The perimeter was secure according to the computer, not that Button Mash trusted completely on what was displayed; he may be young he knew that enemies could come up from anywhere these days. As the war became worst and worst and more people were put in danger, everyone had to be more careful and keep their eyes open, that’s why Button felt way more nervous this time around. It was one thing to practice in the simulation vehicle, spending hour after hour getting in synch with his own vehicle, but it was different to be inside a real cockpit, inside a real Mechanized Army System; the weight in the controls had been the jolt Button needed to know he wasn’t in a simulation and that the dangers were real.
Although Button was nervous, he got comfort in the fact that he was using one of the greatest weapons that the Earth Government had developed to fight the rebels; the Gundam Arcana that had been given to him was one of the greatest MAS units ever created and it was given to him. It was clear that the army was expecting great things from him, basically giving him a one of a kind weapons and saying, go get them tiger; it made the young boy feel like a hero, like a kid on one of his videogame, being chosen by fate to save the world; it was scary, but it was a feeling that Button enjoyed, knowing that the world depended on him and that he was not going to let them down.
Maybe he should have been careful with what he thought, after all, Murphy was a telepath and his law will always find a way to screw you over. So with that said, Button’s systems were in high alert in a second, making every single unit guarding the harbor react, looking everywhere and asking for instructions from the control tower. Just as one of the MAS began to prepare for the eventuality of finding the enemy, the head of the humanoid robot was blown away, making the metal tower tilt over until it felt down; a second later, in front of Button, the MAS began to caught fire and then, it exploded, sending debris flying through the open harbor and flames through the air.
Quickly, the dozen soldiers, minus the one that had died, began to search and scan for the sniper that had taken their ally down when other enemies appeared on the battlefield. It was a white and purple MAS unit alongside a dirt colored one with camo print; with two low legs with tank treads and a flat body, it was a quick recon unit that had been heavily modified due to the two Gatling guns mounted on the sides; it was basically a tank that could move fast across the battlefield and it made a display of it by the two Puppy-Type units quickly running across the harbor and opening fire with their guns, ripping apart several of the MAS that were still unprepared for the quick advancement of the troops.
Button started the twin engines on the back of his Gundam and gained altitude, using his own machine gun to answer back, making the tan Puppy-type stop to avoid the barrage of lead that Button was sending, but instead of finding the target in his shoots, the enemy simply veered away from the open sections of the hangar and began to zigzag around the streets.
Just as Button was about to keep the chase something behind him caught his attention; alarms appeared on several monitors inside his cockpit while red lights activated. Button had never seen that kind of reaction on the simulation before and didn’t know what was going on until from the sea, like a monster from a movie, a figure rose from the depths sending water everywhere and making his pause mid-flight due to the sheer disbelief of what he and the other soldiers were seeing.
A tall metallic MAS with armor painted blue, white and red with a humanoid face, the mouth hidden and in the top a crown like the unit being used by Button; this was no mass produced unit, this was a Gundam too, one that didn’t lose time, quickly moving after the units that haven’t chased after the two Puppy-type MAS. In a flash, it took its machine gun and began to attack, reaching two of them in the initial attack and then -much to the surprise of Button who have started to follow the Gundam- it used a tread system like the Puppy and began to move even faster across the battlefield.
Button knew this was the moment where he will show he was the hero, that he, Button Mash, could defeat the enemy and save the Earth from dangerous terrorist and rebels; using his machine gun, he began to follow the Gundam, but once again he was surprised when instead of being hit and maybe slowed down, the Gundam quickly moved around, as if it already knew where Button was going to attack, moving across the streets and as he dodged, taking apart all units that were close to it.
Once the Gundam stopped, it alongside the two Puppy-type units were the only ones that had survived the short battle, with only Button surviving, but it was alright, sometimes the hero had to fight alone to show his true power, sadly for Button, this was not an anime or a videogame, also, he had forgotten about the sniper since the next shot from afar went through one of the engines that kept him in the air. Like a block of lead, the Gundam Arcana was send plummeting against the concrete floor of the harbor.
