The mobile suit that the Chancellor had mentioned was finally delivered to the Cloudsdale, a Clop class cruiser that was operated by the 265 and where the Federation's Black Tristar stationed on.
The suit made a huge impression towards the crew when it was unloaded onto the main hangar. It’s dark blue paint reflected the lights of Equestrian sun, while the Gundam face made it look like it concentrated all its power to prepare for a fight.
“This looks like a Mark II Gundam, but on steroids!” Nikita said “Extra armor, different heads,…”
“It’s the Psycho Mark II Gundam!” the Chancellor came and said. The black coated unicorn, now with a strange metallic mask on his face, comes and meets his most favorite pilots.
“Have a good morning, gentlemen?”
“Yes, Sir!” Joseph said “We are checking on our suits. But… why do you want to do this yourself?”
“Having some thrill yourself is harmless, don’t you think?” the Chancellor answered while facing his MS, “this thing gonna help us a lot! Don’t you see there is some more stuff coming along with it?”
He pointed his hooves to a particular container being transported into the main hangar.
“That’s the psycho jammer…” he said “A kind of weapon that creates a psycho field. Anything that gets into the field will be disabled immediately. Have you all heard about this?”
“I… I think I’ve heard about that?” Nikita said “Do you know about the story of the Damascus, Lieutenant?”
“The time that they try to catch an MS running wild fails?”
“Sounds like it!”
“What do you mean?” Black Wine asked.
“It's just some failed Federation mission, Sir! I’ve heard they use a weapon that was named just that…”
Suddenly, he realized something.
“You… You gonna use it here, Sir?”
“Exactly!”
Joseph still remembered his shock when he saw the battle video that one of the MS, stationed on Damascus, recorded. Two gigantic flying gun suddenly turn into a claw, rapidly grabbing a gold-painted mobile suit and bring it down. The suit that was captured looks like it has some kind of pain, and when the field with it crashed down, the powerful golden MS was nearly disabled, under a bright rainbow-colored field.
“I’ve also saw it performance from AE themselves!” the Chancellor said. The weapons that John himself is going to see in person, slowly revealed itself “…AE said they have gone through similar cases in their world, so my assumption is this gonna go exactly as planned.”
“But… I’ve heard they failed…”
“The pilot who operated that thing didn't even know his weapon's full potential, and he was also forced to do it. I think with me taking the helm, it should be just fine!”
…
In that evening, the ship decided for Haystack and his team to hold drill, just outside of Zebrat shores to test the suits as well the pilot ability.
It was a calm flight for Flash in his Strike Zeta. According to the mechanics, the drill will also test some navigation and weapon systems on the suit, so he will have to concentrate on the statistics that are shown in order to make sure all of them work well.
“So this is the twilight of Zebrat…” Flash mumbled.
“Hey Flash, does your suit work well?” Haystack said “We’ve just replaced all of the unfixable armor on that thing. Thanks Celestia. All suits, maintain course!”
Back on the bridge, Discord brought with him a cup of tea and casually drank it. Farasi's tea is one of the most delicious to him, despite sometimes being ``a little bit too salty”, as he describes.
“These are the salt that can help you concentrate, Discord…” Zecora told him when first tasting the tea that was made by her “I know you are easily distracted, Captain!”
“Nah… It’s just Twilight who tells you that! If I’m being distracted that easily, S.M.I.L.E have not qualified me to sit on that chair.”
And yet he still buys some packs of it. He thinks it would be a fun experience if he could prank some of his friends with this kind of tea with some extra salt.
“Pinkie gonna love this…”
But, his thought was cut short when a dragon communication operator reported.
“Captain, we’ve just received a distress signal!” she said “… It was an airship, 20 kilometers at 9 o’clock!”
“What do they say?”
“Please help us! We have VIPs on board!”
“Send the message to the Haystack team and tell them to check that airship!” Discord ordered. “But be careful, it could be a trap.”
It was an old looking flying machine, floating in loneliness above the ocean. It’s sails were torned, some of it’s hull pieces were lost, and the ship looks like there are no creatures on the helm.
