Principality of Equestria

by The-Black-Knight

Rating: mature
Tags: Original Character, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Crossover, Flash Sentry, Human, Anthro, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Sad, Other
Length: 15902

A Gouf Custom now finds itself within the kingdom of Equestria, after its transport had been destroyed and crash landed. With an awaken A.I, and a strange pegasus mare at his controls, the agile mobile suit defends the kingdom against invaders.

Reaper, an MS-07B-3 "Gouf Custom" had been scheduled for dismantling and being used for spare parts. A plan that never followed through, after the transport with him had been attacked by Federation Forces. Now, after drifting for an unknown amount of time, the mighty Ace Pilot Mobile Suit finds himself crash landed on a strange new planet, currently locked in a unwinnable battle with strange organic-metal clad invaders.

With an awakened A.I system, allowing the deadly mobile suit to think and move on its own, Reaper now charges head long into battle! But, he does not go in alone... The newest Princess, made Royal Guard, now pilots his systems from within! Trying to ensure that the mobile suit continues to keep his advantage over the ever evolving invaders. Yet, can the Gouf Custom ensure that her blacking out episodes stop? Or will she black out during the heat of battle, spelling doom for both of them and Equestria?

(( Next Gen Characters respectively belong to kilala97 ))

Published 2016-07-04 13:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-06-21 09:11:58 UTC

Chapter One: Arrival

Chapter One

Obsolete

That had been what they called MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom, codenamed “Reaper”. Despite his venerated service to the Principality of Zeon, defeating well over a hundred tanks, thirty Federation Mobile Suits, fifty Core-Fighters, and even one Mobile Fortress. They classified him as an obsolete mobile suit model, and relied on the more versatile Zakus and DOMs, not to mention the new Gelgoog models. The Goufs could not be used in space, their mechanics relying heavily on gravity to work.

“Reaper” had been sent to a space station, to be dismantled for spare parts, but his transport was ambushed by Federation Mobile Suits. Now, with the crew either dead or long gone, the transport drifted deeper and deeper into unknown space. No pilot to call his own, no way to fully deactivate within the low gravity, and absolutely no way to prevent his ill fate, aimlessly drifting into space.

Unknown to the transport bound mobile suit, his ship drifted towards a strange planet, with an unpredictable gravitational pull. But, there were slender warships, resembling body cells, surrounding its orbit. After it got too close, they all open fired on to it! This caused the transport’s haul to shake violently, from the bombardment, Reaper nearly coming out of his harness. A lucky shot struck the ship’s engine reactor, and scent it rocketing towards the planet! Will this be the end of “Reaper”? To be destroyed in some crash, by an unknown enemy?

And… Is he starting to actually think?

Reaper’s one eye suddenly came online, shifting from side to side. “W-What? How is it…?” The ship shook again, harness breaking off of his armored body. “I’m free!” The Gouf Custom ripped his remaining harness piece off, and actually got up.

The mobile suit, slowly, stood up and noticed that his transport was not going to last much longer against whatever is attacking. Lifting his shield mounted gatling gun, Reaper quickly destroyed the bulkhead blocking where the ship’s deployment hanger was located. Rushing through, Reaper’s single eye locked on to the bay doors, lifting his primary weapon up again, and destroyed it without much of a thought! This allowed him to leapt through the self-made exit, Reaper using his thrusters to slow down his plummeting decent.

From what he could see, the land under him had been turned into a massive battlefield. Reaper’s scanners instantly picking up several mobile suit grade signatures, along with humanoid ones trying to fend them off. Those mobile suits were not responding to Zeon hails, nor showing any friendly flags… Their organic-metal forms obviously alien to him and this planet.

Reaper brought his gatling gun to bare, red targeting icons locking on to the mobile suits. “Eat this!” His robotic mind yelled, before his primary weapon began to roar! Three of the mobile suits were destroyed by his surprise attack, causing the humanoids to look up, just as Reaper’s thrusters fired one last time, and allowed him to land safely. “Humanoid signatures all over this battlefield. Tactical Objective: Eliminate all hostile mobile suits.” Once again, his primary weapon took aim and fired on to the mobile suits! One, that started to charge, found itself within a hellstorm of cannon fire, being quickly torn apart and destroyed.

Strangely enough, after seeing Reaper engage the mobile suits, flying humanoids soared in and started to fight alongside him. A few used his armored body as cover, against their towering enemy. Regardless, Reaper continued to fire on to the invaders, their own energy weapons glancing off of his armored body. But one of the flying humanoids landed next to his head, causing the Gouf Custom to move his one eye towards them.

It was an obvious female soldier, much shorter than average, from what he could tell, with abnormally large wings. She had an orange coat, dark blue hair with purple and pink highlights underneath the golden helmet. The female’s armor seemed tight on her, like it had either been custom made or forged too quickly. At his angle, Reaper could see the pink ascot around her neck.

Her purple eyes just stared up at him, but Reaper could not be distracted by the female soldier’s presence, and refocused on to the hostile mobile suits. Taking notice of this, she quickly flew off and sped towards the nearest mobile suit to Reaper. With spear in hand, the female soldier quickly dodged its attacks and rammed her weapon into its visor covered eye, blinding it and allowing Reaper to fire a burst into its body! She smiled back at Reaper, the mobile suit falling back, and held her weapon in a warrior’s salute towards him. The Gouf Custom held a closed fist towards her, in response.

However, her body suddenly locked up, eyes closing, before going into a sudden free fall. “Starburst!!!” A large male, that looked almost like her, suddenly yelled.

One of the mobile suits, seeing this, suddenly went for her! Reaper, noticing both actions, quickly disengaged his canon and sprinted towards the free falling “Starburst”. Just before it could grab her, the Gouf Custom rammed his horned shoulder right into its armored face! His right hand catching Starburst, while the other mobile suit backed away from him. It joined three others, all drawing organic-metal melee weapons.

Reaper scanned each one, noticing their metal skin and organic joints, then to the unconscious female in his hand. The Gouf Custom knew, from their lanky and oddly shaped designed bodies, his mechanics made him far superior in melee combat. However, to employ this, he needed to free up his right hand… Disposing of Starburst being completely out of the question.

With his systems determining the best course of action, Reaper opened his cockpit. The metallic hiss and metal joints straining from the movement at the Gouf Custom’s stomach caused the other mobile suits to back away, allowing him to place her inside. Despite the seat being a bit large for her, Starburst went in rather easily… A spark suddenly coursing through Reaper’s system, one he’s never felt before.
Not dwelling on it, the Gouf Custom closed his cockpit, locking it down tightly, ad went for his shield-locked sword. Drawing it, Reaper quickly took a shielded stance, the blade’s edge glistening off of the sun’s rays of light. Without warning, his speakers suddenly blared out what Reaper’s A.I was thinking. “For the Principality of Zeon!” And the Gouf Custom exploded forward!

The four seemed shocked, at Reaper’s sudden speed, barley catching as he leapt up into the air and brought his blade down on to the lead one. The sword slicing into its body, crimson blood spraying out of the cut and on to Reaper’s form. One tried to retaliate, but received a shield edge directly into its visor covered eyes, blood seeping out as the edge broke through. The mobile suit backed away, an actual mouth opening, as it wailed in agony and held on to its blinded eyes. Reaper readied his tri-machine gun to fired, but one of the other mobile suits slammed its weapon on to his shield arm! This caused him to fall down on to one knee, the third quickly appearing and aiming to slam their weapon into his exposed back.

“Too slow!” Reaper roared, dragging his blade against the ground, in a reverse grip, and impaled it! More blood sprayed on to him, as the mobile sit went limp. He quickly shield bashed the second away, and open fired at it with his wrist mounted weapon, causing it to fall backwards from the sudden barrage. Reaper turned to the wailing mobile suit, staring at it. “Be silent!” Lifting his right arm up, Reaper fired his electro-cable at it!

The clamp struck it right on to the chest, biting down. Once attached, Reaper sent a surge of electricity through and caused his remaining enemy to revive in pure agony. All cross its organic-metal body, the mobile suit began to let out small explosions and trauma ruptures. Before long, it suddenly blew up in a burst of blood! The Gouf Custom having barely any time to shield himself.

“Hostiles eliminated.” Reaper’s eye scanned the battlefield, and destroyed mobile suits that littered around him. His mobile suit kill count had been bumped up by fifteen confirmed kills, now. “Seems I am not ‘obsolete’ after-!” The Gouf Custom had been struck in the shoulder by a beam of concentrated energy, nearly knocking him on to the ground. “What!? Another mobile suit!”
Quickly, Reaper swung his tri-machinegun around, ready to fire, only to find another one of the humanoids floating in front of him. Her coat had a navy blue hue to it, hair matching the night sky, and wore raven black armor. Her ice blue eyes were narrowed on to him, left hand outstretched to the mobile suit. “Release brave Starburst, immediately, metal cyclops!”

Reaper lowered his weapon, eye scanning the new humanoid in front of him. The high tech scanners quickly picked up the energy build up within her body, nearly matching a single signature recorded into his combat data. “She almost has the amount of energy found within the Gundam’s beam weapons…” His mind went over the demand, adding how strong this one is. “If they wish for this ‘Starburst’, then I cannot give her up right away.” He took the blade into a reverse grip, placing the tip into the ground, fully disarming himself. “Negative. Mobile Suit designation 07B-3 ‘Gouf Cutom’ model, codenamed ‘Reaper’.” Reaper’s sine eye did a quick scan around, noticing and surprising the soldiers around him, then going back to the obvious leader. “Requesting safe zone to eject current passenger.”

His metallic voice did not seem to effect the navy blue humanoid. “We see…” Her voice sounded concerned, eyes locked on to the colossus still. “We are Princess Luna, our sister and ourself rule over Eqeustria, with young Princess Twilight Sparkle at our side! Whose daughter you now hold captive within your metal body!”

“Princess?” Reaper’s mind echoed, before data started to stream all across his system, at the single word ‘princess’. When his internal camera locked on to Starburst, the Principality of Zeon symbol appeared over her, flashing. “Acknowledged, Princess Starburst identified. Zeon Alpha Protocol initiated, please identify safe location to eject passenger. I shall escort her there.”

