//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2 // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// The ship has been there for more than a week. Kludgetowner has always been worried when a military vessel, regardless of sides, stays in their shipyard. Let alone staying for that long. But still, they have to continue their live likes nothing happens. The kids are still going to school, playing children's games, and annoying their parents with demands. The adults still get to do their work. Looking at the creatures passing by in his van, a pony yawned in boredom. To him, the town was no more than some sort of a slum, with creatures of all races, backgrounds, and occupations living and working. “Hey fellow, wanna buy some fruit? Royal tier Oswana mango right here!” an old anthropomorphic turtle with a heavy bag full of fruit knocked on his van’s door, asking him to buy some of his near rotten mangos. “No thanks…” he said with an annoyed voice. He looked into his bag, only to see a heavy rotten smell and some flies flying over it. “Come on, young lads. Please help this old soldier. I have a disabled son, an old wife just like me, and…” “Sorry, sir… I can’t take it!” the stallion raised his voice a little bit “You can leave them for another fellow turtle like you… I don’t have time…” As an answer, the old turtle looked at him from foot to face, and frowned. He throws at him a frustrated look. Then, the green old turtle spitted on his van. “What a selfish bastard!” he mumbled. And leaves. But he won't have any mind to think about that. The most he could do is frown in annoyance. His higher-ups have ordered his team to just park the van there, right next to the busy “Fellow shipmates” bar. The noisy drunk crowd that often gets out of it after a celebration doesn’t bother him either. What sent him into constant anxiety, sending him on the edge of his chair, is a pair of ponies that he was supposed to get. He was told that they will automatically get on his van once they saw the special logo, the one that Black Wine suggested Font painted exclusively on his van. The vehicle is a somewhat old machine, the V101. Covering its old body is the corrosive red paint, proof that the thing has gone through years without proper maintenance. As much as he remembers, in its 7 years of operation, the van only undergoes minor repair, with just one major replacement which is its interior. That’s why his chair was still relatively new. Then, that moment came. Two ponies, a unicorn mare and an earth pony stallion, dressed in casual clothes, opened the main door and jump right into it. Carry with them are two large black briefcases. The stallion only ordered a simple word. “Go!” he said. The driver quickly steered his van to the left, and finally joined the busy traffic of Kludgetown. In those two briefcases, are components of a large sniper rifle. The two ponies sighed in relief, as the tangled mane stallion drove them to the shipyard, where they will be greeted by their comrades. “Phew… what a journey!” the stallion, named Plus Target said. “You guys just run or what? Anyway, what are you guys doing here?” “Killing Alliance spy, of course? What do you think we are carrying?” the mare, called Sneaky Night replied. “Great, so how many did you kill?” “Five!” the duo answered simultaneously. Plus Target then continued “Those filthy creatures’ life is not more than annoying insects. Gotta kill ‘em all!” “Dude, chill!” the driver said. Then, through the middle rearview mirror, he looked at the briefcase and asked: “What kind of weapon is that? A sniper rifle?” “It is. Model C5.5 to be exact… Do you know what is the most annoying thing about this gun? The dust cover of course! Sometimes you have to clean the inside, and you have to be precise will try to reinstall the thing, you have to be precise not putting your hooves in the way…” “That’s annoying… But you know there’s a mount at the back, right?” “That’s thing stuck sometimes, also! I’ll tell them to replace this gun once we're back on the ship!” Plus Target talked with some annoyance in his voice, but he soon changed it into a cheerful tone “Hey, make sure there is celebration champagne once we arrived at the Cloudsdale!” A few minutes later, the van arrived at the shipyard’s gate. The driver, named Swift Scar, named after a long scar running from his forehead, through his left eye to his lips, gave the guard his ID card. The unicorn took it off politely with his magic aura, and carefully inspected it with his eyes, before giving him back the same way. The van casually strolled through the maze of wires, containers, cranes, and even ammunitions. But still, they can’t block the size of the Cloudsdale and her escort ship, which could even be viewed from kilometers outside the shipyard. Surrounding it are some mobile suits, standing menacingly as they guarded the site. To Swift Scar's knowledge, they