The ship also happened to be titled to the port side, which meant it could fall down into the sea at any time.
“It looks like a dead airship…” Flash mumbled.
“We should get to that thing as fast as we can! Canterlot, request assistance!”
…
After just a few minutes, with the airship being tidied to the Canterlot starboard side, the crew can safely embark the ship and bring back the creatures.
Turns out, it is carrying the one who ordered S.M.I.L.E to carry out Operation Rainbow Chaser herself, Lady Rainbow Dash. She was not in good shape, since the airship was “probably attacked by pirates” , as Discord said. She and some of the survivors were instantly brought to the sick bay.
“Pirates attack? Could be… But do you think there are 265 involved in this?” Haystack asked Lyra and Bonbon.
“Well… I doubt that!” Lyra answered “I’m asking our inspector to check out the ship and make further investigation. Anyway, Lady Rainbow Dash will have to go back to Equestria. We’re calling the Royal Guard at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Flash decides to have a look at the airship itself. Right from the Zeta, he jumped on to the roof of the starboard side hangar and inspected the wreck.
This gives him a clearer view of the heavily damaged airship. The wooden flying machine sustained multiple machine gun shots. His speculation is that they are shot with a large caliber machine gun, the 60 millimeters Vulcan gun to be exact. There is even a long burn mark that goes all the way from the front of the elevator to the nose cone baetens,indicating that some beam weapon has been shot as a warning to the airship itself.
“Pirates in this world can have mobile suits?” Flash thought, as he looked to the burned patch on the balloon itself, revealed the frame of the balloons.
“So this is why it is titled to the port side? Guess some of the gas has gone away…”
Then, when he saw nobody was noticing what he’s doing, he decided to jump onto the main deck. The wooden platform made some grinding sound as he landed. Then, he carefully opens a large door that leads to another deck below, and he checks again whether another creature is looking at the ship: the guards are busy chatting with each other on top of the starboard hangar. Right after he opened the door, a power smell came up, going right into nose, causing Flash to cough.
“Mus… Mustard?” he mumbled
But it did not last for long. Then, he had to open another door that led to a hallway. The lights flickering above as he opens the heavy metal door.
However, there are some voices that immediately catch his attention.
“Come to the navigation room…”
It was Butter Burger’s voice ,come at him like he his whispering right behind his back, but as Flash turned around, no one is standing on the main deck.
“Who’s… who’s that…”
Then, the source of the voice changed from behind to in front of him. He could see no one doing it, despite the light inside still shining.
“Come to the navigation room… Come here… now!” the voice whispering, trying to call Flash to step further inside as if he is in trouble. At this point, Flash could no longer hold his urge to go deeper inside the broken airship.
It takes not long for him to find where he is speculating as the source of the voice, as he reaches the navigation room that has the door let open. The room is located in another deck above, which requires him to climb up to a stair.
The mustard-like smell was quickly replaced by a strange rose perfume as soon as he came in.
Again, he can see no one…
The room was suppose to be a second bridge for the airship when the closed main bridge on top was heavily damaged. The main bridge is what distinguishes the airship compared to older models as they only have an open bridge, which could easily be exposed to harsh weather conditions, let alone some fights.
But suddenly, the voice came up again, this time, it came from every corner of the room.
“Look down your feet!” the voice said. It emphasizes the word “feet” and lengthens it.
“Look down your feet!” the voice repeated, this time with a more urging accent. Flash decided to do what the voice said.
A normally look, brown covered notebook lying on the floor, it’s spine facing one of the radars. He carefully took it up and flicked off some of the dust on the cover. With his curiosity gradually increasing, he opened it.
It was a diary that was written by not just one, but several teenage creatures. He could see with his eyes some photos of creatures that have their looks exactly like the creatures that he has seen in previous nightmares. Right after the first image, he had to close it.
