Chapter 3
An Ethnic Conflict
The transport plane touched down at Hurricane airforce base at 21:00 hours, the tyres of the aircraft screeching as it came to a stop upon the airstrip. The door opened and Spitfire rapidly descended down the stairs, her feet clattering on the metal steps as Crescent Moon descended more slowly behind her.
Spitfire was no stranger to Hurricane. It was here that she had been based while performing tests for the Federation's new mobile suit, the design that would eventually become the FLAG. Returning here was, in some ways, like coming home. The paint was a little more faded on the concrete, but the catseyes on the runway glistened just the same. Knowing the way, she hastened into the main hangar, leaving Cresent Moon to follow in her wake.
The hangar was big, spacious and well lit, with several FLAGs parked up next to one another in a neat line. One, a little ahead of the others, was already being crawled over by technicians. Standing on a ladder, directing the work, Spitfire recognised Professor Zecora, one of the Federation's top minds in Applied Physics & Engineering and the new director of the Anti-Gundam Investigative Taskforce.
"Hey, Professor!" Spitfire shouted.
Zecora looked her way, a smile breaking upon her striped face, "It is excellent to see you, Spitfire and Crescent Moon,
I regret that our reunion did not come more soon."
"And that it took an international crisis to bring us back together," Crescent Moon said, coming to a panting stop beside Spitfire. "It looks like you haven't wasted any time getting to work."
Zecora nodded, "While Celestial Being a danger poses,
Then we have no time to lose."
Spitfire stepped closer to the FLAG that was being worked upon. It looked a little different from the others, an altered shape that was nevertheless familiar to her. She gasped, "Is this-"
"The prototype? Why yes indeed,
It turns out to have many qualities we need," Zecora said.
"So I had it brought here from the stores,
That it might to our victory open doors."
Spitfire grinned, "Well if that doesn't take me back." The prototype version of the FLAG had been a different beast to the version that had ultimately made it into mass production. It had been faster and its main weapon had packed more of a punch, but the design committee had concluded that most pilots couldn't handle the excessive G-forces, and the power usage was unnecessarily high and wasteful for an air superiority MS.
"It looks like you're trying to upgrade the weapons system and the engine power," Crescent Moon said. When Zecora nodded, Crescent added, "That'll put a lot of strain upon the pilot."
"I can handle it," Spitfire said self-assuredly. "I just hope the other pilots can. Have they arrived yet? The general was kinda vague on who'd be making up this unit. Am I expected to take on the Gundams by myself, or are they going to send me a bunch of deadbeats who couldn't cut it back with other squadrons? I don't see why she wouldn't have told me if she had found some real pilots."
"That's about how it goes captain," a familiar, mellow voice called from the shadowy rear of the hangar. Soarin' stepped out of the darkness, hands in his pockets, "But then, it doesn't look like they could find a real CO for this new outfit either."
Other figures stepped out of the shade to stand beside Soarin' in a line as trim as the one the parked up FLAGs made: Blaze, Fire Streak, Fleetfoot, Misty Fly, Rapidfire, High Winds, Lightning Streak, Silver Lining, Wave Chill.
"You guys!" Spitfire could not keep her face fixed in it's stern expression. "Why didn't somepony tell me I'd be getting the best squadron in the air force?"
Soarin', and everypony else, came to attention with a salute, "501 squadron Wonderbolts reporting for duty with the Anti-Gundam Taskforce."
***
At Canterlot High, one of the premiere schools of the Pony Reform League, the students sat down in the cafeteria for lunch. Rumble let Diamond Tiara choose their table, a small, shiny surfaced, plastic thing, and sat down across from her. He stared at her for a moment, until she noticed.
"What's the matter?" Diamond Tiara asked. "Is my hair out of shape?"
"No," Rumble said definitely. "Your hair is great - beautiful! Like you."
Diamond Tiara giggled, "You're such a sweetheart, Rumble."
"It's true," Rumble insisted. "Every day I wonder how I ended up with a girlfriend like you."
She laughed again, "Flattery will get you everywhere Rumble." She favoured him with a kiss on one cheek, "That and doing all of my homework."
Rumble sighed, "Why do we have to know so much about history anyway? I want to be an engineer."
"Students must understand the past in order to understand the future," Diamond Tiara parroted their professor. "Hey, Rumble?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever think about your future?"
Rumble shrugged, "I guess."
"Am I in it?"
Rumble shrugged again, "I guess."
