Within the darken confines of the Zaku's cockpit, a low groan of pain was heard. "ow!" Michael snarled as he brought his hands to his head. It felt like an entire legion of Zakus were doing the Can-Can on his head. He yanked off the headset, and tossed it somewhere, most likely to get underfoot later. "Ugh, I'm going to hurl." He moaned as he ran his hands through his sweat soaked hair. Having been on Earth for so long, Michael stopped wearing that damnable "Normal" Suit, and wore his normal Duty uniform when he sortied. Doing so made piloting much more comfortable. For several minutes, Michael simply laid on his back in the darkness. He was trying to will his stomach, and his mind to stop spinning. The sense of nausea, and vertigo dredged up bad memories from Zero G training in Basic, and Mobile Suit Pilot training. That was one reason he liked being on Earth, Gravity. Here, Michael knew which way was up.
With a practiced hand, Michael reached out, and flipped the Master switch. He was instantly rewarded with the blinking of his screens coming to life. About 5 feet "below" the cockpit, the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor began to warm up. A soft shutter reverberated through the suit as it came back to life. "Okay, I'm alive, and my Mobile suit is still alive. That is good." Michael breathed out in relief as he pulled his hands down over his weary face. "Lets see if I can get her standing." He muttered as he threw a few switches, and started to manipulate the controls. The first movement was the Zaku's right hand, and arm raising up, and moving to support the large mecha as it pushed itself into a sitting position. Unknowingly crushing a Timber Wolf that was intent on a dinner of succulent filly meat. The external pick ups were still offline so Michael didn't hear the screaming of three small quadruped creatures that had front row seats to the Zaku's awakening. "Come on baby, just a little bit more." Michael coaxed as he felt his entire body shift, and move in orientation as the green giant moved to get to its feet.
Slowly but surely the Zaku regained its footing, and now stood tall over the forest that it has found itself in. Michael quickly started to scan for the GM suits that where chasing him. Blessedly, they were no where in sight. "How long was I out for?" he asked as he looked up at the evening sky. The Horizon was painted in orange, reds, and purples as the first stars started to twinkle in the sky. "Wow, it is night fall already?" He asked as he rubbed a growing knot on his head. "I guess those feddies got tired of chasin' little ole me." he chuckled in relief. "now, where am I?" He mused as he tried to contact his anyone from the base. Yet, his only response was static. "The hell?" He muttered in confusion.
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Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo, and Applebloom were hell bent for leather to get away from that green giant that crushed one timber wolf, and chased the others off. The three young ponies had no intention of sticking around to see if the Giant had a taste for pony. "Is it following us!?" Scootaloo huffed as her small wings buzzed right behind her. She was too afraid to even risk turning her head.
Applebloom would be the one to summon her courage, and chance the glance behind. Though, it was slow, and hesitant. She was afraid of massive foot falls, and an enormous hand reaching out for the three. However, what she saw was empty woods. her brow scrunched in confusion. Surely the Giant heard them, as loud as they screamed the majority of the forest had hear them. "Ah don see it, but keep goin'!" She called back. hoping that the Giant wasn't moving to cut them off.
They could see the Lights of Ponyville just up ahead. The young Fillies hopes soared for safety "We're almost there girls! Just keep galloping!" Sweetie Bell hollered out as she panted. her heart, and the hearts of her friends felt like they were slamming into their chests, and the air couldn't be pulled into their lungs fast enough. "We got to tell my sister, and the others!" She added, spurring them on as they raced for the distant orange glow.
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The Mane Six dashed out of the Library, well Fluttershy had to be dragged out kicking, and screaming, to meet the threat to their home. In the center of the town was a monster drake. Soft green scales that were the color of Jade, and hungry eyes gleamed in the fires that were engulfing Ponyville. Around the town, ponies were darting to, and fro. Either trying to escape the Dragon, help others, or try, and contain the fires that were threatening to rage out of control. The Dragon would punctuate his presence with deafening roars that had everypony clamping their ears shut.
