//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2 // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// He doesn’t know whose that voice belongs but has decided that it’s a good idea, and do just what he was told. Bang! A loud metallic sound exploded, causing the Alicorn to bend its body, and was forced to fly back, bracing itself in the process. To be fair, Flash has kicked enemies several times before, but if that Applejack’s voice doesn’t remind him, he will forget about that tactic completely. But soon, the feeling of regret came. He has hurt his friends way too much. He doesn’t want to fight his friends like this to be exact. “Fight back!” he kept telling his friends “You guys are way stronger than that! Your friendship is stronger than anything in this universe! You can fight Black Wine!” he mumbled. The fighting goes on. To make matter worse, Alicorn started to use its strongest tactic: “the rainbow”, the same rainbow that his rogue MkII have used previously. “Guys, stop! I beg you!” Flash screamed at the berserker. But all are in vain as the Alicorn still trying to close in and keep making “the rainbow” strikes to score a direct hit onto Flash’s MS. “Okay, guys. Ready!” another weirdly familiar voice whispered “One, two, three…” After a few seconds of silence, some seven streaks of different colors suddenly come out of nowhere grabbed the Alicorn, and immobilized it in a matter of seconds, only letting some space for it to try useless struggles. But somehow, it’s still enough for the Alicorn another set of multiple colorful ribbons. The two MS then decided to do the same action: combined their respective ribbon sets into two giant multi-color ribbons. The two giant ribbons then collided with each other, creating a large light ball in the middle of the air. “The Magic of Friendships is fighting each other!” Black Wine shouted in excitement “Let's see how this will turn out. Both pilots could see the ball inflated like a giant weather balloon with the ability to shine like the sun. It lit up everything around many times more brightly than previous “rainbow strikes”, to the point that it could be seen from miles. All of the electronics in the cockpit shut down, allowing even more highlights for the event to unfold right in front of Flash’s eyes. But then, the thing collapsed into a small energy ball, before exploding like a nuclear bomb. The blast was powerful enough to blow both the MkII and the Alicorn flying for miles. For Flash, he and the MkII could be well turned into thousands of pieces if not because of the thrusters, which triggered and stopped them just several meters from a cliff. The blast was devastating. Anything from inside the 2-mile radius circle inside the valley, where the fight takes place, was completely wiped out from the surface of Equus. Flash could see all the snow has already gone, replaced by molten rocks with a bright shade of orange, similar to the rocks melted by the “rainbow strikes”. He was horrified. There could be creatures being vaporized from the huge blast and thinking about that already horrified him. Black Wine breathed heavily, still bracing himself from the massive blast. But after allowing his eyes to open, he was also shocked at the sight that the two mobile suits have done. “What… what have we done? What have I done?” he asked himself. In front of him, the MkII is still hovering, staring its eyes towards him as if it is staring into his soul. Its bright red eyes hiding in the heavy snowfall make that stare even more terrifying. Black Wine can feel that there are at least several furious souls inside that machine, and all of them wanted, at least for that moment, to do nothing more than tear him and the Alicorn apart. At that moment, both sides are already really exhausted. “Okay, enough for today…” he said through the com-link “We will continue for tomorrow…” But he didn’t get to finish the sentence. A chilling voice ripped through his mind like a knife, coupling the warning voice: “Black Wine, I know you in there!” … “Twi… Twi… Twilight Sparkle?” Haystack stuttered. He, Discord, and the entire crew of the Canterlot are confused about the strange voice that just goes through their head. “For so long we have trusted your loyalty and your talent to help us rule this kingdom with us, yet you have betrayed us by not just toppling us, starting a war, but also imprisoning us like this?” she said with a calm voice, yet added a massive amount of fury. Every creature can feel the heat coming out from every single word she said. “Oh my… I’ve known her for a really, really, REALLY