"You guess? And what the hay is that supposed to mean?"
Rumble became abruptly conscious that he had said absolutely the wrong thing, "Uh, calm down, Diamond─"
"Calm down? You just blew off our whole relationship and I'm the one who needs to calm down! You guess? Well if that's how you feel then maybe I should stop wasting my time!" she stood up so fast her chair fell over and began to stomp out of the cafeteria.
Rumble stared forlornly after her, until she turned and yelled at him, "Hello! This is the part where you chase after me, duh!"
"Oh, right," Rumble tried to ignore his burning cheeks and the laughter of his classmastes as he got off and began to pursue his lovely, fiery, unpredictable girlfriend.
***
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were among those laughing at Rumble's discomfiture as he fled the scene in pursuit of Diamond Tiara.
"You ever wish some stallion would chase after you that way?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Not really," Sweetie Belle replied. "I mean, it might be funny once, but there's nopony here I really care about that way. Maybe some day, but not right now."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle tended to stick together at school, being the only other kid there to know about their family secret helped a lot in that regard, but their was genuine friendship there as well. And so it was on this particular day. They hung out all through classes, and then they both headed out together, where a finely dressed young lady was waiting for them at the gates.
"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle cried out happily, rushing to embrace her sister in a hug.
"Oh it's good to see you too, Sweetie Belle," Rarity smiled. "And Apple Bloom, how are you darling?"
"Ah'm just great thank you Rarity," Apple Bloom nodded. "Ah got a call from mah sister last night."
"Oh marvellous," Rarity said. "Hopefully she'll get sent down here soon and you can see her in person. Now, who wants to go get something to eat?"
They spent the late afternoon together, as the sun began to set, until Rarity's cellphone rang.
"Hello, Rarity speaking," Rarity answered. "What? Right away? But it's so...yes, of course. Right away, Princess."
Sweetie Belle frowned, "You have to go, don't you?"
"I'm afraid so," Rarity replied. "Duty calls, as it were."
***
Rainbow Dash ran through the darkened streets, her feet pounding the rain sodden pavements.
"Would it kill them to give us a whole day off?" she muttered to herself as she dashed towards the abandoned warehouse where she had stowed the Loyalty.
***
On board the Harmony, Twilight Sparkle floated in the middle of a sea of data. She did not sleep, as ordinary people did. She...recharged in the hub linking the Harmony to the supercomputer VETA, which contained all the data from Princess Celestia's many years of planning Celestial Being's campaign for world peace. Twilight's eyes, which were open but unseeing, had turned from purple to gold as the information streamed through her brain.
"Twily?" Shining Armour's voice recalled her to the physical realm. "Twily, it's time to get up. We're moving out."
Twilight Sparkle kicked upwards, reaching for the lip of the tank to pull herself out of VETA's hub. She backflipped as she rose up towards the ceiling, descending back towards the cabin floor.
"You don't have to call me that you know," Twilight said unemotionally.
"What?" Shining Armour asked.
"Twily," Twilight replied. "There's nopony here but us. You don't have to pretend to be my brother within these walls."
"Do you not like it?"
"It doesn't bother me," Twilight said coldly. "I just thought the pretending might be hard for you."
"What if I'm not pretending?" Shining Armour asked.
Twilight affixed him with a knowing look, "We both know that isn't true." She's not my sister! She isn't even a real girl!
A flicker of shame flashed across Shining Armour's face, "Twily─"
"Celestial Being is staging another armed intervention, yes?"
Shining Armour nodded, "Yeah."
"Then we've no time to waste," Twilight Sparkle said, beginning to glide out of her cabin.
***
The sun was rising for the new day as Loyalty, Laughter and Generosity approached the rendezvous point.
"I do hope you girls aren't too unfit for duty after your night out," Rarity said, her tone somewhere between amused and concerned. "You are sure you're both okay?"
"I'm fine Rarity, come on, it's me," Rainbow Dash said. "You're okay, right Pinkie?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Pinkie's voice came over the com.
"You see Rarity?" Rainbow asked.
"You know your own bodies best, I'm sure."
The three gundams glided over the ocean, hovering for a few minutes at the rendez-vous point, until they saw the flames in the sky that marked the descent of the Magic, Kindness and Honesty down from space.
"Hey girls," Pinkie squeaked, as the Laughter waved one giant pink arm in the direction of the newly arrived Gundams. "How's it going?"
"Very well, thank you Pinkie," Fluttershy whispered. "And how are you Rainbow Dash?"