Twilight was quick to take charge of the situation. Her royal purple eyes narrowing as she formulated a plan to try, and contain the beast. "Rainbow Dash, I need you to fly up, and distract the Dragon. Try to lure him away from the town." Twilight instructed, hoping her plan would work. They didn't have a lot of time, and a full grown dragon rampaging through the town was a crisis only dreamed of in nightmares until now. Twilight, and the others would cringe as a couple of earth ponies were scooped up in a large clawed forefoot, and simply tossed into the dragon's maw. The two ponies's screams of terror were abruptly cut off when the dragon's steel trap like maw snapped shut. The sight churned the stomachs of the Mane Six, and reinforced what they had to do.
Rainbow Dash was understandably unnerved by the scene, but she summoned her courage, and called out an acknowledgement before she zoomed off into the darkened skies. Her trademark Rainbow contrail following her like a shadow. Rainbow first made a fast pass in front of the Drake's snout, narrowly missing the snapping jaws, but managed to knock a young Unicorn away from being thrown into the bowels of the beast. The Unicorn would fall into a nearby tree beaten up, but still alive. The Dragon was far from happy that it had its snack taken from it, and let out another roar as it started to focus on Rainbow now. "I got his attention Twilight!" Rainbow shouted as she started to jinx, and juke to avoid being ensnared or devoured.
"Right! AppleJack, Pinkie. I need you two to help get the other ponies out of Ponyville. That Dragon is a Pony eater, making the situation much worse." Twilight instructed.
"Right, we can take em to Sweet Apple Acres! Ah'm sure we can hide them in the orchards." Apple Jack replied before turning to the bouncing Pink pony. She was rather impressed with Twilight having Pinkie Pie accompany her. The pink mare's boundless enthusiasm will help to keep the other ponies, particularly the young'in's calm in this crisis. "Come on, Pinkie! We got townponies to round up!" Apple jack stated as she, and the pink tornado darted off to get the Ponies out of the town, and away from the dragon.
Twilight's hopes were starting to rise as it appears that her leadership skills were improving. Yet, there still was much work to be done. "Spike, I need you to take a letter to princess Cele....er" Twilight stopped herself, and looked up into the sky. Seeing how it was night, that would change things. "Correction. Take a letter to Princess Luna. Tell her we have a Drake rampaging through Ponyville, and require immediate assistance." Twilight instructed. The young dragon quickly produced some parchment, and a quill, and began scrawling quickly. the scratching of the quill could hardly be heard over the noise of the chaos all around them. After a few scant seconds, Spike rolled up the parchment, and let out a soft green flame to send the letter on its way.
"thank you, Spike. Next...." Twilight started but was quickly cut off by three frantic fillies of the Cutie Mark Crusaders that seemed to materialized right in front of her. They were speaking so fast, and erratically that it was impossible for any one to be heard, let alone understood. "Girls please, I can't understand you when your going off like this!" Twilight stated as she tried to get the three to calm down.
"Twilight, Darling, please let me handle this." Rarity said as she sauntered over, Spike leaning to the side to get a view of her shapely flank. As Rarity came forward the three fillies continued to talk in unison. Rarity took a moment to clear her throat, and took a deep breath. The next thing she did was to let out an ear splitting shriek, "SWEETIE BELL!". Pavlovian reflexes kicked in as the snow white unicorn filly of the group instantly stopped speaking, and planted her plot on the ground. Her fore hooves shooting out, and over the muzzles of the two other fillies to silence them. "Thank you Darling." Rarity spoke as she turned to give Twilight the stage once more. "All yours Twilight." She said daintily.
Twilight blinked, but quickly recovered her composure. "What is it girls!? We have a crisis on our hooves." Twilight stated as she directed their attention to the large Green Drake that Rainbow dash was desperately trying to keep from tearing into the town anymore than it has. While she was doing that, Apple Jack, and Pinkie Pie could be seen rounding up the other townsponies, and pointing them in the direction of sweet apple acres. The three fillies look to each other for a moment before they each drew in a deep breath. Rarity, and Spike had enough dealings with the Fearsome Threesome to know what was coming, and quickly plugged their ears.
"THERE IS A GIANT IN THE EVERFREE FOREST!"
The Three young fillies shouted at the top of their lungs. Twilight bore the brunt of their sonic attack, and staggered back a couple of paces. Even Spike, and Rarity were affected as well. Taking a couple of moments for them to shake the ringing from their ears. "Come now Sweetie Belle. You know there is no such things as Gia...." Rarity started to say, but was cut off as something massive passed over the group of ponies, and one dragon.