are the Cloudsdale own MS. They are almost certain the Alliance are on its way to destroy them, so they have to deploy all they’ve got for combat. The van parked just outside the main entrance of the white-painted vessel. Plus Target and Sneaky Night quickly get off the vehicle, before they quickly grabbed their belongings and ran into the ship. The Captain gladly greeted the spy duo, whom Font has noticed “should be treated with VIP status”. He doesn’t know why, but he presumed that they have brought a significant victory to the war. With that in mind, he politely said “Welcome to the Cloudsdale!”, swallowing his own human pride to treat the ponies as his same kind. “Thank you, Captain. I appreciate that…” In contrast to the spies' relief, the ship’s crew is on high alert. “Combat Level 3”, as the Captain requested. There is no time that the bridge was empty: they were always busy with ponies and humans looking into their monitors, tracking any enemy’s move, whether big or small. “It’s weird… those filthy creatures have to arrive here right now…” a pony combat operator said. “Is your radar still operatable?” the Captain asked, as he walked right next to him, putting his hand on the pony’s shoulder. “Yes, still fine!” he said, pointing to the monitor “You can see our AA and traffic radar still can detect airships in and out of the Kludgetown harbor!” But right after that, his eyes lit up, like a child receiving a gift: “Captain, the Supporter is here!” … The Supporter’s arrival is the result of a persuasive begging from Font himself to his high command. The ship has been sent to Farasi for an invasion campaign previously, as her job is to provide fuel for the bombardment and landing fleet not so far from Zebrat shores. Black Wine authorized the campaign to capture the port of Northern Zebrat and another H3 mine. After the campaign ended successfully, he allowed part of the fleet, called Task Force F, to retreat, which included the Supporter herself. She was ordered to go back to Manehattan Naval base, take some H3, and brought them to the Cloudsdale. “I want her the Alicorn to go back here, immediately!” the Chancellor said. Font doesn’t know why he changed his mind, as he also wants to bait the Canterlot in, but he still gets to nod. It takes the 95 meters long airship about 40 minutes to dock and start unloading its cargo to the Cloudsdale. The exhausted Captain sighed in relief, saying to his shipmates in joy: “We’re gonna go home! I’m sick of this unforgiven world!” To be fair, he has been deployed for more than half a year. He and the ship arrived at Equestria even before Flash was pulled into his crazy adventures when he encountered the Alicorn in Antarctica. Madison John is his name. As every other fellow human being sent to this world, he was chosen amongst the best of the best. He was stunned, to say the least, when he learned that there’s a world where things happened as if it was a baby girl’s fantasy. Yes, unless you never read any fairy tale or watch fantasy kids' cartoons, Equus is fairly safe. But it still has dangers: dark magic, monsters, unbelievably evil witches and creatures… Madison was aware of this. But having the DNA of a sea-going family, he still agrees to go. Yes, those things above did annoy him, but he quickly adapted to it.  He got to be friends with the ponies, learn about their cultures, and even gain some knowledge of magic. One thing that printed on to his mind the most is when an enchantress told him “Every creature in this world has magic, they just need something to bring them together and use it for a greater good!” … Madison rushes to his seat and opened up his own general information monitor. He opened the “fuel” icon, tapping a few times until he could see the refueling process being presented through a chart and a fuel tank icon. H3 reserve in Equus was surprisingly large and easy to extract. In his world, the humans have to travel far away in many 4-years-long journeys, with gigantic ships called the Jupitris class. But since the ColonyWormhole opened and they discover the H3 mines, the humans, mostly the Federations, took heavy notice of Equus, the world that the wormhole led to. It’s simple: a three days journey through the wormhole, exiting the white hole that is located somewhere near Equus’s own moon, traveling exactly 360,000 kilometers through space, and landing like a spaceship onto Equus’s soil. There are tons of benefits for that: earth-like conditions for mining, already built facility, and short transport time. But Madison’s mind doesn’t have much time for that: he is looking at his clock, carefully calculating every second. He can’t wait for the moment his engineer said “the fuel tank is full” and “all engines are in perfect working condition”. “It’s time to get out of this death trap, eventually!” he told himself. His fellow soldier also seems to pump themselves up for flying