//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21 
// Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2 
// by Alines Reinhard 
//------------------------------//

As much as Flash is aware, the flight procedures are still going as well as usual. Apart from the newly given helmet, there’s really no anomaly at all. Accompanied him were, once again, Chancellor Black Wine and the Alicorn Gundam. The Chancellor was having his own experiment flight to determine whether he can use the MS’s full potential.

“Hello there, Mr. Ace Pilot!” He said with a friendly voice. “Do you have a good sleep last night? Hope your do, because I need you to concentrate 100 percent of your brain on this flight: we’re gonna do some maneuvering experiment!”

“That monologue is so annoying, with my full honesty!” Griselda commented.

The two MSs quickly launched out of the ship and began their experimenting process. The MkII behaved just as Flash intended it to.

However, in just five minutes into the flight, the Alicorn suddenly turned around and flashes its eyes.

“And by ‘maneuvering experiment’, I mean we’re gonna have a mock battle!”

The Alicorn quickly transformed. Its psycho-frame is exposed simultaneously, allowing the suit to have more maneuverability when more previously hidden thrusters are also exposed in the process.

Flash suit also transformed, he can feel it. Along with the metallic noises inside and outside, the machine also vibrated violently.

“What the… please don’t tell me this thing also have…”

But what appeared on his main control monitor confirmed what Flash wishes the least: the whole screen shifted to red, with sinister-looking letters spelled “NTD”.

New Type Destroyer.

The infamous system could make the suit become berserk, making it get out of control and go after any other mobile suits that are piloted by enhanced humans dubbed “New Types”.

“Luster, Griselda, BB, guys!” Flash shouted. “Help me with this!”

But replies to him are just screams from his friends. They are in severe pain, he could feel it. For a brief moment, he has forgotten they are stuck in the Alicorn Gundam, the machine that will attempt to maul him with its beam saber and punch him as hard as it can with its gigantic flying shields in the upcoming “mock battle”. But there may be more to come with the white MS.

“Arrrrrghhhh!” the creatures groaned. Luster Dawn later regains some very little control, but still enough for her to say “We’re… going… to… lose… YOU!”

And just a few moments later, he himself also experienced severe pain in his head. The pilot in a white suit quickly grabbed his head and screamed out in agony. His eyes wide opened and he started to have some nose bleed.

Later, both MSs drew out their beam sabers and readied themself to have their first “mock battle”.

…

“Starlight, Starlight! Stop, it’s dangerous!” a blue unicorn pony helplessly chased her pale pink friend in the middle of the heavy snowfall, trying to stop her from going too far from the camp near the frozen river bank.

“I have to see this, Trixie!” The pale pink unicorn said. “I’ve just heard engines sound right above our head!”

“But… how about the students?” the blue unicorn named Trixie asked.

“That’s why I asked you not to chase me!” the pink unicorn replied with a slight anger in her accent “Now watch over our students and take care of the magic shield!”

Trixie sighed and replied back. “Okay, but come back quickly, Starlight! And stay safe out there!”

“I have the best magic shield here. I won’t fall!”

The pink unicorn quickly ran towards a large rock where she assumed that she can safely witness the dual from. The braced herself and activated her own magical shield with her horn, bracing her body on the snow when the two giant levitating humanoid figure with unfathomably bright cracks on their body pulled out their bright pink sabers, ready to get into a large fight right over her head.

…

“This is the test to determine your AI’s reaction ability. Don’t worry mate, it won’t hurt you in any way.” The dark blue unicorn said with a grin on his face. It’s the moment he has always been waiting for, ever since he first heard the information that the Alicorn and the Psycho MkII are sister units. He has achieved the exact same thing he has wished for: both units in the same force fighting in a mock battle.

“Don’t shit yourself, friend! Because I’m  coming!”

He placed the saber onto a stabbing position, then flew himself and aimed for the cockpit. The Chancellor knew the “AI” well. He wanted to know, he really wanted to know, how much power he can push out of the “AIs” inside. He knew it was disrespectful, but to him, he have to do it. He knew some creatures certainly wanted the power of Council, the Elements of Harmony, for themselves as a weapon. He has been convinced by his own mind that it would be safer if their power are in his hoofs.

However, he thinks he might have a better solution for the Council: an ace pilot with a history of using weapons just like the MkII.

And he has found “Brandon”. He has seen his Strike Zeta and the Alicorn interact several times, as well as finding him talking to no one alone many times as the Brandon guy mentioned names such as Luster Dawn, Griselda, or Butter Burger, whom he calls BB in those talks. Combined with the suffering from previously supposed pilots and his first flight, which have gone smoothly, “Brandon” is the perfect pilot.

And it’s not just that, his engineers' excellence has helped him acquire the new Alicorn Gundam, the one he much liked with more proven abilities. The Alicorn imprisoned souls, while sound terrible at it is, are surprisingly a suited company for him. Their magic can help him do the magical quirks he have wish to be done as if he is a powerful alicorn, and that thought always comes with some adrenaline when he imagines himself flying and parkouring Equestria. “This thing could easily smoked Rainbow Dash! The fastest pony in all of Equus will have no way to catch this!” he once thought to himself.

