The next day, Flash happened to read in a newspaper that there’s a large riot in a town near Kludgedtown. The ponies there are rioting against Black Wine’s aggressive government. The rebellion happened for 2 weeks before Black Wine brought the Alicorn as well as the Cloudsdale to it.
“So that’s why we encounter them right above the jungles?” Flash mumbled “It is not far from Kludgetown!”
It happened that the town ponies happened to capture some artillery from a nearby military and used it to shell upon the first unit to suppress the riot. They also have enough shells (and stupidity - as Flash thought) to fire on Cloudsdale's mobile suits. The Cloudsdale’s pilots ended up destroying half of the 20 120 mm artillery before really bringing out the Alicorn. For obvious reasons, the artillery being hidden a little too well, the Captain decided to bring out the white MS to test its ability to detect ambushes.
“The whole town was left in ruins when we finally got there…” Yolinda said “We saw destroyed houses, burning trees and crops, flying pieces of ripped books, and… and…”
Her eyes widened in horror and fear, her tears falling harder and she screamed out loud.
“We… we don’t want to kill…”
What Flash saw that night is when the Alicorn went on a rampage, due to the mysterious software being activated. They really don’t want to fight, as the artillery barely scratch the Alicorn’s armor. The white mobile suit, already being pumped up by the software, went berserk and managed to destroy the rest of the guns: first, it launched itself up and destroyed one gun when it landed on its left foot. Then, it kicked 2 other guns, as well as the ponies that handled them. The machine then goes on and destroys the resisting cannon by either throwing them like a toy, kicking them or stomping on the turret. The last gun still managed to fire a shot towards its right hand and left the beam saber stored on its forearm. Then, the crew ran off and left it smoky muzzle before the Alicorn make it unusable by stomped on it’s loader as well as the mobile gun cockpit,
The rampage eventually killed about 29 ponies in the process.
Luckily - only for Flash – Luster and her friends decided to cut the flashback of the aftermath. But he still gets to see some of the corpses of burned ponies lying on the ground, which somehow manage to get published on Black Wine’s Canterlot Morning Post newspaper.
“How… how can I erase their gruesome memory…?” Flash hugged his head in tears, with the newspaper still on his lap “They are not supposed to go through this… They will get haunted by the action they can’t control for the rest of their lives!”
With that in mind, Flash decided to provide them with as much mental help as he could, with hope that he could save their pure hearts…
…
One day after the burial of Drake, the ship surprisingly arrived at Kirin’s Groove.
It was a large town with houses, shops and stores being carved into trees. The greenness of the countless leaves of the trees give the crew a refreshing atmosphere after weeks of cramming themselves in a hull with broken air conditioner, where they sleep a whole night before the landing. When the securing rope was thrown down, the hull and the main balloon can still slightly touch the leaves of nearby trees.
“Hey, be careful!” the port pilot yelled “I don’t want to have more damage on that Parrot Strength!”
The new airship port of Kirin’s Groove was placed right next to the outskirts of the town, so they can immediately see the busy scene of every day kirins live while seeing the kirins of the port itself doing their job. Haystack was surprised in a good way when he saw the Black Hawk mooring right behind his airship. Blue Thunder and Yamina happily ran over him and nearly forgot the military gesture and jumped in to hug him. Haystack kindly reminded the duo when they are just opened their hooves:
“Ensign Blue Thunder and Ensign Yamina are here, Sir!” they saluted.
“Great to see you guys here, safe and sound. So, what do you guys do all the time?”
“We were just flying around the seas before we happened to stumble upon you and Brad near the Sea of Clouds, Sir!” Blue Thunder answered “But… What happened to your com-link?”
“Huh?”
“Well… our ship’s captain said that we can’t contact you.” Yamina said.
“I guess those bastards at Cloudsdale jammed our radio signal, or it was just because of the Minovsky particles… And what’s with that red scarf you have there, Blue Thunder?” Haystack pointed to the red scarf that the blue pegasi is holding.
“Oh… I give this to Brad. They said that the scarf has nothing to do with that… witch.”
“Ah… I remember…” Haystack sighed, then he pointed to the Parrot’s Strength’s entrance “You can find him at the ship’s library!”