"Oh you know, the most awesome thing on two legs," Rainbow Dash said. "You feeling better now that the first mission's out the way?"
"Not really."
"Aw come on, this is a piece of cake. There isn't a mobile suit in the world that can touch a gundam," Rainbow Dash said.
"That isn't what I heard about a certain FLAG," Applejack remarked.
"That...is not the point."
"We should get moving," Twilight Sparkle said. "Stage Two of the mission is now in
progress."
"Right." the six Gundams formed up. The Loyalty, painted in rainbow colours but dominated by blue, took the lead. It was the most versatile gundam, the only machine that combined ranged and close combat capability in equal measure. That was why Rainbow Dash got to fly point: if they ran into any trouble she was best equipped to handle it whatever its nature.
That, and the Loyalty had the best pilot, but nopony else needed to be told that.
The close combat units, the Honesty and Generosity, had her back and wings. If they were engaged by enemy mobile suits, the best chance those two units had would be to get into close range as quickly as possible. The Honesty's lariat gave it a limited ability to respond at range, but the white and purple Generosity needed to get close enough to use its radiant wave surger in order to be truly effective, it didn't even have guns for point defence.
Behind them flew the Magic and the Kindness, with their heavy ranged capability, and lastly the Laughter, with the GN Rifle that Pinkie had dubbed the Party Canon. Whatever you chose to call it, it was the longest ranged weapon in Celestial Being's arsenal.
"Would now be a good time to tell us what the mission is exactly?" Applejack asked. "It might just be me imagining things, but it looks like we're headed for home. Mah home, that is."
"That is correct, Applejack," Twilight Sparkle's voice was discursive, intellectual, as if she were giving a lecture not flying into a combat zone. "The target of Celestial Being's second armed intervention is the region known as Appleoosa. This area has been the site of over a century of ethnic conflict between the majority buffalo and the minority pony population. Since the ponies are backed by the Pony Reform League and their military, they have the advantage in the war, but both sides have possessed supremacy at different points and both sides have committed atrocities against the other. Neither side deserves our sympathy. Celestial Being will intervene and separate the combatants, destroying their war-making capacity with extreme prejudice."
"Appleoosa," Applejack murmured. "Ah didn't think I'd be seein' this place again so soon."
"Are you all right, darling? I'm sure that the five of us could─"
"I ain't backin' out of nothing Rarity, don't you worry. Ah'm a gundam meister of Celestial Being and I got a job to do. I just think it's kinda strange is all. When I was a kid used to think the buffalo were the most folks in the whole world for that what they did to mah parents. Now I know that some ponies did things just as bad, or worse. Sometimes I don't know how ponykind got into space to begin with."
"Just because that are some people who do terrible things, doesn't mean that there aren't other people in the world capable of doing great and good things as well," Fluttershy said. "Ponykind has to be worth saving. If we lose faith in that, then Celestial Being's mission becomes pointless."
"Ah know Fluttershy, and ah believe it," Applejack said. "This here is just the kind of situation Celestial Being oughtta be intervein' in."
"An ethnic conflict," Rainbow Dash murmured, her hands tightening their grip upon the controls of the Loyalty.
"You say something, sugarcube?"
"An ethnic conflict," Rainbow Dash repeated, memories of long ago, memories she would rather have forgotten, stirring in response to the words.
Shells hammered into bombed out buildings. Sandy coloured metallic titans stomped through the ruined city, impervious to the bullets striking them from all sides, finishing off the last of the resistance almost contemptuously.
"This is a holy war fought in the name of Faust," the canned message came over the loudspeaker in the rich, gravelly voice.
Rainbow Dash ran for cover as one of her comrades was scythed down by fire from a PRL Fanton.
"We must destroy the unbelievers who trespass on the holy land of Faust," Thunderhooves continued.
"In this world, there is no Faust," Rainbow Dash murmured, clutching her useless rifle as though it was her hope of salvation.
"Ethnic conflict," Rainbow Dash growled. "Killing one another because we look different. What kind of a reason is that for all this killing? Somepony has to stop them!"
There was silence on the com before Rarity said delicately, "Um, Rainbow Dash, that's what we're going to do."
"Then we need to do it faster, come on!" Rainbow Dash snarled, gunning the Loyalty's engine, which exploded a shower of rainbow-coloured GN particles as the gundam sped forwards, leaving the other five mobile suits.
