Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2

by Alines Reinhard

Chapter 1

“Man… I have to be honest… That Black Wine guy only brings us more tension!” Nikita said after hearing that Black Wine will not join them, when they are underway towards Storm Island. “They all broke into like… three airships?”

“Yep, that’s what our intelligence say!” Joseph answered as he came to where Nikita and Mark were standing. They are looking at AE’s mechanics checking on the hangar of the Clousdale, making sure that they can accommodate more mobile suits to come. In fact, they are one of the only ships capable for mobile suit maintenance in the entire Equestria, besides a vessel called The Engineer in the Las Pegasus fleet. The mechanics, both human and ponies, are installing the machinery that will be needed for the maintenance throughout the course of the entire conflict.

“The Cloudsdale will be an official part of the Las Pegasus fleet. It will be escorted by 4 air cruisers, all of which carried 3 mobile suits each. Our mechanic’s job is to help them keep those suits battle ready!” the Captain explained to them when Joseph asked the reason behind the work in the hangar.

But in contrast to his comrade’s somewhat happy mood, Joseph just silence. He knew that Black Wine is somewhat a brave and courageous leader when he was willing to bring himself to the frontline. It is one of the best ways to make him better in the eyes of his fellow ponies. However, it also shows that he is an arrogant leader since he values his “hobby” (Joseph once heard Black Wine said piloting a mobile suit is the most enjoyable thing he ever got to experience in his life) over the national duty.

Then, he got to look at the mobile suits.

All four of them: 3 Jestas Commander and the Alicorn Gundam are all being held in MS cages. Joseph doesn't know why, but he started getting sick of looking at them almost every single day. But what can the EFSF do? Due to personnel shortage and the fact that it was really hard to transport them from one dimension to another, he, his fellow MS pilots and those mechanics below have to work and fight for two consecutive operations. Yes, it is incredible that there is not a single life lost from his side in Operation Rainbow Chaser from start to end, so when Operation Impostor Hunt was commenced, he believed the same luck would strike them again. But he has never come home ever since he went through that “space-gate” more than a year ago, and he has started to miss his family and friends back on Earthsphere.

…

“Colony WormHole” is the name of that space-gate.

That’s the time when he, Nikita and Mark were called into service. They were the only pilots that are, apparently, human to be sent to another dimension.

“What do you mean ‘another dimension’?” Nikita was confused when he asked his superior officer “Basically to an alien that is not even in the same universe as us?”

“I don’t know, that’s what the scientist at Colony WormHole told me!” Captain Marshall James, their superior officer, answered them. “They don’t even know if it is a world in our same universe or not, since nobody has any idea what the
“multiverse” thing. I just know that the gate only leads us to another world other than this!”

But before that, AE and whoever at the other end of that gate have done business for quite a long time, despite the fact the gate was just created not so long after the Gryps War in the year 0088, just 22 years. Yet in that time AE has done enough research, expedition and business to set a foot there. However, it is also understandable since they and the Earth Federation are the only entities that have access to that gate and the creatures there even speak the same language as them. He has some trouble learning how to write in their language, but the locals there have also learned how to use Latin words to communicate with them, so it’s not so hard to text or send letters between each other anymore.

But… that was about a month after he and his comrades were settled in Equestria.

Just after he received the order that he was qualified to come to Equestria, Joseph decided to have a day off and came to his home. It was a luxurious home, because his father is an AE executive. He has the seats in the AE due to his father's relationship with the Federation. However, becoming an officer and being deployed in a top secret mission is something not even a son of an AE executive can easily have.

“I may have to be deployed for years, mom and dad …” Joseph said to him when they are having dinner “This is a top secret and a difficult one, though…”

“Yes I know dear.” His mother said “But… have you prepared for everything?”

“Yes mom. I have finished everything. This is the last thing I have to do: say goodbye to my parents…”

Just the next morning, he had to leave to get ready for deployment. Before leaving for Colony WormHole, his mother gives him a picture of his family when they are together.