long time, but oh she sounds super creepy!” Discord said to Yellow Pickle “Her voice is so… I’m honestly speechless!” “What the… does any creature really hear what she just say?” Scerlite asked in an absolute panic. But it is not ended there: “I don’t know what has happened, and how have you overpowered the Magic of Friendship. But one thing certain: your selfishness for a ‘pure’ Equestria will fail, and the harmonic kingdom that we’ll all know and love will prevail!” “Twilight Sparkle! That’s really Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Marlin Whisper yelled. The whole bridge is able to hear it, making the sound even scarier. It is just in time when Era arrived at the bridge. She was confused to see her fellow shipmates mumbling about some sort of “voice” that is able to whisper into their ears. “Wh… What’s going on?” she asked. “Oh, there you are Era!” Haystack said to her in a somewhat annoyed manner “You should not know about what we just have gone through…” …  “Starlight!” Trixie screamed into the falling snow “Do you hear it!” “Yes!” the pink unicorn barked back “I told you to stay in the shelter!” “The students are confused!” she use her front hooves to form her own makeshift speaker, “They asked me to ask you!” “Come inside! It’s dangerous out here!” But just behind her, the fighting has resumed. The MkII has decided to pull out its beam saber again, take from its back one of the shields,s and engage its enemy. It seemingly targeted the Alicorn’s cockpit, trying to stab it with all of its furious force. In his cockpit, Flash struggles to control his rouge mobile suit. There’s no doubt that there is another group of creatures being trapped inside the MkII, just like how Luster Dawn and her friends did in Alicorn. “So… did Black Wine want to test these two by forcing them to fight each other?” he thought. “Stop, I said stop!” Flash screamed. Just before the saber’s blade touches the Alicorn cockpit armor, it let out a powerful punch into the forearm that carries the saber, effectively stopping the strike. “Dang, that was a close, foolish boy!” Black Wine said with a laugh through the com link. The Alicorn then decided to constantly punches the MkII in the torso. But thanks to Flash’s fast reaction time, right at the moment the “AI” are somehow distracted, the Psycho MkII is able to escape the attempt. The rouge “AI” seemingly realizes this, so a strange voice told Flash into his ear with a soothing voice: “Stranger in the cockpit… do whatever you want!” It is different from the previously angered Twilight Sparkle’s voice. It is softer, more smooth, and more comfortable to hear. He doesn’t know why, but he doesn’t have time to question. Right in front of his eyes, the Alicorn has once again pulled out its own beam saber, ready to maul him just as Flash assumed Black Wine's intention. With the two machines with equally bright eyes, hovering above the molten rocks due to the previous powerful explosion, the battle scene has got an absolute piece of art for any lucky pony artist nearby to take as a reference for their new painting. Flash let out a deep sighed and positioned himself before the fight really started again. “Okay… if you want to fight again!” Flash mumbled …  “Trixie, get in!” Starlight screamed once again, and teleported herself to the shelter’s front door, the door of a small rock cave that is big enough to house hundreds of creatures if needed. She pushes Trixie into the dark void of the cave and jumps herself into it. The two unicorns helped each other, along with the magic of another unicorn stallion that just ran to them.  “Argh!” some of the creatures screamed “Headmare Starlight!” a pony yelled. “What’s going on?” she answered “Is there a creature that needs my help?” “Uh… no, but I think most of the foods have been covered in the falling dirt. All of our mattresses too, Miss Headmare.” “Alright, I will cover them later…” From the inside, she could hear explosions sound all over her head. She knew it is an intense one. Starlight decided to cast a spell, a “look through walls” spell, called the X-ray spell which allowed her to view what was blocked, outside of her cave and witness what happened. Her friends were also there to see it for themselves. To their surprise, the fight only involved beam guns and their sabers, and they seem to be significantly slower and heavier than when they unleashed the “rainbow power”. Starlight speculated that they are refraining from using that destructive power again. “Hey Starlight, may I see it a little bit… longer?” asked Trixie. “Me too!” Sunburst