Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2

by Alines Reinhard

Chapter 16

“Arrrrrgh!” a pony shouted in pain, showing that he had been hit.

After a long and painful journey along the way Luster and her friends have shown, that the squad finally reaches the final door. On the way, the squad has lost 2 more members: a diamond dog and another Abyssinian.

“Darn it! Those magic rifles are so powerful!” cursed Gemina “They pierced through our crystal shield like paper!”

The earth pony that went with them started mumbling. Flash was told that she used to be a nun. She put both of her front hoofs together and start praying:

“Praise be the Sun, praise be the moon. Let my prayer reach the universe, where both sides lied…”

“Hey, pray for us too?” a pegasus asked.

“Yes, for all of you…”

At the time, they are hiding behind the door, ready for it to be open once their minotaur comrades successfully open the door.

“Jeez… why this one seems to be harder to open?” he whispered in the complaint. “And it’s more heavily armored, too…”

“Beep beep…” the door starts making a sound as the minotaur tries to break its code. Behind them is a nasty sight: blood spilled everywhere near the corpses of dead guards pony. When looking back at it, the thing he was trying to avoid as much as possible at the moment, he can’t help but making a gag reflex. And somehow, he could hear Yolinda sobbing in the air…

“Why… why so many creatures have to die for this?”

Flash just shakes his head to bring him back to consciousness afterward. Then, a long beeping noise came to his ear, signaling the door have opened.

And another brutal gunfight.

The minotaur immediately took several bullets, but none of them are fatal. He compress his pain, took out his weapon, and fought back.

That’s when they realized, they reach the hangar.

In the midst of the gunfight, Flash screamed internally with joy to his little friends. “Your guide really works!”, he whispered. There, standing lonely in the empty hangar, the Alicorn is looking down at the dramatic sight before it. Down it’s leg are several guards pony trying to take down the squad. At that moment, only 6 members of Gemina’s half remain. His comrades also put up their guns and fired at the enemy.

They all seem to wear some kind of black uniform, with a small blue alicorn pony logo with a sword and a rifle on the chest. That’s the very logo of Black Wine’s Army, the enemy that he and his comrades have been fighting against, tooth to the eye, for months. The very ponies that took away lives of the Abyssinians at Blue Rock Mine, the kirins at Kirin’s Groove,… They sink the Eagle Scream, killing the innocents by using Luster Dawn’s friends by the Alicorn at Hope Hollow.

But yet, they seem like they can be his friends…

They are really fighting for their individual survival on their ship, having nowhere else to run. If they do, they will risk themselves as they could be hit by flying bullets outside.

“Flash… come to us!” Luster Dawn yelled.

“Hey Brad, just go to the Alicorn. We’ll cover ya!” Gemina told to Flash. She then put up her rifle and fired against a couple of unicorns, who have clumsily put their magical shield down.

Flash shakes up his gear once again, adjusts his ground pilot helmet, and looked back at his comrades once again.

He hasn’t been friends with them for long, and he secretly cursed himself because of that. However, the creatures still get to salute Flash, as if he is one of them.

“Hey, survive the war. Bring them back to us!” Gemina shouted.

Flash quickly turned back, mumbling “I’ll never forget you. Sorry for my ignorance!”

Another blast shaken the ship, throwing all of them to the port side and injuring them. Flash climbed up and took his rifle, shooting right into the head of another guard's pony. He shouted in pain and fell down from the Alicorn’s cockpit entry.

But he also have to make a shot into Flash’s left arm, sticking itself right into the bone. Flash shouted in pain, as the wounds bled. But not long after that, he chooses to ignore it and continue his charge. The blue-haired pilot just keeps stormed through the chaotic sight of smoke and fire, climbed up to the elevator and brought him up to the cockpit. Several magic bolts and bullets flew around the chaotic battle royale but he still managed to dodge it all.

Finally, the time has come.

He is standing before the closed chest of the Alicorn, with nothing more than the gray of the chest coolant system and the whiteness of the cockpit hatch. Flash looks around to find whether there is any sort of small door that led to the open procedure system, as he has worked on the Strike Zeta itself. But the smoke has largely blocked his view, going through his nose and causing him to cough.