A towering green titan seemed to appear through the fires that burned Ponyville. Twilight, Spike, and Rarity were all stunned silent at the sudden emergence of this interloper. Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, and Applebloom shot over to where Fluttershy was hiding, trying not to be noticed. Yet, their Filly curiosity wouldn't let them hide their eyes. they had to see what was going to happen.
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If you had asked Michael what he would be doing today, no where on that list would be "Fighting a Dragon". Yet, here he is. Charging into a burning town after an enormous green dragon. Shortly after regaining consciousness Michael found the nearby town by the glowing of the fires. It was strange as there was suppose to be no towns within the operational area of the ambush. Course that could have meant that he was much further off course than he knew cause of his mad retreat from the Feddy suits. Where ever they were, they can stay there for all he cared. However, he was rather dismayed by the fact that he was missing his Zaku Machine Gun, and Bazooka. Leaving him only with his Mobile suit's fists, feet, and his Heat Hawk tomahawk.
Michael threw the Zaku into a run as he approached the burning town, and saw the dragon laying waste. He saw other movement in the periphery of his vision , but his focus was solely upon the enormous reptile. A Zaku stood at 17.5 meters tall, and the Dragon was every bit as tall as the Mobile suit. So this was going to be a challenging fight. Yet the beast was distracted by something buzzing around its head. Michael dismissed the colorful contrail as a malfunction of his camera's processor. The drake's distraction would give Michael the opportunity to draw first blood. He twisted the Zaku's torso around, and brought left shoulder to the front. Michael was intending to give the Dragon a taste of the infamous "Zaku Tackle". At the last 150 feet to his target, Michael ignited the Zaku's backpack thrusters to propel the mobile suit even faster to hit the Dragon harder.
The Drake never saw the hit coming. One moment, it was snapping at Rainbow Dash, and the very next moment, it was flying through the air after being hit by what felt like a runaway freight train. The Zaku's shoulder slammed hard just behind where the Dragon's left foreleg connected to the body. Right below the wing root. There was a very audible crunch of bone as the green Zaku impacted against the side of the dragon. The spike on the top of the shoulder cap intensifying the damage of the hit. Dark crimson ichor stained the spiked shoulder cap, and upper arm of the Zaku's Left arm . The Dragon let out an deafening shriek of pain as it made a very undignified landing. Crushing a couple of vacated houses before coming to a rest.
The Dragon struggled to find its feet. Furious eyes seeking its attacker, believing another dragon has come to try, and take its prize. However, what its eyes fell upon was not another dragon but a towering Cyclops with a burning eye.
A furious roar of challenge was let loose from the drakes's maw, but the Giant didn't appeared to be phased. Returning to its feet with surprising quickness, even after suffering such a hit, the dragon charged the Zaku with its mouth open. Sharp recurved teeth gleaming, and promising death. Michael brought the hands up, and reached out to grab the beast. The Dragon struck the Zaku, driving its own weight into the tackle. The Zaku's auto-stabilization programming caused the MS to back peddle to keep from being toppled onto its back. Powerful jaws clamped down on the Zaku's left forearm. However, it wasn't doing much damage due to the super strong steel alloy that the Zaku was armored in. With sharp jerks, the beast tried to rip out the Zaku's arm since it couldn't simply crunch through it as it kept pushing the mobile suit back.
Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and the others looked on in horror as the Green Giant was being pushed back. His heavy Foot falls causing tremors that could be felt all through the area, but what was worse was the fact that there was an Earth Pony Family trying to get out of the way of the two monsters. Seeing the titans coming their way, they were frozen in fear. The forward section of the Zaku's right foot slammed down just a few feet from the family, but the heel would come down right on top of them. The Ponies looked on in horror as they watched 60 tons of Zeon Engineering slowly coming down right on top of them. The Father held his family, trying to shield them from the grueling death that was coming down right on top of them. The gesture was purely symbolic. The Father knew he wouldn't be able to protect his family. He Jammed his eyes shut, and tucked his head into his Wife's. "Be brave, my Darling. We'll be in Faust's embrace soon." he whispered to his Wife. The foals whimpering in fright. Applejack had to held back by a couple of Unicorns that were preventing her from running out, and trying to save the family. Everypony turned away so as to not see the gory series of events playing themselves out.