“When you feel sad or blue, just look at this picture and remember us!” his father said “We are always waiting for you back home…”

And that's how he got the picture that he is holding at that moment, after he decided to just pull out his jacket and look at it. While Mark and Nikita are just greeted by a pony and decide to talk to her, the homesick person suddenly hits him. The picture that was taken when they are on vacation was the very thing that reminded him of home.

“All hands, first level combat position!” the alerting sounds pulled him out of the nostalgia. He quickly put the picture back in his jacket and jumped into his mobile suit.

“What is that?” he asked the bridge with the ship’s communication link.

“A suspicious airship is following us from behind! We are sending drones to investigate it!” the Captain said “Just call your team to be ready! They might be one of the airships that try to take us down!”

It was quite understandable when the Captain required so much awareness for such a thing. There is information that S.M.I.L.E and their allies are trying to sink their ship and capture the Alicorn, using airships that carry mobile suits. To make matters worse, they are militarized merchant airships that are very well disguised, so any airship can be the Parrot’s Strength, the Eagle Scream, or the Black Hawk.

…

After the 30 minutes of inspection, it seems that the airship is just a normal merchant airship that carries goods around.

The armed drones which are called DX-10 Mosquito were sent to the airships that was a few kilometers away from Cloudsdale’s rear. Their cameras picked up parrots with hands and legs running around the deck to do the jobs that every sailors on merchant airships do, and they seemed to be somewhat scared of the drones.

“First time I saw a creature like that. Poor them though!” the Captain exclaimed.

“I think they are… parrots, Sir. They mostly came from a kingdom called Orthinia, which was inhabited by birds with human features like you!” a pegasus with glass, sitting at the radar told them.

“I see…” Joseph said.

“Looks pretty weird, though. Does every single goods have to be carried around in airships that look like old sailing ships with balloons like that?” Nikita asked the Captain “The concept of a flying wooden ship is crazy enough, though!”

“The creatures in Equus mostly carry a large quantity of goods like that, beside normal sea going ships like you humans have!” a pony navigator near them answered him, “Although we mostly used wooden ships. How about you?”

Surprisingly, Nikita decided to answer him in a respectful manner, even though he did not know how to love animals or creatures that are not human.

“Well… we mostly used sea going ships that are made entirely from metal or space ships in case you want to carry goods and people around space, such as this one!” he answered.

The pony that replied to them named Bright Vision, a Pegasus with a thick glass on his face. He is one of the thousands of ponies to be chosen to be trained by AE to use Earthsphere assets.

“The more you know…” he mumbled “Thanks.”

Even after a year stationed at Equestria, they always know something new about the new world they are settling in. If talking about what they learned in the first few months of their deployment to Equus, there should be a whole book about it. However, the things that blow them away the most are similarities: how they learn that the world was inhabited by human’s mythical creatures, how similar Equestria’s geography is to the continent of North America back on Earth, or
how similar the political machine of both worlds is,…

“Man… it… it’s like this world is someone else's imagination!” Nikita exclaimed after a “Cultural Exchange” talk with some ponies.

“Yeah, I know right?” replied Joseph.

…

“Mother… Father…” Flash mumbled in his sleep.

Other than the nightmares about the creatures, he sometimes saw his parents in his dream.

It was a total heartbreak for his mother when she learned her son had done a terrible thing: stealing the Princess’s crown. However, his father seems to not be surprised at all: he has abandoned him since he was joining the Royal Guard. In his eyes, the Royal Guard is a dying organization that can’t do anything and is rotten to the core.

Both on the day of his trial and the day that he was confirmed to be banished, his mother cried a lot. Flash has seen her crying like never before, when he was escorted out of the courtroom.

“Wh… Why? Why can you do this to me?” she said “I thought you were there to protect the Princess… You said that your job will make us rich?”

All of that happened when she was still on the wheel chair, struggling with a rare disease that will slowly paralyzed her until she can just lie on her bed, according to the doctor that is curing her at the time. It was a total shock to see her crying that much to the ponies that really know her that also presented at the court, and to himself. She was known to be a very energetic and funny pony in her home city, Crystal Empire. The fillies there love her and were frequently being caught going to her candy store in Crystal Avenue. The funny yet pretty curly mane Pegasus even has her own story club for fillies.