But he didn’t have to. Suddenly, the hatch opened revealing an empty cockpit with nothing more than the pilot chair and all the most basic MS’s control system.

“What are you waiting for, Flash?” Luster Dawn urges “Come inside! We will get out of here!”

That is when the decisive blow comes to him.

Not so far behind him is a unicorn mare, waiting at the opposite MS cage like her whole is dedicated for that only moment. She put up her rifle and push the trigger.

The bullet pierced right through his back, going all the way into his right lung.

The shot causing enough damage to cause Flash to puke out blood. He fell down the elevator in a kneeling pose. With that, he continued to search the “small door”.

“NOOOO!” screamed Luster Dawn and her friends.

His sight gradually turns dark, but his hand still slowly crawls through the armor. The images of his friends come to his mind, projecting right before his eyes like they are there.

“Guys… I want to be… with you…in Ponyville… so… much…” he mumbled.

Then, the reality completely faded.

…

Outside, things have not gone well for S.M.I.L.E. The battle has gone so chaotic that it has triggered Discord’s chaos magic. It has gone so bad that the draconequus have to leave his battle station to prevent it from being less uncontrollable, leaving Yellow Pickle to take his seat.

“Never in a thousand years I have gone through such hardship!” he cursed himself for not properly containing himself.

After about half an hour of non-stop battle, three ships have sunk. This leaves only the Canterlot and the Lord Gust fully exposed to the New Hampshire mega particle cannons. Moran’s squad are still busy dealing with it’s Nemos. Out of the five enemies MS that were primarily deployed to take down the MSs, only one of them was destroyed thanks to Esteban's shot. However, the enemy manages to make a blow towards the squad by destroying Haruna’s sniper rifle. Since her Jegan doesn’t have any more large handguns, she was ordered to retreat.

“Darn it… at this rate we’re all gonna die! We are overwhelmed!” said

Haystack’s squad, after losing Blue Thunder, has gotten gradually more disorganized. After any time Era and Yamina closed the gap to the Cloudsdale, they were always pushed back by their heavy AA. To make things worse, Joseph’s Jesta and his team annoyed the team, as they brought out everything they have to destroy them. Mark’s Jesta, the one that killed Blue Thunder, is still toying with vengeful Water Vapor.

“Ha ha ha! Do you want to avenge him? Take this! Take this!” Mark laughed manically. After each “Take this!” is one beam shot, and most of them are effective. One of the shots even got to melt part of WV’s Jesta Armor.

“John… Mark… Nikita… Can… you… hear me?” Madison’s voice comes up on their radio, buzzing like crazy due to the heavy damages “Go back! The Alicorn’s cockpit has opened!”

“Wh… Wh… What?” asked Nikita in disbelief. “How?”

“App… Apparently their special force has brake through our defense … A human from the creature's side opens it! He has knocked down, but his comrades are stormed through to take it!”

Madison said when the signal became clearer “I need y’all to go back and contain it!”

Joseph glanced at his ship in confusion. “When did their terrorist infiltrate the ship?” he asked himself. The seconds he shifts his focus away give time for Haystack to come up with his strike effectively. This time, his blade successfully cut through the shield and damaged Joseph’s left arm. He has to throw it away due to the cut destroyed the grenade storage on it, causing the shield to explode.

And then, comes the final blow.

Haystack carefully adjusted his blade to make it aligned with the enemy cockpit hatch, ensuring his rivalry with the black MS will come to an end. Then, he fired up his engine, launched himself and the suit straight to the enemy.

The blade perfectly gone through the cockpit, and vaporized anything that stand in it’s path. After seeing his achievement, Haystack laughed and cried. A part of the fight has come to an end.

He pulled his beam saber out and kicked the defeated MS down to earth. The reactor, being heavily damaged, exploded upon touching the ground. Luckily, the brown earth pony has warned his comrades about it.

The blast also distracts every pilot in the area, pausing all of the fightings for a while.

“Haystack, order your team back. We can only do so much!”