But, if he wanted to know their full potential, battles are necessary. This is why he has planned the mock battle that you, my audience, are witnessing.

The stab he performed was abruptly stopped with a strong holding hands from the MkII. Flash instinct initially told him to pull out a beam saber to counter that strike, but for some reason, his suit chose to ignore his command and resort to its hand instead. “Maybe this suit’s AI thinks I’m not fast enough?” he thinks. He quickly regained control of the MS and was still able to put his beam saber in front of his face.

But the longer he sat in his cockpit, the stronger the thought that the Triceratops head mobile suit might be piloted by something else.

“Hey bud, what are you doing? Slay that thing!” a disturbingly familiar voice, other than Luster Dawn’s or her friends, whispered right next to his ears.

Flash tries to do just that. He aimed to perform a cut right into the Alicorn’s head. “Mock battle”, he reminded himself. Flash assumed by doing that, it will minimize the chance of an accidental fatal cut into either the torso or the chest and destroy the Alicorn. But to his surprise, the MkII really aimed for the torso, approaching that target from the right side.

Black Wine was nearly caught off guard with that move, forcing him to draw another beam saber on the right forearm.

“Excellent choice of fighting style there…” the dark blue thought.  His move has created him in an odd position for the Alicorn, which he later called “one hold, one forward”:  a holding beam saber on his left hand and one forearm beam saber on his right side.

“But the one who has more advantages in a hunt between equal adversaries is a hunter”, he thought. This mindset allowed him to look down on his adversary, deleting fear in him and forcing the enemy to go all out as soon as possible.

To him, the Incorporated Magic Hypothesis must be worked:

“Go! I dare you unleashed all your power, your Majesties!”

The next thing he knows is that there is an unfathomably bright light right in front of him. The only thing that kept his eyes safe are the fact that it only made his panoramic monitors go pure white for a few seconds.

Then, a loud bang happened right next to his shoulder.

What he saw is nothing sort of terrifying: the whole piece of land as wide as 200 meters and as long as 10 miles being wiped. The leftovers are some rainbow-colored melting rocks with smoke, indicated the heat of that strike. He doesn’t know how it happened fully due to the blinding light the MkII has given him.

“That’s… what I really want!” he growled, followed by a large refreshed laugh.

Black Wine then partially switched his view to the heat camera. This helps him effectively avoid the “magical” strikes without being blinded by the lights. This newly founded discovery has awakened the excitement, as well as his adrenaline rush, inside him. The more attacks he receives, the more happiness and joy appeared on his face.

His incorporated magic theory has been proven true.

“My dream has come to life! Fight, my children!”

In the cockpit, Flash helplessly fights the dark blue MS's desire to do the unfathomably bright magical rainbow with destructive power. It has done several “rainbows” like that, yet none of them are able to touch the rapidly moving Alicorn Gundam.

“Come on, come on! What is… wrong with you!” Flash growled while trying to move the stuck control sticks. They are stuck as if someone put some industrial glue on them, making them become nothing more than exhibited pieces.

Then, there’s the Alicorn’s turn. The white mobile suit also decided to apply the same tactic as it’s adversary, inflicting even more massive damages. Flash has seen it several times before, but he still doesn’t know what to do other than just avoid them completely. He doesn’t fear death, but knowing it might bring mass destruction sends a chill down his spine.

“Rainbow Dash, stop!” an eerily familiar voice, mentioning an eerily familiar name, suddenly said with slight discomfort.

That’s really when he started to feel cold all over his body.

“No, damn, way!” he thought.

All of the “rainbow” strikes suddenly stopped. His MS froze for a few seconds, allowing Flash to regain consciousness and take over the Psycho MkII again.

“Finally!” he sighed. Acknowledging the godly amount of power his opponent has, Flash decided he will be in a defensive position, ready to strike a hit-and-run when the time comes. “Maybe when the snow falls heavier!” he thought. He then tries to reconnect with his friends.

“Luster? BB? Griselda!” he screamed their names in his head “Can you hear me?”

This time, no one, absolutely no one, answered. In contrast to how much they contact him through telepathy, sometimes to an annoying degree, no one replies to his call.

He knew deep down in his thought, he hope the “curse” that Luster cast on him is still “unbreakable” as the light cerise unicorn has advertised. For a guy that already has no friends and is separated from friendly forces, he can be sure he will go insane if there’s no one to talk with.

“Guys, I know you can hear me!” he mumbled. “You have promised me the gift of friendship after you all freed, right?”

The blue-haired pilot both screamed for their attention and blocked constant beam saber attacks from the Alicorn. He knows that they will never use weapons, so it is certainly Black Wine who’s behind that. Despite all of the turmoil going on in his mind, he still has to shake all of them off which brought him back to reality, with his skill getting to effectively block every blade coming to his MS. But he was already on the verge of losing that focus.

“Hey bud, kick ‘em like ya kick an apple tree!” a voice with some Appleloosa twang suddenly whispered into his ear.