…
“So that site was used for both imprisonment and setting-free ritual before!” Flash exclaimed in his mind.
Somehow, Flash found a magic book that contained the right detail for him. The Artifacts and Imprisonment: How to store consciousness in objects provided him with everything he wants to know about the “haunting curse” that Luster Dawn unwillingly cast on him, with details just as what Zecora told him before. However, it also provides the detail of setting-free-ritual.
“Placing the objects that are close to the imprisoned creatures, before reading the ‘freedom spell’…” the book read “It was basically a spell that was cast by the will of all creatures, both the ‘liberator’ and the one who are being ‘liberated’. The magic that is being casted then will go through all of the objects in a beam, then, it will go into the main object that imprisoned the creatures. The process will free them by taking parts of the object (in case the object has enough size and density) or simply gathering matters around it, to make it become the new flesh and bones…”
“What the… The spell does that?” Flash exclaimed in his mind.
“Hey Brad, I got you your scarf!” Blue Thunder suddenly appeared at the library door and said.
The red scarf, with barely any changes except some little dirt patch on it was handed to Flash. He carefully took it and just whispered “Thank you”.
“I heard you caused some damage to those bastards on the Cloudsdale? Hard to believe… but hey, what’s up with that Alicorn Gundam that make you do something so stupid?”
“Huh?”
“You open the cockpit and scream those names: Luster, Yolinda, Grisela…” Blue Thunder listed the names as if he is re-created the moment Flash gets out of the cockpit during the battle with the Black Wine’s Federation. However, Flash quickly cut him off.
“Do you believe me that there are creatures being trapped in that thing?”, Flash asked calmly.
“What? I know this magical world is insane but how can you even know that? This book?” he pointed to the green covered book he’s having in his hand.
“It just provided the solution for the curse. How I know them is all my problem…”
“C’mon dude, can you at least provide something so we can help you…”
“I don’t think any of you should interfere with this… This is a magical matter…”
“But obviously, you are a human!” Blue Thunder quickly cut him off “You just come here for like… nearly 3 months… You haven’t really learned much about this world yet, let alone learning about magic, except for the fact that you get used to unicorns, kirins levitate stuff with magic and changelings can change forms… These are advanced stuff that only ponies like Princess Twilight or Starswirl can do!”
With that, Flash was reminded that he had to pretend to be a human that never set foot to Equus before. He slightly looked down and nodded.
“Hey, what’s going on here? Do you want to miss some city tours?” Haystack suddenly appeared at the library door and shouted.
…
“Bruises and scratches everywhere!” whined Mihiro, who’s Joseph’s personal mechanic as well as his girlfriend “I know you have confront that white thing over there, but is that necessary for you to abused our ‘son’ like this?”
“It’s gonna be fine, those GMIIIs right there lost their limbs. It’s fortunate that none of the pilots lost their lives…” Joseph said calmly.
Mihiro then came to him slowly, before placing her head on his shoulder.
“Hey… would you want to have a family here?” she asked. Both of her arms warped around him to hug.
“Sadly… I don’t think that’s the case, dear…” he sighed “Would you like to live in a house somewhere in the mountainous area of Japan, or may be somewhere in the Himalaya?”
“I don’t know… I still want to have a house here…” Mihiro whispered “I want to see the mountains of Canterlot… Oh, by the way, are we there yet?”
The ship’s speaker then answered her with an announcement that all personnel should prepare for landing.
“We are approaching the Canterlot base… Estimated landing time is 7:30 pm”, the ship’s Captain said “Which is about 30 minutes from now. All crew prepare for landing procedures.”
“Hey, I have an idea!” Mihiro suddenly said “I want to see the city from above!”
Right after that, the couple ran towards the launch deck of the ship, carefully dodging the damaged GMs as well as equipment and wires. A metal barrier was put up all around the edge of the launch deck for safety. A mechanic said to them not to get blown off the winds, but as they get out of the MS and equipment lying all around, they can just feel some light winds going right to their face. Mihiro’s brown waist flies behind her back as they continue to move forward. The speed was reduced to about 20 km/h in order for better handling when the wind was also blowing in the same direction as their approaching.