the majestic vessel out of the town, leaving a trail of flying sands behind due to the engines’ blast. But what they don’t know, is the fact that they will not escape in time. Somewhere outside the town, a whole flotilla is waiting for a surprise attack. … Behind some large pile of sands, 5 large warships laid down calmly on the soft surface of Bone Dry Desert. It is called like that due to countless bones of dead creatures unwillingly choosing the infinite sea of sands as their resting place. The reason why this flotilla was undetected is because of a magical curtain, called the “Blind Dome”, shielded them from the look of any kind of eyes. From there, the fleets are carefully prepared for blitz, making sure their enemy catches the most surprise. Lady Rainbow Dash has requested the Alliance to provide them with a few Mattia class battleships to join the strike. The airships all have specially built-in magic that provides them with more punch: Blind Dome dust, anti-beam dust, magic cannons… The magic cannons were the most notable changes: each ship was equipped with 4 giant unicorn-horn-like cannons, decorated with a spiral that will help concentrate magic to make the shots. The ammunition was some glass bottles, filled with a bright blue liquid called “The Rainbooms Drink”. It was named like that because of the loud boom that happened after the signature rainbow-colored beam it used to blast its enemy to pieces. “It’s bizarre, I know. But it’s the punch we need to cover y’all! Just trust us!” the Captain of the Lord Gust, one of the four ships that escorted the Canterlot, said to Discord. “But… don’t you the Lord of Chaos?” “Yes, yes am I? I find it amusing you call this bizarre?” he said while leaning himself at the cannon, staring at with a smile and a pair of frowned eyebrows. “I saw and create things so chaotic that you couldn’t even imagine!” “Cool! So why don’t you use your chaos power to stop the war?” “I do, but war is chaos! It is perfect for me, so the more magic I use, the more chaos and destruction it becomes. At least my chaotic mind let me see the order in the battles, so I would say I’m pretty fit for being a commander.” He snapped his finger to summon his captain uniform, which was decorated with an unordered color pallet beside the rank signals, his hat with the lavender shield logo, and some medals of weird victories: “O…kay…?” the Abyssinian captain pulled back a little bit, putting her arms between her and the draconequus while making a confusing face. But she and Discord have to quickly stand straight up and salute, as Rainbow Dash walked right next to them. “C’mon, screw these formal salutes. I’m your friend!” the rainbow mane mare said after clicking her tongue. “Hello RD, how’s the plan?” asked Discord. “That Brandon guy and his squad have started the mission as we speak. I pray for them to reach the Cloudsdale in time: that ship will take off right after the refueling process is over!” Then, Rainbow Dash looked at her little flotilla. “All personnel ready to load ammunition! Keep your guards up, because we will take off at any time!” a speaker alarmed the crewmembers. Although the King of Abyssinia is quite generous, he is still worried that the enemy’s technology will overwhelm the magic. “I don’t underestimate their pure reliance on science, but our magic was still superior: just wait until we unleased our Magic of Friendship!” the blue pegasi reassured the concerned king. But she too also started to fear that magic might not even in effect. In Equus, every creature has magic, but the way they use them and the power was still very limited. There are powerful enchantresses in each kingdom, but they too could sometimes be defeated: the loss of Blue Rock Mines, the takeover of North Zebrat port and an H3 mines nearby, as well as the struggle at Everfree forest are examples: the overall magic was not powerful enough. For starters, in the case of Blue Rock Mine is that the king has ordered some of his enchantresses to the battlefield, but they are soon overwhelmed by the mobile suits. The three races’ magic cannot pass the powerful I-field, as well as the effective strategy of Black Wine’s army, which has resulted in their own defeat. In Everfree, the reindeer’s magic did slowdown their enemy’s advance, but Black Wine has  something they don’t expect: giant napalm flamethrowers, mounted onto some old GM IIs. They have significantly hammered the effectiveness of his tree-growing magic. That’s why she was concerned, thinking about what will Black Wine and his army would throw at her in their assault. “Calm down, Rainbow… Remember what Applejack said: don’t overthink!” she told herself. From where she stood, the mobile suit warmed themselves too, with the help of their pilots: they were brought outside to move around, practicing some moves for a mostly close fight, or even bare hands punch! “Flash and Gemina must have