Yellow Pickle called back urgently. The starboard side mega particle cannon have been damaged and the crew is unable to fix it to bring the giant gun back into battle. Not so far from them is the New Hampshire closing in.

Not only that, reports from their crew said that Lady Rainbow Dash have been missing. The last time they ever saw her is when the blue pegasi jumped off the bridge to help some creatures at an AA battery.

“Wait... What about Brad… didn’t”

“Gemina said he has been killed. They are retreat!”

Every creature silent, disbelieving at what they have just heard.

“What the… is… is everything… over?” Haystack mumbled.

The heavily damaged Lord Gust and the Canterlot were forced to leave, as they decided it was not worth dying there anymore. Catching that movement from the enemy, New Hampshire and Cloudsdale turned around to begin their pursuit.

“This is the moment boys, bring ‘em all down!” ordering Nikita with a furious voice “…revenge for Joseph!”

His black Jesta stormed through the chaotic battle, ignoring all the harassment from his opponent. He charged right at the Canterlot’s bridge, placing his eye on the Captain’s chair. The ship looks already beating up at that point, judging from the amount of hit it sustained, the fire and smoke on it’s hull, and the destroyed assets mounted in various places. To make matter worse for it, there are several suits circling around the ship, trying to do as much damage as they could while fighting off the remaining 2 MS standing on it. One of them managed to get to a hole on the ship to take some ponies to it’s hand.

“You will pay for your crime!” he screamed.

“Stop, all of you!” suddenly, the Chancellor’s voice yelled through the com link. New Hampshire has started to retreat after that Nemo has finished taking the ponies and bringing them into the cockpit.

“I think we have caused them enough damage today. Retreat, guys!”

“What the…”

He decided to pull back, avoiding any more fights with the Canterlot’s crew. The black Jesta turned it’s back and fly straight to the Cloudsdale.

That is when he saw the Chancellor’s mobile suit in a new look.

It was equipped with shields, formed as wings just like the Alicorn. On it’s body, several exposed psycho frame were added, forming just like cracks that also formed on the Alicorn whenever it transformed. The suit flies toward their ships as if it appeared from nowhere. But then, a new ship appeared on his radar.

”What the… what ship named the Raider?”

…

“Both ships have their own route I believe. Anyway, congratulation for holding them that long!” said Chancellor when he landed on Cloudsdale. His newly upgraded MS standing menacingly, right next to the Alicorn.

“I see that you guys have baited that pilot to open the cockpit for you! Now nothing can stop us from piloting that MS anymore… “

“As well as providing us new research material!” Red Velvet, his unicorn assistant added.

“What do you mean by ‘new research material’?” asked Mark in confusion.

“Do you ever heard about the Element of Harmony?” the dark blue masked stallion asked.

“Huh? I mean… we are pretty familiar with it!”

“Good. You know that it is a kind of magic that was once a tree, “decorated” with gems that were shaped like the Council’s cutie mark, right? But I wanted to say this first: every single creature on this planet was blessed with magic, the thing you humans don’t have. If they united together in friendship, they can combine their magic together to beat ‘villains’. Based on this principle, my theory is that they can be used to enhance our weapons capability…”

“So… you mean that…”

“Every creature on this planet can be used as some sort of nukes, yes? However, this hypothesis hasn’t really been proven, so I would have started with the already proven fact...yet. You know those pesky creatures said the Council is the Elements, no?”

“Yes, why not!” but the duo quickly open their eyes wide in disbelief “Which mean…”

“They are the best choice for this experiment!” he whispered. “And the fact that the Alicorn exist strengthen this hypothesis, at least for me. I suspect that there is a group of friends being trapped there. Let's just ask some of the creatures captured today…”

He looked at the Alicorn with a smug, as he completed the sentence:

“Including that human…”

…

He woke up alone in a fairly comfortable cell.

It was mostly dark, but the light from the outside allowed him to see some of his comrades sleeping with bandages all over their bodies. The four bunk beds helped him to identify that he was indeed on a Federation ship.