The lights of the moon, while it was bright when they were in the jungle area, were dimmed compared to the lights of the city of Canterlot below. The city never fails to amaze them with its charm and beauty of the lights, buildings and castle. The golden top of the towers was lit up by hundreds of light bulbs around it, which is comparable to the street lights. Mihiro was so amazed by the beauty that she was stunned to hear her boyfriend ask.
“Well… do you want to have a date tonight? I know a restaurant not so far from the base!”
“Well… if the situation allowed, which means that I’ll leave it for next night, okay?”
“She’s right!” Joseph thought. The landing procedures always took hours, as well as unloading MS, equipment and traveling to their houses. Since Mihiro is a mechanic, she has to stay up late a little more than him to adjust to the work.
“Okay, next night!” he said.
However, a few hours later, he was called to the mission room of the base to discuss some more details on their next phase of the mission.
“I’m aware that we might have to leave those animals at S.M.I.L.E alone for a while, because we have a more urgent situation happening at the Everfree kingdom…” Captain Font Spaak, the commander of EFF’s Equestrian Extraterrestrial Unit, or EEU, said at the meeting “Our troops have to deploy to their border…”
One of the reasons why they are called back to Canterlot is to resupply before a possible war that could be broke out between Equestria and the rest of the Harmony Alliance. The Alliance have something that they call “The United Defense”, in which an attack on one member of the Alliance means an attack on all of its members. The tension has increasingly risen after Everfree, a kingdom which shares a border not far from Ponyville. The two kingdoms have already deploy military and troops to the border region in case of a fight broke out. Black Wine also wanted to take over the entirety of Everfree forest since he accused them to stole the land of the ponies that he claimed to have “ancient right” to it.
“One more thing, he might as well invade other member states in order to secure more plans for his ‘national security’. There are some other MS squad that will handle the S.M.I.L.E that are currently resting at Kirin’s Groove.”
“Who are they?”
“Lieutenant Megan Williams!” Captain Font nodded his head to a tomboyish officer that was sitting just 2 meters from his right. She then stood and presented herself to the room.
“I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Megan Williams. Glad to be working with you guys in the next few months!”
“She was just deployed to Equestria just last week, the same time when you get those news MS pilots on your ship. She will be the one that will take care of those animals at S.M.I.L.E and send them off to… Tartarus…” the Captain then slightly whispered “Can’t believe I said that…”
“Since your squad has the most experience fighting here in Equus, you will deploy to Ponyville now. The war is now almost unavoidable, so I expect you to perform well in that forest. I know it is better if you native to that forest and they only have magic that we do not yet fully understand, but we have a massively destructive weapon which is the mobile suit. Hope we can crush those reindeer before they can use whatever in Equestria they have. Okay, you are dismissed!”
…
The damaged Nemo was the very first thing that was unloaded, even before the airship was completely in safe position to be anchored. The Nemo was hanged from the bottom of the Parrot Strength and was only temporarily put somewhere else near the place they buried Drake, so it was understandable to move it away in order to make space for landing.
“There is tons of stuff to do here, mate. I’ll join ya after finish some stuff here.” Seashell Blue said as he put his claw on Flash’s left shoulder.
“Hey, but do you know what they're gonna do with that Nemo?” Flash pointed to the white mobile suit which is being transported to a warehouse in the port.
“Oh! I heard there will be a new backpack for it along with ammunition and other kind of supplies for us the next day. By the way, we are ordered to stay here for about a week due to a possible war here!”
“What do you mean?” Flash asked.
“Black Wine’s Army wants to prevent supply from other Harmony Alliance kingdoms, so he might order a surprise attack right on here. There are even rumors that he will declare was for the next few days, so the top brass at S.M.I.L.E told us to bring our guards up for about 120 percent!”
“Yeah… Good luck with your work then!” Flash said with his hand waved at the blue hippogriff.
“Hey, remember to visit the kirin’s Jungle Juice Bar! They have some nice cocktails and shows there, bro!” Seashell Blue shouted with a somewhat jokingly accent. Flash chuckled as his ‘advice’ since he understood what the ‘shows’ meant.
