they do go down, they will go down with Cherno together. Anyone who has seen the movie knows what's going to happen to them.
- Combat Tentacles: The Kaiju codenamed Bile has these.
- Conflicting Loyalty: In Chapter 20, Lightning Dust and Twilight meet and neither have forgotten nor forgiven. Rainbow isn't sure who she would support if the two came to blows.
- Continuity Nod:
- In chapter 12 the brothers are escorted by Flash Sentry. Also, a simulated battle is run against Trespasser, AKA the very first Kaiju through the breach.
- In chapter 16, Pinkie persuades Maud to join her in enlisting at the Jaeger Academy.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: In chapter 17, the Kaiju codenamed Bile is more or less a glorified Kaiju Blue dispenser, shedding extremities with far greater ease than all other Kaiju that have come before.
- Expy: As mentioned in chapter 20's author's notes, Daring Dragoon, with her high agility, Reflex Joints and Impact Hammers, takes clear influence from Cossack Delta from Cherno Alpha vs. the World.
- Fantastic Racism: In chapter 9 Big Mac mentally bemoans pegasi as lazy. In chapter 13 Misty Fly returns the favor by calling Applejack a "mud pony".
- Flat "What": This is Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash's response in chapter 18 to being told they're compatible.
- Fun with Acronyms:
- Chapter 11 has TYPO, or "Tries Your Patience Often".
- Chapter 16 has “Fun, Unsafe, City Killer!”
- Glass Cannon: The Kaiju codenamed Bile is pretty flimsy for a Kaiju and sheds limbs with little effort from the opposing Jaeger, but spews far more Kaiju Blue than other preceding one.
- Hanging Separately: In chapter 17 Rainbow Dash is forced to team up with Lightning Dust. It should come as no surprise that the latter's "me first" attitude causes a lot of trouble to all involved. It doesn't help that the third member isn't exactly an angel either.
- Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: Happens to the O'Connell brothers in chapter 12 over the Kaiju problem.
- Idiot Savant: In chapter 20 Lightning Streak sets up a simulated drift for Pinkie and Maud. Despite their failings in nearly every other assessment they take to it like a duck to water.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Lightning Dust tells Rainbow Dash this in chapter 18.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Celestia's reaction in chapter 13 when Shane calls her "Sun-butt".
- Insistent Terminology: In chapter 16 Mikhail calls a helicopter a "Rotary".
- It's Personal: Lotus, a senator from Bolton, gives the brothers a hard time in chapter 12 because she blames them for the Kaiju attack on her city where her wife was killed.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In chapter 10 Michael stops short of saying "massive collection of po[rn]", swapping in "podcast" when Celestia gets uncomfortable.
- The Mole: Chapter 9 suggests that the griffons have one among the ponies.
- Moral Myopia: In chapter 9 the griffon ambassador expresses displeasure about not being told about the arrival of Midsummer Night and its pilots. Yet when Celestia reminds him of his own nation's similar obligations to inform Equestria of unusual activity, he tries, however clumsily, to worm his way out of it.
- Mythology Gag: In chapter 9 one of the suggested Ranger candidates is a pegasus named Surprise.
- Torque, who works in the Manehattan Shatterdome, calls LOCCENT "The Hub," which was the name of the channel that My Little Pony G4 premiered on.
- The Neidermeyer: In chapter 12 an arrogant deck chief causes disaster when he dismisses a mechanic's concerns about a damaged crawler.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Thresher bares less resemblance to the Man-in-Suit designs of the other Kaiju and instead resembles a giant centipede.
- Noodle Incident: High Noon's clearance for the Jaeger bays was revoked after an incident involving one of Wild Mustang's rockets and her office.
- Not a Game: In Chapter 18, Misty Fly says this to Pinkie Pie. Given later chapters, she may have been right to because when Pinkie gets into a fight with an actual Kaiju in Canterlot, she keeps the fight in the city rather than moving it further away, not realizing how much damage she's causing until after the fight.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- In chapter 15 Applejack and Big Mac are surprised to find that Misty Fly is actually willing to apologise about her past brusqueness.
- In chapter 20 Lightning Streak admonishes Misty Fly with uncharacteristic cold conviction.
- When the pilots go out drinking, Applejack spots that they're serving Sweet Apple Acres cider there... which shouldn't be possible normally, since it's a local Ponyville thing. This tells AJ and Big Mac that things have changed back home without them around.
- The Griffins suddenly change their minds about the Jaeger program, instead of claiming the Equestrians were building up for a war, they suddenly want one of their own. It's the first hint that Kaiju have started to attack nations that aren't Equestria.
- Out of Focus: Once the action leaves Manehattan, Fluttershy and Rarity basically disappear completely from the story.
- Saved by Canon: Anyone who has seen the first Pacific Rim knows Sasha and Aleksis are going to survive their fight with Oska.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: In chapter 16 Spitfire gives Rainbow Dash a speech to this effect when the latter tries to make her pull herself together.
- Survivor Guilt: Spitfire is experiencing this.
- Tempting Fate: In chapter 16 Michael laughs off the possibility of a Kaiju attack while they're away for a convention. No prizes for guessing what happens shortly afterwards.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In chapter 19, in response to the mauling Tusker gave Wild Mustang, Castle Bravo filled its head with enough battleship-grade shells to cause Your Head Asplode.
- Third-Person Person: Chapter 16 has a griffon called Mikhail doing this.
- Too Dumb to Live: In chapter 19 some protesters tried to get in the way of a Jaeger drop. For better or worse, they had enough brain remaining to flee when Tusker showed up.
- Tranquil Fury:
- Michael does it again in chapter 13 when Applejack and Misty Fly get into a fight.
- Misty's voice drops into a "deathly calm" when Pinkie fakes a kaiju alert to lure her to a birthday party for her.
- Transforming Mecha: The Equestrian Jaegers can shift between quadruped and biped modes.
- Wham Line: The end of chapter 20.Michael: Offensive strategy. We’re going to hit the breach.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- In chapter 12 Soarin' chews Misty Fly out about using Applejack and Big Mac as bait during a simulated Kaiju battle.
- In chapter 13 it's Michael's turn to lay into her when she can't get the hint.
- Worf Effect: In chapter 19 Tusker takes down Wild Mustang with astonishing ease. Soarin and Wave Chill survive, but Wild Mustang is so badly damaged it's considered more economical to just scrap him and bump the two into a new Jaeger.
- Zombie Advocate: In chapter 15 Fluttershy thinks everyone is being undeservedly hostile towards the Kaiju. What makes this especially facepalm-worthy is that she first showed up in the story helping in the hospitals to treat victims of the first Kaiju attack, so she knows exactly what Kaiju are capable of.