That’s the good life that Flash and his mother have experienced before she was hit by that disease.

And before he committed the crime…

It was him who wanted to cure that disease and restore the normal life that both have happily gone through. So much so that he even listens to a professional thief that Princess Twilight’s Crown can stop all of her paralyzing. That’s why he decided to join and win a test to determine the Princess of Friendship’s personal guard. Out of the need to protect her highness, Flash was assigned to Royal Guards Captain, as well as Prince Shining Armor’s Royal Guard unit. The Prince held a contest to determine the one lucky Royal Guards that will accompany Princess Twilight herself, and Flash was the winner. However, as he was told that her royal highness’s crown is the only cure for his mother’s disease, he had to betray her trust in him to steal it.

He was caught right in the night that he carried out the heist. No pony believes that he stole it for his mother. Instead, they think he is just a pony with immense greed that seeks to satisfy it and the greed of the evil pony that told him to steal the crown. To make matters worse, the incident happened at a time when the Royal Guard’s reputation was severely harmed, due to them being useless and irresponsible.

The pony that told him to steal the crown was a professional thief named Night Intruder. Both were found guilty for the heist and were sentenced to banishment.

More than 20 years later, he still has flashbacks of the very thing that led him here. It was all his fault, and he can’t help but have immense regret although it’s all too late.

“Mother… I want to see you again…” he mumbled.

…

After the event of the Cloudsdale’s drone encounter, the headquarters decide that they will send even more ships and mobile suits to assist the airships.

“Wow, I don’t know that we have more MS than just 5!” Haystack said with some happiness when they are having lunch “How can they get all of those suits?”

They were told that each of the original three airships will get assistance from 2 disguise air destroyers, which were all capable of carrying 2 mobile suits respectively. This is an essential reinforcement when the Las Pegasus fleet is also equipped with more MS carrying capability airships to the mission.

“Well… Orthinia have recently purchased about 20 mobile suits from AE. Old models, as they say, but they are enough to kick the Las Pegasus fleet’s butt. Beside that, our enemy is also reinforced with the same models.” – Mullet answered as he looked at the documents.

“What are they?”

“Let me see… “ the green parrot turned some more pages on his report documents “RGM – 86R GMIIIs and MSA 003 Nemo Desert Types. They kinda look the same, but they all have many differences in performance and combat capability. The GMIIIs look pretty neat, and some of them even have rocket launchers, which means more punches packed!”

Flash couldn’t help but think about how the presence of mobile suits in Equestria, as well as the whole Equus can go so far.

The blue-haired decided to find out the answer after breakfast.

…

“So… there’s a shuttle from another world come crashing down our world…” Captain Celaeno started the story “It was named the Black Hole. The shuttle carried a kind of giant, humanoid-shaped weapon called a mobile suit, or MS for short. They used the MS for various reasons, but mostly for their own gain and they even do some entertainment for the locals. However, Shadow Might, the pony behind “The Ponykind'' has offered to buy the mobile suit for his military. On board is an executive from a corporation called “Anaheim Electronics” who agreed to him and sold the mobile suit. In exchange, he helped fix the shuttle with magic and helped them go back to Earth. Years later, Martha Vist Carbine, the executive that sold him Psycho MkII Gundam, went back and offered him more mobile suits…”

“W… Wait a minute, you said that the Psycho MkII Gundam is the very first mobile suit to come to this world?”

The Captain nodded. She makes a water sip and continues the story.

“She even wanted to sell to ‘The Ponykind’ the Alicorn Gundam, which is the thing we are trying to take. They actually come from a single project called ‘The Psycho Outlaw’ with one goal in mind: to use a kind of magic called ‘Psycho Wave’ as a weapon. That’s just human’s magic. However, she also found out that ponies' magic also works with that ‘psycho frame’ thing, so she wanted to sell them to the Equestrian Army for more research.”