Luna continued to stare up at the unwavering mobile suit, before nodding and looking towards the male, who looked just like Starburst. “Captain Sentry, inform our sister of our new ‘guest’, and your wife of brave Starburst’s current situation.”

“Right away, Princess!” Flash Sentry quickly flew off, with four other guards.

“Good.” Luna looked back at the mobile suit towering over them. “Well then, ‘Reaper’, thee shall follow us.” With that, the Lunar Princess flew off towards a nearby city. Reaper walked over to his waiting gatling gun, reattaching it to his shield, before the Gouf Custom’s thrusters activated and allowed him to give chase.

-Canterlot-

Twilight paced back and forth, occasionally looking up at the, closed, throneroom doors. It had nearly been an hour, since Flash Sentry returned and reported back to Celestia. It has been nearly an hour, and there still has been no word about her beloved daughter, Starburst.

The alicorn did not want her to go, but there was no stopping the pegasus mare, once her mind has been made up. Somehow, despite having a bodily defect that causes it to shut down when over exerted, Starburst became a Royal Guard. With that, it meant she could be deployed at any time, and with these massive alien invaders suddenly attacking? That meant Starburst had been deployed to every engagement, and barely came back each time. The invaders had been kidnapping both citizens and any Royal Guardsmen that survived a battle with them, which left Twilight in a state of both terror and concern for her only daughter.

The princess about jumped out of her coat, when the doors suddenly opened up. When Flash Sentry walked out, Twilight was right on him. “Flash! Oh, Flash, are you alright? What happened, did everypony get out ok? Is Starburst alright?” Both of Twilight’s ears fell back into her mane. “Please tell me she’s alright? Is my baby alright!”

“Calm down, Twilight. She is fine, I’m sure of it.” Flash Sentry assured, but his words did not go like he wanted. “During the battle, things were going bad, but something happened and a new giant appeared… After it showed up, Starburst had another episode and-!”

“Oh, Celestia, no! Please tell me she’s safe! Please tell me that those things did not get my baby, and she’s on her way here!” The princess was frantic, hysterical, as she stepped closer to the guard captain.

Flash Sentry rubbed the back of his head. “W-Well, you see, they did not get her, thank Celestia. She is also safe, so we do not have to worry about that. And, she is on her way here… I think?”

“You think!?” Twilight shouted, eyes wide. “How do you not know!”

“I can’t explain it very easily, Twilight!” Flash Sentry started, trying to think of what to say. “It’s rather… Complicated.”

“Complicated? How can it be-!?” She was stopped by a powerful roaring sound and an earthquake-like shake, that shook the entire castle. “What was that!?”

Another two earthquake-like shakes nearly caused Twilight to fall, Flash Sentry quickly bracing her. “U-Uh, remember that new giant?” He asked, Twilight nodding. “Well, he has Starburst, and that was probably him…” The mare’s eyes went wide, as dinner plates.

-Canterlot Castle’s Courtyard-

Reaper landed within the courtyard, having to take a couple of steps before kneeling down. The stone cracked beneath his weight, but the Gouf Custom managed to keep stable. His single eye scanned back and forth, noticing the Royal Guards surrounding his position. While he could demolish them, Reaper’s main concern remained on Luna, who stood beneath the mobile suit’s metal body. She was waiting for Reaper’s passenger, the only reason why she has not attacked him, yet.

“We are safe now, release brave Starburst, ‘Reaper’!” Luna demanded, watching the mobile suit’s eye shift back and forth, allowing her to notice the on-edge guards. “Guards, stand down! Show the cyclops we do not mean it harm!” She ordered, the Royal Guards, hesitantly, complying with it.

The mobile suit watched this, before his single eye went back to Luna. Slowly, his right hand went to the cockpit, as it hissed and opened. Without much warning, due to how Reaper was angled, Starburst’s unconscious form rolled out on to the waiting hand, carefully taking hold of her. Many gasped, Luna’s body tensing up, as they watched the young Starburst lay, defenselessly, within Reaper’s metal hand. At any moment, the mobile suit could easily crush her small body… But, this did not happen, as he then held her towards Luna.

The Gouf Custom’s single eye on her, as if studying the Lunar Princess. “We thank-?”

“Starburst!” A voice screamed, causing all to look towards its source, Twilight skidding to a halt when Reaper’s single eye locked on to her.

Silence followed, as the two just stared at one another, both trying to figure the other out. “Ah, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Luna broke the silence, motioning for her friend to come over. “Brave Starburst is safe, thanks to…” Her gaze went up to the intimidating metal giant in front of her. “Reaper. Best retrieve her, and take our niece to her room.”

Twilight looked between the three, her eyes constantly going to the one that had ahold of her daughter. Before long, the mare’s instincts kicked in, and she flew over to the opened hand. “Don’t worry, sweetie, mommy is here…” Twilight whispered, picking Starburst up and looking up at Reaper. “T-Thank you, Reaper…”

The mobile suit did not respond to her, only keeping his one eye on Twilight and closed his cockpit. When she carried Starburst away, Reaper closed his hand, using the fist to help prop himself up. “Now then, Reaper, with that handled? We are sure that our sister would like to speak with thee-?” Luna looked up, and noticed that Reaper’s one eye being gone, the Gouf Custom not moving an inch and giving off a dormant feeling. “Huh… I guess even constructs require rest.”

Chapter Two: Wake Up

Chapter Two

Starburst’s eyes fluttered open, slowly waking up from her daze. Carefully, the mare sat up in her bed, carefully looking around, with a hand on her head, while trying to figure out what had been going on prior to this recent blackout… Memories of desperately trying to fend off those colossal invaders, their forces being pushed back by their destructive firepower. Then he suddenly appeared.

Starburst did not know what to think of the new giant, when he landed on to the battlefield. Many thought that his initial attack had been accidental friendly fire, terrified of what destruction he could bring to their ranks. But, when the new giant turned his weapon on to the others, and fired? All thoughts of a new enemy were crushed, and the Equestrian Defense Force rallied around their new ally. Though, Starburst could not help her curiosity and flew right up to the giant’s shoulder, wanting to have a closer look of him.

His armor was a marvel to her, a metal the mare had never seen before, one that could resist the invader’s weaponry. When his single, red, eye shifted to Starburst, the mare felt a strange sense of kinship with the giant. It had been like she could see he had something to prove, a desire to show his abilities, something she understood completely. Hence, when the giant refocused on their enemy, Starburst felt compelled to help him!

That drove her to blind the nearest invader, opening it up for him. When it had been brought down, a surge of pride coursed through Starburst, making her salute the single-eyed giant across the battlefield. Though, when he returned it, everything went black, followed by a slight feeling of comfort and protection… Of familiarity. There was even a strange surge through her body, something the mare had never felt before.

This led her to the here and now, which confused Starburst. The fact that she is in her own bed, back in Canterlot and not some frontline medical tent, meant that the Royal Family had something to do with her being here… Yet, she was just at a heavy engagement with the Invaders miles away from Canterlot City. However, knowing how her mother is about such things, he mare knew she is wearing proper bed attire and not something revealing. Starburst got up and walked towards the door, she needed answers and hopefully there is someone out there that could give them.

The moment her doors opened, a pair of Royal Guards quickly turned towards it, while they were passing. “Starburst, you’re awake!” The first said, seeing her nod, and turned to his partner. “Quickly, Bright Dawn, tell Princess Twilight that Starburst has woken up.” The unicorn guard nodded, sprinting off.

It took only a few seconds, until Starburst’s senses fully recovered and allowed her to see just who is currently standing in front of the mare. The major indicators had been the stallion’s lime green coat and membraned wings, the green spines and Lunar Guard armor had been icing on the cake. “T…” Starburst started, staring up at her long time training partner and friend. “What happened, after I blacked out?”

Turquoise Blitz, the iconic pony-dragon hybrid of Rarity and Spike, just stared down at the mare. “Long or Short Version?”

“Short, w-with detail.”

“Well, to sum it up and give enough details…” T removed the helmet, and put it under his armor. “When you blacked out, one of the invaders went to capture you. None of us were fast enough to intercept, Prism not able to build enough speed from a dead halt.” Starburst’s eyes widened, wondering just how she ended up back at Canterlot Castle, and not where those things took their victims. “Then, somehow sensing your peril, the cyclops giant disengaged his shield’s weapon and battle rammed the invader that went for you. He even managed to catch you mid-fall, we even got a bigger surprise when the cyclops’ chest opened up and he placed you safely inside.” Her eyes widened, not believing that their savior had been a construct of some kind. “Afterwards, he drew a massive sword and cut down the remaining invaders.”

There was no need to explain what happened next, being rather obvious. “W-Where is the one in control of it?”

“That is the strangest part… Only you were inside of him.” T answered, causing Starburst to give a surprised look. “Princess Luna noticed that ‘Reaper’, the construct, had no pony controlling t… The only place, allowing such, had you there, alone.”

“‘Reaper’? That is his name?” She asked, T giving a confirming nod. “How long have I been out, and where is Reaper now?”

“Two days now, everyone has been worried sick about you since this is the longest you have blacked out for… If I remember correctly, Reaper entered some sort of hibernation in the Castle Courtyard, as well.” T answered, before Starburst suddenly went back into her room, shutting the door rather loudly and causing the hybrid to gain a surprised look about him. “Um… What are you doing, Starburst?”

Sounds of things being opened and shuffling followed. “I’m not going into the courtyard in my PJs, T!” She called out, making it seem like the answer was an obvious one, prompting T to give an “oh…” expression.

Deciding that, while he waited, it would be wise to send a letter to his father… Who could easily inform Twilight about this.

-Throne Room-

“I cannot help but agree with your thoughts, on the matter, Twilight.” Celestia sighed, Discord, Nidra, Illusion, and Twilight; standing with her at the throne room’s center. “These attacks have become even more dangerous for our forces to fight. Were it not for her condition, I would dismiss this… But, we cannot risk young Starburst’s safety any longer.”

“Honestly, Twilight, I am actually surprised that you are evening putting this forward.” Discord started, looking down at the lavender alicorn. “I thought you supported your daughter’s dream to become a Royal Guard Captain?”