"Rainbow Dash, wait," Twilight called. "This isn't in the plan? Is it? Is 'Rainbow Dash goes crazy' part of the mission plan. It wasn't in VETA!"
"Don't worry girls, I'll look after her," Pinkie Pie said, accelerating the Laughter. "You carry on with the mission."
"Roger that," Applejack said. "And remember everypony, be careful out there."
"Right!"
***
Rainbow Dash sped towards the battlefield, a rainbow trail of GN particles in her wake.
This is holy war in the name of Faust.
"Ponies and buffalos," Rainbow Dash growled. "What the hay kind of reason is that to be killing one another?"
"Hey, hey, everybody, we've got something to say,
We may seem as different, as the night is from day."
"Not now Pinkie Pie."
"But you look deeper, and you will see," Pinkie Pie warbled.
"That I'm just like you and you're just like me so-"
"Pinkie, save it!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "I'll stop this. With Loyalty I'll stop all the wars, all over the world. And I'll do it because my gundam and I are one! Gundam!"
The coastline came into view and Rainbow Dash flew over it, the flashes of gunfire and the distant sounds of fighting becoming less and less distant by the second.
The two factions battled over a shell-marked and war-scarred desolate plain. Generations of strife had rendered the once fertile region barely inhabitable, the fertile orchards burned to the ground, the towns and cities laid to waste, the sacred grounds bathed in blood and hallowed anew by fresh offerings of death. But still the two sides fought for a land in which neither could now live, simply because they had fought for it too long to stop.
The buffalo may have been the majority population of the region, but their forces were equipped only with the old Fanton mobile suits, the first generation PRL units now obsolete by any standard. Rainbow Dash stared at them, the sandy, boxy units exactly the same as those that had wiped out his comrades when they had fought for Faust and Thunderhooves. But while the Fantons then had seemed inviolable, invincible titans of the battlefield, gods among men, the buffalo Fantons were yielding ground as more and more of them were destroyed by the nimbler PRL Tierens.
The green Tierens were not objectively nimble, being themselves pretty blocky and bulky things, lacking the flight-capability as standard that the FLAG, the ENACT or the Helion possessed, but they were faster than the Fantons, smaller, yet just as well armed to all intents and purposes. It was no wonder that they dominated this battlefield.
"Well not any more," Rainbow Dash said. "Because now the new generation of mobile suits have arrived! Gundam is here!" He brought up the Loyalty's main gun and snapped off three shots into the melee. Three PRL Tierens exploded as soon as the beams hit them.
"It's a Gundam!" one of the PRL soldiers yelled over the open channel.
Rainbow Dash chuckled, "That's never gonna get old."
The Loyalty descended to the ground, Dash folding her gun away as she drew her beam sabre and brought her shield down over her right hand. She struck an ass-kicking pose with her gundam long enough for the PRL soldiers to start voiding themselves, then began to attack.
The Loyalty might as well have been on rollers for the way it half skated, half glided through the battlefield, weaving in and out of the Tieren's fire while letting none of the munitions touch her, slicing the boxy green mobile suits in half, not looking back as the wrecked remains exploded.
"Party cannon, targeted and firing," Pinkie Pie said cheerfully as she covered Rainbow Dash's rear, eliminating a Tieren squadron trying to sneak up on her from behind. She then proceeded to take out the group of Long Range Cannon type Tierens, mounting heavy calibre howitzers on their heads, which were trying to lay range on Loyalty as she wreaked havoc among the ground types.
In a matter of minutes the entire PRL force had been completely wiped out.
The Fantons of the buffalo began to stomp forward.
"Hey, thanks for the assist, Gundam!" one of the buffalo signalled. "Come on fellas, let's press on and finish them off! Push forward and drive the ponies out!"
"You idiots," Rainbow Dash yelled, pirouetting in place to slice the two closest Fantons in half. Their upper halves toppled to the ground shortly before exploding. "Do you really think we came here to help you win your stupid war?"
Pinkie Pie giggled, "Celestial Being is opposed to all war, silly. That means you and the PRL are both as bad as each other." She started shooting up the buffalo next.
Elsewhere, the story was much the same. Rarity in the Generosity attacked the main PRL base, and wreaked havoc on the parked up mobile suits and vehicles before their pilots could even reach them. Using the Kindness' gun drones, Fluttershy was able to take out an entire buffalo column single handed. Twilight destroyed the PRL's naval forces, while Applejack took care of a force of Tieren's about to descend upon a large and defenceless buffalo refugee camp.