entered the shipyard right now…” she thought whilst looking at her watch once again “That much disguise will pretty much hide them from the eyes of the guards!” Meanwhile, at the Kludgetown shipyard itself, two small vans strolled casually in front of the gate. A pair of unicorn guard pony, also casually, get out of their cabin with their horns lit up. They do that in order to prepare themselves if combat occurred. Not just that, they are also armed with two semi-automatic assault rifles, something that was created by humans. Its technology was passed down for the ponies to produce and uses, which was widely liked amongst the pony’s army. One of the unicorns trotted to the first van, and knocked on it windscreen to order the driver open the window. After, he put his snout into the cabin and jerked up his chin: “Let me see your ID card!” The driver, who is a local hammerhead shark that happened to work for the shipyard itself, pulled out the white card with his portrait printed on it to the guard. The pony rapid took it with his magic and carefully scanned the card. After a few seconds, he looked into the cabin again, and lightened it up with his bright unicorn horn as he asked informally: “Food transport?” “Uh… your Lieutenant wanted to buy some hippogriff’s… sea salad…” he stuttered “…those things are… good… right?” the hammerhead anthropomorphic shark said. He gulped midsentence. “It is! But I must check them all!” “No Sir! Those… those barrels down there are explosive… I’m… I’m aware you will cause a blast… bl… blast… here…” The unicorn looked at him suspiciously and raised one of his eyebrows. Suddenly, his mind told him “may be the Lieutenant really doesn’t want me to ruin his dinner”. After that, he looked back at his comrades, who were impatiently waiting for the second van’s driver to find the key of the back hatch. “Hey… Hey!” he called his friend two times “Let them go!” “Wait, what? Are you dumb? They can carry…” “I said let them go! They are sea salad, the explosive one!” the unicorn shouted “You’ll cause a blast if you open those barrels!” On the side of each van are some windows, which allow each guard to see what is inside. The second one did just that, and he did see a dozen of blue-painted barrels. They look somewhat dirty, and he can even smell some garbage like air coming from them. The anthropomorphic shark inside was also scared. He looked back at his colleagues, nodded his head. “Okay… you good to go!” he sighed as his hooves signal them to keep driving. The two vans rev up their engines, their wheels turned the vehicles forward as the gates fully open to welcome the disguised vans into the shipyard. Little did they know, in each barrel, hiding a S.M.I.L.E’s special force soldier. Each of them was handed an assault rifle, a handgun, a combat knife, and some magic of each respective race. Amongst those barrels was Flash. He was the only one who didn’t have any magic, as opposed to his pony form with the ability to fly. So he was handed an extra handgun and a knife. The Lieutenant has asked a local Alliance’s spy, the one which Plus Target and Sneaky Night have somehow missed, to disguise them in the barrels. It is true the hippogriff’s sea salad, a Kludgetown’s favorite, have highly explosive ingredient. That’s why it was stored in partly sealed barrels. But the barrels that house the special force was different: they have a kind of well-disguised breathing system, used for transporting fresh air into the barrels, preventing the soldier from suffocating. Suddenly, when the van was still traveling, one of the guards suddenly teleport in front of the van, causing every creature to be startled. “Did… did he spot something?” Flash thought. Although knowing that’s a risky plan, as he, Gemina, and her squad have discussed. The one-eyed griffon even said: “Sadly… that’s how we can sneak a large number of creatures into that place. The base was too heavily guarded with unicorn magic. By the way, we gotta do the unexpected…” With that in mind, he gulped. But with a strong mind that has been gone through a powerful curse from his friend, the blue-haired calmed himself quickly. The unicorn then just walked by slowly. Then, he stunted them by asking: “Hey… how much those ingredients sold?” “Huh?” the driver confused “Why?” “Just say it…” he whispered “…you know… for the shake of our miserable life…” The low-ranked ponies, as his rank-less uniform shows, tend to be low-paid. That’s why a lot of those ponies are willing to do illegal stuff on the battlefield in order to gain money. Cities like Canterlot, Manehattan, or Fillydelphia have really high living costs. “Uh… may 200 bits a barrel…” “Good…” the guard ponies squeezed in happiness “I’ll take 50 bits per barrel, for me and that pony right there!” Then he slowly walked away and shouted with disdain. “Now get the heck out of here and do your job, you disgusting shark heads!”