Then, realizing he shouldn’t be here any longer, he immediately left the airship by the same he had got in. The airship is really unstable, according to some engineer that survived the attack on it as well as some mechanic of the Canterlot, leaving it as soon as possible is a wise choice to him.
In that late night, the Pegasus class cruiser decided that it have enough supply, decide to head off to Equestria again, hoping it can take another opportunity. Flash decided to look at Zebrat for another time before the clouds could hide the city skyline with it’s thick moisturized water.
After the dinner, Flash sighed in relief to find out no creature realized his absence. He was supposed to present at the hangar for a daily maintenance check, but in that evening, no creatures decided to check attendance, so he was free from punishment.
He decided to keep the diary a secret. He had once kept in mind to study the diary further, but that night, the Lieutenant required his crew to supervise the maintenance of the suits, so he had to keep it for tomorrow.
…
“What’s… what’s going on?” he asked himself while looking around the hallway.
The Canterlot Castle hallway is one of the sites that he has been familiar with since he started his career in the Royal Guard. The first time he worked there was to guard Her Highness, Princess Cadance, on a trip to see her sister in law, also the then future ruler of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle. He remembered the shock and awe as he trotted along the hallway, decorated with colorful stained glass and bust of famous ponies. But the hallway he is seeing is a little bit different than the one he remembered, indicating that he has gone to another time which can be far away into the future. He could tell by seeing some of the stained glass are portraying creatures defeating villains or the life in a diverse Ponyville.
At the moment, in the middle of his dream, he is questioning whether or not the creatures are pulling out another trick on him.
Then, finally, they appeared. They ran past him in a hurry, breathing continuously as they ran in panic and desperation. Flash, realizing he is in some sort of lucid dream, decides to run after the panicking creatures.
“Luster, this way!” the griffon named Grisela said “There is a secret passage that could lead us out of the castle!”
“What’s… What’s going on Luster?” Spring Garden asked “Aren't they the Chancellor’s Guard?”
“Yes, they are… But, why do they decide to chase us?” Luster replied “Didn’t you know about Black Wine pretty well, BB?”
“Well… My family did some business with him…” the yellow earth pony answered in nervousness “What happened?”
They finally reached a secret door and every creature climbed out. He followed them outside to an outdoor walkway. While they are still trying to find an appropriate escape route, another group of Black Wine’s Guards appear right behind them.
“Oh no! They know where the secret door is?” Grisela asked.
“I don’t know! Just… keep… running!” Luster Dawn replied, her voice has already shown some sign of exhaustion.
After a few minutes, they finally reach a bridge that goes through a waterfall . However, when they came to the middle of the bridge, a few more guards appeared right in front of them. They don’t hesitate to charge at the poor creatures.
“Oh no! What should we do now?” asked Spring Garden.
Just after she finishes her question, the guards have nearly reached them. Luster quickly teleports the whole gang to another place, but it turns out to be an unstable wooden platform right next to the waterfall.
It immediately collapses under the pressure of every creature. They screamed on the way down to the deep water below.
Then, the sight turned from a picturesque yet dangerous waterfall to thick woods. At that point, he was supposed to have woken up, but the dream just kept moving, just like that time he tried playing a digital reality game back when he was still at the Antarctica base.
“Why… why don’t you just bring us back to the castle?” asked Spring Garden, who, along with her friends, was completely wet, from mane to tail.
“I don’t know… when I’m… panicking, I usually use magic spells wrong…” she answered with exhaustion.
“So… what do we do now?” Yamina asks “Do you still have the evidence?”
“What evidence?” Flash mumbled.
“Here…” the young light cerise unicorn pulled out a paper from her hand bag, which is the first time Flash ever saw her carrying “The… papers… Thanks Celestia, it's all fine…”
The paper contains some sort of documents. Flash guesses they contain the “evidence” that Black Wine is up to an evil plan.
“This will help Princess Twilight and her friends catch that filthy unicorn and bring him to justice!” she said while holding the papers in front of the group.
“Okay… I think we should go somewhere secret to dry ourselves. Then, we can go to Ponyville!” Luster continued.