"I wonder what you'd say about me defending a bunch of buffalo ma," Applejack murmured as she lassoed a Tieren with her lariat and flung it over the battlefield into another mobile suit. "I hope you'd be proud of what we're all trying to do here."
"Alright everyone, stage five of the mission has been successfully eliminated," Twilight said. "Moving on to stage six, all gundams are to retreat to designated positions. Meisters will regroup for transfer back to space."
"Okay sugarcube, see you then."
"Okie dokie lokie," Pinkie Pie chirped eagerly. "You coming, Dashie?"
"Just a minute, you go on," as the other Gundams retreated from the field of their victory, the Loyalty remained upon the battlefield, surrounded by the burning corpses of enemy mobile suits, the sole survivor and thus the unchallenged victor of the battlefield.
"This is the power of a gundam," Rainbow Dash murmured. "And it's all mine, awesome!"
She was jolted out of this self-congratulation by the need to dodge a volley fired by a high-mobility Tieren, painted in khaki instead of the usual green, which glided on hoverjet wings attached to the back over the battlefield, firing at the Loyalty with its rifle.
"Who the hay is this?" Rainbow Dash asked.
The Tieren landed in front of the Loyalty, discarded its rifle, and slowly produced a blade from behind its back.
Rainbow Dash grinned, "So you want to go hand to hand do ya? Well if that's the way you want to play it buddy I'm happy to oblige."
The Loyalty charged forward, as the Tieren moved to meet it. Dash swung. The Tieren's move was sluggish. The Loyalty's Beam Sabre sliced through the Tieren's arm, cutting off hand and blade both. Rainbow Dash laughed as she passed the Tieren, then turned to finish it off─
Only to find the Tieren waiting for her as it beat her sabre out of the Loyalty's hand then clamped it's remaining hand over the Loyalty's face.
"What the─" Rainbow Dash said. Then she felt the pressure as the Tieren began to squeeze and pull. "Is this guy trying to take my head? No one touches my Loyalty you jerk!" With an angry roar, she activated the Loyalty's physical blade and sliced off the Tieren's other arm, toppling the machine over.
"No one touches my Loyalty!" Dash yelled again, activating the speakers. "You got that punk! No one! I really oughta finish you off for that, but you know what? Forget it. I'm done with this place. But no more war!" And with that stern admonition she took off, leaving a trail of rainbow particles in her wake.
***
"So, Colonel Cranky, I heard you actually duelled one of the Gundams."
"Yes sir," Colonel Cranky D. Donkey stood at stiff attention in front of the general's desk, his grey hairpiece neatly set upon his head so well it was near impossible to tell that it was fake. "I'm sorry I couldn't get a trophy like I wanted to."
"You survived, that's more than I can say for most of our people out there today," the general mused regretfully. "What did you think?"
"A good machine. An average pilot who could be good if she wasn't so cocky," Cranky said. "Very young."
The general nodded, "We're setting up a new unit specifically to destroy or, even better, capture a gundam. I'm putting you in charge. Any objections?"
"I've never objected to following orders before, sir."
"That's settled then. You can select your own personnel, completely free hand. Except for one soldier I recommend you take on. Bring her in!"
The door at the back of the room opened, and a young lady with grey skin, a golden mane and matching golden eyes that were slightly wall-eyed in their alignment strode resolutely into the room ─ right up until she tripped over the general's aspidistra.
Cranky blinked as the young lady picked herself up.
"Sorry about that. Super Soldier number one Lieutenant Derpy Hooves reporting for duty, sir."
Cranky eyed the general out of the side of his eye in case this was a joke, "I thought the Super Soldier programme had been shut down due to a lack of success."
"Apparently they produced a few viable subjects before they were shut down, Lieutenant Hooves being one," the general said.
"I've never been out of the institute until now, sir, I'm really looking forward to helping you kick some gundam ass!"
Cranky raised one eyebrow, "With all due respect lieutenant, how can you expect to pilot a Tieren when you can't even walk into a room?"
Derpy's face crumpled with disappointment. The general said, "The scientists say that her quantum brain waves, which give her an exceptional aptitude for space and mobile suit combat, interfere with her ordinary spacial awareness. I don't understand the jargon but the bottom line is: she's a demon in a mobile suit but clumsy as hell outside of it. Her presence on your team is an order, colonel, you'll need an ace in the hole against the Gundams."
"Yay," Derpy said. "I really hope we can become good friends, colonel."
Cranky sighed, "You are much too young for this."