Falling Stars
by Rokas is a
Battletech/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic crossover. (
Not to be confused with the Fallout 3/Lucky Star crossover)
A misjump brings two very different mercenary companies to Equestria: James McKenna VII's Dark Horse Brigade and Garth O'Connell's Desperadoes. When the latter takes a piratical interest in the planet, the former finds itself at a crossroads.
Compare and contrast
The Thessalonica Legacy.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Artistic License - Biology: Simply hanging out with humans was apparently sufficient for Rainbow Dash to gain some of the digestive flora necessary to digest meat.
- Carnivore Confusion: Rainbow Dash finds bacon wonderful, disturbing the others. The humans spend some time telling Equestrians that animals in their world are not sapient like them.
- Crazy Awesome: Ivan. There is no other way to describe a man who tackles a manticore off the roof of the Royal Palace, tames it in midair and names it "Mr. Nibbles", then uses it to attack the force of griffons the manticore was trained to obey. That, and his personality is remarkably similar to that of Pinkie Pie.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Pegasus-dropped rocks cannot One-Hit Kill a 'Mech, but in sufficient numbers they can do real damage.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Desperadoes 'Mechs (all of them, plus the Dropship) severely wounding Celestia. It should be noted that they only succeeded in doing so after ten minutes of sustained fire, and Celestia got in some good hits of her own.
- Fake Defector: Seabreeze.
- Hand Cannon: Ivan's 18mm pistol.
- Heroic BSOD: Fluttershy after witnessing O'Connell's first assault. Even initially learning of "friendly" humans like the Dark Horse Brigade leaves her paranoid, given how "unlikely" something as fragile as humans could be apex predators yet so adept at killing.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Princess Luna has deep reservations about using the Elements of Harmony against the Desperadoes for two major reasons. The first is that it simply may not work, as they have never been used to do active harm to a living being. The second, and likely the more important reason for Luna and the ponies, is that there's the chance that if they do work, the Elements may very well kill the Dark Horse Brigade along with the Desperadoes. By erasing them from existence.
- Hollywood Tactics: Justified. O'Connell is at heart a thug and terrorist and not able to properly fight an equal foe.
- Horror Hunger: Rainbow Dash eats meat...and loves it. Twilight is horrified.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Twilight is weirded out by the idea of a universe functioning without magic, which is apparently one of the fundamental forces of the universe alongside gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. More directly, Fluttershy is disturbed that creatures with no obviously predatory attributes are so adept at killing though it's Ivan who breaks her out of her Heroic BSOD.
- Les Collaborateurs: Various ponies throw their lot in with O'Connell, including Trixie.
- Moral Myopia: A Desperadoes pilot gets his jimmies rustled when Rainbow Dash blows up his wingman, not caring about the casualties they have inflicted on the ponies.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Ivan, who can carry and use a massive Gatling Gun meant for Powered Armor and wrestles a manticore. And TAMES it. In midair.
- Outside Context Villain: The Battletech side.
- Redemption Demotion: Luna can't use some of Nightmare Moon's powers like turning into an immaterial wisp.
- Shoddy Knockoff Product: Invoked. The Dark Horse Brigade is an In-Universe riff of the much more famous Eridani Light Horse Brigade.
- Shout Out: James says the original Chew Bubblegum line before going to town.
- Taught By Experience: Rainbow Dash has learned to fight manticores.
- The Needs of the Many: When James is informed that the Elements of Harmony may very well erase him and the Dark Horse Brigade from existence along with the Desperadoes if they are used, he tells Princess Luna to use them if he and his mercenaries fail to stop O'Connell, as he considers the lives of himself and his company a worthwhile sacrifice as long as the thousands of ponies they promised to protect remain safe. Luna and the rest of the ponies at the briefing are visibly moved by this.
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