Once Button recovered consciousness, he knew that the Gundam had suffered damage on its systems as several monitors showed incomplete code or had bugged; knowing he had no other option he got out of his cockpit, with gun in hand, ready to defend his land, but the moment he stepped outside everything he wished or dreamed ceased to exist as a bullet went through his forehead and came out as quickly as it entered, sending grey matter behind him.
As the body collapsed, Sunset Shimmer put the gun back on its holster and jumped down from her opened cockpit; as she did that she heard the two Puppy units opening two with both Rarity and Gilda coming outside with her now that all enemy units had been dispatched. The redhead kneeled across the young boy’s corpse and checked his wrist, quickly finding the bar code and number underneath it that had been tattooed on the boy.
“What did you find Sunset?” the southern heavy voice came from the trio’s communicator.
“One of Button’s clones was using the flying unit, nice shot by the way AJ,” if there was one thing Sunset was tired of was seeing clones of kids being used in the battlefield, sadly she knew that Cinch will continue to use them since they were cheap to make and even faster to send to the front. If there was one thing she knew about Cinch was that she didn't see clones as people, merely more tools to use.
“Well, guess these idiots didn’t even know what the hell they were doing here,” the tall and imposing girl known as Gilda said as she kicked one of the legs of the red humanoid MAS that the Button clone was using “I don’t think they even knew that this thing is a fake,” she said as she began to laugh aloud, clearly finding the whole thing hilarious.
“I don’t know about you darling, but making your soldiers believe you are being defended by a Gundam is low enough that I can believe it was done by design by Cinch,” Rarity had a keen eye for details and after the last few years she had grown used to different MAS types and could recognize them; not only that, but she was good enough to see differences in them and even if they had adjustments or upgrades “to make Orga engines look like Psylon ones is bad enough, but to remodel an old Valhalla-Unit and make it look like a Gundam, that is low.”
“Well, Gundams are expensive to make, so I suppose she wanted to use them as decoys in a battle; that alongside the clones are a cheap source of manpower that Cinch can then exploit across the planet.”
“Remind me to put a bullet on the good fer nothin’ bitch,” Applejack’s words didn’t surprise them, after all, the rest of the group all had the same dream, maybe one day it will become reality. But for now, they something more important to do and that was to finish the mission, first finding the Hangar that they were looking for and then opening it up after seeing if there were any traps or hidden dangers.
As the doors of the hangar were open, the three girls, with Applejack getting closer now that she didn’t have to keep her sniping position, found dozens of kids, all of them scared at the sound of the door being opened, but soon their faces showed relief and in some of them there was true happiness as they saw the symbol on the girl’s uniform. It was a horse, standing on its two back legs, proud and powerful; it was the symbol of those that had survived the initial destruction of the Canterlot School Colony.
The year is 065 EF, 65 years after Earth’s Fall; space had become the home of Humanity, but not in every planet that they colonized things were okay. With the galaxy such a big place, there was no way to get a centralized government so every colony was independent. In the world that many have called Equestria, things had gone from bad to worse; with a massive war erupting between three different governments and the war’s conclusion still far away. Two years ago, Canterlot School Colony had been one of the first casualties in the war and things had become grim since then, with civilians being left undefended by tyrants and conquerors; now, in a war scarred world, Sunset and the rest of her friends kept fighting to protect others and to one day, stop the war for good.
On the main ship of the Canterlot survivors, things were starting to get hectic as they began to prepare transportation to the kids that they had saved from becoming soldiers at the hand of Cinch. One of those that were in the bridge, one Twilight Sparkle knew very well how dangerous the woman obsessed with her Legacy and winning the war could be, she knew very well as she kept looking at her wrist and the code bar on her arm with the number 136 tattooed underneath it.