He seemed to be covered in bandages, too. The pain inside him is almost unbearable: when he tries to sit up, a shot of hard, swift stab from the inside causes him to groan. He put his hand on the wound and looked down. He sweating heavily, just as much as his breath. To make it worse, the wounds on his arm is also started to torture him with a severe sting.

At that moment, he even swears to himself even death is way better than “whatever he is suffering”.

But just right next to his head, there is a small bag of some capsules in it. “Analgesic, one pill at any time. Drink it to kill your pain.”

He doesn’t know why it is there, or who gave it to him. But as the pain just get more and more severe, his mind was not very clear. He took the bag, open it up and take one capsule. He even found a bottle of water just next to the bag, although it was just a small one. He also took it and drink the capsule.

After a few minutes, the pain started to fade away. He sighed in relief and dropped back to his bead.

“Flash… Flash… Are you alright?” asked Yolinda with major concern “Ooh… He was shot in the chest and the left arm… Guys…”

Yolinda sobbed and later cried, at what Flash had to endure. If you tell him these creatures will cry for him every time he got a severe wound just around half a year ago, he would not believe it. But here he is, seeing the “witches” meltdown when they see him in such a bad shape is nothing sort of poetic, at least to him.

“I’m… I’m okay…” he mumbled in response “You guys don’t need to… Arrgh!”

He groaned again, trying to distract his mind from the absolute agony the war have brought to him. “I must have some surgeries”, he thought. The bullets were probably still inside his body, so he think they will take them out for him at some point.

Suddenly, the door opened.

Flash's eyes suddenly widened to see a large pony figure, standing right in front of him.

It was a dark blue stallion, with a cup of wine as his cutie marks. His body was quite average, but Flash feels like he was emitting a kind of undescribable charming aura. At the time, he was wearing a gray mask with about four “eyes” on it, which make him think that he is wearing some kind of special military mask that was made especially for him. On his body was a specially tailored uniform with a slightly darker tone of blue, decorated with shiny medals and an army rank badge. His dark red mane and tail were combed into perfection and tied in a bun that is also perfectly rounded. It can be said that he was excellently groomed, as the leader of the most powerful country in Equus should be.

The two sides stare at each other for a few seconds. Flash was somewhat surprised at why such a high-ranking pony come to his every cell. It should be the job of an interrogator or some soldier who comes to check on their prisoners of war.

What makes him more shocked is what the pony behind him said to that stallion:

“My Chancellor, this is the cell you are looking for.”

That is Chancellor Black Wine.

The leader of the ever hated The Ponykind, the elected racist Chancellor that has led Equestria into a war of expansion, killing countless creatures for the satisfaction of resource demands. He and his party are the ones that have killed his friends. He is the cause of the war crimes at Hope Hollow, Kirin’s Groove, and the attack on Blue Rock Mine. He is the mastermind of the capture of the Alicorn, and most important of all, the assassination of The Council of Friendship.

Words can’t describe how much Flash despises him. He tries his best to sit up, attempting to look at the Chancellor’s “disgusting” face. However, the pain once again forces him to calm down.

“Rest well, soldier. I know you are in a bad shape…” he said with a soft tone “You’ve been shot into your back and your right arm. It would take a while before we can arrange you a surgery…”

Looked at him in silence and pure anger, Flash grinding his teeth and breathing in and out heavily. But still, knowing his disadvantaged position, Flash has to force himself to calm down. He rested again on his bed, looking towards his enemy.

“Let me say again, you find him lying near the Alicorn with its hatch open?” he turned to pegasi and asked.

“Yes, my Chancellor.” a pegasi, possibly the one that has shot Flash, answered in a respectful manner “It’s bizarre, but I’m pretty sure his appearance and the Alicorn sudden obedience is no coincident.”

“I think so too. In fact, this guy is possibly the pilot of that Zeta. I think I would like to interrogate this guy myself, and then give him a nice machine to fight alongside us!”

“But Sir…” his assistant unicorn said “If you are right, he is the one who has the highest kill streak in all of the Creature’s pilot…”

“Not true, he most damages our suits. Most importantly, if my speculation is true, he is our trump card. Anyway, we can talk about this later. I’ll let him rest for now…"