Yet, Death would be denied as Michael brought the right metalshod fist of the Zaku across, and drove it hard into the side of the Dragon's face, just below the left eye. Smashing against the bone, and causing the Dragon to release the Mobile suit's left arm. Several couple of his teeth breaking off as he let out a shriek of pain. The Dragon recoiled back, its tail thrashing about, knocking over, or outright smashing several market stalls. Micheal followed up his right hook with a left, sending the Dragon crashing into the ground. Raising the Zaku's foot, Michael brought it down hard on the Dragon's rib cage. Fractured bone from earlier's shoulder check became broken bone as the Dragon let out a gurgling screech.
The Pony father, and his family looked up, and couldn't believe what they were seeing. The Giant somehow avoid stepping on them. "Thank Faust, it is a miracle." The Wife panted. They would be quickly joined by Rainbow Dash whom was pushing them away, and towards Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. "What the buck are you four standing around for!? Get moving!" She growled as the Father, and Mother quickly picked up their Foals in their mouths, and began to run towards safety.
"What do we do Twilight!?" Spike asked as he watched this fight escalate. cringing as he watched one of his own being thrown down.
"I-I don't know Spike." Twilight stated as she felt very, very helpless. "We need to try, and get every pony out of harms way." Twilight stated as she turned towards Fluttershy, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The fear that the three fillies were displaying earlier completely evaporated as they were cheering like they had front row seats to the Fight of the Century, and on some level, they did. "Once this fight is over, we may need Fluttershy." Twilight observed before turning back to see how this will all end.
The Dragon didn't take the beating that the Zaku was dishing out laying down. Using its long tail, he struck the left leg of the Zaku, causing the suit to stumble backwards. "Shit!" Michael hissed as he was knocked around the cockpit from the strike. He grunted as his head throbbed from the earlier knock on the head. Once more the beast displayed a quickness defying its size as he came back to its feet, and tried to rend the Zaku to shreds with its enormous claws. However, Michael was able to get the Shield on the Zaku's right shoulder around, and to the front. The claws dug into the strong steel, sparks flying as shallow gouges were left in the dragon's wake. The blow causing the Zaku to continue to stagger backwards, opening up distance between it, and the Dragon. Inside the Cockpit, Michael watched as his adversary took in a very deep breath. "Oh Hell." he stated as he brought the Zaku's arms, and shield around the torso as much as possible to shield from what was obviously coming.
The next moment, the gates of hell were unleashed as the Dragon spewed his fiery breath at the green titan. Inside the cockpit, thermal gauges were quickly rising as warnings began to blare. The entire torso was engulfed in the flame. Michael grunted, and gritted his teeth as he had to endure this hellish assault. The attack only serving to tell him that he had to end this fight, and quickly. The other ponies watched in stunned horror as this giant was taking a direct blast of Dragon's fire. "Just hold out a little bit longer Zaku. Just a little bit longer." Michael pleaded as he nervously watch the reactor gauge tick into the red zone.
Blessedly, the Dragon's fire would stop before any major damage could be done. The Giant lowered his arms, and "exhaled" a gush of steam from the "mouth", purging the built up heat from around the reactor. The once deep forest, and light green skin of the Zaku's torso was scorched, and blackened. "My turn." Michael growled as the right arm of the Zaku reached across itself, and grabbed a handle that was clipped to the left Hip skirt armor of the Zaku. What he produced was single handed Tomahawk, The Zaku's "Heat Hawk"
The blade began to glow a bright yellow orange as intense heat could both be seen, and felt emanating from the ax head. The Dragon snarled as it opened its great wings to take flight, and attack from above. Michael saw this, and threw the Zaku into a charge. If the Dragon got into the Air, than Michael would not be able to win the fight since he didn't have either his machine gun, or bazooka. "Oh no you don't!" He shouted as the mobile suit hefted the super heated ax high into the air. The Dragon lifted off the ground with a powerful down stroke of its mighty wings. Its advantage grew with every foot it rose up into the air. A snarling smirk spread across its lips seeing that his opponent lacked wings to fly with. The advantage was his!