followed “I’ve heard about mobile suits many times, but this is probably the first time I ever saw it in person!” Just after that, the dark blue MS brought up its shield and fired some beam gunshots at the Alicorn. The two MS practically have the same weapons configuration, so the outcome is undoubtedly very unpredictable, maybe even a draw. But Starlight didn’t know that the Alicorn is having a more psycho frame, as well as its back-mounted shields that can be separated and controlled remotely like bits, so the white MS has the upper hand. The Alicorn soon proved that ability by deploying all those flying shields, with its ultimate target being the MkII. Flash struggled to keep a distance from them, but it seems like all of his efforts are in vain. To make it worse for him, the 265’s suit has also arrived. During the fight, Black Wine requested his subordinate on the Cloudsdale to reinforce him. “Bring the Psycho-claw with you!” he told the crew. “Okay, buddy! It’s over now!” he said. But Flash and the “AI” are not given up so quickly. After around 5 minutes of chasing, the Psycho MkII lit up its psycho-frame again. For a brief moment, Flash tried to use the head-mounted Vulcan gun, but none of them fired. “Caution, empty!” the main control monitor read. He has forgotten that it is supposed to be a mock battle, not a real fight. “While these ‘AI’ didn’t do anything other than running!” he thought. Flash decided to put up the beam gun again, hoping it will give him some leverage over the flying shields. But that’s it. Just a moment later, some powerful claws quickly grabbed his torso and prevented any form of resistance. It is the same one that successfully captured the Alicorn before, and Flash knew it will be brutal for any of its unfortunate prey. Flash was immediately hit with a massive headache. From his nose and mouth, blood is pouring out like a red spring. He can only hug his head and scream in absolute agony. The claw then expanded, creating a massive bright pink prison that can be looked through. For some reason, the suit still appeared gripped by the claw, despite the enormous space it just has been given. It eventually crashes down the rock, creating a large pile of dust and falling boulders. Flash’s head crashes into the main control monitor, making the safety glass on his helmet crack. For some reason, the safety airbags on it didn’t deploy. Before his entire vision turned black, he can saw the “prison” was disabled, along with the landing of the Alicorn right in front of his eyes. Starlight have just seen it when she decided to follow the chase with her levitating magic, with Sunburst and Trixie following her. Horrified of what just happened, her tear have fallen. “Awe, Starlight, you don’t have to feel bad for any of them!” Sunburst said with a casual tone, his eyes looking at them with his eyebrows frowned “They are solely built for killing, anyway…” “But… don’t you hear Twilight’s voice?” she asked her friends and looked with an equally furious face “She, and even her friends, can be trapped in there. You can’t just say it like that?” Trixie questioned her stance with a worried face: “So you think there are Element of Harmony users being trapped in that black mobile suit!” “That’s… what my mind leads me to think…” “But… But the Magic of Friendship can’t get evil! They will not stand for Black Wine!” the orange unicorn, named Sunburst, argued. “Of course they will not… But this, however…” Starlight panned her eyes toward where the mysterious MS was lying. She is a key ally to the Council of Friendship, and she has fought alongside in countless battles. This is the reason why she is one of the most qualified ponies to talk about the Magic of Friendship in the entire Equus. But still, something is not right about that dark blue MS. She knew that her theory of the Council of Friendship being imprisoned in one of those machines is totally crazy, but it could still happen. “I’ll go to investigate!” she decisively declared. “We’re gonna followed those mobile suits right back to their base to find out what just happened.” “Huh? I don’t recall any of the bases near here!” Sunburst questioned. He takes a small regional map from his wizard coat and searches through it. The trio is allowed to ignore the strong wind, and the cold temperature of Frozen North thanks to Starlight’s shield ball she has cast on them when they landed on one of the rocks. “Uhm… maybe they have an airship near here?” Starlight speculated. “But get ready guys! Oh, and we have to go back to the shelter! Why do you two let the students alone in there?”