“I-I am…” Twilight started, looking away with shame in her eyes. “But, with what happened two days ago, both Flash and I are concerned about her.” She looked back up at the Lord of Chaos. “What if she has another episode? No one able to rescue her? What if she gets captured by the Invaders, or even killed!?”

Discord could not respond to that, understanding where Twilight is coming from on this. Though, another decided to voice their own question. “With all due respect, Aunt Twilight, but who shall be the one to tell her?” Nidra asked, the group looking at one another. “Such a thing will not be well received by Starburst.”

“With Starburst being a member of the Royal Guard… It would be fitting that I-?”

“No, Princess.” Twilight interrupted, shocking the group that she actually interrupted Celestia of all of them. “I am Starburst’s mother, and it was me who put this forward… It is only right that I be the one to tell her.”

“Are you sure about this, Twilight? I mean, such a task will not be easy.” Celestia asked, her former student giving a solemn nod. All those around the lavender alicorn could tell, this decision is destroying her on the inside. “Alright… But, we shall all go together, giving proof to this decision.”

It has been then, that the throne room’s doors swung open. “Princess Sparkle! I bring urgent news, which you must hear!” Bright Dawn shouted out, sprinting up to the royals, and kneeling. “It is about Princess Starburst.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, stepping towards the unicorn guard. “W-What happened? Is she alright?”

“Princess Starburst has woken up, your majesty. Guard Turquoise stayed with her, while I bring you this message.” Bright Dawn answered, looking up at the gathered royals. “They were just outside her room, when I left.”

“Starburst is… Awake?” Twilight repeated, relieved and worried about her waking up after two days. Not even noticing a poofing sound behind her. “I’m sorry, everyone, but I need to-?” She noticed that the eldest princess is currently reading a scroll. “Um… Is that a letter from Spike?” She asked, remembering that the Equestrian Born Dragon is currently with Rarity in the city, somewhere, helping pass out clothes to refugees.

A smile found its way on to Celestia’s lips. “It is…” She lowered the scroll, and sighed. “Seems that Starburst is no longer in her room. She’s gone to visit the dormant Reaper.”

Discord even seemed rather confused by that statement. “Visiting a sleeping giant, that wiped the floor with fifteen others?” He started rubbing his head with a talon. “Not even I am that crazy.”

“Regardless, we can use this as a chance to explain things to Starburst.” Celestia had the letter disappear in a burst of magic. “Let us go. Luna is already there, keeping an eye on the sleeping giant.”

-Canterlot Castle Courtyard-

Luna just stared up at the dormant Gouf Custom’s eyeless head. Two days, he has slept with no signs of waking up, and they were in desperate need for answers. They had the very best try and figure him out, but they were unable to get a proper reading on the construct. It had been like the construct did not allow them to do so, blocking them out completely. But, many of the experts claimed it to be impossible, that a construct required a mind of its own for such a thing.

This left the Lunar Princess at a loss, especially with “Reaper” being a perfect combatant against their current crisis. “Why will you not wake? Surely, it has been long enough to be fully rested.” She grumbled, staring up at the sealed chest cockpit… Another thing they failed at achieving, not even magic being able to open it.

“Princess Luna!” A voice called out, causing her to turn around and see Starburst approaching, with Turquoise Blitz. “Has he woken up at all, since I’ve been asleep?”

Luna waited, until Starburst came up next to her, the two staring up at Reaper. “Unfortunately, no. Reaper has remained silent, not stirring form his slumber.” Her gaze went to the pegasus mare, a look of concern about her. “What about you? How are you feeling, dearest niece?”

“Still a bit dazed, but I will be fine.” Starburst continued to look up at the silent giant. “It could have been… A lot worse.”

“Far worse, yes.” Luna looked up at Reaper, a relieved look replacing her concerned one. “Luckily, this ‘Reaper’ managed to prevent anything of the sort.”

At that moment, Starburst looked down at the ground. “My mother will probably push for me to remain here, in Canterlot.” Her words low, an assured realization. “Asking Princess Celestia to have me stationed here, instead of with the other Guardsmen moving out with the Equestrian Defense Force.”

“We highly doubt that. Dearest Twilight supports your dream to be the very first mare Royal Guard Captain.” Luna placed a hand on to Starburst’s shoulder. “And, if such a thing were to happen? We would stand against it.” Her statement caused the pegasus mare to look up at the navy blue alicorn. “You wish to protect Equestria, serve your subjects, instead of wasting time playing politician with petty and spoiled nobles… A trait we, for one, believe every ruler should have. A Ruler of Equestria should be ready to draw their sword, and protect those that have looked to them for leadership.” She giggled for a moment, smiling. “One reason why my sister sends me to the battlefield, I am more of a fighter than some politician.”

This caused a surprise hug from Starburst, Luna taking a few moments before returning the embrace. “T-Thanks, Aunt Luna.”

Luna smiled, it has been far too long since Starburst called her that, instead of ‘Princess’. “You are most welcome, Star.” The sound of a group approaching caused Luna to look towards the castle, and see her sister with the other members of their strange Royal Family. “Seems the others have arrived, to also see our recent savior.”

At that, Starburst broke away from their hug, and faced the approaching Royals, seeing her mother in front of them all. “M-Mother! I was just about to come see you. Figured I should come and see if the one who saved me was awake, so that I could-!”

Twilight sprinted over, and brought the pegasus mare into a tight hug, before she could finish. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” She muttered, holding Starburst even tighter.

“M-Mother… I promise, next time it won’t happen.” Starburst assured, returning the hug. “I will be more careful, and pay attention to how much I’m pushing myself.”

That caused Twilight to tense up, and give strained sigh. “S-Starburst…” She released her daughter, taking a few steps back. “I am s-sorry, sweetheart… But, there will not be a next time.”

“W-What?” Starburst, Luna, and T; all said, in shock, the pegasus stepping away from her mother.

“I am sorry, Starburst. I know your dream of being a Royal Guard, and then the first mare Captain, means the world to you, but…” Twilight bit her lip, obviously having a hard time getting the next words out, not wanting to crush her daughter’s dreams. “After what happened two days ago… I just can’t handle it.” The lavender alicorn tried to hold back the thoughts of what could have happened, tears forming to show her failure at such. “I cannot lose you, my heart couldn’t take it. We’ve agreed that you are to be discharged from the Royal Guard.”

“What about everyone else, who is fighting, risking their lives!?” Starburst suddenly snapped, surprising those around her. “You expect me to hide behind these walls, sending others to fight battles, when I can help!?”

“Starburst, sweetheart, please understand…” Twilight started, trying to calm her daughter down. “If it wasn’t for your condition, we would not even consider doing such a thing.”

“I can beat my condition! I just have to keep from pushing it too far! You’ve never-?”

Luna placed a hand on to the pegasus mare’s shoulder, effectively stopping her from allowing a burst of anger to cause unintentional strains in the fragile relationship between them. Her gaze ent to Twilight, taking a more regale look. “Twilight Sparkle, we understand where it is you are coming from. However, we believe in brave Starburst’s ability to overcome her own limitations. If anything, she shall have us and Captain Sentry with her, along with those within the EDF and Royal Guard.” The Lunar Princess looked to Celestia, keeping her regale look. “Sister, are you in support of this decision?”

Celestia shook her head. “I am in agreement with Twilight. With Starburst being both a Princess of Equestria and my niece, I cannot allow her to fight with such a condition…” She started, Luna about to interject but had been cut off by the eldest princess. “What if none of you could reach her in time? What if one of those things took advantage of her condition or she falls to her death? From what I have gathered, Reaper managed to prevent these things from happening.” Her gaze went to the dormant giant, then back to them. “And, seeing how he has entered a deep slumber and yet to wake from it, I cannot foresee us being so fortunate again.”

Those words struck Starburst hard, even Celestia is against her on this, Luna unable to help. “I feel like he would understand better than any of you, about how I feel.” All attention went to the pegasus, confused by what she had said. “Before I blacked out, I stared into his eye, and felt more kinship with him than anyone else! He and I actually brought one down, together! I felt his need to prove himself, a desire that burns within my own very heart!” She placed a hand over her chest, suddenly feeling the very surge shortly after blacking out igniting within her small body again, shrugging it off and not knowing another had felt it. “I bet he could prove you wrong, Princess! That, somehow, he could actually help me fight those invaders, preventing me from blacking out, and you would see it if he were awake!” Starburst’s eyes snapped shut, those around her suddenly feeling a strange energy forming around the mare. “Reaper just needs to… WAKE UP!”

Reaper… Wake up!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeJR-AJWZWM QUE THE THEME SONG!)

Those words, those three words, became like a spell to the two, a humming sounds and metal moving against metal echoed behind Starburst. A strange grinding noise, followed by a hiss, forced the group to look up at the giant, his cockpit being opened. The single red eye appeared with a heavy “dong” sound. Before any of them could say another word, Reaper’s massive hand reached forward. “Hostile Mobile Suits inbound, pilot distress detected. Acquiring pilot now.” He carefully took Starburst into his massive hand, lifting her towards the cockpit, while standing to his full height. The pegasus mare needed no other instruction, and leapt into the seat inside, allowing the cockpit to close behind her.

To Starburst’s surprise, every screen turned on and she could see everything around Reaper’s massive body, quickly strapping herself in and trying to figure things out. A single orb-screen turning on and showing data before the mare. The single green dot at its center appeared, followed by what looked like outlines of buildings and a wall, then several red dots just beyond the wall! Her eyes went wide, realizing that this was some sort of map, that indicated terrain, friendly units, itself, and hostiles; around the construct. There were other indicators, giving images of certain things about Reaper. One even had an image of the construct, colored green and the chest flashing for a moment before going green itself.

“Pilot secured. Moving to engage Hostile Mobile Suits.” The Gouf Custom drew his sword, a force of wind being caused by its swing, before turning around and walked towards the city gates… The Royals trying to keep up with him.