However, he had another thing in mind. Flash walked towards where Haystack and Celaeno were standing as they had requested him to.
…
“Flash, it is true you will come to my home?” Spring Garden comes close to Flash when the group is having a talk.
“Yes, I will… My ship is supposed to be there…”
“That’s great!” she cut him off with an excited voice “Can you help me a little bit?”
“What?”
“My mom must miss me a lot! I want you to come there and hug her?”
“What?” the group stared.
“Wait… Isn’t your mom a queen? I’m just a soldier, okay?” Flash replied “And don’t even have enough guts to do that when I was in a human shape like that?”
“Guts? What guts? You just need to hug her?” Spring Garden barked back.
“But… how?”
“Well… You just need to come to her place, asked her to tell some stories about me – which to avoid spoiler, I’ll not gonna tell you right here – and then when she finished, you’ll ask whether she wanted to have a hug to calm her down, I bet she will allow you to do it!”
Reminded by the conversation he had in the night before, Flash casually walks towards where Haystack and Celaeno are standing. They are waiting to get guided to where the Queen is staying as she wants to meet them. Haystack and Celaeno was signaled before when they just got down off the airship for half an hour.
“Why did she suddenly want to see us?” Flash asked in concern “And why do you want me to come?”
“Did you bring with you the diary?” Haystack asked.
Flash has always brought a bag with some of the things that he considered to be important, a habit that had just started the night before the landing when he saw a pony do just that. The diary was one of them, as well as a notebook and some pen in case he found something that might be related to his own investigation about Luster and friends.
“Yes Sir!” Flash replied.
“Good, I think you might want to talk to her about her daughter.”
“What? Does he know?” Flash thought with doubt in his mind “Is it because of my shouting?”
“I heard you shouted the name ‘Spring Garden’ when you did that insane stuff, so I suspected that you knew something about her. I think Queen Rainshine will be very happy if she at least knows a little bit about what happened to her after the Canterlot visit. Got that?”
The trio was led along a street decorated with tree houses. The green leaves of the jungle town have relieved their mind with its fresh air vapor and the sunshine above. Flash has never come to Kirin Groove’s before, and back then, he didn't even want to encounter a kirin, after being told that they are dangerous creatures ‘who will fry others for food’. But after knowing Spring Garden and some kirins on board the Canterlot, he could see that mindset is obviously wrong: they are extremely harmless and friendly.
“Well… except when we are extremely angry and we might burn something…” Spring Garden once embarrassingly said when she had a little conversation with him in one of the dreams “But it’s okay ,we rarely harm others, especially me! I’m a beautiful collective kirin!”
And to Flash and her friends, Spring Garden was indeed a pretty friend.
Just after 8 minutes of walking, they were led to a big tree with decorated doors, branches and windows. The guards kirins said that’s Queen Rainshine’s palace, and Flash could see the tree house is obviously the biggest he had seen in Kirin Groove’s. The large door slowly opened to reveal a big spiral staircase that led to the Queen’s throne.
“Do you ever saw a spiral stair that can have 3 or 4 creatures standing on it’s width for a photo and yet their still enough room for walking?” Haystack asked while walked up backward “This ‘palace’ in the tree is insane man?”
But along the way, Flash encounters some photos of the royal family and their friends. The same Luster’s group photo that the diary has was also presented on the wall, along with some other pictures and paintings. Flash also got to see a painting of baby Spring Garden and her mother looking towards the sun on their balcony.
The painting somehow reminded Flash of his mom.
“I wish I could see you again, mother…” Flash mumbled.
Finally, they arrived at the throne room. It was small compared to the throne room at Canterlot, but still enough to impress the trio nevertheless since all of what they were seeing was done in a tree-house: the windows, the furniture, the jewels on the throne,... They later get to see Queen Rainshine in her casual everyday look as she walks herself to the throne and sits.
“Bow down before our queen!” a guards kirin said. After that, every creature bowed down to her. Rainshine then waved her hoof and said.
“Thank you, you can see me now.”
Right before their eyes is a kirin that was larger than every other kirins in the groove: she was tall, slim and the most beautiful in all of the kirins as Flash had seen. She then started the conversation by saying:
“So… what do you have for me?”