“So that’s what Black Wine meant when he wanted to ‘take back the Alicorn’ like he said?”

“However, his paranoia and greed put every creature in danger. That’s why we cannot let him have that mobile suit!”

“But… But what about the ‘Magic of Friendship’ thing!” Flash slightly exclaimed “I thought there are tons of ‘friends’ that will solve all those conflicts like a piece of cake: the Pillars, the Young Six...

“First of all, their power can be used only for saving and protecting Equestria. Second… we are not talking about a whole mindset, not some random single villain or a few of them. No ‘magic’ can be powerful enough to fix such a big problem overnight!”

“So the same can be said about Discord?”

The Captain nodded.

“So… is that also why did he join S.M.I.L.E in this? He is the God of Chaos. This is war, war is chaos, which means he must really love it!”

“No, he outright hates all of this mess, especially when his best friend Fluttershy has been turned to stone. He also loves the harmony that Princess Twilight and her friends brought to this world, so he also joined the fight against Black Wine! By the way, Fluttershy has advised S.M.I.L.E to accept Discord, since she also pushes him to find ‘a proper job’ as well: he chooses to serve along with us!”

“Wait… why?”

Celaeno took a sip before continuing.

“Because he loves the concept of hunting monsters. S.M.I.L.E is short for Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria. We’re a secret military branch which primarily makes sure monsters don’t affect Equestrian life. In the early days of mobile suits present here in Equus, S.M.I.L.E classified them as monsters. After years and years, they started to use them as their own stuff and classified both captured and used MS as ‘neutralized monsters’. In case you don’t know, Black Wine’s 265
and us are the only organization that is capable of operating these machines!”

“Guess I always learn something new everyday!” Flash replied.

“That’s also a reason why they handle you so quickly! They have dealt with some stranded mobile suit pilots before. The reason why they want you is because at that time, we only had 4 MS compared to the 25 Black Wine’s Army have right now. Not to mention he basically brings his ‘best of the best’ just to catch that thing and destroy us all…”

Suddenly, something rocked the ship, nearly throwing Flash and Celaeno out of their seats. A few minutes later, Angie ran to the ship's canteena where the duo are having the conversation. Breathing hard while wiping the sweat that falling down all over her face, she told to her:

“Captain, I ran all over the ship to find you!” she said “You should go to the bridge right now!”

“What’s happening?”

“Those Las Pegasus Fleet’s ships are chasing after us!” she said in panic “They… they have sent a mobile suit out!”

…

"Brandon! Sweet Celestia, where were you this morning!” Haystack ran to Flash as he climbed into the Strike Zeta Gundam “I ran all over the ship to find you!”

“I was talking to Celaeno at the cateena, Sir!”

“Climb in, we’re gonna fight with those black MS!”

Carefully positioned himself in the seat, Flash started his suit. The panoramic screen was turned on, revealing the view inside the ship’s main hangar: some of the wires are still sticking out, but most of them have been carefully implemented to the walls, the slowly opening hatch that reveals the ground below, as both suits are placed upside down.

Then, the Lieutenant begin making battle prepare procedure for Flash to follow:

“All monitors on?” he asked

“Yes, Sir!”

“Weapon system?”

“All on too!”

“Engine is on? Your suits use a Thermal Nuclear Ramjet engine, right?”

“Yes Sir. I’m ready!”

The reason why Haystack requires him to go through the procedure is because Seashell Blue have found some
monitor errors in Flash’s suit the night before that. Haystack asked his blue-haired pilot to go through it to make sure his suit is ready for combat. However, he is still not entirely sure.

“Hopefully every error was fixed. By the way, you came out first and transformed yourself to WR mode, I’ll need a ride with ya!”

“Roger that Lieutenant!” Flash answered while taking his gigantic shield.

…

“What is that, Angie?” Celaeno rapidly ran into the combat bridge “What are the MS that are attacking us?”

“Two GMIII and a Nemo, ma’am!” Boyle reported.

“Where do they come from?”

“One Mattia class air battleship, they are approaching us from the rear!” the green parrot reported. Then he turned to Flash and Haystack who were engaging the enemy's formation. “Brandon, Haystack, can you cut their tail?”