Chapter Three: Metal Demon

Chapter Three

Starburst looked around the cockpit, trying to figure out what she is seeing, but too much data is flowing all at once. “What is all this stuff?” She muttered, eyes rapidly moving from screen to screen. “I can’t make heads or tails what all this information is telling me…”

“That would be the initiation data and systems check.” Reaper’s voice suddenly answered, making the mare look around for its source. “Welcome, Princess Starburst. I am MS-07B-3, ‘Gouf Custom’, known as Reaper.” Her eyes suddenly went wide to the center screen, as an image of Reaper’s designs and specs appeared, along with different bits of information about his body. “A ground combat mobile suit designed for Ace Pilots to use in a war against the Earth Federation. Compared to the more mass produced MS-06F ‘Zaku II’, MS-07B ‘Gouf’, and MS-09 ‘DOM’; I am a more agile and armored mobile suit.” Images of each type of mobile suit listed appeared on screen, as he went on. “Would you like a rundown of my current arsenal?”

“Uh…” She blinked, barely understanding any of that. “S-Sure?”

Reaper gave a mental sigh, he did not wish to sound so basic, but there is no telling how they would react to him actually being sentient… It didn’t even make any sense to him, either! “Confirmed. The first weapon is my primary range weapon, the shield mounted 75mm gatling cannon, a weapon designed to lay down a constant barrage of gun fire at any target.” An image of the weapon and simulation appeared on screen. “Next is the triple barrel 35mm machinegun, attached to the left arm and placed under the shield.” Another image and simulation appeared. “Primary melee weapon is the Heat Sword Type D III, blade heating function is currently inactive for unknown reasons.” Its image appeared, a simulation of it being used with and without the heat function. “Lastly, the Heat Wire concealed under my right arm.” The last weapon appeared, showing its different functions and uses for any given situation.

The mare’s eyes were wide, seeing the different types of weapons available to this giant. “Talk about being a walking armory.” She thought, looking around the cockpit. “Reaper? How am I expected to use all this, any ways? I’ve never seen anything so advance before.”

“That will be my duty, to help you learn. Until then, most of my functions will remain on autopilot.” He answered, the towering mobile suit coming to an abrupt halt within an evacuated part of the city. “But, I apologize for this, you will be getting a crash course in my combat abilities and functions.”

“That’s right!” Starburst shouted, looking at all three screens around her. “You said hostiles were detected near the city! Where are they?”

A thin red line appeared on the right screen’s end and went left, outlining everything as it went. “Thirty humanoid type Mobile Suit signatures detected, approaching from the south… At an elevation of seventy degrees.” Reaper announced, his body entering a combat stance, aiming the gatling cannon up to the sky. “Tactical Advisement: Volley of continuous fire, we can lay down a blanket of anti-air fire with the gatling cannon’s rapid fire capabilities.”

Starburst’s eyes widened, in shock, as the center screen started to show multiple red dots all across the sky. There were so many of the invaders, all flying towards Canterlot with a single triangular wing on their backs. “H-How can we defeat so many of those things!? I mean, do you have the firepower to even handle that many?” She asked, jaw slack.

(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLOZ-lsfmIA Time for feels music ))

“Negative. However, are you going to allow your words, from before, become false?” He asked, making Starburst look at the center piece… Seeing the italicized words that appeared.

“What about everyone else, who is fighting, risking their lives!?... You expect me to hide behind these walls, sending others to fight battles, when I can help!?”

The mare just stared at those words, surprised that Reaper had been listening the whole time. “The chance to prove hose words have come. I am but a simple weapon, a tool for you to use. My sights are trained on your enemies… I have the abilities to battle them, but cannot act.” His words swam around in the young mare’s mind, realizing they aren’t so basic sounding anymore for some odd reason, as the closest of the invaders drew closer. “For I am just that, a weapon. In order for me to truly act, I need a wielder. Only then, will my true potential reveal itself.”

Quietly, Starburst shook within Reaper’s seat, honestly terrified by the sheer numbers of invaders coming. Never before have they encountered such a large force from them, dwarfing any others that came prior. She wanted to fight, but too scared to even move right now. “B-But, what i-if I am… Scared?” The word felt like ash in her mouth, venom to her body, not liking to admit such a thing.

“My previous pilot often said this to his men, before every battle.” Reaper started, his gatling cannon still trained on the mobile suits coming towards them. “It is alright to feel afraid, I would be worried if you weren’t. But, you must overcome that fear. Within that very moment you do, the doors shall open and who you are meant to be will reveal itself.”

That made her look at the screen, seeing the approaching invaders, then look to the city around her. The realization that, as of right now, she is sitting within the only thing that could protect those around her. Carefully, her hands reached to the joint sticks on both sides, lightly grasping them. They kept shaking, her entire body would not stop shaking… Until an ethereal hand placed itself on to Starburst’s own right hand.

Her eyes shot back, seeing some figure wearing a full body suit of some kind, that looked like something out of her Uncle Spike’s old sci-fi comic books. Majority of the suit was straight red, the gloves, boats, shoulder guards, and a line going down the center of their body; being a dark black. Their helmet had also been colored a matching black, except for some sort of bright red angle-crest on the forehead. She couldn’t see their face, the glass of their helmet being tinted and preventing any features from being made out.

They just nodded to her, a strange feeling that everything is going to be alright, washing over her body. This caused a smile to appear on her lips, looking back at the center screen. “Alright, Reaper… Show me what you can do!”

“With pleasure!” The Gouf Custom blared, his primary weapon opening up with a hellstorm of gunfire!
(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW62qNQSK4M ))

The organic-metal mobile suits only had mere seconds to evade the sudden incoming! Two of them being shredded by the rapid firing anti-air and being completely decimated. They quickly scattered out into a more open formation, trying not to be caught in a hell of bullets, then returned fire. However, despite having energy based weapons, their attacks merely bounced off of Reaper’s armored body, but were unable to resist his own attacks. A group of mobile suits, bearing strange shields, quickly flew forward and towards the Gouf Custom. Their reinforced bulwarks being shredded but resisted his attack enough for them to close in.

But, when they landed in close, their defenses could not hold up against Reaper’s attack at such a close range, nor against his deadly blade. One tried to conduct a shielded charge towards the Gouf Custom, but the dormant heat blade tore through the shield and impaled their head. Another tried to approach, but Reaper brought his primary weapon to bare and open fired on to them, while the blade had still been impaled within the other mobile suit. “That makes five! Twenty-five more to go!” Starburst called out, seeing another one of the shield bearing mobile suits charging in. “If we keep this pace up, we may-?”

A triple alarm went off, the screens flashing red and an upward pointing arrow appearing. “Princess! Slam both outer pedals down, now! Reverse tilt them! Towards you!” Reaper blared, causing Starburst to do as instructed.

The Gouf Custom managed to perform a full reverse thrust, just before a beam of red light slammed down directly here he stood, melting the shielded mobile suit’s upper body. “W-What in Equestria was that!?” She yelled, Reaper coming to a halt and looking to where the beam had come from.

His single eye focused on eight heavily armored, large, mobile suits bearing shoulder mounted cannons. Several bits of data started to appear around their frames, arrows pointing to certain areas of them. A red exclamation point appeared on their large barrel cannons. “Those things are all carrying some kind of heavy beam cannon!” Reaper stepped back, aiming his gatling cannon at them. “One hit from them, could melt through my armor and cause me to blow sky high!” With that, he open fired on to the cannon wielding eight… But three of the normal mobile suits to in the way, being destroyed, before five shielded ones managed to cover them. “Damnit!”

Three of them fired, Starburst only having seconds to slam her right foot down and caused the Gouf Custom to thrust right. They barely escaped the volley, but two of the other mobile suits were destroyed by it. “They’re hitting their own down here! Don’t they care about friendly fire!?” She yelled, as Reaper knelt down behind one of the buildings for cover and concealment.

“I do not think they care very much about that, Princess.” He replied, slightly glancing over the building. His single eye locked on to one of the cannon wielding mobile suits searching for them. “Got him!” Quickly pulling the gatling cannon up, he open fired on to them… But, one with a shield quickly flew in the way and blocked the attack.

To their shock, the cannon wielding mobile suit actually shot through its protector! Reaper managing to thrust away from the attack, demolishing a building behind him, but more beams were being sent straight for their position every second. To avoid over using his thrusters, the Gouf Custom forced himself to resort to using his agility by either jumping or sprinting away from their attacks, firing a few rounds back every other steps to try and force them to lose sight. However, their disregard for any allies within the line of sight made such a tactic completely useless.

“Do these things every give up!?” Starburst yelled, doing her best to help Reaper while they were on the defensive, noticing a pair of normal mobile suits landing just ahead. “Contact! Ten and two!”

“I see them!” Reaper quickly raised the gatling cannon up, firing it into the one at the ten o’clock, and used his blade to split the other completely in half. “We need to find a way to get past their defenses! Do you see any-!?”

Three beams stroke in front and on both sides of Reaper, causing the entire street to suddenly explode! This had been enough to send the mobile suit flying back, crashing into a nearby building. Starburst had been lucky that the seat restraints held, preventing her from slamming forward on to the console. When the dust cleared a bit, revealing one of the cannon wielding mobile suits hovering just above them, charging its weapon up to finish them off!

“R-Reaper!” She screamed, seeing the cannon’s red glow on screen.

At her scream, the text ‘Protocol 3!’ flashed on screen. Before anything else, Reaper’s right arm shot up from the ground, blasting his heat wire into the sky! With the sudden movement, none of the invaders saw his attack, the clamp biting down on to the cannon mobile suit’s face. Quickly, Reaper’s thrusters engaged and had the heat wire help reel him in close enough to ram his heat sword into the large mobile suit’s stomach.

The attack had been so quick, not even Starburst had time to register hat happened. When the other invaders found their comrade impaled, two nearby cannon mobile suits turned their weapons on to the floating Reaper, not seeing the other on opposite sides. Reaper’s clamp released, fully retracting, and he kicked off of the slain mobile suit, just before the other two fired and ended up destroying each other. “Three down… Thirteen to go.” Reaper said, as he landed back on to solid ground.

“H-How did you do that, Reaper?” Starburst asked, watching as the reaming mobile suits tried to comprehend what just happened.

