Scootaloo shot a glance at the figure running away from the carnage. Good girl. Keep running.
She glanced down at her hands. Her palms and fingertips were blood-stained. Where had the blood come from? “Right… When a friend of yours falls to her hands and knees in a pool of blood, you can’t help but get some on you. I wonder how I look-”
An explosion drew her attention to the Zaku firing on the Colonial Defense forces that still remained. “Right. Musing later, action now.”
Bolting toward the mobile suit transport that had fallen off its rail, Scootaloo knew that the Zaku was eventually going to annihilate the Colonial Defense forces it was fighting. “I need to be in that mobile suit Dad was working on before then,” Scootaloo said, “after that, I’ll be able to destroy those Zakus.”
She smiled and happily stated, “This might actually be fun!”
Climbing onto the transport, Scootaloo noticed writing identifying its cargo. She read the writing out loud, to herself. “RX-78. Mobile Suit Gundam.”
“Gundam. So that’s what Dad and his team named it? I see.”
Walking up to the Gundam’s foot, Scootaloo stared at the mobile suit. “There should be an access panel somewhere here.”
Climbing onto the mobile suit’s right foot, the pegasus spotted the access panel immediately. Pulling it open, she saw a connector port for an adapter plug. “Awesome! Now, how do I-?”
Scootaloo glanced down at her left forearm. Her PIP-Boy 3000 Mark IV had an adapter plug on its underside. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and connected her PIP-Boy to the Gundam. A message appeared on the screen.
>ENTER PASSCODE
>4837291560
Behind Scootaloo, a hatch opened on the mobile suit’s torso. Scootaloo looked behind her and saw the open hatch. “Hey, hey! It opened!”
She climbed down off the foot and walked and climbed toward the open hatch. Scootaloo noticed that the Zaku was still engaging the Colonial Defense forces. Turning her attention back to the hatch, she climbed into cockpit of the Gundam.
************
With the vehicles that had been firing on her annihilated, Gem turned her attention to the white mobile suit. She radioed her commanding officer. “Master Sarge, I’m taking out this white one!”
************
“Gundam, begin start-up sequence!”
In response to Scootaloo’s command, the mobile suit began activating. “Oookay… Didn’t think that would actually work.”
She gripped the control sticks of the mobile suit. Pushing them forward, she smiled.
************
Gem took aim at the white mobile suit, but paused to consider where she could deal the most damage. She smiled. “Ha! Cute. So scary! Honestly, I’ll be doing the Federation a favor…”
“Hold it, Gem!”
Denim’s irritated bark made Gem sigh. “If that thing’s just a bunch of parts somewhat assembled on a carrier, don’t destroy it. Seize them and-”
“Master Sergeant! Those aren’t just parts! Someone’s in there! It-It’s moving!”
The white mobile suit’s head pivoted up to look at Gem’s mobile suit. Gem raised an eyebrow. A burst from the white mobile suit’s vulcans impacted against the armor of Gem’s Zaku. “So it’s a live one, eh?”
Getting a foot planted on the ground next to its carrier, the Federation mobile suit continued rising, snapping the cables that were tying it to the carrier. Intrigued by the mobile suit, Gem watched as her target rose to full height.
Standing tall, the white mobile suit shined slightly in the light.
************
“So,” Scootaloo said, excited by getting the Gundam to stand, “I got the vulcans to fire, what other weapons do I have?”
On the pilot’s console, Scootaloo noticed a readout, listing the Gundam’s hardwired weapon systems.
>Twin-linked 60mm Gatling Vulcan [Temperature: 30 C, Nominal]
>M61 Vulcan Mark XIV [Nominal]
>Twin-linked KPV Mark XIX [Nominal]
>Twin-linked 85mm Machine Cannon x2 [Nominal]
>Twin X1v2 Beam Saber [Fully Charged]
“Alright,” Scootaloo said, in a commanding tone, “switch weapon triggers to that of the machine cannons. They seem like the best for anti-mobile suit attacks.”
A confirmatory beep signaled the switch.
Scootaloo smiled, darkly.
************
“Careful, Gem!” Denim cautioned, “If it’s anything like the one that took out Ash’s team, it’ll shrug off hyper rifle bullets!”
“If vulcans are its only weapons,” Gem replied, sneering, “I’ll be able to bring it down, even with its nigh-invulnerability!”
The Gundam raised its arms and locked onto Gem’s Zaku. At Scootaloo’s press of the firing triggers, the Gundam’s arm-mounted machine cannons opened fire.
Gem’s eyes widened in fear as the first of the 85mm rounds began penetrating her Zaku’s armor. She called out to her commander, “Master Sergeant, I need-!”
Her transmission went dead as one of the rounds found its way into her cockpit and decapitated her.
Pilotless and riddled by 85mm rounds, Gem’s Zaku collapsed, releasing pink smoke from vents on its back.
Denim found himself gapping at the power of the Federal mobile suit. He growled and drew his Zaku’s heat hawk and ran at the Gundam.
“Gundam pilot, use a beam saber!”
Scootaloo gasped in surprise but did as the voice who signaled her over the radio said. Tilting her wings back and flapping them once, Scootaloo told the Gundam to leap backwards.
Denim watched as the Gundam leapt backwards, grabbing one of the cylindrical devices coming off of its backpack. A snap-hiss and a long, pink blade of plasma erupted from the cylinder.
Denim smiled, and laughed, “So, you’ll fight mobile suit? Very well! We fight!”
Scootaloo shifted into a defensive stance with the Gundam and blocked the strike of Denim’s Zaku’s heat hawk.
Both blades remained locked for five seconds before the heat hawk melted from the higher heat of the beam saber.
Denim’s eyes went wide from shock, but narrowed upon Denim remembering his first realization during his training. There’s always someone better than you at something.
He pulled out a picture. Four ponies were the subject of the picture. Denim, his wife, and his twin daughters. Pressing the picture to his helmet’s visor, Denim sighed, a single tear running down his cheek.
The earth pony grabbed a container from underneath his pilot’s chair. A simple aluminum bottle. He tucked the picture inside of it, along with his dog tags and butterfly knife. Closing the bottle, Denim sighed.
Scootaloo watched as the cockpit door of her opponent’s mobile suit opened and the pilot inside threw a small cylindrical object out of the cockpit.
The Gundam’s left hand came up and caught the object. Bringing the hand up to her cockpit hatch, Scootaloo opened the hatch. She moved far enough forward to grab the cylinder, an aluminum bottle. Sitting back in her seat, Scootaloo closed the hatch and placed her wings back inside their control binders.
The Gundam stood, and lunged at Denim’s Zaku.
************
“Lieutenant Commander! I just lost contact with Master Sergeant Denim! He’s gone!”
“What?! We lost contact with Denim?!”
Quartz nodded grievously. Daisy asked, “And Gladius?!”
“He’s on his way back to us now!”
Daisy paused and looked over at Lieutenant Commander Blitz. The dark grey pegasus frowned. “To think,” he said to no one in particular, “that I lost almost two squads of Zakus in a single mission… I’m going to be in hot water with Admiral McIntosh.”
He sighed. “It’s not easy to admit to the folly of one’s youth…”
The Falmel fired its opening salvo.