“Roger that Boyle! I already saw the Las Pegasus Fleet emblem!” the Lieutenant reported “We’re outnumbered!”

Just after that, another huge shock rocked the ship, almost throwing Angie to the side as she was holding onto the main planning table.

The Mattia class air battleship is one of the things that the crew most hated to see. They are well armed, perhaps Equus’s most heavily armed airship, with 3 twin turrets to operate their 15 inch beam cannons and about 15 missile launchers. In addition to that, it was rumored to have an ability to carry 5 mobile suits, as well as 5 base jabbers. This makes its mobile suit carrying capability to be on par with even the Cloudsdale , as they are converted 210 meters long, 20 meters wide merchant airships.

“What an absolute unit it is!” is what Lady Rainbow Dash said when she first saw one of it being constructed at
Manehatten shipyard.

Inside the cockpit, Flash was shocked to see a gigantic beam of light pass through the Parrot Strength. Famous for the fact that they are the only class of ship in the Equestrian Navy that was equipped with AE’s heavy beam weapon, Flash knew that he had to stop all of them in time.

“That ship is trying to stop us!” Flash mumbled “They have a beam cannon!”

Knowing that they already have business with AE, Flash is still somewhat surprised that the collaboration between Black Wine’s Army and the Earthsphere’s corporation have gone that far. The beam cannons are some of the most difficult weapon systems to produce and implement on any type of warships, yet they can do that with flying steel airships that can’t even go higher than 4000 meters.

Then, two giant humanoid figures, riding on an appropriately large flying saucer approach the Strike Zeta and the
Jesta Commander on it. They are the two GMIII that Boyle has said. Flash could tell by their large sensor on their heads , the missile pods on both of their shoulders and the extra booster on their side skirts. One of them pointed its beam rifle towards the duo and fired.

“Kapow!”

The shot's sound echoes throughout the forest, making the birds down the trees shocked and flying up from the branches. The beam shot merely touches Jesta's armor, making slight burns on it.

“They know that’s us!” Haystack said “Just fly and maneuver, I’ll fight them!”

“Yes Sir!”

The black mobile suit returned the fire. The bright purple pierce through the air, heating some water vapor that flies up into the sky from the rainforest at 8 am. The shot however was aimed towards the flying saucer, called the base jabber, hitting its front armor and blowing up a portion of the base jabber itself. The silver painted flying machine lost balance for awhile and shaken the mobile suit on it violently, to the point that a GMIII fall out of the base jabber and was forced to hang itself on the left side. Not satisfying with the result, the Lieutenant aimed his shot more accurately towards the base jabber’s nose and latter completely blew it up with another beam shot.

The base jabber exploded, lighting up a whole part of the rainforest with its bright flames while throwing it’s GMIII up into the air. The smoke was so dense it took a few minutes to completely clear up itself by the wind and exposed the GMIII.

“Yeah! First victory of the day!” Haystack cheered “Now where's the Nemo!”

“It is 2 o’clock, Sir!” Flash replied “It also came with a base jabber!”

The Nemo is slightly different from the GMIII duo: it only lacks the shoulders, missile pods and the side skirt booster. However, Haystack and Flash still have to be careful as it carries a lance shaped weapon with it.

“That’s the beam javelin!” Haystack exclaimed “So you want to bring yourself to us for a quicker defeat, huh?”

Haystack also blew up its base jabber. However, it did surprise them as it jumped down to the forest right before Haystack’s shot hit its base jabber.

“That was fast! Hey Brad, bring us closer!”

The Strike Zeta Gundam’s thermonuclear ramjet engine fired up with bright blue flames at the booster end, causing the duo to accelerate towards their opponent.

“Higher up, buddy! I want to prevent those GMIII from destroying our ship. Those missiles look concerning. You will also help me to take em down, okay?”

“Yes Sir!”

Flash decided to fly up a bit higher to see where their enemies were hiding. Nearly a minute later, they both find the GMIII duo trying to aim their missiles pod towards where the Parrot Strength is. Flash turned his direction towards the enemy’s duo and fired his side skirt beam gun along with Haystack.