Reaper reaimed his gatling cannon at the cannon wielding mobile suits. “One of my protocols became active. Once it does, all systems divert to any possible outcome that’ll ensure the protocol’s function is achieved.” He answered, quickly firing the gatling cannon… Only for it to start clicking after a single volley. “Damn! Out of ammo…”

Starburst watched the primary weapon detach from Reaper’s shield, falling on to the broken streets. “W-What now, Reaper?”
They watched the mobile suits return their attention on to the lone Gouf Custom, who stood between them and Canterlot’s defeat. “Now? We hope that a miracle happens…” He swung the heat blade around, and charged forward, four shield bearing mobile suits landing to engage hm.

-Zeon Space, Onyx Fleet Flagship Honor’s Glory-

“Commander Zarren, what do you mean High Command made a mistake, in taking that old relic in for scrap!?” A Zeon Officer demanded, glaring at another, more decorated, Zeon Officer wearing a full black uniform, with gold accents. “It was just a Gouf Custom, having zero use for us within space!”

Commander Zarren gave an annoyed sigh, looking from the bridge’s observation glass to the nagging officer behind him. “Because, lieutenant, High Command did not know Reaper, like we do… Nor did they know about his little secret.”

The Zeon Lieutenant glared at Commander Zarren, who had withdrawn Onyx Fleet from their front lines… To search for one Ground Type mobile suit! “Then, how about you tell me why that mobile suit is so important, that you withdrew Onyx Fleet from battle!” He dared a step forward, holding the glare. “Least then, I can tell High Command why they should execute you!”

He just stared at the opposing Zeon Officer, regarding him calmly, both of Commander Zarren’s hands at the small of his back. “Alright then, I will tell you why Reaper is so special, and why we must recover him at all costs.”

-Back in Canterlot-

Reaper and Starburst managed to down the four opposing mobile suits, but dodging the five destructive beams while doing so pushed past their limits. The mare’s breath heavy and labored, her body becoming weaker by the second. “This i-is not good, Reaper.” Starburst tried to focus, as they took shelter behind an abandoned warehouse. “I-I’m p-pushing my body way t-to far…”

“Try and hold out just a little while longer, Princess.” Reaper asked, reloading his secondary weapon. “There are only nine more left, if we take out the four guards, those canon ones will either retreat or be at least easier to pick off.”

Too late, Starburst was already starting to feel her body shut down. “I-I can’t f-fight it… R-Reaper…” Her eyes slowly started to close, vision going black.

Reaper felt his body halt, unable to move. “No! Princess, you have to fight it! Think about those counting on us!” He said, the Gouf Custom starting to enter a shutdown of his own. “Don’t give up, Princess! I cannot do this alone. I need you at the controls!”

Her eyes were almost shut, the mare trying to fight it every second of the way. “N-No! I can’t let this happen!” Starburst’s hands tried gripping the controls, finding it extremely hard. “I have to show them, I-I can beat this condition!” A tear fell down her cheek. “Reaper!”

“Starburst!”

(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxmMnMTQvVs ))

As both suddenly had a full body shutdown, the strangest thing happened. A jolt of energy sparked throughout their bodies, causing Starburst’s heart to pump even faster and Reaper’s core to sky rocket off the charts! The Gouf Custom’s shoulder spikes, knee guards, leg vents, chest, and armor skirt; opened up! Before long, his entire body vented and started to heat up, giving off a fiery red aura about him. Even the heat sword suddenly came online! Within the cockpit, it had been like someone injected the mare with some kind of stimulant, her senses heightened beyond normal. She became aware of everything around her and Reaper’s body.

Their combined roaring yell blared from Reaper’s speaker, making it seem like their voices had become one. What became even worse, Reaper’s heated aura actually destroyed the warehouse they were hiding behind. The invaders prepared to fire, but hesitated when they saw what had become of their foe… A demonic look appearing around him, making them all falter at the sight. A mistake, they are about to regret.

In the blink of an eye, Reaper exploded forward, with enough force to demolish everything in his wake! Before they could react, his heat sword tore through two of the shield bearing mobile suits and split one of the cannon wielding ones in half, the heated blade actually causing them to explode. The others instantly turned, and fired, but Reaper was already gone! Using his heat wire to pull himself back down to the ground, before they could actually get a shot on him. He turned fully around to face them, both arms raised up.

“He’s a proto-type for the Newtype Program!?”

“That is correct, Lieutenant. Along with containing very valuable data for the Principality f Zeon, Reaper is one of the first to a new breed of mobile suits. When active, his systems will give off so much heat that it is required for him to vent every last bit of it… Creating a protective, and dangerous, aura of heat around himself.”

Reaper soared forward again, firing his triple barrel machinegun and had the heat wire snag n to one of the shielded mobile suits. The EMP burst completely destroyed it, while is hellstorm of bullets tore apart another cannon mobile suit.

“This is not the only effect it has. Due to so much energy being created, Reaper will be able to move twice as fast, his response time tripled. Whomever manages to actually activate this mode, will also gain a strange neurological boast, due to the systems and core built into him giving off a strange energy reading in which connects with the pilot. However, the pilot must be a Newtype. They need to be, just to keep up with him and the system not overload their nervous system. In a sense, they become of one mind, while the system is active.”

Starburst looked towards the last four mobile suits, somehow able to see what they were about to do next. It had been like their movements slowed down, while she remained at a normal speed. This allowed her to react much quicker to their attacks, having Reaper’s heat wire snag one’s cannon, forcing it to shoot another, while it sent an EMP pulse throughout the mobile suit’s body. Then, she had him follow up with the secondary weapon, firing several rounds through the smoke and tearing apart the third cannon wielding mobile suit.

“B-But, how come this was never recorded, Commander Zarren!? We had no such data that such a mobile suit even existed before!”

“Because his system has never been activated before. Not even our former Commander, who many of us believed was a Newtype, manage to do it… This has been one of the reasons why Onyx Fleet is devoted to reacquiring Reaper. For the fact that he is such a valuable weapon and the legacy of our late Commander.”

Reaper’s thrusters roared to life once more, allowing him to shoulder ram the last cannon wielding mobile suit to the ground. When it tried to take aim at him, his blade quickly destroyed the weapon and slammed a foot down on to its arm.

“But… Whomever does actually get the system activated? They would have a true Monster at their command.”

He took the blade in both hands, tip pointed down and a single eye locked on to the fallen foe. They released a pleading, metallic, screech in some attempt for mercy, Reaper’s aura cooking them from the inside out.

“A Demon born of metal.”

The heat sword came down, stabbing through the mobile suit’s core… Blood sprayed out on to Reaper’s metal body, but quickly reduced to steam when it made contact.

Chapter Four: The Basics

Chapter Four

Reaper towered over the defeated cannon mobile suit, his body still releasing a lot of heat, removing the sword imbedded within its torso. Many hurried to see their victorious hero, cheering loudly, and began to crowd at the mobile suit’s feet. But, when Reaper’s body stopped releasing heat and staggered back, the citizens scattered out from behind him… Just before the mobile suit toppled over.

Both Twilight and Flash Sentry soared to the mobile suit’s cockpit, wanting to see if their daughter was alright. However, when they touched down on to Reaper’s metal body, both royals were forced off of it. “Gah! His body is like the inside of a volcano!” Flash Sentry yelled, rubbing the bottom of his hooves.

“If his outside is this hot, that means Starburst is in danger!” Twilight yelled, trying to find a way to open Reaper’s cockpit. “We need to get her out of there!”

“But, how?” Flash Sentry asked, looking around the mobile suit. “He’s far too hot for any of us to touch, and I do not think any in Canterlot knows how to-?”

“W-Wat-ter…” Reaper’s voice stuttered, making the pair look at his head, the monocular eye blinking in and out. “C-Cool down bo-body… Then p-pull emerge-gency release o-on cockpit’s l-left…”

They looked at him for a few moments, before realizing that he just told them how to get Starburst out. “Quickly, go get any pegasi in Canterlot, and have them create the biggest down pour possible over his body! Hurry!” Twilight ordered, Flash Sentry flying off with an ‘on it’, then she flew down next to the fallen mobile suit’s head. “Please, tell me, is my daughter alright?”

His eye, slowly, shifted towards Twilight. “She i-is safe f-for now.” Twilight could tell that Reaper’s body was under a lot of strain, she could hear the joints and moving parts creaking. “P-Protocol… Th-Three is now in e-effect. All s-systems have d-diverted to… Ensuring pilot’s survival.”

“Protocol three?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. “What is that?”

“The t-third of m-my four Pro-Protocols.” Reaper answered, Twilight taking mental notes. “Protocol One: Ensure Mission is Completed. Protocol Two: Follow Pilot’s Orders. Protocol Three: Protect the Pilot.”

“Wait, that was only three?” Twilight noted, slightly confused. “What is the forth?”

“Protocol F-Four… Classified. Only to b-be revealed when activated o-or personnel with c-clearance asks. It can o-override all other pro-protocols, and can result in destruction o-of mobile suit, if n-need be.” He answered, the eye still locked on Twilight. “Cl-Clearance from R-rear Admiral or ab-above is required.”

She gave a nod, before thunder boomed overhead and caused her to jump… Pegasi from the Royal Guard and Refugee Districts were already building storm clouds above Reaper. A smile formed on Twilight’s lips, as the down pour fell on to the mobile suit’s body, hissing steam shooting upwards. This process lasted a good while, the pegasi having to form so much rain, over a specific large area, wearing them down. Though, when it had finished cooling Reaper’s body down, Twilight wasted no time and flew up to his cockpit.

Her eyes scanned the hatch’s eft side, spotting a hidden handle within an indention. Twilight grabbed hold of Reaper’s emergency release, still worried, and quickly turned it until the handle. She was reward with the sounds of hydraulics and gears grinding behind his armor, before the cockpit slowly opened.

“Starburst!” Twilight called out, moving towards the cockpit’s opened hatch, panic in her eyes. “A-Are you alright!?”

The mare in question sat in her seat, both eyes closed, breathing heavily, and still strapped in; the red screens around her flashing overheat warnings. Slowly, Starburst opened her eyes, before smiling widely and giving Twilight a weak thumb’s up. “Y-Yeah… T-Told you w-we could do it, m-mother.” Starburst allowed her head to rest against the seat’s head rest, obviously drained. “T-Though, i-if you all do n-not mind… R-Reaper and I could use s-some rest.” A smile appeared on her lips, the mare looking up. “Don’t you a-agree, big g-guy?”