Just because the Zaku didn't have wings, didn't mean it couldn't fly. "Where do you think you're going!?" Michael called out as he squatted the Suit down for a Jump, and ignited the boosters on the backpack before pushing off with his legs. The Zaku was launched into the air with a deafening roar. A surprised squawk erupted from the mouth of the dragon as it watched his opponent rocket up to him on pillars of blue flame. The Ax held high for the attack.
The Dragon tried to evade, but the Zaku too fast. the Left arm wrapped around the back of the Dragon's neck, while the right brought down the ax upon the beast's shoulder, hard. Normally dragon scales were very resistant to extreme heat. However throwing in the shearing force of the massive ax's blade, the super hard dragon scales shattered, and the blade bit into the soft skin just above the dragon's shoulder. A warbling shriek ripped through the night sky along with the smell of burnt blood, and flesh. the heat of the ax's blade cauterizing the wound instantly, and sent searing pain through out every inch of the dragon's body.
The two found that the dragon couldn't keep them both aloft, and they plummeted back to the Earth. The impact shook the ground hard enough to knock all but the sturdiest pony off their hooves. Clouds of dust were thrown up, and obscured the combatants from the watchful eyes of those around the fight. From their hiding places, the Ponies looked to see who came out the victor. Many holding their breath, and wondered what their fate would be if either won. The silence was deafening as hearts thundered behind everyponie's chest.
As the dust settled, the ponies saw the towering form of the Zaku standing over the broken body of the drake. The battle having been decided by the fall as the Zaku brought its entire weight down upon the Dragon's body. rupturing several internal organs, and puncturing one of the lungs. There was no way the dragon would be able to get up now. Michael stood, and looked upon the Dragon. He didn't have hate, nor anger in his eyes. No, it was sympathy that Michael gazed upon with. The Dragon laid at the feet of the towering mobile suit. It was obvious it was not going to live much longer, and its final moments will be very painful.
That is, it would have been if not for Michael being merciful. He moved the Mobile suit over, and brought it to the dragon's head. Kneeling, the Zaku gently placed a large hand upon the dragon's snout to hold the head still as he raised the ax high once more for the final blow. inside the cockpit, Michael could hear the soft groans, and whimpers of pain coming from the beast as it lay dying in the middle of Ponyville. "Go in peace, Warrior" Michael spoke. The speakers of the Zaku conveying his words to the Creature. The dragon looked at the Ax, and then into the burning eye of the Zaku before closing his own. For a moment, Michael could have sworn the Dragon understood him. He didn't dwell on it though as he brought the Ax down hard. There was a loud thwack as the ax severed the dragon's head from his body just behind the skull. The body tensed at the strike, but quickly relaxed and finally went limp for eternity.
Michael was taking ragged gulps of air as he watched the beast pass on to where ever dragons go when they die. He screwed his eyes shut, and let out a deep exhale as he brought the Zaku back to standing position. He moved it away from the body two, or three paces before the Zaku took a knee. The head of the ax coming to rest on the ground, the blade having returned to normal. The Zaku's right hand came rest on the pommel of the Ax, the left arm on its raised knee. The Zaku looked like a weary knight after a long, and grueling crusade.
Micheal looked around to see the damage from the aftermath of the fight. The Zaku's eye, and head turning to survey the town. There was still many fires burning out of control, but the rest were burning themselves out. There was a lot of destroy buildings, but it would appear that the majority of the was spared Michael couldn't help but wonder how many empty beds will there be for whatever people that lived here.
A couple of ponies were digging themselves out of the wreckage that was their home. They were extremely lucky to have not perished in the fight that was happening only a dozen or so yards away. "Are you okay, Bonbon?" Lyra asked as she pushed up on a beam to create an opening for her best friend, and roommate. Bonbon could only groan in reply. The two didn't know how they survived, but they were live, praise be to Faust for that. Bonbon limped from the wreckage that was their house. her right foreleg dangling at a bad angle.
For Michael, the throbbing in his head steadily gotten worse as the adrenaline coursing through his veins tapered off. Michael's hands, and legs felt like wet noodles. a common sensation after a harrowing fight. Sleep, and exhaustion called to the pilot like a siren's song. Soon, the peaceful state would over take Michael as he fell asleep at the controls of his zaku. His hands growing lax, and sliding off the control sticks. Signaling the Zaku to go into an Idle state. the glowing eye dimmed as it appeared to all others, the Zaku itself has fallen asleep.