All four shoulder missile pods explode as the shots hit them. The flames and smoke from the explosion covered them all and flew up to the sky.

“Good, they are disarmed. Now, to the Nemo!”

The white mobile suit flashes up its head sensor and swings its javelin to the Jesta Commander’s head. However, Haystack quickly stopped the javelin by his shield and kicked its torso. Not giving up on its prey, the Nemo quickly regains balance and makes another strike. This time towards the Strike Zeta Gundam.

“Flash, transform! We’ll take care of it together!”

The white mobile suit rapidly transformed and dodged the strike, making the javelin blade pierce through nothing but the air and carry the suit to the rear of the Strike Zeta. This makes its backpack exposed to the duo, which is where the booster is located. Flash decided to smash it with his leg, causing the Nemo to lose balance once again.

“Ha! Nice job there Ensign Brad!” the Lieutenant complimented. “Glad we have you in our team.”

The Lieutenant quickly rushes towards where Flash and the Nemo are. He managed to prevent it from falling to the forest by hanging both of its arms while disarming the suit. He quickly took the beam javelin away and kept it with his left hand. However, the captured machine still resisted. It constantly punches its fist on to the Strike Zeta’s shield, causing Flash to be extra careful to his balance.

“Bridge, can we go back?” the Lieutenant said through the comlink.

“Yes you can, but hurry! We're gonna spread the radar blind glitter to cut that Mattia class!” Celaeno replied. “You have 5 minutes!”

“But… do you have some space for a captured mobile suit?”

“Yes we are! We’ll deploy the mobile suit bag right after you come back!”

“Sorry buddy, but… I have to do this!” Haystack mumbled as he deployed the “shock wire”, after he put his rifle to his back skirt.

A large black wire was fired from his right hand towards the Nemo’s right arm. The electric shock was so powerful
that not only made the captured MS vibrate from the current, but also made his suit’s monitor glitches a little.

“Hold on Flash, hold on!” Flash hyped himself to keep his mind in focus.

The Lieutenant kept his “shock wire” out for a few seconds before pulling it back.

“So, we have our first prisoner of war!” Haystack said.

…

Flash can’t believe the crew of the Parrot Strength have prepared for the case when they have a captured mobile suit.

Flash was ordered to fly down to the underside of the airship’s hull. The underside opened its two hatches and dropped a large black cloth with four chains to hang it down from the hull.

“Hey buddy, bring it face up!” Boyle said to Flash “We don’t want the pilot to be locked up!”

“Copy that!”

The Strike Zeta carefully placed the captured mobile suit on the cloth as Boyle said. He then left the Nemo and flew up to his hangar. Haystack was also being pulled up to the MS cage with the ship’s special crane.

The white Nemo rested itself calmly on the black cloth, straightening it’s limb. Apart from some bruise, scratch and a damaged backpack, the machine is relatively fine.

Since the captured MS was placed right beneath Flash’s hangar, Seashell Blue told Flash he was okay with the idea to half close his hangar’s hatch.

“With that, we can both maintain your suit as well as that of the Nemo.” the blue hippogriff said through the communication link.

“It’s your choice, SB! My job is fighting.” Flash said as he carefully untied himself and ready to exit his mobile suit.

The hatch does just as Seashell Blue said, after the cloth was pulled up to a height that the ship’s crew can get down to the Nemo without the use of a rope ladder.

Flash jumped down from his cockpit and refreshed himself with some yawning. Being trapped in a suit, plus an air-locked cockpit for more than half an hour could be stressful. A few seconds after that, the ship’s personnel rushed to his position and began their job. A blue parrot jumped down the chest of Nemo and started checking on it. Right after that, the cockpit hatch opened to let its pilot out.

It was a human pilot to be exact, dressed in some old orange pilot suit and also wearing an orange helmet. When the helmet was off, he noticed some long hair fall down her shoulder.

“Wait… isn’t that… Era? What is she doing here?”