“I could g-go for… A-A temporary shut d-down, right now.” Reaper’s eye moved to the center. “I-If you do not m-mind, Princess.”

“Fine with m-me…” With that, Starburst passed out, Reaper’s systems going offline.

Twilight could only smile at her daughter, before stepping into the cockpit, unbuckled her, and got the sleeping Starburst out. A pair of Royal Guard Pegasi flew over, with Flash Sentry, as she pulled Starburst out. “Twi! Is she alright?” He asked, the three landing around her.

“Starburst will be alright.” Twilight answered, allowing the Royal Guards to take her daughter. “She and Reaper just need to rest.”

“The cyclops will also require repairs, it would seem.” A calm, regal, voice called out, causing the four to turn and see Celestia… With the other royal family members. “It seems, during this recent battle, he has sustained considerable damage.”

Flash Sentry and Twilight looked at Reaper’s body, noticing several scorch marks across the armor. While none of it managed to penetrate, they could not risk taking such a chance, nor ignore possible damage to the machinery. “You have a point there, Princess…” Twilight started placing a hand over her chin. “But, how can we do that? Such a machine is far too advance for any of us and we have no idea how he was built.”

“The burns can be fixed with simple restoration spells. As for checking the body?” Nidra smirked a bit, shrugging her shoulders. “I heard from Prism Bolt, that such things come with a ‘manual’.”

They all raised an eyebrow, before Twilight gasped. “Of course!” Without warning, she jumped back into the cockpit, searching every nook and cranny. “Come on… Come on, where are these things usually hidden?”

“Um… Twilight? What are you-!”

“Ah-hah! Pilot’s left side!” She popped back out, holding a red-black-white, ring bound, book in her hands. “The ‘MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom Techincal Manual’! This should tell us everything we need to know!” A wide smile on her lips, and Flash Sentry saw a particular look in Twilight’s eyes… The kind she gets, when something new to learn is presented.

“Good to know his repairs are in good hands.” Celestia stated, with a smirk, before looking at one of the fallen invaders. “Another boon from this battle, is that we now have some of their own to study.” The Solar Princess approached a fallen cannon wielding invader, its metal-organic body stained with its own blood. “We have never managed to bring even one, but this ‘Reaper’ managed to defeat thirty of them and effectively disposed each one, so that they could no longer be a threat?” Her hand gently caressed the smooth surface, a raised brow appearing. “I want our best examining each type present here, this will allow us to discover more about this threat.”

“Celestia, are you sure this is a wise decision?” Discord, surprisingly, asked as he walked up to the alicorn mare. “These things have been kidnapping your precious subjects, along with the fact our magic cannot seem to do them any harm, how sure are you that one is not faking?”

“Did you not watch how Reaper and brave Starburst dispatched them?” She asked, Discord honestly not having an answer for her. “Exactly. If one did manage to survive, I highly doubt it will be a threat to any of our subjects.” They all nodded, dispersing to handle what is needed from their ends, Celestia’s gaze locking on to a certain one. “Twilight?”

“Yes, Princess!” The lavender mare flew up, from her in depth study of Reaper’s manual, to Celestia.

“Maybe it would be best to let another oversee Reaper’s repairs, you are needed elsewhere.” The eldest princess suggested, placing a hand on to her shoulder. “Don’t you agree?”

Twilight gained an unsure look about her, obviously conflicted with the idea. “I… Don’t know, Princess. It’s not like I do not want to go see her, with every fiber of my heart I want to be by her side, but... I highly doubt her seeing me, after what we tried to pull on her before this? It might not be a good idea.” The white alicorn turned the lavender one around, fully, lightly shoving her forward. “Now, hand that Manual off and go see Starburst, she needs you.” Twilight, not really one to deny Celestia, gave a nod and handed the manual to her mentor, before flying off.

-Later That Night-

Starburst slowly stretched her body, as she walked down the Canterlot streets, which were almost empty. Granted, Luna had raised the moon and most wanted to rest after what could be considered a nerve racking day, but it is still strange to the mare. She understood that some martial law could be in effect, and she is allowed to wonder around for the facts of being a Princess and a member of the Royal Guard, but no word has reached her about it. Which only left the conclusion they did not want to get involved with their newest protector, whom had a giant robot smack down earlier.

Speaking of Reaper, that is why Starburst is out right now, wanting to see if the mobile suit is up for a conversation. Finding him will be the easy part, since there are lights all over where they fought the invaders and she remembered when they fell back from exhaustion. Though, Starburst feared she might not have been able to go, when she first woke up and saw her mother next to her bed, but lucked out after noticing Twilight had been fast asleep, with a book in her lap. She quickly snuck out, after changing clothes.

Starburst suddenly stopped, pulling her pink scarf up, to protect herself further from the cold night breeze. “Should I have told her where I was going? She is still my mother, after all.” She thought, looking down at the stone street of Canterlot, before another thought appeared. “She could have stopped me, if I did… After all, she did not want me fighting anymore.” Her hooves started to move again, heading to where Reaper had fallen, without the deep thinking mare knowing. “Though, she did see us fend off all those invaders, but also freaked out about how Reaper’s cockpit would not open.” During these thoughts, Starburst did not notice a taped off area, with a pair of Royal Guards standing behind it. “But, there is a chance she would-?”

“Princess Starburst? What are you doing out here, so late?” One of the Royal Guards asked, snapping Starburst out of her thoughts. “Shouldn’t you be resting in bed?”

“Huh? Oh, I was wondering if I could speak with Reaper?” She replied, looking at the tape for a moment, then back to the guards. “Is that ok?”

“Well…” The other guard started, the two looking at one another for a moment, before he continued. “We were told to keep the public out, nobles or not, but I think you are alright to enter… You are a princess, after all.” Starburst flinched, hating how she is always being treated differently because of that, as a guard lifted the tape up for her. “Go on through, Princess Starburst.”

She gave a nod, still having to duck under the tape, and kept walking towards where Reaper had fallen. “From what I can tell, they have not managed to move the big guy…” Starburst thought, eyeing how the mobile suit has not been moved from where he laid. Her gaze then went to several covered areas across Reaper’s body, where engineers seemed to be working on exposed internal parts. “And it seems like they are trying to make repairs… Probably mother’s doing.” A smirk appeared on her muzzle. “Bet she turned the cockpit upside down, trying to find some book explaining how to repair him.” Starburst then spotted a certain bat pony alicorn. “Nidra!” She called out, running up to said older princess.

“Starburst?” Nidra smiled, as said mare stopped a couple of paces from her. “It is good to see you up and about, but shouldn’t you be resting?”

Starburst rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, but I wanted to check on Reaper, he took quite the beating and put a lot of pressure on his body.” She looked towards the dormant giant, Nidra doing the same. “Along with if he could answer a few question… Is he up, yet?” The mare looked towards the alicorn, who also rubbed the back of her head again.

“Well…” Nidra seemed a bit worried about the answer, not sure of it herself. “Mother has spent many hours trying to wake him, but has failed thus far.” Sounds of an angry Lunar Princess screaming, followed by ‘Thou art impossible!’ made Nidra sigh in annoyance. “You can guess how that is going over with her.”

“Yikes… Thanks for the warning, I will try to stay out of her war path.” Starburst then looked towards the dormant Gouf Custom. “I wonder why he is not responding… Think he needs more time to recover? He did fight thirty of those things.”

Nidra thought about the idea for a moment, tapping her chin. “Tis a valid point… It took him two days of rest before waking up, and that had been when we were attacked.” She sighed, placing a hand on to her forehead. “If that is the case, things can get rather complicated if we must be in danger, for him to wake.”

“I see, guess that means it may be a while before I can talk with him again.” Starburst stared at Reaper, watching the engineers working on his scorched body… A sense of concern starting to, strangely, take hold of her heart. “I am honestly worried about him, what if something is wrong and he cannot tell us?” Nidra could not help but nod in agreement, the thought having high merit. “We wouldn’t know, unless Reaper wakes up.”

Sounds of metal grinding against metal, heavy humming following, started to echo from within Reaper’s body. A familiar “dong” alerted those around the mobile suit, his eye appearing within the visor. His palms turned over, pressing on to the stone ground, and cocked his right leg up, which alerted the engineers to what is about to happen. They all scrambled off of his metal body, just before Reaper slowly pulled his upper body off of the ground, tarps and ties snapping from his metal strength. His eye shifted left to right, then locked in to Starburst. “Reaper online, Princess. Is there trouble?” He asked, staying in a seated position.

Every one of those present were shocked, wondering what caused the mobile suit to choose now to wake up. “Um… What caused you to wake up? Did your scanners pick something up?” Starburst asked, her confusion not processing his question.

“Because you commanded me to, Princess.” Reaper answered, careful with his torso’s movements due to an open cockpit, the groups even more confused. “You are my imprinted pilot, Princess Starburst. I follow your commands and orders.”

“Oh… That makes since.” Starburst said, before thinking about his answer for a second. “Wait, how come I am the imprinted pilot?”

Reaper prepared to answer, before physically hesitating. “Error… Information unavailable.” His voice had turned monotone, the kind one expected from machines. “I mean… I don’t know. I just imprinted on to you for some reason.” The mobile suit physical relaxed, from what they could tell.

They all just stared at him, the answer not too convincing, but Starburst continued anyways. “Alright… Mind helping us with your repairs? Give us an idea, as to what needs to be fixed?” In all honesty, she just felt relieved that he is awake right now.

“Scanning now…” Reaper’s eye dulled, as he seemed to completely freeze, and took a couple of minutes before refocusing on to Starburst. “Scan complete. Left shoulder joint damaged, minor. Right knee joint damaged, minor. Torso armor damaged, minor scorch burns. Primary weapon out of ammo. Secondary wrist mounted weapon down to thirty-seven percent ammo. Suggested course of action: Make repairs when possible and restore ammo count before next operation.”

“We can handle the repairs, your manual will be a great help, but as for the ammo…” Nidra tried to place the right words for this. “Will be most difficult to replace.”

“That will not be an issue.” Reaper started, all looking up at the mobile suit, as he began to look around. “My scanners have picked up a beacon from the transport ship I was on…” His eye, then head, looked to the south. “It seems to have crash landed several miles from here, in a vast forest.” The pair physically paled, hearing his directions. “What?”

“Thou’s directions are to the Everfree Forest.” A voice announced, causing them to look towards its source, seeing an unarmored Luna returning from her ‘cooling off’ walk. “Tis a dark, eerie, and dangerous; place for our subjects, even for ourselves.”

Reaper’s eye studied Luna for a moment, before speaking up. “What threats dwell within this forest?”

“No threat to you. However, the town of Ponyville, which stands between here and the forest, has been taken over by the invaders.” Luna explained, giving Reaper an understanding of such situations.

The mobile suit just stared at Luna, contemplating the information, before his eye shifted to Starburst. “What do you believe we should do, Princess?”

Starburst blinked a couple of times, staring up at the sitting Reaper. “Well…” She started, rubbing the back of her head. “Maybe we should wait until your repairs are finished, then see about your ship?”

“Then it is settled.” Slowly, the mobile suit stood up, only to kneel back down. “Repairs, that can be managed, shall be done before beginning operations to recover the transport.” His right hand balled into a fist and pressed on to the stone ground, bracing him.

The engineers, after seeing Reaper return to a motionless state, quickly began their work once more. Though, after he informed them of areas needing repairs, they had a better understanding of where to focus their efforts. They split into three groups, one focused n Reaper’s left shoulder, another worked on his right leg, while the third continued focus on the scorched areas. The work of restoring areas fell to the unicorn engineers, while the pegasi and earth ponies examined Reaper’s body for any damaged areas missed. It honestly looked like an actual maintenance crew working on the mobile suits, each having a copy of Reaper’s manual, Celestia creating duplicates with her magic. Only thing missing from such a sight, had been a hanger of some kind to shield Reaper from the weather.

Starburst, on the other hand, waved goodbye to Nidra, who went back to the castle, before flying up to Reaper’s cockpit. Once seated inside, she buckled herself in, for safety, and had the cockpit closed. “Hey, Reaper, mind if we talked, in private?” She asked, noticing a manual sitting on the left hand consul, and grabbed hold of it.

“Affirmative, Princess. I have no problems with this.” Reaper replied, as she opened the manual up. “What is on your mind?”

“First of all, Starburst will be just fine. I hate being called ‘Princess’.” She started, a green thumb appearing on screen. “Second? How are you going to teach me to pilot you? Is there some sort of training program?”

“In fact, there is.” Reaper’s camera turned off, being replaced by a green screen and different images of his body, along with different parts. “We can go over the different control functions, along with different on board simulations, while repairs are being done.” A list of programs started to be listed on screen, from simply walk to sprint training, all the way to heavy combat operations training. “However, real world situations will different from computer simulated. Are you ready to begin, Starburst?”

She took a deep breath, manual sitting in her lap, and lightly grasped the controls. “Yeah… Let’s start with the basics.” Starburst smiled up at the cockpit camera.

“Cutting functions between the cockpit and the body. Basic movement and patrol program selected.” An on screen arrow moved to the first program listed. “Beginning simulation… Now.”

In seconds, the camera screen came up with, not what was outside, but with some sort of computerized world. Its ground, walls, and sky; were shaped with green lines on a black background and the buildings were varying sized range blocks. In front of the screen’s gaze, was a blue trail acting like some kind of predetermined path. “This is… So cool!” Starburst, in her awe, described.

“Welcome to the Basic Movement Simulation, Starburst. Shall we get started?” Reaper asked.

Starburst nodded, her hold on the controls growing tighter, feet pressed on the pedals. “Let’s!” At her words, a blue diamond appeared straight ahead and instructions of what to do.

Chapter Five: Brothers?

Chapter Five

Starburst’s eyes scanned the tree lines all around her, fingers lightly tapping the joint sticks, breathing with a slight heave. She had been at this for the past three days, from when Celestia raised the sun to when Luna raised the moon. Many said she had become obsessed with this training, but Starburst just wanted to become even better at this, to not fail. Not to mention, it gave her plenty of time to ask Reaper for advice and pointers on her moves. Now, this was the last part of her training, after listening to some strange Zeon Commander known as ‘Commander Char’ every step of the way, with a single mobile suit target remaining.

The sound of birds panicking away from their nests alerted her, Starburst forcing the screen to do a complete one-eighty, bringing the seventy-five millimeter gatling cannon to bare. “Got ya!” She yelled, pulling the joint stick’s trigger.

In moments, the rapid firing weapon tore into a bipedal mobile suit, majority of its body being tan except for the brick red torso and feet, along with its emerald green visor being shattered. She kept firing at the mobile suit, until the torso burst into flames and caused it to fall backwards, smoke rising up from its wreckage. “All nine Ground Type GMs have been destroyed, well done, Starburst.” The forest faded into black, before Reaper’s camera came back online and revealed Canterlot’s stone buildings and streets. “Shall I begin the next simulation, or would you like to take a break? We have been at this for some time, now.”

“What is… The next simulation, Reaper?” She asked, loosening the scarf around her neck. “I will decide after that.”
The main screen turned green, showing all but one simulation being completed. “Infiltration and Recon Operation, a simulation based around the Midnight Fenrir Fang’s mobile suit unit’s mission to gather intelligence on the Trojan Horse and its mobile suits.” Images of a white warship, two humanoid mobile suits, and a single tank-like mobile suit; appeared. “Strictly Recon, being spotted results in simulation failure.”

“No combat, huh?” Starburst muttered, tapping her chin a bit, before shaking her head. “I think I will take a break. I have been focusing on combat simulations this whole time, going straight into a noncombat one would not be a good idea.”

“Acknowledged.” The main screen went black, before the cockpit itself opened up. “Take long as you like, Starburst. I will not be going anywhere.”

“You better not, Reaper, or I will knock your block off.” She joked, stepping out on to the mobile suit’s waiting hand, and looked up at his single eye. “Best get some rest, yourself, big guy! After all, once the engineers are finished, we will be moving out!”

“Acknowledged. Let me know when you are ready for the next simulation.” Reaper replied, placing Starburst on to the ground, before his eye disappeared within the visor.

Starburst smiled up at the mobile suit, as his eye vanished, then stepped off Reaper’s hand. A Royal Guard unicorn quickly walked over, once she did, handing her a towel, to wipe the sweat off, and then a flask of water. “How is the training going, Princess?” He asked, as she took a sip of water.

“It was tough, at first, especially with mobile suit on mobile suit combat…” She took another sip of water, wiping the slight drop off with her sleeve. “But, after a few rounds, you get the hang of it.” Starburst went back to wiping the sweat off, before looking up at the engineers working on Reaper. “How much longer until they are finished?”

The Royal Guard Unicorn looked up at the engineers, as well, before thinking on her question. “I overheard a group of them talking about how they have finished the repairs on its-?”

“His.”

“Uh… Apologies… His shoulder and legs.” The Royal Guard Unicorn corrected, raising a brow at the mare, while she looked up at the dormant mobile suit with a slight smile upon her muzzle. “All that is left, are the scorch marks… Though, I have heard that your mother commissioned the best unicorns to duplicate what remaining ammo he has and parts that may be needed later.”

Starburst blinked, surprised by what he just told her, and looked towards the guard. “Wait, she did? When?”
That caused the guard, himself, to blink in surprise. “Earlier today, she convinced the giant to give up samples for us to use… Did he not tell you?”

“No… I spent the entire day working on simulations and training, Reaper only giving advice and telling me when to go get something to eat.” Starburst replied, the last part making her blush ever so slightly, and looked up at the dormant mobile suit… Shaking her head after a few seconds. “Regardless of that, I am going for a walk… I really need to take a break, before going on with the last simulation.”

“Be careful, Princess! Remember, not everpony in Canterlot are law abiding citizens, with these refugees flooding in!” The guard called out, Starburst simply giving a wave of acknowledgement.

Starburst headed towards the Canterlot Market, figuring a quick snack break would be good and knew a few of her friends were probably hanging around there… Leaving the Engineers to their work, and Reaper to his own slumber.

-Next Day, Outside Ponyville-

The trees shook, as a heavy tremor echoed within the White Tail Forest, and caused several birds and small animals to flee from their homes. Seconds later, a metal sky blue shield forced the tree tops to part ways, allowing Reaper to lean forward and scan their surrounding with his single eye. “No hostiles detected, area still clear for our infiltration.” His voice low, speakers turned down to assist in keeping quiet.

A platoon of Royal Guards soon rushed out from behind his large feet, bounding for new cover and concealment. “Any movement from Ponyville, since we last checked?” Starburst asked, her gaze going to the left, seeing the once peaceful country town covered in metal-organic webbing… The mare’s stomach churning, as the camera zoomed in on glowing red heart-like areas pulsing on the webbing.

“Negative, Starburst.” Reaper replied, his camera going to one of the invaders within Ponyville, acting as a sentry. “It is almost like they do not care about what is around the town, or simply dormant… Their defenses being complacent.”

“If we have the element of surprise, think we should attack?” Starburst asked, looking up. “Maybe we can defeat what is stationed there, before reinforcements arrive.”

“That would be ill-advised, Starburst.” Reaper replied, as he continued the stealth operation through White Tail Forest, his large body leaned forward enough to keep under the trees. “We do not have enough intelligence on the town. Recon is suggested before attempting a surprise attack, plus?” He held up the left arm, allowing Starburst to see the remaining long-range weapon. “We might not have enough ammunition… And I am willing to bet, that one ‘Sentry’ is simply a look out. Waiting for something to attack, before sending out a signal to other nearby units to ambush attackers.”

“Point taken.” Starburst wiped the sweat from her brow. “Let’s find your ship, and recover what we can, then get the heck back to Canterlot.”

“Affirmative.” Reaper’s pace quickened, the Royal Guards doing their best to stay within his massive shadow. “I do not know why, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

Carefully, the group made their way out of the White Tail Forest, and the dark Everfree Forest, Reaper having the Royal Guards ride on his shoulders. Prior to their deployment, he had been made aware of the creatures that dwelled within the dark forest. With that in mind, and not wanting to lose any of their ground troops, Reaper had them all climb on before entering. Plus, with the massive trees, and being a good distance away, the Gouf Custom could stand up right and not worry about being spotted.

Though, like before, something did not seem right to Reaper. “Hm…” He came to a full halt, once they were near the transport’s distress beacon. “This is close enough, for the time being.”

“What is it, Reaper?” Starburst asked, looking at the screens around her. “Do we have contacts?”

“Possibly… Activating short ranged thermal scanners.” A duel blue hue appeared on the screens, as Reaper’s single eye scanned their surroundings. However, when he looked at where the beacon was located, two large orange and red signatures appeared right in front of them. “I knew it…” The blue hue disappeared, his eye rotating to the Royal Guards. “Ground Troopers, scatter. Do not approach until we’ve signaled you.”

The Royal Guard quickly separated from Reaper, allowing him to grip the heat sword with both hands. “Let’s see if that training paid off, Reaper!” Starburst pushed her controls forward, both hooves pressing down on to the peddles. This caused Reaper to sprint forward, his thrusters roaring to life.

Reaper allowed his blade arm to drop back, shield arm covering the cockpit and shoulder forward. When they broke through the trees, their sudden attack caught a pair of Invader Scouts completely off guard! The first had been met with a shoulder horn to the face, crushing its visor and blinding it with blood and a glass-like substance. The second invader, startled by Reaper’s sudden appearance, juggled their beam weapon around, as the Gouf Custom’s single eye locked on to it. That had been enough for Reaper to reverse his grip, and slice the blade through his opponent’s waist… The Invader’s beam weapon going off, as its upper half fell backwards and lower half fell forward. The blind Invader started to wail, but was quickly silence by a blade through the back of its head, and out the mouth.

“Well done, Starburst. An effective surprise attack without wasting ammunition.” Reaper congratulated, as he sheathed the heat sword, this acted as a signal for the Royal Guard to move up. “We best enter the ship, and get started.” Reaper’s eye went to the primarily olive green, crashed, Papua-class Transport Ship. “Luckily for us, the ship is mostly intact.”

“How do we even get in, Reaper?” Starburst asked, looking for a way into the crashed transport.

“Easy.” Reaper walked towards the ship’s front, Royal Guard still trying to keep up with his stride, revealing a forced open ramp. “Through the front door.”

Starburst blinked a few times, before smirking. “Alright, smart allaic, we better get started then.” With that, she had Reaper kneel, assisting the platoon on to the ship’s ramp, before going on to it. “So… How much could this ship carry, exactly?”

“It depends on the cargo, really.” Reaper replied, his large feet creating metallic echoes within the ghost ship’s hanger. “If it was only carrying mobile suits? Both sides could carry up to five.” The screen gained a green hue, as the night vision started to come online.

“Imagine if there were that many, and still intac-SWEET CELESTIA!” Starburst screamed, at the top of her lungs, going back into the seat and nearly firing Reaper’s remaining weapon.

Right in front of the screen, appeared a completely wrecked Gouf! Its head torn apart, cockpit melted into a small hole all the way through, and half of its left arm torn off. The way it stood, made the Gouf look like a mobile suit zombie, leaning forward in its harness, limp. Though, the more Starburst studied the wrecked war machine, she could see all the heavy battle damage and scars across its form… This particular mobile suit must have died during a big operation in either defending a base, or attacking one.

“That is the fate of most mobile suits.” Reaper stated, reaching forward and placing a hand on to the Gouf’s damaged shoulder. “We are but machines of war, with a single purpose…” The eerie hanger echoed with his tightening grip. “To fight, and keep fighting, until we are destroyed beyond repair.”

Starburst just stared at the wrecked mobile suit, her mind imagining that Reaper was the wrecked mobile suit instead. The image sent a chill down her spine, before the mare shook it from her thoughts. “Alright… Reaper, open the cockpit. I’m going to help look for supplies.” The cockpit hissed, the metal grinding as it quickly opened up and Reaper’s hand reached up to it. Not wasting any time, Starburst released her harness and stepped out on to the hand. Carefully, the Gouf Custom knelt, allowing Starburst out. “Reaper, think you could give us any light? It’s pretty dark down here.” She looked up, as Reaper stood back up.

“Give me a moment.” His left arm came up, allowing the light on its weapon to activate, along with the one from his eye. “Alright, let us start this salvage operation.”

They all nodded, separating into two large groups, one for each light. While the search party did their jobs, Reaper simply stood behind the, moving the lights for each group and kept a close watch on his scanners. After all, they did destroy two scouts, but there was no telling if they sent out a distress call or if a search party would be sent out looking for them soon.

Starburst looked around the crates, Reaper’s light allowing her to see into them rather easily. Though, as she searched, the mare came across a lever on the wall. It had been forced down, the bent handle signifying this. Next to it, she could barely make out the letters “L.G.H” but that was all.

Carefully, Starburst grasped the lever in both hands and pulled up on it. This took nearly all her strength, just to push it up, sounds of ice cracking within the panel. Once pushed all the way up, a humming sound echoed around the hanger, before several lights flickered on, some quickly burning out.

To their surprise, even Reaper’s own, two more mobile suits had been revealed! One was bulky, having a black and gray torso, but its arms and legs were light purple. The faceplate resembled a red cross, the rest slanting back and showing a look that made them believe its head did not move.

The other mobile suit held a dark green body with gray arms, legs, and head. Its form seemed more advance, than even Reaper’s, bearing a large oval shield on its back. Its forearms and head having gray fins spreading outward, as if they were meant to assist in maneuverability.

“Impossible…” Reaper’s voice echoed, his heavy foots alerting the salvage team that he was moving towards the new mobile suits. “They… Were also on board?”

“Reaper?” Starburst rushed up to her partner, as the Gouf Custom placed a hand on to the gray and green one’s chest. “What are these mobile suits?”

His gaze went to the mare, then to the black and purple mobile suit. “That is the MS-09B, ‘DOM’ for short. A high speed, heavy, type mobile suit. Armored and can be armed with any weapon. Dangerous on an open battlefield.” Reaper’s gaze returned to the gray and green mobile suit. “But, this? MS-14, ‘Gelgoog’. This is the Principality of Zeon’s more advance mass produced mobile suit… What was it doing on a decommissioning vessel?”

Starburst could see Reaper’s confusion, quickly looking around for some kind of information to answer this. She soon spotted a clipboard, sitting on top of several cates, and used her wings to fly up to it. Without hesitation, the mare started to scan through what information had been listed, trying to find answers for her partner.

“MS-14… MS-14…. MS-14…” She repated, flipping page after page, before stopping on the seventh. “Ahah! MS-14 transfer to the A Baoa Qu’s Sixth Mobile Suit Defense Company.” Starburst looked up to Reaper, who looked down at her. “Seems like this one was being transferred, not meant for decommissioning, hitched a ride I guess.”

“I see… Does it say what else is on board?” Reaper asked, only seeing the Gelgoog, Dom, and damaged Gouf. ‘There is a second hanger section we can inspect… Every mobile suit counts in this battle.”

Starburst gave a nod, looking through the manifest paperwork. “Let’s see…” Her eyes gazed at the pages, searching for what they needed to know. “Hnager One: MS-07B, MS-09, and MS-14. Ah! Hnager Two: two MS-06F and one MS-05L.”

“There is a Zaku Sniper Type on board?” Reaper asked, knowing such an asset would be beyond valuable.

“Yeah. According to the paperwork, it is being sent for decommissioning. Left leg joints are damaged.” Starburst answered, looking up at him. “Is it that a good thing?”

“If there is a Beam Sniper Rifle onboard, as well, then we will have the perfect Command and Control Unit.” Repaer’s eye started to shift around, double checking their safety, visually. “Let us begin recovery. No telling how much longer we have on operational time.”

“Got it.” Starburst looked towards the Royal Guard teams. “You heard Reaper! I need five to pilot those Mobile Suits! Reaper and I will help you control them, but we need to move!”

“Yes, ma’am!” They shouted, scattering around the hanger, Reaper kneeling and lowering his hand for Starburst. “If we can get those five online, then our enemy will be in danger.”

“What do you mean, Reaper?” Starburst asked, as the Gouf Custom’s cockpit opened up, allowing her inside.

“You saw how I was able to contend with the regular invaders?” He asked, Starburst nodding, while buckling herself in, the cockpit closing. “If these five come online, we will have two full mobile suit teams. We can conduct much larger operations against these invaders.”

Images of all six mobile suits battling with the invaders, pushing them back further and further, appeared within Starburst’s mind. Reaper leading his warrior brethren into battle against the invaders, their firepower overwhelming those that dared to challenge them… A sight that caused her to become starry eyed, at the possibility of such counter offensives.

“Agreed, let’s get these guys up and walking!” Starburst agreed, activating Reaper’s remote uplinks and trying to activate the other two mobile suits within this hanger. “We need all the help we can possibly muster!”

“Then we will need this.” A green antenna appeared on screen, followed by signal beat lines.

In seconds, the eyes appeared in both mobile suits, doing movement checks before their harnesses released. They stepped out of their holding sections, walking over towards a weapon rack for mobile suits. The Gelgoog quickly grabbing a twin beam saber and beam rifle, for it sarmaments. However, the Dom walked over and simply grabbed a heat saber and shielded 380mmm Giant Bazooka; for its own armaments. Once both linked with their primary weapons, they faced Reaper and entered a stand-by mode.

“I can control them remotely.” Reaper started, kneeling down so that supplies could be loaded on to his hands. The Gelgoog followed suit, while the Dom squatted instead. “However, adding the other three mobile suits? I will be under a lot of strain.”

“So, get back to Canterlot, fast.” Starburst summed up, a green thumbs-up appearing on screen. “Got it, you heard him, Soldiers!” She called out over Reaper’s speakers. “Et’s get these supplies loaded up and wake up the other three.” With a nod, the Royal Guard began to follow their orders.